#Did Romans crucify Jesus?

[thinkingonscripture]

Who Crucified Jesus?

The question is sometimes raised as to who crucified Jesus? According to Chafer, “Closely related to the contrast between the divine and human sides of Christ’s death, is the question: Who put Christ to death? As already indicated, the Scriptures assign both a human and a divine responsibility for Christ’s death.”[1] According to the testimony of Scripture, Jesus’ death on the cross was the…

[moodr1ng]

second favorite thing about having almost no exposure to christianity growing up is that its always sooo fun to find out more christian mythology ive never heard about that is apparently common knowledge. first favorite thing is calling it "christian mythology" and making people very mad with that phrasing that they dont object to for any other religion ever

[useless-catalanfacts]

Idioms in Catalan with a religious origin

There's quite a lot of idioms that we say in everyday life, outside of the context of religion, but that come from religious stories or events.

Most of them come from Christianity, and many of them are shared with other Romance languages or other languages from historically Christian countries. To keep this list accessible to everyone regardless of cultural background, I will include the literal translation to English and also an explanation all of them.

Let's see how many of these you can understand before seeing the explanation. Let us know in the tags!

1. Fer Pasqua abans de Rams = "to do Easter before Palm Sunday", meaning to get pregnant, have a baby, or to have sex before getting married. Nowadays it's used in a more general sense to mean to do something before it's time (like English "put the cart before the horse"). Palm Sunday is a holiday celebrated the week before Easter.

2. Per a més inri = "for more INRI", used to add a bad thing on top of something else, making a situation even worse or more humiliating. It's a reference to the sign that said "INRI" (stands for the initials of "Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews" in Latin) that Roman soldiers hanged on Christ's crucifix to make fun of him.

3. A la babalà = "in the babalà way", meaning to do something without having thought much about it. But what does "babalà" mean? This word doesn't exist in the Catalan language outside of this expression. It comes from the Arabic Alà bâb Allâh which means "in God's hands".

4. On Crist va perdre l'espardenya = "where Christ lost his sandal", or on Crist va perdre el barret = "where Christ lost his hat", meaning somewhere very far away and usually in the middle of nothing. I don't know of any story that has Christ lose his sandal or hat.

5. Perdut de la mà de Déu = "lost by God's hand", meaning a place in the middle of nowhere.

6. Ser un calvari ="to be a calvary", meaning that something is a cause of suffering. You can also hear quin calvari! = "what a calvary!". This is a reference to Mount Calvary, where Christ was crucified.

7. Endavant les atxes = "ahead with the candles!", meaning "keep going!", used to encourage to keep going in a negative situation with difficulties or a situation that you would have preferred to avoid. An atxa is a kind of big candle that the first people in a religious procession carry. This was the shout that would start a procession.

(Note: in recent years, Spanish media has used this idiom as supposed proof that Catalan independentists who said it are calling for violence, using a fake translation that assumed that "atxa" must mean the same as Spanish "hacha", meaning "axe" 🪓, because the pronunciation is almost identical. This is false, when people were saying "endavant les atxes" they did not intend any meaning related to "bring the axes". This was used to justify violence against Catalan activists, but has no ground in reality. "Axe"🪓 in Catalan would be "destral".)

8. Net com una patena = "as clean as a paten", meaning very clean. A paten is a kind of small dish used in Catholic mass, where the blessed sacramental bread in placed on.

9. Acabar com el rosari de l'aurora = "to end up like the dawn rosary", meaning to end very, very badly, usually in violence. The dawn rosary used to be a procession that was done in the early morning of certain holidays while praying the rosary. The idiom (which also exists in Spanish) comes from the year 1868. Around those years, there were many anticlerical riots, while the Catholic church kept doing the dawn rosary on the streets and often assigning it political meaning. In Barcelona and other cities, anticlerical protestors tried to stop the dawn rosary from happening, and it ended in violence and blood.

10. Plorar com una Magdalena = "to cry like a Magdalene", meaning to cry a lot and very desperately. This is a reference to Mary Magdalene, a character from the Bible's New Testament who cried when she met Christ.

11. Déu-n'hi-do! = "God gives!". This expression is difficult to translate because I don't think English has an equivalent (the closest I can think of are "wow!" or even "holy shit!"), but Catalan people use it a lot. It's an exclamation used to show surprise, awe or to mean a big quantity.

12. Ser més vell que Matusalem = "to be older than Methuselah", meaning that someone is very very old. Methuselah is a character from the Bible's Old Testament who is said to have lived for 969 years. This comparison is used for comedic value.

