Several societies throughout history have exposed the corpses of individuals executed for their crimes for all to see to declare condemnation and warn potential offenders. Those who suffered capital punishment were often hanged or impaled on a stake. Moses gave God’s instructions to the nation of Israel limiting the period of time a corpse was to be thus exposed to one day; the body was not to remain all night upon the tree, “for he that is hanged is accursed of God” (Deut. 21:22-23). The shedding of blood was impure and the corpse would defile the land God had given them if left overnight (cf. Num. 35:33). One day was enough for the public to take notice.
In accordance with this injunction, Joshua hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening, then had the carcass taken down and placed at the gate of the city, covering it with a pile of stones (Josh. 8:29). Similarly, he also took the five kings who had hidden in the cave of Makkedah (the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon), and hanged them on five trees until sunset; he then buried them in the cave where they had hidden (Josh. 10). Later, King David exposed the corpses of those executed for unsanctioned taking of human life (2 Sam. 4:12; 21:2-9).
The Gentile nations were not exempt from hanging up corpses for display. The Philistines hung and exposed the corpses of Saul and his sons by fastening them to the wall of Bethshan (1 Sam. 31:10-13). Around 700 BC, the Assyrians besieged the northern kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 17:1-6; 18:9-17). In the ruins of their ancient capital, Nineveh, a relief has been found showing the siege of the Jewish city of Lachish which pictures the citizens of Lachish impaled on stakes. From the books of Ezra and Esther, glimpses are shown of Medes and the Persians using gallows as a means of being “hanged on a tree” (Esther 2:23; 5:14; 6:4; 7:10; 8:7; 9:13, 25). Ezra 6:11 sentences anyone who violated the king’s edict with a timber being pulled from the offender’s house and erected, the offender hanged thereon, and the offender’s house razed. Secular history records these kings using impalement—employing various means to suspend a person on a stake—to heighten the publicity of the shame heaped on those whom they sentenced to death. Herodotus mentions that Darius had nearly 3,000 of the leading citizens of Babylon impaled (The Histories 3:159); he also records that Xerxes intended this same punishment for one guilty of rape (4:43). The vilest of criminals were subjected to this public display of their corpses.
By the time the Romans came to power, crucifixion was honed as the method of public execution for notorious criminals. Jesus was without sin and yet was “hanged on a tree” in crucifixion (Acts 5:30; 10:39). For the Son of God to be hanged on a tree seems such a contradiction in terms for he that was hanged on a tree was accursed of God; yet, Jesus did this to take the curse for us (Gal. 3:10-13). He bore our sins in His own body on the tree (1 Pet. 2:24). His body did not remain on the cross overnight for those who had no scruples in calling for the crucifixion of the innocent Son of God were careful to avoid desecrating a holy day (Jn. 19:31). Yet, for six hours one day Jesus was lifted up on the cross (Mk. 15:25, 34-37), and that act which was intended to cause Him utmost shame instead exalted Him for all the world to see (Jn. 12:32, 33). Will you fix your eyes on Jesus, who endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of God, offering you salvation (Heb. 12:2)?
-Mark Day
