Was Christ crucified on a cross or a tree?

[patrick457]

Well as you stated earlier, the traditional site is pretty steep.

I was referring to the Rock of Calvary specifically. Who knows? Maybe Jesus’ cross was not really erected on the top of this outcrop but somewhere else within the general area (just as I said, Golgotha is the name of the region, not specifically the rocky outcrop itself). I mean, there’s no indication in the gospels themselves and in earlier Christian literature that Golgotha was a hill, or that Jesus was crucified on top of one.

We only get the notion of ‘Mount Calvary’ from the rock itself. When Constantine built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, he left the rock (which functioned as a pedestal for a statue of Jupiter in the pagan temple that Hadrian erected on the site) exposed and placed a cross on top of it. I guess the cross got later Christians confused: they thought it meant that Jesus was crucified on top of the outcrop.

 

[patrick457]

I was referring to the Rock of Calvary specifically. Who knows? Maybe Jesus’ cross was not really erected on the top of this outcrop but somewhere else within the general area (just as I said, Golgotha is the name of the region, not specifically the rocky outcrop itself). I mean, there’s no indication in the gospels themselves and in earlier Christian literature that Golgotha was a hill, or that Jesus was crucified on top of one.

We only get the notion of ‘Mount Calvary’ from the rock itself. When Constantine built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, he left the rock (which functioned as a pedestal for a statue of Jupiter in the pagan temple that Hadrian erected on the site) exposed and placed a cross on top of it. I guess the cross got later Christians confused: they thought it meant that Jesus was crucified on top of the outcrop.

In Constantine’s basilica, the Rock of Calvary (or the ‘Rock of the Cross’, as it was known then) was located in a corner of the colonnaded open-air courtyard or atrium located in between the basilica proper and the rotunda where what is believed to be the tomb of Jesus was enshrined.

http://members.bib-arch.org/bswb_graphics/BSBA/26/06/BSBA260602410.jpg

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

The rock rises to a height of 5 m. (approx. 16 ft.) above the present floor of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, while the top surface is only just about 3.5 x 1.7 m.