13. Rentar-se'n les mans = "to wash one's hands", meaning to say you're not responsible for what happens. This is a quote from the Bible's New Testament: when Christ is being judged by Pontius Pilate, the crowd is asking him to sentence him to crucifixion. He asks Christ to defend himself, but he doesn't. Pilate doesn't want to sentence him to death, but he sees he has no other option. Then, he sees his hands are stained with Christ's blood, and washes his hands as he decides that this situation will not be his responsibility.

14. Arribar a misses dites = "to arrive to mass [already] said", meaning to arrive late when something has already happened.

15. Ser com les palmes d’Elx, que vingueren el matí de Pasqua = "to be like the Elx palms, that arrived on Easter morning", this is used in the Valencian Country to mean to be late. Elx is a city with the biggest palm groove in Europe ever since the Middle Ages, and many of these palm tree leafs are used for making the palms used for Palm Sunday, the celebration that happens a week before Easter.

16. Va a missa = "goes to mass", meaning whatever is said is exactly what will happen, without complaining or second thoughts.

17. Endiumenjar-se = "to Sunday yourself" or "to Sunday up", meaning to dress up in your best clothes (same as "to wear your Sunday best" in English). Traditionally, people used to wear their best clothes for Sunday mass.

18. Alt com un sant Pau = "as tall as a saint Paul", someone who is very tall. Saint Paul was not tall, in his texts he describes himself as a "little man". The origin of this sentence is in Catalonia centuries ago. People used to celebrate the holiday of Saint Paul's Conversion (January 25th). In the Sant Pau del Camp church area in Barcelona, the tradition for this day had a man yield a huge sword. For this reason, the man had to be tall and strong.

19. Alegre/content com unes pasqües = "as cheerful/happy as Easters", meaning to be very happy and cheerful.

20. Discutir sobre el sexe dels àngels or parlar del sexe dels àngels = "to argue about angels' sex", meaning to endlessly argue heatedly about something insignificant where neither side will ever convince the other to change their minds. Also called una discussió bizantina="a Byzantine argument". This comes from the historical fact that Biblical scholars spent centuries arguing on whether angels can be male or female or not. Legends say that, when the Ottomans were laying siege on Constantinople in 1453 and getting ready to invade it, the Byzantine theologists were arguing about whether angels have sexes instead of doing anything useful.

21. Pagant, sant Pere canta = "if you pay, saint Peter sings". The person who hears it, might answer i sant Joan fa esclops = "and Saint John makes clogs". This means that money will get you anything, even the things that seemed impossible. It might be a reference to the Bible story where saint Peter was asked if he knew Christ after he was taken to crucify, and Peter lied three times and said he didn't know him. "To sing" in Catalan can also mean "to confess". Maybe, if they had paid him he would have confessed.

22. Perdre l'oremus = "to lose the oremus", meaning to lose control of yourself, or to get disoriented or lose memory. "Oremus" (which means "let's pray" in Latin) is the sentence that Catholic priests say during mass to lead a prayer. It's believed that this idiom comes from some incidents where a priest would start the sentence "oremus..." but then couldn't find the prayer he wanted to lead, which he might have misplaced somewhere else in his book. So he would say "oremus... uh... oremus..." while flipping the pages looking for the right one.

23. A bon sant t'encomanes! = "You entrust yourself to a good saint!", said with irony. It's said when you ask for help or rely on someone who is not competent.

24. Ser més papista que el Papa = "To be more Popeist than the Pope", meaning someone who is too dogmatic, too strict or extremist in following the rules, or who believes in or defends something in a more extreme way than the people most affected by it.

25. Qui no coneix Déu, a qualsevol sant li resa = "He who doesn't know God, prays to any saint", used to compare something very good to something worse that someone else likes, usually something worse but that is very popular.

And there's probably others that I forgot.

How many of these are shared with your language?

[thewordfortheday]

The cross of Calvary—the place where our sin intersected with His holiness. There God allowed His perfect Son to die for the sake of every wrong thing we have ever done, said, or thought. On the cross, Jesus finished the work that was required to save us from the death we deserve (Romans. 6:23). The sight of a cross causes me to consider what Jesus endured for us. Before being crucified, He was flogged and spit on. The soldiers hit Him in the head with sticks and mocked Him. They flogged Him and hammered nails through His flesh to keep Him on the cross. He suffered, died and was buried and third day He rose again. He did it all for you and me- to make eternal life possible.

[divorcedwife]

help. one of the girls brought up jesus dying yesterday, and the other was like, he died? how? so i explained that the romans crucified him, and she had the most disgusted look on her face, and she said "they did that to a baby?"

[fdelopera]

ok that's it. tomorrow i'm gonna publish my longer piece on why the modern day Arab Palestinians are NOT the same as the Ancient Greek Philistines (who all died out around 604 BCE when the Babylonians sieged Jerusalem).

