Crucifixion is a method of execution where a person is nailed to a cross. The crucifixion of Jesus is an event recorded in all four Gospels in the Christian Bible.
The Gospels say that Jesus was God in human form. They believe that after Jesus died on the cross, he went down to Hell to free the souls of the people who had died before he was born. Three days later, Jesus came back to life and left the tomb where he was buried. The four Gospels disagree on some aspects of the story.
Christians believe that, because of Jesus’s death and resurrection, people can be reunited with God. This is central to Christian ideas of salvation; how people can be saved from the consequences of sins (bad actions, thoughts, and deeds).
There are different interpretations of the meaning of the crucifixion and resurrection. Some Christian teachings say that Jesus took the punishment for all of humanity’s sins. According to Eastern Orthodox teachings, Jesus fought against Satan and won. Some Christian traditions place more importance on what Jesus taught than on his crucifixion.
The cross or crucifix, in the form a statue, image, or worn on the body, is a very common symbol of Christianity.
Text adapted from Simple English Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0.
Crucifixion in a musical by bidbirdz via Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY 2.0.
