Vivid remains of crucifixion- via Ferrell Jenkins
The Romans were adept at crucifixion, according to many historical sources. The first archaeological evidence of crucifixion was uncovered in 1978 [1968; see comments] when an ossuary (bone box, or receptacle) was found north of Jerusalem containing the bones of a man who had been crucified. His name was “Yehohanan, the son of Hagakol.” He is thought to have been between 24 and 28 years of age, and was about 5 feet 6 inches in height.
Both the ossuary and a replica of the heel bone are displayed in the Israel Museum. When Yehohanan was removed from the cross the nail pulled away from the wood.
On Pentecost, Peter proclaimed the truth about Jesus. He said,
This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. (Acts 2:23 NIV)
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http://www.psupress.org/journals/jnls_JEMAHS.html
Click here for a look at the lead article from the inaugural issue, ‘Preserving Petra Sustainably (One Step at a Time)’!
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology Heritage Studies (JEMAHS) is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to traditional, anthropological, social, and applied archaeologies of the Eastern Mediterranean, encompassing both prehistoric and historic periods. The journal’s geographic range spans three continents and brings together, as no academic periodical has done before, the archaeologies of Greece and the Aegean, Anatolia, the Levant, Cyprus, Egypt and North Africa.
As the publication will not be identified with any particular archaeological discipline, the editors invite articles from all varieties of professionals who work on the past cultures of the modern countries bordering the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Similarly, a broad range of topics are covered, including, but by no means limited to:
Appearing four times a year in February, May, August, and November, the journal will engage with professionals and scholars of archaeology and heritage studies as well as non-practitioners and students, both graduate and undergraduate.
In addition to combining traditional and theoretical archaeological data and interpretation, the Journal’s articles may range from early to prehistory to recent historical time periods. It also aims to publish accessible, jargon-free, readable, color-illustrated articles that will be informative for professional and non-professional readers. The journal does not publish unprovenanced artifacts purchased on the antiquities market or objects from private collections.
Editors
Ann E. Killebrew, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park (USA)
Sandra A. Scham, University of Maryland, College Park (USA)
Assistant Editors
Justin Lev-Tov, Statistical Research, Inc. (USA)
Louise A. Hitchcock, University of Melbourne (Australia)
Book Review Editor
Brandon R. Olson, Boston University (USA)
Editorial Assistant
Heather Heidrich, The Pennsylvania State University (USA)
Editorial and Advisory Board
Lorenzo d’Alfonso, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University (USA)
Jere L. Bacharach, University of Washington (USA)
Hanan Charaf, University of Paris I-Sorbonne (France)
Yiorgos Chrysanthou, University of Cyprus (Cyprus)
Eric H. Cline, George Washington University (USA)
Elif Denel, American Research Institute in Turkey, Ankara (Turkey)
Hermann Genz, American University of Beirut (Lebanon)
Ioannis Georganas, Independent Researcher (Greece)
Matthew Harpster, Institute of Nautical Archaeology, Bodrum (Turkey)
Kenneth G. Holum, University of Maryland at College Park (USA)
Morag Kersel, DePaul University (USA)
Saleh Lamei, D.G. Centre for Conservation of Islamic Architectural Heritage – CIAH (Egypt)
Mark Leone, University of Maryland at College Park (USA)
Thomas E. Levy, University of California at San Diego (USA)
Lynn Meskell, Stanford University (USA)
Mirko Novák, University of Bern (Switzerland)
Mark Munn, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park (USA)
Shelley-Anne Peleg, Israel Antiquities Authority (Israel)
Issa Jubrael Sarie, Al-Quds University (Jerusalem)
Neil A. Silberman, University of Massachusetts Amherst (USA)
Stuart Tyson Smith, University of California at Santa Barbara (USA)
Sharon R. Steadman, SUNY Cortland (USA)
Margreet Steiner, Independent Scholar (Netherlands)
Christopher A. Tuttle, American Center of Oriental Research (Jordan)
Stephen Weiner, Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel)
James M. Weinstein, Cornell University (USA)
Donald Whitcomb, University of Chicago (USA)
Tony J. Wilkinson, Durham University (United Kingdom)
Footnote 13 – Martin Hengel, Crucifixion in the Ancient World and the Folly of the Message of the Cross (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1977), pp. 83, 87, 89-90.
