John Dominic Crossan: "Crucified victims were not buried. They were left for dogs and carrion birds and served as a warning. If they were buried at all, it might have been in a shallow grave, dug by Roman soldiers. Anyone who had enough influence to get a burial probably wouldnt have been crucified in the first place.
Part of Jeuss radical nature is not only his mingling with women, but acting like one as well. For example, at the Last Supper, he breaks bread, and serves it to his followers, all of whom are peasants and have never been served by slaves, but have been served by women. He evokes this motherly, sisterly, daughterly, wifely memory in them by doing so. Jesus a radical egalitarian Mediterranean Jewish Peasant who believed the Kingdom of God had come to make the world right.
Jesus's first followers knew almost nothing about the details of what happened, and the description was written in order to make the story correspond to prophetic texts in the Hebrew Scriptures. There was no Joseph of Arimathea and Jesus's body was not buried in a tomb; crucified individuals almost never were. Instead, their bodies would be left on the cross or buried in a shallow grave where they would soon be dug up by waiting dogs. This is what would have happened in Jesus's case but "the horror of that brutal truth [was] sublimated by hope and imagination into its opposite."
Part of Jeuss radical nature is not only his mingling with women, but acting like one as well. For example, at the Last Supper, he breaks bread, and serves it to his followers, all of whom are peasants and have never been served by slaves, but have been served by women. He evokes this motherly, sisterly, daughterly, wifely memory in them by doing so. Jesus a radical egalitarian Mediterranean Jewish Peasant who believed the Kingdom of God had come to make the world right.
Jesus's first followers knew almost nothing about the details of what happened, and the description was written in order to make the story correspond to prophetic texts in the Hebrew Scriptures. There was no Joseph of Arimathea and Jesus's body was not buried in a tomb; crucified individuals almost never were. Instead, their bodies would be left on the cross or buried in a shallow grave where they would soon be dug up by waiting dogs. This is what would have happened in Jesus's case but "the horror of that brutal truth [was] sublimated by hope and imagination into its opposite."
If there can be several natural explanations for an event why jump to the supernatural explanation as the only option unless you are tied to dogmatic ideology? The Death of Jesus is natural history. The Resurrection of Jesus is supernatural hope.
"Jesus was crucified by Romans, and at the time of his death his body was in the hands of Romans, so any historical investigation of his burial must begin with the Romans. What would Pilate and the soldiers guarding the cross, who were in charge of the body of Jesus, have been most likely to do with it? There is a distinct possibility that they might have done nothing at all with the body, but simply left it hanging on the cross. As Martin Hengel has observed, the Romans used crucifixion not only as a punishment but also as a deterrent, and while the punitive effect of crucifixion may have ended when the victim died, the deterrent effect did not have to. The impact of crucifixion could go on for days at a time, as the body of one who had crossed the purposes of Rome was left hanging in public view, rotting in the sun, with birds pecking away at it.
In 31 CE, when Tiberius moved against Sejanus and his supporters, some of them committed suicide rather than be executed, "because people sentenced to death forfeited their property and were forbidden burial" (Tacitus, Annals 6.29)
When the Romans did not permit the burial of crucifixion victims, then, they were doing more than merely showing off the power of Rome: they were also declaring that the deaths of these victims were not a loss to Roman society. "
M. Hengel, Crucifixion in the Ancient World and the Folly of the Message of the Cross
"Jesus was crucified by Romans, and at the time of his death his body was in the hands of Romans, so any historical investigation of his burial must begin with the Romans. What would Pilate and the soldiers guarding the cross, who were in charge of the body of Jesus, have been most likely to do with it? There is a distinct possibility that they might have done nothing at all with the body, but simply left it hanging on the cross. As Martin Hengel has observed, the Romans used crucifixion not only as a punishment but also as a deterrent, and while the punitive effect of crucifixion may have ended when the victim died, the deterrent effect did not have to. The impact of crucifixion could go on for days at a time, as the body of one who had crossed the purposes of Rome was left hanging in public view, rotting in the sun, with birds pecking away at it.
In 31 CE, when Tiberius moved against Sejanus and his supporters, some of them committed suicide rather than be executed, "because people sentenced to death forfeited their property and were forbidden burial" (Tacitus, Annals 6.29)
When the Romans did not permit the burial of crucifixion victims, then, they were doing more than merely showing off the power of Rome: they were also declaring that the deaths of these victims were not a loss to Roman society. "
M. Hengel, Crucifixion in the Ancient World and the Folly of the Message of the Cross
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