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DAVID In what way were the two thieves hung on the cross next to Jesus?
JOEL - The traditional scene we see in paintings and other art work shows the thieves being fixed to their crosses by rope.
However, there are no references describing this in the Bible, only about nails being used on Jesus. (John 20: 25; Acts 2: 23; Col 2:14, Ps 22: 16).
Being nailed to a cross was a very common practice back then. Sometimes rope was also used. Sometimes both were used at the same time.
Irenaeus, who died around the end of the 2nd century, speaks of the cross as having "five extremities, two in length, two in breadth, and one in the middle, on which [last] the person rests who is fixed by the nails." (Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, II, xxiv, 4)
So it is very possible that the thieves were also nailed to their crosses, but those who depict this scene in their artwork may have chosen to have them hung using rope, perhaps to emphasize the difference between the suffering of the thieves and Christ.
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