Follow-Ups to Answer from Expert Brandon Harper

---

Timothy wrote at 2009-03-22 03:37:38
A quick reminder that jesus' feet where nailed as well, which by design to keep the victim alive as long as the account says... you are very mistaken if you would think that becuase a pagan fertility pole had been used by a small group of so called christians that the JW faith would be defaced is laughable. If you have been linked or studied the bible with a knowledgable JW you can not deny that there is something REAL there. Prey to Jehovah threw Jesus and really ask for his Holy Spirit and see what happens... It's real and there is nothing here for us now.

---

kammail wrote at 2010-03-25 17:21:12
Addressing is it correct to conclude from John 20:25 that Jesus was impaled with a separate nail through each hand:



The Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, by M’Clintock and Strong, comments:

‘Much time and trouble have been wasted in disputing as to whether three or four nails were used in fastening the Lord. Nonnus affirms that three only were used, in which he is followed by Gregory Nazianzen. The more general belief gives four nails, an opinion which is supported at much length and by curious arguments by Curtius. Others have carried the number of nails as high as fourteen.’—Volume II, page 580.

Matthew 27:35 merely says: “When they had impaled him they distributed his outer garments by casting lots.” Little detail is given, as in Mark, Luke and John. After Jesus’ resurrection, Thomas said: “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and stick my finger into the print of the nails and stick my hand into his side, I will certainly not believe.” (John 20:25) So even though criminals sometimes were bound to a stake with ropes, Jesus was nailed. Some have also concluded from John 20:25 that two nails were used, one through each hand. But does Thomas’ use of the plural (nails) have to be understood as a precise description indicating that each of Jesus’ hands was pierced by a separate nail?

In Luke 24:39 the resurrected Jesus said: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.” This suggests that Christ’s feet also were nailed. Since Thomas made no mention of nailprints in Jesus’ feet, his use of the plural “nails” could have been a general reference to multiple nails used in impaling Jesus.

Thus, it just is not possible at this point to state with certainty how many nails were used.



Addressing the use of pictures by Jehovah's Witnesses or any other group(s)/person(s):



Any drawings of Jesus on the stake should be understood as artists’ productions that offer merely a representation based on the limited facts that we have. Often in the Watch Tower publications Jesus has been illustrated as being impaled with a single nail through his two hands and another nail piercing his two feet. This is only an artist’s conception, but it is quite possible that this is how Jesus was impaled.

Debate over such an insignificant detail should not be permitted to becloud the all-important truth that “we became reconciled to God through the death of his Son.”—Romans 5:10. While such technical matters are of some interest, the major thing to keep in mind about Jesus’ death is what it accomplished. One point is that it ended the obligation to keep the Mosaic law, for God took “it out of the way by nailing it to the torture stake.” (Col. 2:14) By his integrity to God even during the agony and death on the stake, Jesus proved that out of love humans can serve Jehovah faithfully no matter what temptations and pressures Satan brings. And Jesus’ death on the stake provided the ransom, the price to release believing mankind from bondage to sin and death.—1 Tim. 2:5, 6; 2 Cor. 5:14, 15.



And "torture stake" is used based on evidence of the meaning of the Greek words used in the Bible (stau-ros′ and xy'lon) [Greek is the original language of New Testament], and not the Latin word (crux) which the Bible was later translated to.

---