LITMIR.BIZ

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aspects of the biblical text.3

One area where I believe that shared similarities between past and present contexts can be most usefully investigated is the political arena of state terror and its use of torture. Latin American military regimes used terror in the 1970s and 1980s to create fear and promote fatalism throughout the whole of society. An understanding of this provides a context to recognize Roman crucifixions as instruments of state terror. Furthermore, Latin American torture practices involved deliberate attempts to shame the victims and undermine their sense of dignity. Physical torture and assaults were often coupled with psychological humiliation in attempts to end the victim’s will to resist, or even to live. Sexual assaults and sexual humiliation are a particularly effective way to do this, and are commonplace in torture practices past and present.4

This chapter argues that torture practices can offer a deeper understanding of Roman crucifixion as a form of state terror that included sexual abuse. The analysis below draws on Latin American reports, but a similar reading could be offered through attention to torture in many other contexts, including torture and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.5

      To raise the question of sexual abuse in relation to Jesus may at first seem inappropriate. However, the Gospel accounts indicate a striking level of public sexual humiliation in the treatment of Jesus, and even this may not disclose the full horror of Jesus’ torture before his death. Although this may be a very disturbing suggestion at first, at a theological level a God who has identified with the victims of sexual abuse can be recognized as a positive challenge for contemporary Christian understanding and response. At a pastoral level it could help sensitize people to the experiences of those who have suffered sexual abuse and, in some cases, might even become a healing step for the victims themselves.

      Crucifixion and state terror

Military coups in the 1960s and 1970s installed military regimes in Brazil (1964–85) and throughout the Southern Cone of Latin America (Chile 1973–89; Uruguay 1973–85; and Argentina 1976–83). During these years state-sanctioned human rights abuses, including torture, assassinations and disappearances, were commonplace. Likewise, in the 1980s the authoritarian governments in Guatemala and El Salvador were involved in some of the most brutal campaigns of repression the region has known. The transition to democracy in Brazil and the Southern Cone countries and the peace treaties in El Salvador (1992) and Guatemala (1996) have prompted official investigations into human rights abuses during the repression. Published reports from these countries offer detailed documentation that make grim reading on the years of terror endured by the civilian populations.6

Any understanding of the political and social dynamics of the countries during this time must address the widespread use of state terror to support and enforce the illegitimate power of military regimes. Terror was an effective means of enforcing brutal authoritarianism through a culture of fear.7 Fear ‘persuades’ people that it is better to endure injustices fatalistically rather than to resist them. The arrest and torture of ‘suspects’ by the police and military in Latin America cannot be adequately explained in terms of the threat they might have posed or the need to elicit information from them. Rather they should be understood as intended to paralyse a society’s willingness to resist. In addition to targeting the victims themselves, disappearances, torture and executions were intended to terrorize a public audience.

In a similar way, Roman crucifixion was more than the punishment of an individual. Crucifixions were instruments within state terror policies directed at a wider population in the ancient world.8 As acts of terror against potentially rebellious people, the Romans principally used crucifixion against slaves and other subjected peoples who might challenge Roman authority.9 One of the clearest illustrations of the use of crucifixion to inspire terror is provided by Josephus’ description of the treatment of those who attempted to flee Jerusalem during the siege by Titus in 70 CE:

Scourged and subjected before death to every torture, they were finally crucified in view of the wall. Titus indeed realised the horror of what was happening, for every day 500 – sometimes even more – fell into his hands … But his chief reason for not stopping the slaughter was the hope that the sight of it would perhaps induce the Jews to surrender in order to avoid the same fate. The soldiers themselves through rage and bitterness nailed up their victims in various attitudes as a grim joke, till owing to the vast numbers there was no room for the crosses, and no crosses for the bodies. (War, V. 446–52)10

      The effectiveness and security of the Roman troops in Palestine was ultimately based on the legions in Syria and – if necessary – elsewhere in the Empire. The relatively small force in Palestine was able to maintain order because it was backed by an assurance of severe reprisals if serious rebellion broke out. The combination of moderate presence and massive threat was usually enough to preserve the so-called ‘peace’ of the pax Romana.

      The mass crucifixions with which the Romans responded to major incidents conveyed the message of fearful retaliation with a terrifying clarity. Josephus describes how in 4 BCE Varus (governor of Syria) responded to the upheaval caused by the inept rule of Herod’s son Archelaus with the crucifixion of 2,000 ‘ringleaders’ of the troubles (War II. 69–79 [75]). The census revolt when Quirinius was governor of Syria (6–7 CE) and Coponius procurator of Judea (6–9 CE) also met with widespread reprisals (Ant. 18.1–10; War II. 117–18). Josephus also records that when Cumanus (procurator of Judea 48–52 CE) took a number of prisoners involved in a dispute, Quadratus (governor of Syria) ordered them all crucified (War II. 241). Likewise, when Felix (procurator of Judea, 52–60 CE) set out to clear the country of banditry, the number that were crucified ‘were too many to count’ (War II. 253). Josephus also records how, in the build-up to the revolt of 66 CE, Florus (procurator 64–66 CE) raided the Temple treasury and then – because of the disturbance that followed – scourged and crucified men, women and children until the day’s death toll was 3,600 (War II. 305–08).

      Individual crucifixions should be understood within this political context. Even if only one victim was crucified, the execution had more significance than the punishment of an individual victim. Crucifixion was an important way in which the dire consequences of rebellion could be kept before the public eye. Individual crucifixions served to remind people of the mass crucifixions and other reprisals that the Romans were all too ready to use if their power was challenged.

There are few detailed descriptions of how crucifixion took place – the Gospels provide the fullest description in ancient literature – but the picture that emerges fits the profile of public state torture very well.11 The victim was tied or nailed to a wooden cross to maximize their public humiliation: a contrast of the shame of the victim with the might of imperial power. The Romans displayed the victim on a roadside or similar public place. Crucifixion was a protracted ordeal that might last a number of days, a sustained attack on the dignity of the human spirit as well as the physical body.12 The shame for Jews was further heightened by the belief that ‘anyone hung on a tree is under a curse’ (Deut. 21.23), a curse that Paul refers to in relation to Jesus’ crucifixion in Galatians 3.13.

      Crucifixion and sexual abuse

Testimonies to torture in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Central America and elsewhere consistently report stripping and sexual abuse as part of torture.13 In Brazil torture by electric shock invariably included shocks to the genitals.14

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