From ';Judaism for Everyone'; by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
Central to the Jewish response to suffering is a staunch rejection of the belief in its redemptive power. According to Judaism there are no ennobling qualities in pain…. The belief in the redemptive quality of suffering is a profoundly Christian concept. In Christianity, the suffering servant, the crucified Christ, brings atonement for the sins of mankind through his own sacrifice and torment. The message: Without suffering there can be no redemption. According to Christianity, if Jesus had not suffered and died on the cross, mankind would still be damned. Suffering is therefore extolled in the New Testament: “And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces hope” (Rom. 5:3-4). “If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we are being consoled, it is for your consolation, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering” (2 Cor. 1:6). Indeed, Paul even made suffering an obligation, encouraging the fledging Christians to “share in suffering like a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:3).
In Judaism, however, suffering is anything but redemptive. It leads to a tortured spirit and a pessimistic outlook on life. It scars our psyches and brings about a cynical consciousness, devoid of hope. Suffering causes us to dig out the insincerity of the hearts of our fellows and to be envious of other people’s happiness. If individuals do become better people as a result of their suffering, it is despite the fact that they suffered, not because of it. Ennoblement of character comes through triumph over suffering, rather than its endurance.
Man’s mission was never to make peace with suffering and death, but to abolish them from the face of the earth for all eternity by joining God as a junior partner in creation. By studying medicine and offering aid to people in need, we live up to our highest calling of having been created in the divine image. The atheist doctor who struggles to cure AIDS is infinitely more in tune with the Jewish response to suffering than the minister of religion who tells his flock that suffering is part of the divine plan. The sinning businessman who may have never stepped into a synagogue but makes a loan to a colleague to save him from bankruptcy is more in tune with the Jewish response to suffering than the Rabbi who seeks to give a rationalization for why children die of leukemia…. Our role as humans is not to give meaning to aberrations, but combating them and to healing wounds.
.WERE THE THIEVES THAT WERE CRUCIFIED WITH jESUS NAILED TO THE CROSS OR TIED TO THE CROSS?
Christianity does not say that suffering is redemptive. Christianity says that the Messiah's suffering (crucifixion) and victory over suffering (resurrection) is redemptive. Christians can find hope even while suffering persecution due to our hope of eternal victory over suffering just as Christ.
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WERE THE THIEVES THAT WERE CRUCIFIED WITH jESUS NAILED TO THE CROSS OR TIED TO THE CROSS?
Also, the TANAK prophesied a suffering Messiah. Isaiah 53 details the Messiah's suffering and how through his suffering he was made great.
Physical suffering means little to YHWH since he holds spiritual eternity in his hand. YHWH cares for the suffering, but he has conquered it through Messiah.
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I was taught no one was actually nailed not even Jesus.
Nails would defeat the purpose of cruxifiction which is to suffocate to death.
When arms are tied they cannot move and the person must life themselves in order to breathe...when they get tired they cannot do this and that is why it took a long time and was so painful
Nails would allow one to pull arm out or thru the nail....and even if could not the nail would not give enough leverage to allow for the person to pull himself up to breathe....hence person would die very quickly.
I was taught the nails were added to the story much later during the Middle Ages to make it more gruesome
The Romans were evil torturers, I suspect that the thieves were nailed just like Jesus was to their crosses.
There had been other men before Jesus who also claimed to be the Messiah, and like Jesus, the Jewish Sanhedrin had the Romans kill them. Jesus's timing for claiming to be the Messiah came at a bad time. Except for his disciples, family and some Rabbis who actually listened to what he was saying, His Messiah pronouncements wasn't paid much attention to and neither was His death.
Why wouldn't they have been nailed? The Romans didn't have any particular beef with Jesus, Pilate wanted to release him. The Jews weren't in charge so I can speculate that the way Jesus was crucified would have been by using the same materials that other victims of crucifixtion would have endured.
The Romans did thousands of Crucifixions but there is only one piece of archaeological evidence for crucifixion. They found one corpse with a nail stuck in the ankle bone. It seems the nails were very sought after for good luck charms, and the crosses rotted away.
Nobody knows for sure. The Bible is the only record of this, and it doesn't specify.
But growing up, all the pix I saw of the crucifixion had Jesus nailed and the 2 thieves tied with ropes. Truth or artistic license? You be the judge.
tied. At the end of the day---there were three empty crosses there and only one represented the source of our salvation so do not revere an empty cross because we all end up there---only revere the one with Christ on it.
Probably both. The purpose of crucifixion was to prologh the suffering, ropes helped support the body and lenghten the suffering
Nailed of course. And they weren't common thieves, they were terrorist bandits.
It works better if you take the Caps Lock off.
while it is not dictated in Scriptures - TRADITION dictates they were tied.
Jesus is nothing more than a character in a fairy tale.
tied
They were characters in a fictional story, so, why don't you take your pick.......
Tied.
Only Jesus was nailed, making his death more symbolic and painful, because so many people wanted him killed.
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