Edit: Click here to read the longer version, with links!

but the tl;dr version is this:

we know that the Philistines are Ancient Greeks based on DNA-testing that's been done on their skeletons, and based on their pottery and artifacts, which are Ancient Mycenaean Greek. (the Torah is consistent with this -- it records them as being from Crete, which at that time was under Mycenaean Greek control)

also, being Greeks, the Philistines were not indigenous to the Levant. they were interlopers. the native Israelites fought with the Philistines over and over. the story of David and Goliath is likely a cultural memory of this conflict.

in Hebrew, the Philistines are called Peleshet, and they are likely the same as the Peleset tribe -- one of the tribes of "Sea Peoples" who tried (and failed) to conquer Egypt at the end of the Bronze Age.

and like, duh. obviously the Arab Palestinians and the Greek Philistines are not the same people.

but there are some really bad actors (both in the conspiracy sense, and in the literal "drama" sense) on Tiktok who are trying to erase Jewish history by spreading conspiracy theories that somehow Philistines and Palestinians are "the same". (omg the people who believe this shit are so dumb!!)

they're doing it so they can claim that "Jesus was a Palestinian".

ugh, it gives me a headache even to write something as stupid as that.

no, ya dumb-dumbs. Jesus was a Judaean Jew. he was from Bethlehem. in Judaea.

you know, Judaea. the place where the Jews are from.

deep sigh.

and like, clearly these people have not read a Bible ... ever ... because being associated with the Philistines was NOT a good thing!! they were literally the worst!

the Philistines were Ancient Mycenaean Greeks from Crete.

and the Palestinians are modern day Arabs.

and there is zero connection between them.

the only "connection" is that after the Romans tried to murder all the Jews in the Levant, following the Jewish Bar Kochba revolt in 135 AD, the Romans renamed Judaea, and gave it the name "Syria-Palaestina". they did this to try to wipe the cultural memory of Jews "off the map". they literally went through the Torah, found the name of one of the Judaeans' historical enemies (the Philistines), and renamed the region using that name.

so by claiming that "Jesus was a Palestinian", not only are you calling him a Philistine (ew), you're also giving him the name that the ROMANS WHO CRUCIFIED HIM renamed Judaea after trying to murder LOTS OF OTHER JEWS.

G-d these people are so dumb!!!

[museofthepyre]

This is making me lose my mind, I need to dig into it. Forgive me if I’m not spot on with this, I’m no biblical scholar, I’m not even religious. I’m just autistic and had a hyperfixation on the Bible. So gather around, we’re having Bible study (CHNT spoilers… sort of).

I’m sure I don’t need to explain the significance of Jesus as a character in the Bible. Son of god, saviour of man, a martyr. What I’m interested in here is Elijah as Peter, and Jedidiah as Judas.

Elijah as Peter… has many implications of what may be to come? If we are to assume this metaphorical connection follows through the rest of the series. Because Peter in the Bible… he was one of the 12 apostles, he was also leader of the first Christian church. But before that, his story was… well, he betrayed Jesus. When Jesus was being arrested by the Romans, accused of being a traitor… Peter disowned Jesus. He said he did not know the traitor (“How could you!? You—you traitor! The ceremony, the congregants… how… I…”). He affirmed that three times. Upon the third time, he looked at Jesus and saw the hurt in his eyes- also a rooster crowed, which was prophesied to mark this betrayal. The look in Jesus’s eyes broke Peter’s heart, he realized what he’d done, ran away, and cried. Bitterly. Remorse and regret and realization of what he did. After the resurrection, he repented, and earned Jesus’s full forgiveness. He went on to lead the first church, and that became his life. His death came in the form of an upside-down crucifiction. His church was blamed for a fire which broke out in Rome, and he was executed- he insisted on being crucified upside down, as he felt unworthy of resembling Jesus in death. Remember this character is ELIJAH VOLKOV in this metaphor. Assuming the betrayal might be… the pyre? Then what comes next? Remorse arc, forgiveness arc? Ohshdhdhgs WHAT DO I MAKE OF THIS???

