Crucifixion

My work has pioneered a new understanding of crucifixion by drawing on studies of torture in both recent times and in the ancient world. Two related aspects of torture practices have guided this research. First, torture is often directed beyond the immediate victim. Torture sends a threat to a wider public audience. Authoritarian states use torture to intimidate not only to punish. Second, different forms of sexualised violence are very common in torture practices. Torture often includes punitive stripping and forced nudity to create fear and vulnerability. Punitive stripping and forced nudity are often the gateway to other common forms of sexualised violence, including genital beating and penetrative sexual assault. Sometimes torture incudes extreme forms of sexualised violence. The inclusion of sexualised violence reinforces and heightens the threat of torture. The prevalence of sexualised violence in torture is quite well known, but it is often not directly named. It is frequently under-reported or marginalised as unimportant when torture is discussed.

Framing Roman crucifixions more explicitly as torture helps to examine the text, the context, and the possible sub-text in the Gospel accounts.

1. Acknowledging the sexualised violence in the text. All four Gospels report that Jesus was stripped at the cross. There is clear evidence that Jesus—like others—was crucified naked. Mark and Matthew also describe the punitive strippings and mocking of Jesus in the praetorium (Mark 15:16-20; Matthew 27: 26-31). A whole cohort—about five hundred soldiers—were assembled for this. Yet the stripping and forced exposure of Jesus are rarely named as acts of sexualised violence. They are explicitly in the text but they remain hidden in plain sight.

2. Understanding the context of sexualised violence. In many well-documented cases, stripping and forced nudity are not the only form of sexualised violence during torture. Forced nudity serves as an easy gateway to other forms of sexualised violence. Furthermore, reticence on sexualized violence beyond stripping and nudity is quite common in past and present accounts of torture, especially when the victims are male. Recognizing this context can help a reader think more deeply about what may have happened.

3. Investigating the possible sub-text of further sexualised violence. In response to the abuse attested in the text, and the context of abuse in which it is located, it is reasonable to ask whether there is evidence that Jesus experienced additional sexualised violence beyond stripping and forced nudity. Might the sub-text offer additional hints? This strand in the research is particularly challenging and it is likely that any findings will be tentative. The evidence is harder to access and also harder to assess. Questions about the sub-text are more concerned with possibility and probability than certainty. Nonetheless, they are important to investigate alongside questions about the text and context. I suggest that the possibility of additional sexualised violence is a reasonable question to ask and there are some hints that might point towards this in the sub-text. However, this further violence is not directly evidenced in the same ways as the stripping and forced nudity.

Text, context, and possible sub-text are each important. Each area needs to be carefully considered with an awareness of what is typically said and what is often left unsaid.

The conclusions that Jesus experienced the sexualised violence of stripping and forced nudity—and may have been subjected to further sexualised violence—are difficult and confronting findings. Acknowledgment of these harmful experiences does not come with easy answers or simplistic reassurances. It does not solve or resolve the impact of abuse on others, nor does it make the problem of sexualised violence today any less damaging or destructive. Nonetheless, some survivors report positive outcomes from the reflecting on this research. Some survivors speak of feeling a closer connection to Jesus and positive messages that they take from this. Furthermore, within the wider church, Jesus’ experience can raise awareness of the different forms that sexual harm can take, and how sexual harm remain hidden in plain sight. This should encourage churches to be more attentive to sexual harm in all its forms. When acknowledgment of Jesus’ experience is addressed with sensitivity it can strengthen the support messages that churches might offer to survivors. These messages should include, ‘you are not alone’, ‘you are not to blame’, and ‘you are beloved by God’. You will find further discussion of this in some of the links below.

See further…

• The partnership with colleagues at the Ujamaa Centre (University of KwaZulu-Natal), ‘Male Violence Against Men: A Contextual Bible Study on the Crucifixion of Jesus’ (2025).

• The Conversation piece, ‘Art depicts Jesus in a loincloth on the cross – the brutal truth is he would have been naked’ (2024).

• The interview with Biblical scholar Erin Heim, OnScript podcast (2024).

• The chapter, ‘Things Too Indecent to be Recorded: The Soldiers Mocking the Death of Herod Agrippa’ (2024).

• The book, The Crucifixion of Jesus: Torture, Sexual Abuse, and the Scandal of the Cross (2023).

• The article, ‘Alone and Naked: Reading the Torture of Jesus alongside the Torture of Miriam Leitão’ (2023).

• The interview with journalist Rosie Dawson, Shiloh Project podcast (2021).

• The book (co-edited with Jayme Reaves and Rocío Figueroa), When Did We See You Naked?’: Jesus as a Victim of Sexual Abuse (2021).

• The chapter, ‘Reading Crucifixion Narratives as Texts of Terror’ (2021).

• The article, ‘Crucifixion, State Terror, and Sexual Abuse’ (1999).

• Links to other publications in the list at the top of this page.