Day 8 Part 6 Jesus Christ is Crucified...

This is the last segment of this essay about Christ's days leading up to HIs crucifixion. Derek and myself hope that readers of this document find it enlightening and interesting with the conclusion in mind that Jesus was the Son of God in human form here on earth, dying for us so that we can live.


We now return to the account of the Apostles of what happened at the scene of the crucifixion.

Lk23.32-37.There were also two others, criminals, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, "He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God." The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine, and saying, "If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself."

Lk23.39-43. Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us." But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong." Then he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise."

Jn19.23-24. Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments and made four parts, to each soldier a part, and also the tunic. Now the tunic was without seam, woven from the top in one piece. They said therefore among themselves, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be," that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says: Ps22.18. "They divided My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots." Therefore the soldiers did these things.

Jn19.25-27.Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, "Woman, behold your son!" Then He said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.

Jn19.28-30.After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I thirst!" Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

Mt27.45-49. Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, "This Man is calling for Elijah!" Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink. The rest said, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him."

Lke 23:46 And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, "Father, 'into Your hands I commit My spirit.”
Mt27.51-54. And Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, "Truly this was the Son of God!" Mt27.55-56. And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.

Only from the summit or near the summit of the Mount of Olives on the west side, can the front of the temple and the veil of the temple be seen. The record of the statement of what the centurian saw happen gives us the approximate location of the crucifixion.

And Pilate acquiesced to their wishes. "Take you him and judge him according to your law" (John18:31). [Note that all the references in the previous paragraph about the people desiring him to be stoned, are found in the Gospel of John which records the appeals of the authorities to Pilot to have Christ killed according to the law of Moses.

Below is just a small piece of information that gives a glimpse of another reason that the crucifixion site was near the top of the Mount of Olives.

The Place of Jewish Execution
Golgotha. Pg42. One of the principal teachings of the Book of Hebrews concerning the crucifixion of Christ is to make it clear that he was executed "without the gate" and even "without the camp" (Heb. 13:10-13). This fact is fundamental to the whole issue of trying to discover the site of the crucifixion because Moses made it clear that those deserving the death penalty had to be killed "without the camp" of Israel (Num. 15:35,36). In the time of Christ, the Jewish authorities had determined the limits of the camp surrounding the city of Jerusalem. These outer boundaries of what were considered the city limits of Jerusalem were known by the Jews who lived at that period. If we can determine what those outer limits of the camp were when Christ was crucified, then it will help us in finding the place of the crucifixion. This is because it is certain that Christ could not have been executed within the boundaries of the camp. This is what the Book of Hebrews tells us. Somewhere outside those limits of what the Jewish authorities considered the "encampment" at Jerusalem was the place of the crucifixion.

The early Jewish records show that there were three camps surrounding the Temple and the city of Jerusalem. The first camp was that of the priests which was located within the inner Temple. This corresponded to the area of the Altar of Burnt Offering and the Holy Place of the Temple which included the Holy of Holies. The second camp was that of the Levites and it comprised the entire area of the Temple mount and- it included all of the Temple itself outside the inner courts which belonged to the priests. The third camp was the region around Jerusalem in which ordinary Israelites from the other Twelve tribes could have their residences.

Golgotha. Pg51. In a literal sense this means those being judged will have to position themselves on the slopes of the Mount of Olives facing the Temple in which God will then be sitting. In actual fact, the great judgment in the Valley of Jehosh-aphat mentioned in Joel 3:2,12 was acclaimed by people in the first century as referring to the Kidron Valley which separated the Mount of Olives from the Temple mount. Since the word "Jehoshaphat" means "God judges" it became common to believe that the final judgment for people in the world will occur on the eastern side of the Temple and up the slopes of the Mount of Olives. Many Jews and Moslems over the last few centuries have wanted to be buried in this region so that they might be the first of the righteous to be given their rewards when God comes to judge the world.