AND THEN JEDIDIAH AS JUDAS. MY FFFFUCKING GODDDDDD. Judas is another apostle, but he’s mostly known for his betrayal of Jesus- which ultimately lead to Jesus’s death. Judas disclosed his whereabouts to the people who would later crucify him (ordered by Pontius Pilate, at the time Roman governor) for 30 pieces of silver. He identified Jesus and sealed both their fates with a kiss. After the crucifixion- again, realizing what he’d done- Judas was overcome with so much remorse and regret that he hung himself. Thing is, all of this was prophesied/ predestined to be. There are varying opinions on what degree of choice Judas had- if all of this was fate, if it was all predestined, if he was a necessary part of this larger divine plan. The betrayal… I mean I think it’s obvious what that is in this Jedidiah metaphor. But what comes afterwards… ohhhh. Ohhh. My god. I have so many questions. ALSO IN ANOTHER STATEMENT MAYFIELD SAID JEDIDIAH IS MORESO GOD IN A WAY??? AND SYDNEYS STILL JESUS???? I thought Lucille would for sure parallel Pontius Pilate but then HE SAID MOTHER MARY and I’m. What

Adam as Satan requires little analysis… unless. I mean Lucifer was the most beautiful angel in God’s eyes… before he fell from grace.. Something something “Adam looks like Jedidiah but only sometimes” something something “once the most beautiful angel” something something.

Anyways. Thus concludes today’s episode of me rambling I have no clue what to make of any of this. I usually have more concluding thoughts, this time I’m just staring and shaking uncontrolably.

[the-kirbe-anon]

I personally believe that God loves LGBT people, I just wanted to ask what you thought because I've met some really good Christians and some really bad "Christians", too.

Yes, God does love LGBT people (and so do I). However, LGBT lifestyles, like "marrying" or dating someone of the same sex, is sinful. And so is transgender/nonbinary lifestyles.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men

10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God

Romans 1:26-28 ~ For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done

There is hope for those living in LGBT lifestyles. Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God and is God in the flesh, came to Earth and lived a sinless life, was crucified, and resurrected on the third day after His death. All you need to do is repent and believe this and you will be saved.

This might not feel pleasant, but it is the truth. That said, LGBT lifestyles are no bigger sins than others. ALL sin is against God and will send people to hell if they don't repent. Though my blog looks cheerful and happy most of the time, I struggle with sin daily. I don't have it all figured out either, but I know Jesus has done everything necessary to be saved and hope to live for Him the best I can. Christians sin daily, not just non-Christians. There will be struggle, but also there will be growth over time.

You may still struggle with same-sex attraction, as we all experience temptation, but God is faithful and full of grace.

I'm also going to refer you to people who were ex-gay and some who are side b (who experience same sex attraction, but do not commit homosexual activity), as they'll probably be better than me at explaining things.

@darknesscannotsaveyou

@in-christalone

@my--darling--dear2

@sidebaxolotl

@spacekrakens

If you wanna talk (about anything, not just religion) I'm still here as well. I still love you regardless of sexuality, religion, or anything else. I hope the Lord speaks to you (and anyone reading this)through this answer.

[the-goya-jerker]

Immersion (Piss Christ) by Andres Serrano requested by @nintheyeblinder

This piece is part of a series by Serrano including other classical statues submerged in various liquids (blood, milk, etc.)

It is not, despite what some believe, anything against Christ or the religion that follows him. Instead Serrano had this to say about it:

"What it symbolizes is the way Christ died: the blood came out of him but so did the piss and the shit. Maybe if Piss Christ upsets you, it's because it gives some sense of what the crucifixion actually was like...I was born and raised a Catholic and I've been a Christian all my life."

And listen, I'm not into piss. (I also feel like Serrano should have been drinking more water when he made this piece in the 80's, but I digress). But I think that's a cool fucking sentiment. It's one I do agree with, despite not being any form of Christian. Death is fucking ugly. You shit yourself, you piss yourself, it's gross. And you know what, that isn't because death is unique either. Birth is gross, there's blood, the birthing parent is probably gonna shit themselves and not even know. Humans are gross in general. We're nasty creatures.

Too often in our modern hyper-sanitized culture we try to distance ourselves from the aspects of our nature that repulse us. Death, aging, sickness. You cannot so much as discuss piss without someone making some comment about piss kinks, essentially raising the accusation of what they perceive to be sexual deviance in order to shut you up.

To the surprise of none of you, I am sure, I think this is awful. Our distance from death alienates us from our own mourning. Our revulsion at aging has ten year old girls creating half hour skincare routines to manage wrinkles. I think in talking about humans, which Jesus was, we should not be so distant from the topic of piss and shit. In talking about human death we shouldn't refuse to admit that the human will piss and shit themselves. Jesus, the super duper holy figure of Christianity, would have pissed and shit himself! That's nasty, that sucks! But it's true! If you feel uncomfortable with that and you're Christian maybe you haven't considered the suffering crucified people faced in the Roman Empire. If he's your savior, why would you refuse to sit with that?

I think this is a lovely devotional piece. I love a good devotional piece... I do keep thinking about the smell of that piss though, man. And I keep thinking about Serrano's hydration...

Ultimately, it's not my vibe, but if I don't look at the picture and I meditate on the actual meaning, it is kinda hot. It kinda makes me wish I was Christian. Or into piss.

