Why does this research matter?

  • David Tombs, Sithembiso Zwane and Charlene van der Walt, ‘Male Violence Against Men: A Contextual Bible Study on the Crucifixion of Jesus’, in Jione Havea (ed) Haunting Questions of Liberation Theology (2025), Otago archive.

    Rocío Figueroa and David Tombs, ‘Vendo Sua Inocência, Eu Vejo Minha Inocência’, Estudos Teológicos (2024). Open access (Brazilian Portuguese); Open access (English). Otago archive (English original 2021).

    David Tombs, ‘Things Too Indecent to be Recorded: The Soldiers Mocking the Death of Herod Agrippa’, in Juliana Claassens. Rhiannon Graybill and Christl Maier (eds), Narrating Rape: Shifting Perspectives in Biblical Literature and Popular Culture (2024). Otago archive.

    David Tombs, 'Art depicts Jesus in a loincloth on the cross – the brutal truth is he would have been naked’, The Conversation (28 March 2024). Open access.

    David Tombs, ‘Alone and Naked: Reading the Torture of Jesus alongside the Torture of Miriam Leitão’, International Journal of Public Theology (2023). Open access.

    David Tombs, The Crucifixion of Jesus: Torture, Sexual Abuse, and the Scandal of the Cross (Routledge, 2023). Open access.

    David Tombs, 'The Pink Crosses of Ciudad Juárez' in Rebekah Pryor and Stephen Bevans (eds) Feminist Theologies: Interstices and Fractures (2023). Otago archive.

    David Tombs, ‘Reading Crucifixion Narratives as Texts of Terror’ in Monica Melanchthon and Robyn Whitaker (eds.) Terror in the Bible: Rhetoric, Gender, and Violence (SBL 2021), Open access.

    Jayme R. Reaves, David Tombs and Rocío Figueroa (eds), When Did We See You Naked?’: Jesus as a Victim of Sexual Abuse (2021). Open access.

    Rocío Figueroa and David Tombs, ‘Seeing His Innocence, I See My Innocence’, (2021). Open access.

    Rocío Figueroa and David Tombs, ‘Viendo su Inocencia veo mi Inocencia’, (2021). Otago archive.

    David Tombs, ‘Hidden in Plain Sight: Seeing the Stripping of Jesus as Sexual Violence’, Journal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies (2020). Open access.

    David Tombs, ‘Unspeakable Things: Drawing upon the Nanjing Massacre to Read Crucifixion as an Assault on Human Dignity’ in Zhibin Xie et al. (2020). More info.

    ‘Recognising Jesus as a Victim of Sexual Abuse. Responses from Sodalicio Survivors in Peru’, (2020). Open access.

    Jayme Reaves and David Tombs, '#Me Too: Naming Jesus as a Victim of Sexual Abuse', Review and Expositor (2020). Open access.

    Jayme R. Reaves and David Tombs, ‘#MeToo Jesus: Naming Jesus as a Victim of Sexual Abuse’, International Journal of Public Theology (2019). Open access.

    David Tombs, Crucifixion and Sexual Abuse (2019). Otago archive English, Spanish, French, German.

    David Tombs, 'Crucificação e abuso sexual' (2019). Open access(Brazilian Portuguese).

    Edwards and Tombs, ‘#HimToo – why Jesus should be recognised as a victim of sexual violence’, The Conversation (2018). Open access.

    David Tombs, ‘Prisoner Abuse: From Abu Ghraib to The Passion of The Christ’ (2009). Otago archive.

    David Tombs, ‘Crucifixion, State Terror, and Sexual Abuse’, (Union Seminary Quarterly Review (1999). Open access. 

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. Acknowledgment of Jesus’ experience 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.

Despite the anxieties this research sometimes creates, the findings offer important lessons for churches.

Jesus’ experience can raise awareness of the different forms that sexual harm can take, and how sexual harm remain hidden in plain sight and be ignored. 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 illuminate who churches often react badly to survivors. Acknowledgment ofJesus’ experience should strengthen the support messages that churches might offer to survivors.

These messages should include:

  • ‘you are not alone’

  • ‘you are not to blame’

  • ‘you are beloved by God’.

In addition, some survivors report that they have experienced positive outcomes from the reflecting on this research. Some feel a closer connection to Jesus and stronger sense of being understood and valued.

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