Transcript for:
Yohanan's Bone Box Discoveries

This bone box found in Jerusalem has a Hebrew and Arabic inscription on it. It's just a name. The name is Yohanan ben Hagakul. This is the name of the deceased. When Yohanan dies in the first century AD, his body is laid in a cave to decompose.

Then his bones are placed in a stone box. They remain undisturbed for 20 centuries, until in 1968, archaeologists discover the cave. When the box was opened and the bones were examined, the ankle bone of the deceased was found to be pierced. This is evidence for the fact that Yohanan found his death by crucifixion.

Yohanan's last remains may force historians and the faithful to change the traditional image of Christ on the cross. What was crucifixion really like? Dr. Israel Herskovitz is an acclaimed anatomist who specializes in biohistory.

Dr. Herskovitz will examine Yohanan's ankle bone. A scan of the relic makes him question the traditional assumption that both of Jesus's feet were pierced by a single nail on the cross. So he measures the nail through Yohanan's ankle and then inserts a nail of the same length through the feet of a life-sized model. Each foot was nailed separately to the wood.

As for the cross itself, because of the region's short trees, Herskovits thinks the pieces could not have been more than six feet long. Easily elevated and you can do it very quickly. This is the crucifixion that fits the physical evidence and the history.