3/10

[creature-wizard]

Is it true that Friday the 13th was a day of veneration to Freyja before the church started associating it with the devil?

Edit: Made one mistake in the original reply; Friday is named after Frigg, not Freyja! So this is edited to fix that.

So the thing about all of these cutesy little "did you know X has pagan origins??" memes, is that pretty much all of them are basically wrong. They tend to come about because people just kind of assume that if something doesn't have a Biblical basis, then it must be a carryover from pre-Christian paganism. People have spun all kinds of conspiracy theories out of this.

Moreover, many people have attempted to find a historical basis for the allegations made during Europe's pre-Christian witch trials, proposing that accused witches were actually cryptopagans gathering in the woods to worship some pre-Christian deity. In reality, the accusations were based on what Christians of the day imagined paganism to be like based on centuries of demonization: orgiastic, violent, and ultimately satanic; as well as a full-blown mockery of Christianity. Within the logic of the witch panic, if Christians have a sacred day of worship, then witches must also have a sacred day of worship - just evil. It's important to note here that Christians believe that Jesus was crucified on a Friday.

If we look at Wikipedia's article on the witches' sabbath, we can see that the idea of the witches' sabbath isn't extraordinarily old; in fact, it's a product of Europe's witch panic.

Also, Friday isn't named after Freyja; it's named after Frigg. And the whole claim that Freyja was worshiped on Fridays because Friday is named after her shows ignorance of the actual reason why the days are named the way they are. The whole thing actually goes back to ancient Rome. Sunday was dies Solis (day of the sun), Monday was dies Lunae (day of the moon), Tuesday was dies Martis (day of Mars), Wednesday was dies Mercurii (day of Mercury), Thursday was dies Iovis (day of Jupiter), Friday was dies Veneris (day of Venus), and Saturday was dies Saturni (day of Saturn).

The Romans, of course, were big on the idea that everybody else's gods were actually the same as their own. They associated Tyr with Mars, Odin with Mercury, and Thor with Jupiter - do you see where this is going? Friday got named after Frigg because in the Roman way of looking at things, Frigg is just the Norse version of Venus.

Finally, as far as I am aware, Freyja was never historically linked to the number thirteen, either. Every page I can find linking Freyja with the number thirteen is repeating the claim that Freyja was venerated on Fridays, and offers no explanation of why Freyja was associated with the number thirteen. If you look into myths about Freyja, you won't find her associated with thirteen of anything - and it would be very strange if you did, because the main sacred numbers in Scandinavian thinking were three and nine (three times three).

On the other hand, thirteen is an important number to Christians. Jesus plus the apostles made thirteen. The thirteen of them gathered at Passover shortly before Judas betrayed Jesus.

In conclusion, Friday the 13th has nothing to do with Freyja; this whole idea that it was historically associated with her is nothing more than a post-Christian conspiracy theory.

[toxooz]

If you don't mind the question, how was Ponti named in universe? Did Bruce name him, is it something like a title in another language he gained while fighting or did he choose it himself? :o

GOOD QUESTION Ponti was just an experiment number

up until abt age 9 when Bruce bought him and named him Pontius after Pontius Pilot the dude to had jesus crucified but now obv Ponti just goes by Ponti lolol plus im pretty sure Priscus, Bruce's previous fighter was named after a roman gladiator as well

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

The partisans of organized violence – those who see catastrophe as the only path to world renewal, and believe that justice, goodness, brotherhood, and equity can and must be imposed by force – declare, with pedantic emphasis, that Christianity has failed. In doing so, they only repeat what everyone – friends and enemies alike – believed when, one tragic morning, three crosses were raised on Calvary, and the Prophet of the New Order, Jesus of Nazareth, died as he hung on one of them. In fact, from a human point of view, Christ’s death put an end to his crazy venture of wanting to transform the world. The agitator is dead – thought the enemies – it is all over. Our leader is dead – thought the friends – it is all over. The disciples themselves returned from Calvary cowed, sorrowful, and disillusioned, the gall of failure eating away at their spirits.

The people most convinced of Christ’s failure were undoubtedly the radical zealots. Some of them had followed the revolutionary carpenter from Nazareth, believing he would lead an armed insurrection which would overthrow the Roman regime, establish the dictatorship of the chosen people, and bring about the advent of the kingdom of peace and justice, under the hegemony and splendor of Israel. When these revolutionaries saw that Jesus, instead of leading an uprising, let himself fall without resistance into the power of his enemies to be crucified ignominiously, they were enraged. What Jesus had done seemed to them the height of stupidity.

