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PUBLIC DOMAIN, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

DOUBTING SCHOLARS. In all of the New Testament, only John’s Gospel refers to Jesus’s nail wounds, in what is known as the Doubting Thomas episode. There, the disciple Thomas refuses to believe Jesus had risen unless he can “see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put [his] finger in the mark of the nails” (John 20:25). This dramatic episode is vividly illustrated by the Italian painter Caravaggio (1571–1610). Because clear archaeological evidence of the practice dates only to after the time of Jesus and our first written testimony is Josephus reporting on Roman soldiers who nailed rebellious Judeans to crosses during the First Jewish Revolt, it is doubtful that crucifixion with nails existed in Judea during the time of Jesus.