But there is no reason to question John’s account of the nails in Jesus’ crucifixion, since we have adequate evidence of nails being used during the time of Christ and even earlier. García acknowledges that Josephus’ use of προσηλόω (prosēloō, “to nail,”) proves that nailing was used during the Jewish War in AD 66-70.
But that term was also used in earlier descriptions of crucifixion.
Historical Argument for Nails
Philo, who lived at about the same time as Jesus (15 BC-AD 45), described crucifixion twice in metaphors: “like men crucified and nailed to a tree” (ὕλαις προσήλωνται, Post. 62); “nailed like crucified men to a tree” (προσηλωμένος…τῷ ξύλῳ, Dreams 2.213; see also Prov. II.24).
The fact that Philo used these in metaphors meant that nailing during crucifixion was well known to his audience; no one would use a metaphor that their audience is incapable of understanding. Philo was also familiar with actual crucifixions, as he described in his denunciation of Flaccus, the Roman governor of Egypt (Against Flaccus 72, 83, 84). If Flaccus was using nails during crucifixions when he was governor (AD 33-38), then it is not surprising that nearby, Pilate was using nails when he was governor (AD 26-36).
Evidence of nailing can be found even earlier than the first century AD. In the previous century, the historian Diodorus Siculus said that the Roman general Manius Pomponius Matho “nailed Hannibal to the same cross” (εἰς τὸν αὐτὸν σταυρὸν…προσήλωσεν) that the Carthaginians had used to crucify a Roman commander (History 25.2). And the idea of nailing as part of executions was around even as far back as Herodotus (484-425 BC). He recounts that Xerxes “nailed Artayctes to boards and hanged him” (προσπασσαλεύσαντες ἀνεκρέμασαν, History 9.120).
How much does this matter? Clearly the nails are not central to our belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus. But the claim that nails were not commonly used in crucifixions before AD 66 can be decisively refuted, so it should not be used to question the historicity of John’s account. Thomas did indeed see nail imprints in the hands of the resurrected Jesus.