This reproach of Christ made by his contemporary advocates of organized violence is the same one that reappears, under a different guise, through the present advocates of violence. They want to see Christ as a sentimental, romantic, low-spirited reformer, who failed because he did not want to impose his authority violently, nor lead the oppressed masses to victory through armed insurrection.

---

What the Gospels describe as forty days of temptation in the desert was simply the period when Christ considered the vital question of what tactic he would employ in the struggle against evil, which roadmap he would use for building his new order. Christ discarded the three methods of human domination which are the essence of various forms of organized violence:

Economic might (producing bread as plentiful as stones and distributing it to the multitudes), under the illusion that a full belly is all that is needed to solve all human problems.

Political power, indissolubly linked to military power (the worship of Satan, in exchange for the kingdoms of the earth, the impérium universalis), trusting that humanity can be reformed by means of laws, decrees, and regulations, imposed by an authority supported by the police and the army.

Ecclesiastical power founded on terror and superstition (to throw oneself from the battlements of the temple and come out unscathed).

In the desert, Jesus chose his tactics, which have seemed true madness and crass folly to desperate people through the ages, to those who do not know the reality of human nature, and to the optimistic believers in evolution, economic progress, or dictatorial statism. In the desert, Christ discovered an eternal and awesome truth: the means determine the ends. A cause can be as noble and great as you want, but if you use means that do not correspond to it, it simply will elude your grasp. Many of his enemies, and more than a few of his friends, would supplant this truth with another, diabolically inverted one: “the ends justify the means.” But Jesus saw that organized violence of any kind, regardless of the end or ideal with which it seeks to justify itself, is always self-defeating, betraying the ends for which it is employed.

---

In other words, Christ discovered that justice, brotherhood, and peace, all deep yearnings of humanity, all ideals of social coexistence, can neither be dictated nor imposed. As a supreme realist and a profound connoisseur of human nature, he neither deluded nor deceived himself with reformist utopias. He believed that a kingdom of justice can only be built by just persons, a new world by new people, “new wine in new wineskins.” He warned that people cannot be reformed by force, nor rehabilitated by violence; they must be born again through the working of vital powers of a higher order, which he came to imbue in us. That is why Christ rejected Spartacism and imperialism as methods of social transformation. A popular insurrection can change regimes, but it cannot change people: neither its opponents, whom it does not change, but destroys, nor its proponents, whom it does not change, but corrupts. Christ – the supreme realist – saw that a simple regime change would only mean substituting one set of exploiters for others. That is why Christ ordered Peter: “Put your sword back in its sheath,” because violence only engenders violence. Spartacism is the father of tyranny. And substituting one tyrant for another does not improve the lot of the oppressed.

The current advocates of violence reproach Jesus for not having decided to use this method and attribute to it what they call the failure of “the two thousand years of Christianity.” They forget that, to a large extent, the reason Christian actions have watered down, delayed, or paralyzed the faith’s transforming power is precisely because the followers of Christ have often succumbed to the temptation of trying to Christianize the world through violence. They have wielded the sword in the name of the one who repudiated the sword. And they have sought to redeem humanity from its evils by means of organized violence, in the name of the one who condemned violence.

When faced with the sword, Jesus erects the cross and climbs up on it. The cross is the love that sacrifices itself, that gives itself for others. He who conquers, dominates, and imposes himself, cannot redeem. He only redeems who denies himself out of love and gives his life for the good of others.

[anonymous-dentist]

Inmate Crucifixion Day!!!

So it's no big surprise that the QSMP has some religious imagery going on, and today's supposed conclusion to the Prison Arc is no exception. Today, the inmates are going to be crucified, and we all know what that is.

Right?

Well, hi, I'm A.D., I'm a historian, and today I'm going to teach you all about crucifixion!

Now, crucifixion is a longstanding execution method that dates back way before Jesus was even thought of. We've got accounts of crucifixions dating back to the Persians under Darius I, and we've got even more accounts from all over the place in the ancient world.

Now, let's go over some history real quick, shall we?

~522 BCE: Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos, is crucified postmortem by some pissed-off Persians. Maybe.

We don't actually know if this one happened or not, but we do know that he was assassinated. That much is true. The crucifixion part is what's up for debate, but, if it is true, then Polycrates here has the privilege of being the first ever victim of crucifixion. Lucky him!

~519 BCE: Darius I orders the crucifixion of something approximating 3,000 political opponents in Babylon

See, the thing about Persian crucifixions is that the prisoners weren't usually nailed to the cross shape we all know. Nah, they were tied up with their hands above their heads, strung up on a single pole. This way, their death would take a lot longer, and the prisoner would suffocate under their own weight. This would last for days, usually with the prisoner being left up to be humiliated even after their death.

~417 BCE: Persian general and tyrant Artaÿctes is crucified by Athenians in a rather uncharacteristic act

But also take this with a grain of salt because this account comes from Herodotus, and I don't trust that dude with much more than a fun story.

