“This is a powerful book that will forever alter one’s reading of the biblical crucifixion narratives.”
— Sean Adams, Professor of New Testament and Ancient Culture, University of Glasgow, UK.
The Crucifixion of Jesus
Torture, Sexual Abuse, and the Scandal of the CrossThis book explores the interplay of religion and violence through a more historical understanding of the crucifixion as a form of torture, an instrument of state terror, and an open opportunity for sexual harm. In four parts––The Strippings, The Mocking, Crucifixion, and Resurrection––it presents compelling reasons for viewing Jesus as a victim of sexual abuse.
What People Are Saying
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‘Tombs demonstrates the truly scandalous aspects of Crucifixion endured by Jesus and others... There is no rush to resurrection but it arrives.’
Mitzi J Smith, J. Davison Philips Professor of New Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA, USA.
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‘Why is the idea of Jesus as a victim of sexualised violence so hard to acknowledge? What does this resistance reveal about how we still, today, stigmatise sexualised violence and those who experience it? How can awareness of Jesus’ historical experience bring dignity, support, and healing to survivors today?’
Dr Elisabet le Roux, Research Director of the Unit for Religion and Development Research, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
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‘Scholars will be impressed with the clarity and ease from which Tombs arranges this complex material. But this is also a book for all those involved in Christian churches. Few of whom could read and remain unconvinced: the church simply must reckon with the sexual violence of Jesus’s crucifixion if it ever hopes to reckon with its own history of sexual violence. This is a book of critical and timely relevance.’
Janice McRandal, Director of the cooperative and Research Fellow, University of Divinity, Australia.
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‘This book offers original and significant research into the passion narratives. The stripping of Jesus provides the occasion for reflecting not only on the brutality but on the specific sexual violence he experienced. Evidence from biblical and other ancient sources pose new questions about the possible sexual violence belonging to the practice of crucifixion and its connection to various types of impalement. This book opens new horizons about the suffering of Jesus and its relation to sexual violence.’
Craig L. Nessan, Professor of Contextual Theology and Ethics, Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubque, Iowa, USA.
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‘if this work enables churches – congregations and church leaders – to recognise that even Jesus suffered sexual harm – it follows that they must take a more compassionate, a more informed, and a more responsible approach to the scourge that is sexual violence in the church. If Jesus suffered sexual harm, the stigma begins to fall away. If, conversely, Christians cannot accept the possibility that Jesus too, was a victim of sexual violence, then they have not truly understood the incarnation.’
Miryam Clough, St John’s College of the Evangelist, Aotearoa New Zealand
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“While the topic is confronting, Tombs is sensitive and careful in his discussion of it.”
Derek Tovey, Book review editor, Stimulus, Aotearoa New Zealand
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‘Tombs argues that the central task of the church is to seek and speak the truth. This book exemplifies the manner by which such truth—however uncomfortable—may become a true gift to be embraced.’
Fang Fang Chandra, Vancouver School of Theology