Yehohanan, the Crucified Man

An iron nail, about eleven and a half centimetres long by one reappraisal, pierced a heel bone. It came out of a tomb that builders broke into by accident.

Scripture: where they crucified him, and with him two others, on either side one, and Jesus in the middle.

John places the crucifixion at Golgotha, near the city. His account is in words. For a physical trace of the same punishment, from the first century, a Google Arts & Culture page on the Israel Museum object calls it the only archaeological evidence of crucifixion to have reached us.

In 1968, building contractors at Giv'at ha-Mivtar accidentally uncovered a Jewish tomb. Inside was a stone ossuary, a box for a dead person's bones.

Scripture: It bore a Hebrew inscription: Jehohanan, son of Hagkol. The meaning of that last word is uncertain, which is why he is sometimes called Johanan ben Ha-galgula.

In 1970, Nicu Haas, an anatomist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, studied the bones. He concluded the feet were fixed by a single nail, and the forearms were nailed too, possibly to a two-beamed cross. Serious illness stopped him examining them further.

In 1985, Joseph Zias and Eliezer Sekeles re-examined the remains. The iron nail measured eleven and a half centimetres, with traces of wood at both ends. They said that was shorter than Haas had reported.

They argued pieces of bone had been misidentified, and only one heel was pierced. Some fragments, they said, belonged to another individual. And the forearm scratch, they said, was not convincing as a nail wound.

Their proposal: the arms may have been tied, not nailed, to a crossbeam, with death by asphyxiation. The arm evidence was ambiguous, so they relied on ancient writings, according to Wikipedia.

What does this add to John's account? It indicates a Judean man was crucified in the first century, according to Wikipedia and the museum listing. It doesn't name Jesus, and none of the sources link it to John's scene.

Where is it today? Google Arts & Culture lists the ossuary, heel bone and nail with the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

A heel bone, a nail, and two competing readings. May the Lord Jesus Christ be with you today. Follow Bible Evidence for more finds from the ground.