CHAPTER XXI

Of the Picture of _Haman_ hanged.

In common draughts, _Haman_ is hanged by the Neck upon an high Gibbet, after the usual and now practised way of suspension, but whether this description truly answereth the Original, Learned pens consent not, and good grounds there are to doubt. For it is not easily made out that this was an ancient way of Execution, in the publick punishment of Malefactors among the _Persians_; but we often read of Crucifixion in their Stories. So we find that _Oroetes_[6] a _Persian_ Governour crucified _Polycrates_ the _Samian_ Tyrant. And hereof we have an example in the life of _Artaxerxes_ King of _Persia_; (whom some will have to be _Ahasuerus_ in this Story) that his Mother _Parysatis_ flead and crucified her _Eunuch_. The same also seems implied in the letters patent of King _Cyrus_. [SN: _In_ Ezra 6.] _Omnis qui hanc mutaverit jussionem, tollatur lignum de domo ejus, et erigatur et configatur in eo._

[6] _Oroetes_, 1672, 1686, etc.

The same kind of punishment was in use among the _Romans_, _Syrians_, _Egyptians_, _Carthaginians_ and _Grecians_. For though we find in _Homer_, that _Ulysses_ in a fury hanged the strumpets of those who courted _Penelope_, yet is it not so easie to discover, that this was the publick practice or open course of justice among the _Greeks_.

And even that the _Hebrews_ used this present way of hanging, by illaqueation or pendulous suffocation in publick justice and executions; the expressions and examples in scripture conclude not beyond good doubt.

That the King of _Hai_ was hanged, or destroyed by the common way of suspension, is not conceded by the learned _Masius_ in his comment upon that text; who conceiveth thereby rather some kind of crucifixion; at least some patibulary affixion after he was slain; and so represented unto the people untill toward the evening.

Though we read in our translation, that _Pharaoh_ hanged the chief Baker, yet learned expositors understand hereby some kind of crucifixion, according to the mode of _Egypt_, whereby he exemplarily hanged out till the fowls of the air fed on his head or face, the first part of their prey being the eyes. And perhaps according to the signal draught hereof in a very old manuscript of _Genesis_, now kept in the Emperors Library at _Vienna_; and accordingly set down by the learned _Petrus Zamberius_, in the second Tome of the description of that Library.

When the _Gibeonites_ hanged the bodies of those of the house of _Saul_, thereby was intended some kind of crucifying, according unto good expositors, and the vulgar translation: _crucifixerunt eos in monte coram domino_; many both in Scripture and humane writers might be said to be crucified, though they did not perish immediately by crucifixion: But however otherwise destroyed, their bodies might be afterward appended or fastned unto some elevated engine, as exemplary objects unto the eyes of the people: So sometimes we read of the crucifixion of only some part, as of the Heads of _Julianus_ and _Albinus_, though their bodies were cast away.

That legal Text [SN: Deut. 21.] which seems to countenance the common way of hanging, if a man hath committed a sin worthy of Death, and they hang him on a Tree; is not so received by Christian and Jewish expositors. And as a good Annotator of ours [SN: Ainsworth.] delivereth, out of _Maimonides_: The _Hebrews_ understand not this of putting him to death by hanging, but of hanging of a Man after he was stoned to death; and the manner is thus described. After he is stoned to death, they fasten a piece of timber in the Earth, and out of it there commeth a piece of wood, and then they tye both his hands one to another, and hang him unto the setting of the Sun.

Beside, the original word _Hakany_ determineth not the doubt. For that by _Lexicographers_ or _Dictionarie_ interpreters, is rendred suspension and crucifixion; there being no _Hebrew_ word peculiarly and fully expressing the proper word of crucifixion, as it was used by the _Romans_; nor easie to prove it the custom of the _Jewish_ Nation to nail them by distinct parts unto a Cross, after the manner of our SAVIOUR crucified: wherein it was a special favour indulged unto _Joseph_ to take down the Body.

_Lipsius_[7] lets fall a good caution to take off doubts about suspension delivered by ancient Authors, and also the ambiguous sence of κρεμάσαι among the _Greeks_. _Tale apud Latinos ipsum suspendere, quod in crucem referendum moneo juventutem_, as that also may be understood of _Seneca_. _Latrocinium fecit aliquis, quid ergo meruit? ut suspendatur._ And this way of crucifying he conceiveth to have been in general use among the _Romans_, until the latter daies of _Constantine_, who in reverence unto our SAVIOUR abrogated that opprobrious and infamous way of crucifixion. Whereupon succeeded the common and now practised way of suspension.

But long before this abrogation of the Cross, the _Jewish_ Nation had known the true sense of crucifixion; whereof no Nation had a sharper apprehension, while _Adrian_ crucified five hundred of them every day, until Wood was wanting for that service. So that they which had nothing but _crucifie_ in their mouths, were therewith paid home in their own bodies: Early suffering the reward of their imprecations, and properly in the same kind.

[7] _Zipsias_, 1672.