Ancient Quotes on Crucifixion
by Vermon Pierre, Lead Pastor
One of the best books I read as part of my study for “The Cross! The Cross!” sermon series in 1 Corinthians was Crucifixion by Martin Hengel. Hengel gives a number of quotes from ancient times that help convey how people viewed the crucifixion and in particular what they thought about the idea of a crucified God (hint: they didn’t think too highly of it!). Here are some of those quotes:
"They say that our madness consists in the fact that we put a crucified man in second place after the unchangeable and eternal God, the Creator of the world.”
- Justin Martyr describing the offense caused by the Christian message.
“To say that their ceremonies centre on a man put to death for his crime and on the fatal wood of the cross is to assign to these abandoned wretches sanctuaries which are appropriate to them and the kind of worship they deserve.”
- from Minucius Felix’s dialogue Octavius
"Let her continue as she pleases, persisting in her vain delusions, and lamenting in song a god who died in delusions, who was condemned by judges whose verdict was just, and executed in the prime of life by the worst of deaths, a death bound with iron."
- an oracle of Apollo recorded by Porphyry, given in answer to a man’s question about what he could do to dissuade his wife from Christian belief.
"To say ‘pleasure’ is gentle on the ears, but to say ‘cross’ is harsh. The harshness of the latter word matches the pain brought on by the cross."
- Varro, a contemporary of Cicero, on the offensive word crux
"Can anyone be found who would prefer wasting away in pain dying limb by limb, or letting out his life drop by drop, rather than expiring once for all? Can any man be found willing to be fastened to the accursed tree, long sickly, already deformed, swelling with ugly weals on shoulders and chest, and drawing the breath of life amid long-drawn-out agony? He would have many excuses for dying even before mounting the cross."
- ancient description of the gradual death of victims of crucifixion
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