"Crucified Naked"

In an effort to heighten the shame of the punishment, the victim was usually crucified nude. Artemidorus Daldianus, a second-century AD diviner from Ephesus, writes, “They are crucified naked and the crucified lose their flesh.” It is a bit ambiguous, however, since although the Greek word gymnos is generally translated as naked, it can also be used to describe those who are “lightly clad, without an outer garment.”

At least some early Christians believed that Jesus was crucified naked. In the second century AD, the bishop of Sardis named Melito lamented Jesus’s crucifixion: “O frightful murder! O unheard of injustice! The Lord is disfigured and he is not deemed worthy of a cloak for his naked body, so that he might not be seen exposed. For this reason the stars turned and fled, and the day grew quite dark, in order to hide the naked person hanging on the tree, darkening not the body of the Lord, but the eyes of men.”

Melito’s lament is supported by the Pereire gem depicting Jesus naked on the cross.