Easter Is Coming in 8 Weeks

Of course it matters historically that Jesus died on a cross. However, even a cursory glance at Scripture will show you that crucifixion was a standard form of execution for the Romans. You are trying to make up some type of controversy where none really exists. Your made up examples of Catholics whom you know and who all believe Mary is a god, pray to saints, consider themselves cannibals, and are upset that they Church hid the fact that Romans crucified lots of people is getting tiresome.

Quote: FrGamble

upset that they Church hid the fact that Romans crucified lots of people

They didn't hide it, they just didn't talk
about it. I didn't know about it till I
started studying Wicca in the 90's.
That's where I met most of the recovering
Catholics who quit when they found
out how much the Church wasn't telling
them. Like how many women were killed
for being witches, for example.

I've asked scores of Christians in the last
20 years about the number of people
crucified by the Romans, only a handful
knew it was over 100,000. Some said I
was lying. That seems to be a Christian
stance to things they don't like hearing,
you must be lying. It's certainly yours,
and yes, it's very tiresome. And rude.

affected

Why do you consider the number of people the Romans executed by crucifixion to be a christian or catholic secret? Do you think that they are the only people as a group who would not believe you if you told them how many were crucified? I don't think you can single out catholics or christians for not believing things that they don't want to hear.

Why do you think some organization would proudly publicize how many people they killed?

So the catholics killed witches. Several other groups did, too. While they don't declare how many on their webpage, you can find out from somewhere else.

Do the russians tell you how many people they killed in WWII? Does the USA openly publicize how many people they infected with diseases or had sterilized?

I don't know why you think the catholics would have some special responsibility to openly declare their wrongdoing. I question whether or not they consider these things to be secrets, too.

Quote: Dalex64

Why do you consider the number of people the Romans executed by crucifixion to be a christian or catholic secret?

It's not a secret at all, they just never mention
it because it takes away from the specialness
of the cross to the religion. It dilutes it's
meaning and power if Jesus was killed in
an extremely common way.

Look at how Catholics revere the cross. It's
in their churches, huge life sized ones
with Jesus hanging on them. It's in their
homes. They wear it around their necks.
They have it on top of their churches.
And the real kicker is, they make the sign
of the cross on their bodies multiple times
a day. They love the cross, they worship
it, they don't want people to know it wasn't
in the least bit special that Jesus died on one.
Obviously they want to give the opposite
impression.

And that most important use of "cross" involving Gladly, the cross-eyed bear.

Quote: Evenbob

It's not a secret at all, they just never mention
it because it takes away from the specialness
of the cross to the religion. It dilutes it's
meaning and power if Jesus was killed in
an extremely common way.

Look at how Catholics revere the cross. It's
in their churches, huge life sized ones
with Jesus hanging on them. It's in their
homes. They wear it around their necks.
They have it on top of their churches.
And the real kicker is, they make the sign
of the cross on their bodies multiple times
a day. They love the cross, they worship
it, they don't want people to know it wasn't
in the least bit special that Jesus died on one.
Obviously they want to give the opposite
impression.

I don't think that at all - I think I always knew, when taught the crucifixion of Jesus, that the Romans crucified other people.

Right in the Bible, Matthew chapter 27, verses 27 and on to 56 or so is one place the story is told, and in particular verse 38 says "Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left."

It doesn't seem like they are trying to say that Jesus was the only one ever crucified, or that he recieved "special treatment" by being crucified.

Those big costume dramas on TV, you know, those 5 hour long things, showed lots of other people being crucified the same day as Jesus.

Quote: Dalex64

Right in the Bible, Matthew chapter 27, verses 27 and on to 56 or so is one place the story is told, and in particular verse 38 says "Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left."
.

YES! Everybody knows others were crucified.
But not everybody knows on what SCALE they
were crucified. The Romans once crucified
2000 in one day. In 100 AD they commonly
crucified 500 a day. They used it for 400
years. 100,000 dead is the low end. it could
easily be 500,000.

I went to Sunday school every summer. They
never taught us this. We were led to believe
it's a special kind of death, not one people saw
every single day. In Jerusalem alone they
did it to over 10,000. My wife's father is a Baptist
minister, he never preached on this. If you ask
him, he'll wave his hand and dismiss it.

The numbers take away from the significance
of the cross. It makes it routine and mundane.
We can't have that, can we.

Even Jesus hanging on the cross is
wrong. And he would not have hauled
the whole thing to the site. The poles
were permanent in the ground. The
condemned hauled the crosspiece on
their backs to the site. It was attached
to the pole and they were tied to the
cross, about a foot off the ground.
Nails were used sometimes. The
condemned was nailed to the upright
cross.

Images like this are wrong. Nobody was
hung from a telephone poll, they were
barely off the gound.

Intersting read, Matthew 27. It talks of a bunch of people being resurrected at the moment of Jesus' death.

It says that Joseph put him into a new tomb, and the authorities were expecting his disciples to take his body within three days. It doesn't sound like it was much of a surprise that it happend, but rather that they still managed to get away with it.

Do any of the theories suggest that Joseph's brand-new expecially-for-Jesus may have had a secret alternate entrance? Just how easy was it for Joseph to make this tomb out of rock? Was this a cave, or more like an igloo?

Anyway, back to the Bible, is it supposed to be a history of the Romans and a record of Roman capital punishment? I don't think that it was.