But what has this to do with the crucifixion of Christ? It is highly significant to it! Since the New Testament makes it abundantly clear that Christ bore all the judgments for sin and that he endured the wrath of God in place of the whole world (II Cor.5:14-21), it was necessary that Christ bear his judicial punishment in the area where "all the world" is destined to be judged. For Christ to be executed "in the presence of God" for the sins of the world, he had to bear those sins in the region designed by God for that purpose. This is why the sin offerings that were sacrificed by the priests were carried "outside the camp" to the top of the Mount of Olives in order to be burnt into ashes. This is also why the holiest of sin offerings (called the Red Heifer) was killed and burnt to ashes "outside the camp" at the summit of Olivet directly east of the Temple. It was also in this same region (but somewhat to the south, as we will see) where criminals deserving the death penalty were taken "outside the camp" to become a sin offering for themselves. Thus, in Christ's time, we find that the official Jewish place for execution was near the southern summit of Olivet but facing the eastern entrances to the Temple so that the evildoers would be executed "in the presence of God." Only an area east of the Temple (and Jerusalem) will fit all the requirements regarding the judicial execution of criminals.

There is another theory put forth by some scholars that is worth considering in my opinion. This theory is given below.

Golgotha. Pg189-191. The fact that Christ was stoned to satisfy the prophecy of Isaiah 52:14 that his appearance and form would be marred more than any man also helps to explain another New Testament reference that has long puzzled scholars. When Christ instituted the Lord's Supper on the eve of his crucifixion, he took bread and broke it and he said this breaking was like his body would be broken for them (Matt.26:26). He spoke of the breaking of his body in the same context as the wine which represented his blood which was shed at his crucifixion for the remission of sins. But it has baffled scholars how breaking off pieces of flat and crispy bread (just like the unleavened bread that Jews eat at Passover today called matzos) could in any way represent the body of Christ at his crucifixion? Since the New Testament specifically states that no bones in his body would be broken (John 19:36), many scholars can see no reference whatever to the death of Christ in the breaking of the unleavened bread. To many of them they feel that "the breaking of bread" must only refer to a ceremony at fellowship meals without any significance in regard to the crucifixion of Christ. But many early Christians did not view it that way at all. Let us look at what early Christians thought.

There are a number of Greek manuscripts and writings of several Church Fathers which provide a comment of explanation to the text of First Corinthians 11:24 concerning the breaking of the bread at the Lord's Supper and they associated it with the breaking of Christ's body at his crucifixion. They added their comments that the bread represented Christ's body: "which is broken for you" (see The Greek New Testament, UBS, p.604). This means that there were early beliefs that the "broken bread" in the ceremony of the Lord's Supper did indeed represent the "broken body" of Christ at the time of his crucifixion. For one thing, in the prophecy of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12 there was the statement in Hebrew that the person of the prophecy would be "broken for our iniquities" ("bruised" King James). There is no question that the Hebrew word dah-chah in Isaiah 53:5 means "broken" (cf. Isaiah 19:10).

Thus, we have the beliefs of early Christians and the prophecy of Isaiah itself that Christ's body would indeed be broken like breaking off pieces of unleavened bread. But the scourging of the soldiers before his crucifixion or the simple act of crucifixion itself could not account for such breaking off of pieces of his body. But the act of stoning would fit the description precisely. The hurling of small and sharp stones at Christ's body would tear away pieces of his flesh ever so slowly until after about six hours of such treatment he would have been hanging on the tree of crucifixion as a person whose visage and form would have been so marred that he would not have resembled a normal human any longer. This is how Isaiah 52:14 describes the Suffering Servant, whom all the New Testament writers identified with Christ Jesus, and I see no reason for not believing it. This is just another evidence that Christ met his death by stoning (his body torn to shreds in its frontal areas) and that he did not die by crucifixion alone.

The apostle Paul was fully aware that Christ was not only crucified in the Roman fashion of execution but he knew that the main reason for his death (and punishment) was through the Israelitish method of stoning. In Paul's classic statement that Christ had become a curse for us, he did not mean that it was simply by crucifixion alone that he had become such an "accursed thing." Note what he said in Galatians 3:13.
"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree."