The Greeks didn't really think much of crucifixion. They were like, "We're above this. We are civilized", but also. They did not like the whole "Persian Invasion" thing, and so sometimes they ended up resorting to measures they weren't too happy with. Such is war!

~332 BCE: Speaking of war, Alexander the Great supposedly had 2,000 survivors of his siege of Tyre crucified.

The thing with Alexander is that a lot of what people say about him is probably bullshit.

~88 BCE: Ancient Judean king Alexander Jannaeus supposedly had 800 Pharisees-slash-rebels crucified in the middle of Jerusalem

And now we get to the Romans, who kinda perfected the whole thing. They were super into crucifixion. They were so into it that they had a bunch of different ways of doing it!

Getting impaled on a stake

Getting tied to a tree

Getting tied to a crux simplex (see image below)

Getting stuck to a cross

The whole crucifixion thing was seen as a way to deter people from doing the same crimes that the crucified people did. It was all about torture and humiliation. We have reports of people being crucified for days, and of people having to carry their own crucifixes (see: Jesus Christ.)

Sometimes people were tied to their crucifixes. Sometimes they were nailed to them. It varied by region and by criminal and by executor. Criminals were generally stripped completely naked (again, humiliation), though, again, the position depended on the region, criminal, and executor. The way Jewish people were executed was different than how, say, slaves or renegade gladiators were executed.

I'm not going to get into the whole process because that's very long and yucky. But I will repeat just how popular it was! Because MAN, the Romans LOVED it! Crassus ordered the crucifixion of at least 6,000 rebels and followers of Spartacus after the Third Servile War (but, then again, he was a piece of shit.)

Of course, we can't forget about the most famous crucifixion of all:

~32 CE: Jesus.

Jesus of Nazareth remains the most famous victim of crucifixion, and it's because of the nature of his particular crucifixion that everybody thinks of crucifixion as The Thing With The Cross.

And this is probably what everybody's thinking of when they're talking about the QSMP inmates being crucified today.

But he wasn't the only religious figure to be crucified!

Cut to:

Either 274 CE or 277 CE: Mani, the Parthian Prophet and the founder of Manichaeism, is crucified in a way super similar to Jesus

Tbh we don't know when he died, but his followers purposefully compared his death to Jesus' despite there possibly being literally no crucifixion involved at all.

But, you know what? Crucifixion happened all over the place!

Islamic territories had crucifixion going on simply because they lived where crucifixion had been taking place for centuries, and there was a lot of debate surrounding crucifixion in relation to the various rules and regulations surrounding criminality and the potential justification of execution.

Japan, interestingly enough, also has a pretty long history of crucifixion. Supposedly, it was introduced in the 15th century by pesky Christian missionaries, but the Japanese had had a similar tradition going on before that. But Japanese crucifixion, called haritsuke wasn't really like the kind we're familiar with. There was water crucifixion (mizuharitsuke) reserved for Christians, and there was upside-down crucifixion (sakasaharitsuke.) Fun!

(There is photo evidence of this even up on the Wikipedia page, but you can find that on your own. I'm not putting that on my blog, thanks.)

As the years continued, crucifixion became a bit less widespread, though there is photo evidence of its use in Japan up through the 19th century, and then reports of it being used in World War One by the Germans and then in World War Two against the Germans.

Unfortunately, it's still a practiced tradition in a few parts of the world. Saudi Arabia and Sudan still have crucifixion as an execution method, and it's still a reported method being used by certain extremist factions in Syria, Iran and Myanmar.

So... yeah! That's crucifixion for you! It's a truly terrible fate, but not an overtly religious one. It only really became religious when Jesus ended up getting killed, and, even then, it's only seen as such by groups of people steeped in Christian culture (such as many countries and cultures living in what people call "The West".)

I can only imagine that the religious aspect is what's going to come into play on the QSMP, because I doubt that this literal Minecraft Roleplay Series will employ actual literal torture and execution methods live on Twitch.

[useless-catalanfacts]

If you visit the Sagrada Família basilica in Barcelona (Catalonia), you might be intrigued by these squares with numbers. Like every detail in the building, it has a symbolic meaning.

These are a very particular kind of magic squares. A "magic square" is a series of numbers on a square grid, placed so that any row, column, or diagonal line always adds up to the same number. Well, to be fair, there is one more rule for the normal magic squares which this one doesn't follow: the squares cannot repeat numbers and must use all numbers from 1 to the number of squares possible (for example, a square of 3x3 would have numbers from 1 to 9, a square of 4x4 would have them from 1 to 16, etc). When this rule is followed, the number that results from the addition will always be the same (in a square of 3x3, the sum of 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9 = 45, and each row, column and diagonal line sums 45/3 = 15; in a 4 x 4 magic square, where the sum of all the numbers from 1 to 16 is 136, the magic constant is 136/4 = 34). For mathematical reasons, the resulting number cannot be chosen, it will always be the same one if we follow those rules.

