Swedish scolar: Jesus was not crucified

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CNJ

Puritan Board Senior
Swedish scholar: 'Jesus was not crucified' - The Local

Well anything can come out of Sweden, or America, for that matter. June 28th the newspaper ran an article on Gunnar Samuelsson's thesis submitted to Gothenburg University. In the article Samuelsson is described as a committed Christ who questions whether Jesus may have been crucified or not.

To this point I do not see any valid responses to challenge Gunnar from comments in the newspaper. Would love to see the challenge. Anyone? To not believe in His death and resurrection is heresy!
 
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*Warning!* Link contains second commandment violation! View at your own risk.

Michael, how can a person get to the article without that? Should I post the whole written part of the article here?
 
Thanks, Michael. Here is the written article, minus the comments. Hope someone can take this on.

Swedish scholar: 'Jesus was not crucified'
Published: 28 Jun 10 10:52 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/27480/20100628/

A Swedish theologian has claimed that Jesus may not have been crucified as there is no evidence to indicate that the Romans crucified prisoners 2,000 years ago.

According to Gunnar Samuelsson of Gothenburg University, the story of Jesus' execution is based on Christian traditions and artistic illustrations, not antique texts, according to a recently published doctoral thesis entitled "Crucifixion in Antiquity - An Inquiry into the Background of the New Testament Terminology of Crucifixion".

Samuelsson, a committed Christian, alleges the Bible has been misinterpreted, saying there are no explicit references to the use of nails or to crucifixion - only that Jesus bore a "staurus" towards Calvary, which can also mean "pole," his research states.

Samuelsson 400-page thesis is based on close study of the original texts and was submitted at the university last month.

"The problem is descriptions of crucifixions are remarkably absent in the antique literature," Samuelsson said in an interview with the UK Daily Telegraph. "The sources where you would expect to find support for the established understanding of the event really don't say anything."

Ancient Greek, Latin and Hebrew literature from Homer to the first century describe a number of suspension punishments, but none mention "crosses" or "crucifixion."

"Consequently, the contemporary understanding of crucifixion as a punishment is severely challenged," Samuelsson told the newspaper. "And what's even more challenging is the same can be concluded about the accounts of the crucifixion of Jesus. The New Testament doesn't say as much as we'd like to believe."

There is little evidence to suggest that Jesus was left to die after being nailed to a cross, both in ancient pre-Christian and extra-Biblical literature as well as the Bible.

Samuelsson admitted that it is easy to react emotionally instead of logically to the research that is so close to the heart of his faith. He added that the actual execution texts do not describe how Jesus was attached to the execution device.

"This is the heart of the problem. The text of the passion narratives is not that exact and information loaded, as we Christians sometimes want it to be," Samuelsson explained.

"If you are looking for texts that depict the act of nailing persons to a cross you will not find any beside the Gospels."

Contemporary literature all use the same vague terminology, including those in Latin. Meanwhile, the Latin word "crux" does not necessarily refer to a cross, nor patibulum refer to a cross-beam.

But despite the findings of his research Samuelsson does not suggest that Christians should reject of doubt the biblical and argued that believed that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and argued that there is strong documented evidence to show that "a man named Jesus existed in that part of the world and in that time".

"My suggestion is that we should read the text as it is, not as we think it is. We should read on the lines, not between the lines. The text of the Bible is sufficient. We do not need to add anything," he told the newspaper.
 
The reference is to an article by Chrys Carouginis/

Thanks so much, Louis. I did open up that excellent article. Chrys' name is not on that article. Do you have a reference for that article? Since I am Swedish by heritage, I want to blog about this on Millennial Dreams blog.
 
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I spent some time blogging about this Swede and just posted on Millennial Dreams--take a look there if you care to.

Here we go again with The Da Vince Code and The Passover Plot. I found atheists, Muslims, Catholics, Jehovah Witnesses all had their take on Samuelsson on blogs I read and for different reasons. Catholics believe in the crucifixion as I do, but they wanted to say that Protestant Samuelsson is too much Sola Scripture and needs the Tradition of the Church as authority since he doubts death by the cross!
 
A good book on the death of Christ is The Case for the Ressurrection of Jesus by Michael Licona. German scholar DF Strauss made a similar claim in stating it was not possible to survive scourging and being nailed to a cross. If Gunner is going to argue something similar then he has to deal with the Journal of American Medicine on this issue because it's fully documented let alone by Josephus,Talmud, Tacitus, the Early Church and even the Apostles the Bible even says the death of Christ and his Resurrection is the foundation of our faith if not our faith is in vain and our sins not forgiven. Gunner can not be a Christian and deny Jesus death if so he should be Muslim not a Christian.
 
Same old same old. As Dave Barry once surmised, if you are a minor author and write a creative 'bio' on Harry Truman, stating that he was a failed haberdasher from Independence, MO, and through hard work and perseverance became the most powerful man in the world, who dropped the atomic bomb on Japan not once, but twice, no-one will read your work. But if you write a bio on the same man, very thinly theorizing that he was a Soviet ballerina, you have a best seller.
 
Sorry guys. Just read a part. Did you also know that homosexuality didn't exist back in the Roman Empire. That is an overstatement. But I know of someone who just posted something on this issue and it was so ludicrous. I just read that recently.
 
Wow Homosexuality did not occur in Roman history? someone needs to read a book on Roman History even the Early Christians wrote about pedophile and prostitution in Rome and what about those vase paintings of necked men performing sexual acts.:think:
 
"If you are looking for texts that depict the act of nailing persons to a cross you will not find any beside the Gospels."

Guess the Bible is insufficient for him.
 
Did anyone read the comments below the article??
well, I didn't read them all, but enough. They're all crazies!!
Books, or theses, like this come and go. I can remember a few, like the "Passover Plot", and a book by Barbara Thiering - a (soi-disant) scholar from Australia who proved the old "Jesus married Mary Magdalene" nonsense (again) in the 90's.
I don't know. I wonder if they're even worth the effort of seriously refuting. It seems as if their main function is a sort of cat-among-the-pigeons one -just to stir up the kind of frenzied insanity you can see below that article.....then fade back into oblivion
 
Christopher wrote:
Gunner can not be a Christian and deny Jesus death if so he should be Muslim not a Christian.
Gunner Sammuelsson does not deny Jesus' death, but says that he may have died on some kind of stick. Also, Christopher, thanks for the Answer Bag link which I also put on my blog.

Kevin wrote:
Guess the Bible is insufficient for him.

Even the Catholics picked up on this. They implied that Sola Scripture is not enough but that Samuelsson would know that Jesus did die on a cross and not a stick if he believed in The Tradition of the Church.

Jenny wrote:
Did anyone read the comments below the article??
well, I didn't read them all, but enough. They're all crazies!!
Yes, I spent yesterday reading them and blogged about it on Millennial Dreams and yes, Jenny, they are crazies.
 
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I got a scholarly response from Dr. Larry Hurtado, Professor of New Testament Language, Literature & Theology at the University of Edinburgh, who answered some questions and I posted his response on the Millennial Dreams blog listed below. The link to his blog where he answered is in Resources on Millennial Dreams. Basically Hurtado said there are several documented methods for crucifiction.
 
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A Swedish theologian has claimed that Jesus may not have have been crucified as there is no evidence to indicate that the Romans crucified prisoners 2,000 years ago.

I can think of 27 first-century works that say they did, not to mention Clement!
 
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