Examples of Pre-Exilic Texts Discussing Bodily Suspension

One criticism levelled against the Book of Mormon is that Nephi’s knowledge of crucifixion is an anachronism. However, this is a misguided criticism as crucifixion was known in the time and area of Nephi and his family, so texts such as 1 Nephi 11:33 and 19:10 are not anachronistic.

 

In their masterful book which I highly recommend, The Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus: Texts and Commentary (Peabody, Mass. Hendrickson, 2019), David W. Chapman and Eckhard J. Schnabel provide translations and a corresponding commentary on many pre-exilic texts from the ANE (e.g., Assyrian; Egyptian) affirming knowledge of people (sometimes posthumously) being suspended as a form of punishment/execution (see 3.2 Bodily Suspension in the Ancient Near East, p. 322f). Here are some quick examples of the texts that are of interest:

 

Code of Hammurabi §21 [col. 9a, lines 14-21]

 

14 šum-ma a-wi-lum 15 bi-tam 16 ip-lu-u š 17 i-nna-pa-ni 18 pí-il- ši-im 19 šu-a-ti 20 i-du-uk-ku- šu-ma 21 i-ha-al-la-lu- šu

 

Translation If a man has broken into a house they shall put him to death and hang him before the breach which he has made. (p. 324)

 

Code of Hammurabi §153 [col. 9b, lines 61-66]

 

61 šum-ma aš- ša-at a-wi-lim 62 a š- šsum zi-ka-ri-im 63 ša-ni-im 64 mu-sà-uš-di-ik 65 SAL šu-a-ti-i-na-ga-ši-ši-im 66 i-ša-ak-ka-nu-ši

 

Translation. If a woman has procured the death of her husband on account of another man they shall impale that woman.

 

Commentary. . . .here, the woman has been impaled aloft. (pp. 325-26)

 

Papyrus B.M. 10053 3.3-5

 

Translation. 3 Now after some days we went to the door of the gateway of stone of Elephantine and brought away the 40 ½ . . . and we put them in our . . .s 4 the attendant Nekhtamenwēse took 7 deben of copper, the foreigner Ptahkhau took 3 deben of copper and the young priest Paherer ½ a deben of copper. There remained to us 30 deben of copper. 5 He took an oath by the Ruler, if all that I say is not true may I be placed on the stake.

 

Commentary. The trial represented on this text is dated to “Year 9” (in line 2.1) which Peet argues refers to the 9^th year of whm mswt from the era of Ramesses XI (beginning of the eleventh century B.C.). PEET also reasons that it concerns trials for those caught stripping precious decorations from the Ramesseum of Ramesses II. Unfortunately, the fragmentary text preceding the lines quoted above does not provide the name of the individual being examined. The lines above also contain some fragmentation (represented in the ellipses). Note how, at the conclusion of his testimony, this man vouched for the trustworthiness of his account by taking “an oath by the Ruler,” that invokes the punishment of being “placed on the stake” (i.e., impaled) should his statement be proven false. (p. 338)

 

Papyrus B.M. 10052 13.10-14

 

Translation. 10 Examination. There was brought the servant Pekeneny son of Wennefer of the temple of Amün. He was given 11 the oath by the Ruler not to speak falsehood. They said to him, What have you to say concerning the affair of the Tombs? He said, As Amün lives and as the Ruler lives if it be found that I had to do with the men 13 or hat they gave me a kite of silver of a kite of gold let me be mutilated and placed on the stake. He was examined with the stick. Said (end, sic).

 

Commentary. We return to the examinations of individuals associated with Bukhaaf and his fellow thieves. Ukhaaf had listed Pekeneny among those who had received a portion of “Bukhaaf’s share of precious metal” in the form of two deben of silver (2.17-18), though Bukhaaf did not name him as one of his fellow thieves who entered the tomb. A kite is a tenth of a deben receive a twentieth of the portion Bukhaaf alleges. In this text, the form of the “oath by the Ruler” that is recorded as administered initially is simply “not to speak falsehood” (13.11). Pekeneny is represented as voluntarily invoking an oath later in the examination in the same of Amün and of the Ruler to the effect that he is willing to be “mutilated and placed on the stake” should his testimony be proven false. (13.13) (pp. 342-43)

 

For further evidence, consider the following:

In Lam 5:12, authored by Jeremiah, a contemporary of Lehi et al., we read the following:

Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.

In this verse, we read of princes being “hanged up by their hand” which is part-and-parcel of what crucifixion entails. Furthermore, this is strengthened by an examination of the LXX which uses the verb κρεμαννυμι. This is the same verb Luke uses of the malefactor in Luke 23:39:

And one of the malefactors which were hanged (κρεμαννυμι) railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.

Richard Carrier in his book, On the Historicity of Jesus (Sheffield, 2014), p. 61, provides further evidence that the concept of crucifixion was known by pre-exilic Israelites:

[T]he Bible described one method of execution as to ‘hang in the sun’ (in the Septuagint, literally, exeliazo = ex heliou, ‘out in the sun,’ or apenanti tou heliou, ‘against the sun’), which implies the intent was for the hanged to die from exposure (Numbers 25:4 and 2 Samuel 21:6, 9, 13). That is essentially a form of crucifixion, however it was effected. Likewise, when Joshua hung on trees the king of Ai and the kings of Amorites (Joshua 8:29 and 10:26-27), and when the Law of Moses calls for the executed to be hanged on trees or planks (xulon in the Greek) even when already dead (Deuteronomy 21:22-23), or when Haman and his sons are hung on a giant pole (xulon again in Greek translations of Esther 5:14; 7:9-10; and 8:7), these are all forms of crucifixion.