Ship of Fools

[jack]

I was browsing old message boards[1]. Is there anything more frustrating than when you find a six-month-old comment you want to reply to, but it isn't important enough to email or resurrect the thread...?

Someone's inner pedant objected to describing Jesus' crucifiction as him being "hung". Surely "men are hanged, dead meat is hung" is an approximation: doesn't "hung" refer to excecution by suspension specifically by the neck? I wouldn't have extended it to other suspension excecutions, especially if the suspension were not the primary cause of death.

As another morbid aside, Merriam-Webster has to say of hanging: "transitive verb: to suspend by the neck until dead esp. as a form of execution". I can't help but wonder what non-excecution ways there are to hang someone by the neck until dead? Accidents?

[1] Robhu linked to Ship of Fools Funniest and most offensive religious jokes competition, some of which are quite good. For instance:

A man ran through a crowded train looking very agitated, calling out, "Is there a Catholic priest on board?"

When he got no reply, he ran back up the train shouting, "Is there an Anglican priest on board?" Still no reply.

By now becoming more desparate, he ran down the train shouting, "Is there a Rabbi on board?"

Eventually, a gentleman stood up and said, "Can I be of any assistance, my friend? I'm a Methodist minister."

The man looked at him and said, "No, you're no bloody good. I need a corkscrew!"

Not that that's been methsoc's stereotype, I don't think :)

And in fact, before I realised I couldn't reply, I signed up. I've been officially sucked in to shipmateyness :)

Comments

[simont]

I'm not sure I'd consider crucifixion to be a suspension as such in any case. I think I'd reserve words like "hang" and "suspend" for situations where there's some dangling involved: where the thing being suspended has one point of support, has its centre of gravity below that point, and can swing. If I put a picture on the wall by hooking it on to a single nail, it's hung; if I nail it in at all four corners, it's merely fixed. Jesus was fixed to the cross, but not hung from it.

[stephdairy.livejournal.com]

I'd agree if Jesus were inflexible like a picture frame. However, people are wobbly, and Jesus is usually depicted as merely fixed at his wrists and ankles. His torso droops, and is, to me, clearly hanging.

(S)

[simont]

Heh. Now this is making me think of A-level physics questions. "Consider a rigid Messiah fixed to a light inextensible cross at three points. Determine the direction of the force at each point of support and hence or otherwise show that the net force on the Messiah is zero."

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Me: *opens box of mathematical supplies (Mechanics 1: Simple Mechanics)*
Me: Jesus Christ!
Jesus: Yes?
Me: The water is exerting a force of mg Newtons on you, but you're not on the water. I want my money back!

[(Anonymous)]

That distinction hadn't occured to me, though I see it now. I guess it depends how firmly he's fixed (see below). And, for instance, Acts 5:30 "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree."

What did occur to me was that we don't know exactly how he was crucified, and hence what the cause of death is. I'm sure I recall someone saying that you'd dangle from your wrists (or chest?) and eventually your chest couldn't lift to breathe? Which *would* make the hanging/suspension the cause of death... OTOH, if you nail someone to a horizontal tree for three days in a hot sun and stab them with a spear, they'll die of bloodloss and exhaustion.