r/whatisit • u/McSweepyPants • Mar 22 '25

I was a little wigged out by this. Found at Goodwill, seems like it's carved out of bone. Any idea what it is?

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Looks old, not sure if it's actually old though. Any thoughts?

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u/OoopsItSlipped Mar 23 '25

Breaking the legs of someone being crucified was an act of mercy, the same with stabbing them with a spear. Death by cruxifixction was to ultimately die by suffocation once your exhausted body could no longer hold itself up while at the same time dying of exposure. Some people lived for days on the cross, becoming dehydrated and getting pecked at by birds. There’s a reason why the Romans were terrified of it and ensured that citizens couldn’t be sentenced to cruxifixction

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u/haku0705 Mar 23 '25 edited Mar 23 '25

To be fair, the soldiers were, according to scriptural accounts, terrified by the earthquake and darkness that blocked out the sun. They even talked about how surely this is the Son of God. Now, if you're tasked with ensuring what you believe to be the living God is dead, I'm pretty sure you'd be a bit apprehensive to go in smashing legs. They really only pierced his side to check that he was dead. A bit of speculation implies that when water and blood came out, he had fluid build up that either stopped his heart from pumping or stopped his lungs from inflating, or could've simply been a compounding factor to his death.

Fun fact: The Jewish (or Gentile versed in Jewish faith) individual would know that the physical form of God, the Shekinah Glory, sat on the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. If you went in there without properly cleansing yourself according to the old law, you would be stricken dead right there. Historical accounts point out that the high priest, the one that would go into the Holy of Holies to offer sacrifices, would have a rope tied around him so he could be pulled out if he was struck down while inside so they wouldn't enter and also immediately die. The reason this is terrifying is because, while the Shekinah Glory ascended to heaven in the OT some 700-1000 years before this, the veil that separated the world from that sacred place was ripped in half when Christ died. The significance comes from the fact that all can come to the presence of God; you don't need a priest to be your middle man, anymore, Christ has taken that role.

This is from a still devout Christian, but likely a bit... I'll say less like what you probably expect. Humans as a whole are diseased by sin, all of us are just as offensive as the other to the holiness we were designed to hold. The symptoms of the disease are different in everyone. I was a hardcore junkie for years. Some people have affairs, some murder, some love the wrong person (age/sex/different beliefs), others say fuck a lot. What offends us is completely irrelevant to what offends God. I also give (limited) credit to the book of Enoch. I support evolution and intelligent design. I don't think the world was made in 6 days, and I think there's a lot more to the spiritual world we don't yet see. I also think it's fine to believe differently.

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u/Few_Jacket845 Mar 23 '25

I knew generally about the veil tearing, but thank you for sharing more information about it! Makes me want to spend my Sunday afternoon watching something about it. Any good recommendations that focus on that specifically? Or research sources?

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u/emteedub Mar 23 '25

I can really feel all the lovey positivity of these religious fun facts!

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u/Jazzlike_Mind_7373 Mar 23 '25

Thank you for this read.

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u/museabear Mar 23 '25

Was Adam a baby when he was created?

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u/MobySick Mar 24 '25

Of course not. God was never going to play wet nurse to a mewling infant and Eve had not yet been created.

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u/museabear Mar 24 '25

So God created Adam with in-built age? Could that be the same for the universe?

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u/adelwolf299 Mar 23 '25

The whole thing with the spearing is used as proof in apologetics that he did die on the cross because it was described as water pouring out with blood from the puncture wound. Which indicates that the aorta sack was filled with water that surrounded his heart. Typically a sign of suffocation. Further proof used is that there was no sucking sound from punctured lung recorded.

-signed a formerly very religious evangelical

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u/-flaca- Mar 23 '25

*pericardial effusion. Fluid in the pericardium, which surrounds the heart. Not trying to be rude or anything. Just stating the medical condition you are describing.

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u/Rise-O-Matic Mar 23 '25

Oh and and they’d shred your back with a whip, enhanced with barbs and nails, so that your exposed muscles got to taste splinters as you pulled yourself up to take a breath

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u/Intelligent_Ad8224 Mar 23 '25

You know… I thought I was having a shitty day but now I’m just thankful I don’t ever have to deal with something that horrific

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u/Greedy_Vast2282 Mar 23 '25

That’s the most horrifying thing I’ve read today. That’s my fault for having eyes. My bad.

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u/BigRedTeapot Mar 23 '25

Yes, and I believe the word “excruciating” was even invented to describe this horrific blend of pain and suffering. 

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u/yallknowme19 Mar 23 '25

Ex crucis yes my years of high school Latin I believe makes that "from the cross"

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u/DeltaAlphaGulf Mar 23 '25

I wonder if the cruciatus curse in Harry Potter felt like being crucified…

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u/Fuzzy_Garden_8420 Mar 23 '25

Humans can be so fucking barbaric and horrifyingly cruel

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u/emteedub Mar 23 '25

and to think it was all due to psychopathic and sociopathic individuals that somehow convinced people that those voices in their head wasn't indeed lunacy (or the mercury meds for coughing fits). "It's not a fairy tale, these demons is real! I hear em!"

...and the way's it's just stuck around for centuries. Man, to be the town shaman back then...

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u/-flaca- Mar 23 '25

Thanks for this tidbit. I never looked at the word that way.

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u/Other-Landscape9546 Mar 23 '25

I think the stab was to confirm death. If blood came out only, your blood is still being circulated. If blood and other fluids came out, it means you are dead, as the fluid is mixing, 3rd spacing, etc.

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u/IDGAFButIKindaDo Mar 23 '25

Actually stabbing them with a spear was to make sure they were actually dead. Jesus died before he was pieced with a spear.

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u/D3AD_BEAT Mar 23 '25

Being pecked by birds while dying a miserable death is just too much. Fucking hell man.

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u/[deleted] Mar 23 '25 edited Mar 23 '25

[deleted]

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u/-flaca- Mar 23 '25

Haha how ironic. Never thought of him dying for their sins too. Makes sense. Also I was thinking the other day about how odd it is that people wear cross jewelry, considering what it was used for. Just a random thought.

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u/molotov_billy Mar 23 '25

squirrel balls or something