“When Paul spoke…about the ‘crucified Christ,’ every hearer in the Greek-speaking East…knew that this ‘Christ’ …had suffered a particularly cruel and shameful death, which as a rule was reserved for hardened criminals, rebellious slaves, and rebels against the Roman state.”
“That this crucified Jew, Jesus Christ, could truly be a divine being sent on earth, God’s son, the Lord of all and the coming judge of the world, must inevitably have been thought of by any educated man to be utter ‘madness’ and presumptuousness.”
“By the public display of a naked victim in a prominent place – at a crossroads, in the theater, on high ground, at the place of his crime – crucifixion also represented his utmost humiliation… With Deuteronomy 21:23 in the background, the Jew in particular was very aware of this.”
“When Paul talks of the ‘folly’ of the message of the crucified Jesus, he is therefore not speaking in riddles or using an abstract cipher…he deliberately wants to provoke his opponents, who are attempting to water down the offence caused by the cross.”
“Thus in a way the ‘word of the cross’ is the spearhead of his message…it is impossible to dissociate talk of the atoning death of Jesus or the blood of Jesus from this ‘word of the cross.’ The spearhead cannot be broken off the spear.”
Hebrews 12:2 – Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. NASB
Hebrews 13:13 – Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. NIV
Acts 5:41– So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. NASB
1 Peter 2:6– Because it is contained in scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: And he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame. ASV
One blog I follow is Hankering for History at http://www.hankeringforhistory.com/?wref=bif which recently included a post about “an article from The Atlantic. The article, Cracker Barrel’s Oddly Authentic Version of American History, is an informative piece about Cracker Barrel, the institution of the general store, and the importance of Cracker Barrel’s acquisition of antiques. When you stop in your local Cracker Barrel, it is impossible to miss the large collection of apparent knickknacks. However, to my disbelief, these knickknacks are authentic antiques. Here is an excerpt from the article. I suggest reading the article in its entirety.
The antiques, according to [Cracker Barrel], are real ones. They come from across the U.S. to the Cracker Barrel Decor Warehouse in Lebanon, Tennessee. The company has a mock restaurant that it uses to plan the decor of every single location; designers arrange the elements for each new store in a way that looks right, make a plan (with photographs) for where the objects should go, and send it off with those objects to the new location.
The New York Times reported in 2002 that the restaurants’ demand for old objects had grown so much that American antique dealers were struggling to source them.
So maybe next time you are in a Cracker Barrel, take the opportunity to look around and check out the antiques that adorn the restaurant’s wall.
Read more: http://www.hankeringforhistory.com/#ixzz2OsST6vsQ
Since my lecture at Faulkner University a few weeks ago, I have received several inquiries about an article I wrote several years back, surveying the history of hymns and hymnals, especially have they hve influence hymnody in the “Restoration Movement.” Since I have posted this reference on several other sites and FB pages, why not put it on my own? As with any human endeavor, it has some errors and other flaws, and stands in need of revision. But it will have to do for now.
Footnote 11 – Bernard A. Weisberger, “Reflections on the Dry Season,” American Heritage, May/June 1990, 28-30.
Through the years, there has been a useful body of pertinent research done by well-recognized historians on the general background of Prohibition.
For example, Bernard Weisberger, a nationally-recognized historian who wrote a current-events column (“In the News”) for the popular historical journal American Heritage, addressed in one such article the widespread (mis)conception that Prohibition “didn’t work.” Among the facts cited by Weisberger are:
“Prohibition did reduce drinking. The average annual per capita consumption of alcohol by Americans of drinking age – that is, the total alcoholic content of all the beer, wine, and distilled spirits they consumed – stood at 2.60 gallons” in 1910. In 1934, after more than a decade of prohibition, Weisberger reports the per capita average of 0.97 gallons.
“Census Bureau studies show that the death rate from chronic or acute alcoholism fell from 7.3 per 100,000 in 1907” to “2.5 in 1932, Prohibition’s last year. Deaths from cirrhosis of the liver, one cause of which is alcohol abuse, dropped from 14.8 per 100,000 in 1907 to 7.1 in 1920 and never rose above 7.5 during the 1920’s. Economic studies estimated that savings and spending on household necessities increased among working-class families during the period, possibly from money that once went to drink.” These are not the propaganda of some biased zealot, but the factual report of a nationally-known historian.
