[TomServo]

Did you see the special they ran on this during Christmas on the Discovery channel? Absolutely fascinating.

[EggsAckley]

*bookmarking for later*

[Servant of the Nine]

Wood was in short supply in Jerusalem. The Romans no more gave the mourners the cross their friend had died on than mourners today are given the electric chair he fried in.

Crosses were reused, and at that time often where not true crosses at all, but merely crosspieces nailed to old olive trees

So9

[Zavien Doombringer]

Try this;
http://anchorstone.com

[ffusco]

The Romans didn't drive nails through the hands. That's just poetic license from painters.The nails were driven above the wrist between the 2 bones of the fore-arm.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

"Ecce lignum Crucis in quo salus munids pependit."

"Behold the Wood of the Cross, upon which hung the Savior of the world!" (Mass of the Presanctified, Good Friday, Roman Rite)

The words are literally true, as a piece of the true cross was held up by the Pope in the ancient ceremony at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.

[Alex Murphy]

He built churches—primarily in Palestine—and curbed pagan cults by not allowing pagans to set up cult statues or consult oracles, and by forbidding pagan state dignitaries to sacrifice while on duty. Within a few years, the religious atmosphere in the East changed dramatically. Practically for the first time ever, Christians in Palestine and the East experienced religious freedom, while pagans learned what it meant to have their worship restricted.

Can't wait to read the varied responses to this section...

[Vindiciae Contra TyrannoSCOTUS]

APU -- In Focus -- The Science of the Crucifixion