Roman Forms of Crucifixion

Crucifixion wasn't always carried out the way we've seen it typically depicted in paintings and pictures.

Crucifixion wasn't always carried out the way we've seen it typically depicted in paintings and pictures. In fact, as noted in this chapter, a crucifixion victim likely wasn't nailed through the hands, since their structure cannot support the weight of a human body. Most likely victims were nailed through the wrist or, in some instances, had their arms tied rather than being nailed.

Nor were victims always crucified on the kind of cross typically shown in depictions of Christ's crucifixion. Note what The Anchor Bible Dictionary says in its article on crucifixion:

The 1st Black Man to See the Baby Jesus

100 Amazing Facts About the Negro: What do we really know about Balthasar's origins?

By: Henry Louis Gates Jr



Adoration of the Magi, artist Nicolas Poussin, 1633

(The Root) -- Amazing Fact About the Negro No. 11: Who was the first black person to see the baby Jesus?

African Americans have long been fascinated by the presence of black people in the Bible. This concern, for my generation, became quite intense about the time that Rev. Albert Cleage founded the Shrine of the Black Madonna in Detroit in 1967, and many black Christians sought to reconcile their faith with a growing involvement in black cultural nationalist politics.