And here is why this one doesn't follow that rule, and it's on purpose. It doesn’t have all the numbers from 1 to 16 (it is missing the 12 and 16) and some numbers are repeated. And why did they do that? Here's the important bit: the result of the sum isn’t 34 (as would always be in a 4x4 magic square), but 33.

The sculptor who created the Sagrada Família's Passion façade (the artist Josep Maria Subirachs, following architect Antoni Gaudí's vision) took a different spin for these squares. Magic squares have been used as talismans in many cultures for millennia, since ancient cultures including 3rd millennium BC China, Ancient India, Ancient Egypt, Arab, and Greek cultures, among others. For the Sagrada Família (a Christian temple), Subirachs used to hide a number of great significance in Christian symbolism.

Painting Melencolia I by Albrecht Dürer (1514) and a detail from it.

Subirachs adapted a magic square from this engraving by Dürer and changed it so that it would add up to 33: the age that Jesus Christ is traditionally believed to have been when he was executed. A number based on the repetition of another of the most important numbers in Christianity: 3, symbolizing the holy trinity.

The square in the Sagrada Família manages to add 33 by repeating some numbers and skipping others. But it also goes further than adding up 33 in every row, column, and diagonal line. The same number can also be obtained with many other combinations. Here are some of them:

Plus, in the magic square at the Sagrada Família, there is also a sort of hidden subliminal signature: adding up the numbers that repeat and looking at their correspondence in the Roman alphabet, we get the initials INRI (Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum = "Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews" in Latin), which was written on the sign at the top of the cross where Jesus was crucified.

This way, mathematics, art history and religious symbolism all come together in this little symbol.

Photos from Alamy, Martin Leicht, Sagrada Família blog. Text adapted from Sagrada Família blog. All the graphs with the numbers are from that same article.

[cbs-scorpion-coffee-shop]

A Godly lesson

When they look at what Israel is doing in Gaza, Zionists say: "Oh, Hamas are terrorists. Violence isn't the way. Palestinians can obtain freedom by peacful means."

When I look at that, I remember the stories of the prophets and how they're told in the Qur'an, Bible and Torah.

When Prophet Moses PBUH tried to guide the Pharaoh by reason, he ordered him dead because the Pharaoh was being worshipped like a God, and people believing in Moses went against his interests.

When Prophet Jesus PBUH wrecked the stalls of moneylenders at the temple saying "Is this a place of God or a place of commerce.", the Romans tried to crucify him because his teachings went against their interests.

Every other prophet and messenger before them was the exact same. The tyrants of the time denied them and tried to kill them because what they preach went against their interests.

The only exception was the last prophet.

Prophet Mohammad PBUH.

When faced with the tyrants of his time who were killing and enslaving people for their interests, he was the only one to say enough is enough. He picked up his sword and his companions did the same, and they fought until they won. They completely broke and destroyed their tyrants.

Allah teaches us a lesson with all these prophets and stories and holy books:

Tyrants can't be reasoned with. They only understand the language of the sword.

That's why governments fight Islam and slander it so much. That's why they call "Jihad" extremism and terrorism.

Tyrants know that Islam at its core, doesn't tolerate them. and that if people come back to Islam, they will be broken and destroyed like the prophet Mohammad did to them once before.

Hamas are the only people who are fighting for what's right.

That's why they slander them.

[murderouscaiaphaas]

The Jewish Head Priest of Jerusalem Synagogue and his follower evil Priest Annas made JESUS stand for trial and disagreed with him and when Jesus,Son of Mary and Joseph who was severely lashed and punished with wounds,insulted and was to be let off after Pontius Pilate did not find him guilty of any wrong,then Jewish Head Priest Caiaphas and jewish Priest Annas and all the clergy instigated the common people to condemn JESUS to be crucified,when Roman head Pontius Pilate was to condemn Barabbas the robber murderer to be crucified ,they said JESUS will create riots as he is saying Blasphemy of Scriptures of Moses and if they are riots( that will be created secretly by Caiaphaas ) then who will be responsible.So the whole group of people wanted innocent good JESUS crucified and murderous Barabbas forgiven and shouted Crucify JESUS. Pontius Pilate helpless washed his hands off with water ,saying this good man's death is not on me,my family and then the jewish mob including Annas and Caiaphaas his death and blood will be on our heads and our family generations heads and JESUS was sentenced to be Crucified to Death