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Jesus knew how he would die. It was predicted in the Old Testament in prophesies. It was a cruel and tortuous death.

Crucifixion was invented and used by other people groups, but it was “perfected” by the Romans as the ultimate execution by torture. The earliest historical record of crucifixion dates to c. 519 BC, when King Darius I of Persia crucified 3,000 of his political enemies in Babylon. Before the Persians, the Assyrians were known to impale people. The Greeks and Carthaginians later used crucifixion, as well. After the break-up of Alexander, the Great’s empire, the Seleucid Antiochus IV Epiphanes crucified Jews who refused to accept Hellenization.

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Crucifixion was meant to inflict the maximum amount of shame and torture upon the victim. Roman crucifixions were carried out in public so that all who saw the horror would be deterred from crossing the Roman government. Crucifixion was so horrible that it was reserved for only the worst offenders.

  • John 12:32–33 — 32 “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” 33 But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die.
  • John 3:14 — 14 “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;
  • John 8:28 — 28 So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.
  • John 18:31–32 — 31 So Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law.” The Jews said to him, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death,” 32 to fulfill the word of Jesus which He spoke, signifying by what kind of death He was about to die.

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