Furthermore, Weisberger reports that one reason why Prohibition may be commonly thought so unsuccessful is that even the above improvements were achieved with a minimum of enforcement. He continues:
“Drinking might have been cut back even further if more resources had been devoted to enforcement. In 1922 Congress gave the Prohibition Bureau only $6.75 million for a force of 3,060 employees (including clerical workers) to hunt for [violators] in thousands of urban neighborhoods, remote hollows, border crossings, and coastal inlets. State legislators were equally sparing: in 1926 state legislatures all together spent $698,855 for Prohibition work, approximately one eighth of what they spent on enforcing fish-and-game laws. Even so, by 1929 the feds alone had arrested more than half a million violators.”
Nor was this “new” information, even 20 years ago; a 1968 article by historian of science John C. Burnham of Ohio State University in the Journal of Social History revealed even more data along the lines Weisberger adduces. To imply that attempts to restrict alcohol sales can’t be effective ignores the available evidence. Professor Norman H. Clark’s 1976 study, Deliver Us From Evil, makes a persuasive cause that during Prohibition, arrests for drunkenness and alcohol-related crimes declined markedly.
Of course, a much earlier author reminds us across the ages that “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise” (Proverbs 20:1).
–Adapted from Truth Magazine XXXVI:15 (August 6, 1992), p. 457
Footnote 8 – S. H. Bingman, “From the Field,” Christian Standard XXIV: 50 (December 14, 1889), p. 830 (12).
“December 3 – Closed a very unsatisfactory meeting with the church at Union Center. . . . Rain almost daily, deep mud and dark nights; divided brethren, poor preaching, good singing and plenty of babies. We would have had a houseful every session, if enough people had come to fill up, and there would have been a larger number of additions, if we could have persuaded the people to obey the Lord. That the meeting was no worse, we ‘thank God and take courage,’ and intend to try again.”‘
As we approach the spring season of “gospel meetings” (aka “revivals” in many religious fellowships) I offer this intriguing quotation in the spirit of the season, hoping that readers will enjoy it as much as I did. I don’t know who S.H. Bingman was, but one day I would like to shake his hand! He gets my vote for “honest meeting report” of the century!
However, lest we take either ourselves or our counterparts from last century too lightly, let me hasten to add that we do not share the pessimism expressed by some regarding the demise of “gospel meetings” or the alleged lack of resultant good. To be sure, the results may occasionally be “less than sensational” (as one report we saw described it). However, there are positive results from such meetings which are not found in written reports or expressed in tangible statistics.
I count it a privilege to have expended some of my efforts in meetings among small churches, in the U.S. and overseas – several of which were without a “full-time preacher.” There is certainly nothing at all wrong with an established congregation, with an evangelist already present, inviting another preacher to come for a special teaching effort (Acts 11:20-24 seems to be an example of this). However, there is a great need for work to be done in edifying smaller congregations which are not receiving regular and systematic teaching. The good resulting from such efforts, while not subject to quantification in statistical reports, is nonetheless well worth the effort.
Of course, we “thank God and take courage” that not all meetings are like the one described above. Some of them result in visible, indeed, vivid responses: baptisms, emotional restorations, congregations with large and attentive audiences. We emphatically reject any suggestion that “meetings do no good.”
A final thought is suggested by the anonymity of the correspondent. As I said, I had never before heard of S.H. Bingman, though I have an active interest in “Restoration History.” Yet, even though we may never have known them, there are literally thousands of persevering souls like this man, working diligently in their section of the Lord’s vineyard, undaunted by less than sensational results, unrelenting in their labors despite discouraging circumstances or apparently insurmountable obstacles. Their kind is legion even today: unknown by face to most churches, unrecorded by brotherhood reports, shunning prominence, choosing rather to work in the obscurity of difficult fields. Truly, from their example we “thank God and take courage.”
— Adapted from Truth Magazine XXXII: 4 (February 18, 1988), p. 107
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