The apostle Paul was in no way intending his quote, concerning the application of the Mosaic Law in the death of Christ, as pertaining to the Roman method of crucifixion alone. Paul selected the scripture in Deuteronomy 21:23 as describing Christ's death for another reason. Anyone who is acquainted with the Old Testament legislation is well aware that Moses in this reference was in no way speaking about hanging someone on a tree in order to kill him! On the contrary. Moses ordered the authorities within Israel to hang the corpse of the "accursed one" on a tree with ropes AFTER the person had already been killed by STONING. Notice the quote in full that the apostle Paul referred to. It had nothing to do with killing a person by the Roman method of crucifixion, and no such thing was in Moses' mind. Moses meant simply to hang the corpse on a tree after the stoning!

"And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die: so shall you put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear and fear. And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and you hang him on a tree: and his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall certainly bury him that day (for he that hangs is accursed of God), that your land be not defiled, which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance" (Deut.21:21-23).

After the legs of the thieves were broken, the crowd started to disperse. As soon as they were dead, they were taken down from the tree. Joseph of Arimathea took down the body of Jesus after he got permission from Pilot. This had to be done before dusk, as the 1st day of unleavened bread was about to start. There was only time for Joseph and Nicodemus to wrap the body in linen with a mixture of myrrh and aloes. Also, some women just had time before the Sabbath to prepare the spices and perfumes, which they planned to apply after the Sabbath to the body of the Christ, which was the custom. When Joseph and Nicodemus had finished preparing the body, a stone was rolled in front of the tomb. Later the religious authorities sealed it and put a guard at the tomb.

Jn 19:31-37. Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day)[the 1st day of unleavened bread which is a Holy day was this year on the day of the weekly Sabbath], the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him.

John 19:32. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. NIV

It would seem that from most Biblical translations, the Romans started with the breaking of one of the thieves legs, then went on to the other thief. To come to Christ last, they could not have been crucified in a straight line, or else Christ would have been 2nd.

But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.
But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, "Not one of His bones shall be broken." And again another Scripture says, "They shall look on Him whom they pierced."

Below are some comments made by my friend Barnes that refer that none of the bones of Christ were broken and that his side was struck with a spear.

John 19:36. [That the scripture should be fulfilled] See Ex 12:46. John here regards the paschal lamb as an emblem of Christ; and as in the law it was commanded that a bone of that lamb should not be broken, so, in the providence of God, it was ordered that a bone of the Saviour should not be broken. The Scripture thus received a complete fulfillment respecting both the type and the antitype. Some have supposed, however, that John referred to Ps 34:20.
Ex 12:46. In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones.
Ps 34:20. He guards all his bones; Not one of them is broken.

John 19:37. Another' scripture] Zech 12:10. We must here be struck with the wonderful providence of God, that so many scriptures were fulfilled in his death. All these things happened without any such design on the part of the men engaged in these scenes; but whatever was done by Jew or Gentile tended to the fulfillment of prophecies long on record, and with which the Jews themselves ought to have been familiar. Little did they suppose, when delivering him to Pilate when he was mocked when they parted his garments when they pierced him-that they were fulfilling ancient predictions. But in this way God had so ordered it that the firmest foundation should be laid for the belief that he was the true Messiah, and that the designs of wicked men should all be overruled to the fulfillment of the great plans which God had in sending his Son.
Zech 12:10. And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. [Barns]

The apostles’ account continues.

Lk23.50.Now, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man. He had not consented to their decision and deed. He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Mk15.44. Pilate marveled that He was already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him if He had been dead for some time. So when he found out from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.
Lk23.53.Then he took it down,
Jn19.39 And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews' Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby.

Lk23.55. And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.
Mk15.47. And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses observed where He was laid.
Mk15.46.and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.

End of Friday...and the end of this essay.