That is a good question given the modern notion that he missed the event and came to Europe. The secular evidence supports the Gospels that he did die on the cross in about the year 30 of the Common Era. Crucifixion was the ultimate form of capital punishment invoked by the Romans. Not all crucifixions were like the one we accept as in Jesus’ case. Some deaths took up to six days when there was no beating and when the condemned was allowed to support himself on the ground. Generally, the crosses were not high, and the uprights were planted beforehand; the victim was nailed to the cross-piece on the ground and then lifted into place on the upright. The wrists were usually tied to the cross piece to ensure the weight of the body did not tear through the nails in the hands. The sufferer usually died of asphyxiation. In a well-known precursor to crucifixions held in Jesus’ time, when Spartacus led a slave revolt in 71 BCE, the slave army was defeated, and 6000 captured slaves were crucified along the Appian Way. Crucifixion is still a method of capital punishment on the statute books of some countries today. When Jesus was condemned to death, there was an added extra portion to the process in his case - he was to be thrashed and beaten. Jesus would have been stripped of any clothing and trussed up, so he was upright. The administrator of the whipping could let the whip land anywhere. The whip was leather with finger bones attached to the flails of the whip, designed to tear off skin. No matter how gruesome this sounds to us today, it was considered humane in the first century as the condemned person died faster on the cross after a thrashing. After his beating, Jesus was so weak that another man needed to carry the cross piece to Golgotha, the place of the execution. The place name Golgotha translates to “the place of the skull.” Crucifixion was designed to be humiliating. In the first century Judean world, a man’s honour rested on many things. Being seen in the nude was anathema. No one should ever see you nude. Reference King David dancing on his way home with the Ark showed too much leg and genitalia (see 2 Samuel 6: 20) or the father of the Prodigal Son who surely hiked up his robes while running to meet him (Luke 15: 20). The notion of the later church dressing Jesus in a loin cloth is, in my opinion, pure fiction. The whole idea of crucifixion was to bring as much shame to the victim. Complete nudity did just that! Another feature of the culture was that men should not respond to pain. Boys were taught this from an early age. But during the process of crucifixion it was nearly impossible not to cry out. Apparently, Jesus hung on the cross without uttering a word until the very end of his life. The centurion who had stood guard, according to Luke’s gospel (Luke 23: 47), claimed him to be “the son of God” because of this. Golgotha (or Calvary) was the name of the execution grounds just outside Jerusalem. There were usually several executions going on at one time. Josephus, a Jewish historian writing soon after Jesus’ time, tells the story of his walking through the grove of crosses with the hanging bodies of the executed affixed to them, when he recognizes three of the condemned men. He went to the governor and gained permission to have them “cut down”. One survived and the other two died soon after from the experience. Jesus seems to have been treated differently after his death than other crucified men would have been. It seemed that people could attend their loved ones during the time they hung on the cross and could well have removed their bodies after they had died. Usually, however, the condemned bodies were taken down and thrown into a pit where the wild dogs, who inhabited grounds of Golgotha, feasted on the fresh human meat. It was not a pleasant sight. I do not think Jesus thought he could avoid an early death. Gospel writers seemed to trust that Jesus believed he was destined to be executed, as he was the Messiah. The Messiah was the long-awaited Jewish warrior who would cut down the enemies of the Jewish people and bring peace to the Children of Israel. Christians have another view of the Messiah as a loving and forgiving man who would bring peace by his example.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI'm Rev. Dr. Pirie Mitchell and I live in Ontario, Canada. Archives
May 2023
Categories |
Home |
About |
Contact |
Copyright © 2023 Ask the Preacher