THE LAST DAYS OF JESUS
CHRIST (part Two)
The whipping and cructifications of Jesus
Pontius Pilate could find no cause to have Jesus executed, Further
Pilates’ wife had a dream that Jesus shouldn’t be executed and told her husband
about her dream.
Pilate was aware that there was a valid way to pass that decision onto
someone else. It was a custom in Judaea that the governor of the land could ask
the populous to make that decision by choosing one of two persons who are
condemned to death to be set free.
There has been a persistent belief advocated by non-Jews for centuries that
it was the Jews who voted to crucify Jesus instead of the robber, Barabbas. That
erroneous belief has been promulgated ever since Jesus died on the cross.
Before Pilate made that
offer to the crowd, he told Caiaphas what he was going to do. Pilate then said
to the crowd, “This man is not guilty of any crime. But you have a
custom of asking me to release one prisoner each year at Passover. Would you
like me to release this ‘King of the Jews or Barabbas, a robber and rebel?”
As Mark's version of this event emphasizes, the
crowd was driven to cry for Barabbas by the chief priests who were at the root
of the push to have Jesus killed.
The biggest factor, of course in the mind of the
chief priest was that Jesus was a problem for him and his fellow
priests since he spoke against them repeatedly, criticized their teachings and
their ways, and taught many things to Jesus’ followers that contradicted what
the priests taught to their followers. Further, the priests knew that anyone
who caused trouble with the Romans could bring reprisals that would hurt
everyone including the priests.
Caiaphas had previously ordered his
guards to block the entry of those Jews who were in favor of Jesus being set
free and to permit only those who would vote in favor of Barabbas being set free.
Why did the Jews standing before Pilate choose Barabbas instead
of Jesus mere days after they welcomed Jesus so strongly? Many of
them didn’t need any plodding because the prophecy in
Zechariah 9:9, forecasted a
Messiah to rescue the Jews from the
Romans and was what the Jews expected was a Messiah riding horse into Jerusalem that would drive out
their oppressors and what they got was simply another preacher riding donkey. With those selected d by Caiaphas’ minions,
the outcome of who was set free was a foregone conclusion.
As fate would have it. Jesus
wasn't a civil rebel like Barabbas. He was more of a spiritual rebel. Did
Pilate suspect that he might later be a much more of a problem that Barabbas
ever was?
There were a great many Jews in the Holy Land in that era who would
never have voted in favor for Barabbas to be set free over Jesus so it is in
unfair to say that the Jews of the Holy land killed Jesus on that particular day.
During
the Second World War, Adolph Hitler ordered the deaths of six million Jews.
Several thousand Germans participated in that slaughter of Jews. Does that mean
that over the many millions of Germans as a nation in those years killed six
million Jews? Such an allegation would
be scandalous. It was the Roman prefect who ordered Jesus to be executed. Would that justify saying that the Italians
killed Jesus?” That would also be scandalous.
The scourging of Jesus
I
don’t know why Pilate ordered Jesus to be scourged first before he was to be
crucified, but that turned out to be Jesus’ fate.
The Roman flagellation or scourging was one
of the most feared of all punishments. It was a form of brutal, inhumane punishment
generally executed by Roman soldiers using the most dreaded instrument of the
time, called a flagrum. The whip used in scourging was a whip
consisting of three or more leather tails that had plumbatae, that were
small metal balls or sheep bones at the end of each tail of the whip which
would cut into the flesh of the victim
and when the whip was drawn from the flesh, it would bring back pieces of flesh
with it.
In Mosaic
Law, scourging could not exceed forty lashes, but often the number of
lashes was dependent upon the cruelty of the executioners. Some of them would
go beyond the forty lashes. In Jesus case, the lashing ended after the fortieth
lash.
Jesus would have been
stripped naked and shackled by his wrists to a low column so that he would be
in a bent-over position. One or more
soldiers would be assigned to deliver the blows from the flagrum. Standing
beside Jesus, he would strike in an arc-like fashion across the exposed back.
The weight of the metal or bone objects at the ends of the leather thongs would
carry them to the front of jesus’ body as well as to the back and buttocks, the
arms, the shoulders, arms, and legs down to and including the calves. The soldiers would change position periodically and deliver blows
from the opposite side. The injuries sustained during scourging were extensive.
Blows to the upper back and rib area caused rib fractures, severe bruising in
the lungs, bleeding into the chest cavity and partial or complete pneumothorax
(puncture wound to the lung causing it to collapse). As much as 125 millilitres
of blood could be lost. Jesus would periodically vomit, experience tremors and
seizures, and have bouts of fainting. Each excruciating strike would elicit
shrieks of pain. Jesus would be
diaphoretic (profusely sweating) and exhausted. His flesh would be mangled and
ripped, and jesus would crave water because of the loss of fluid from bleeding
and diaphoresis. The steady loss of fluid would initiate hypovolemic shock
while a slow, steady accumulation of fluid in the injured lungs (pleural
effusion) would make breathing difficult. Fractured ribs would make breathing
painful and jesus would only be able to take short, shallow breaths. The plumbatae at
the end of the leather strips would lacerate the liver and maybe the spleen.
Jesus’ physical condition after the scourging
was serious. The pain and brutality of the torture put him in early traumatic
or injury shock. He was also in early hypovolemic shock because of pleural
effusion, hematidrosis, (the excretion through the skin of blood) from his wounds, vomiting, and diaphoresis. ((excessive seating). Pilate had ordered
that Jesus be scourged in an extreme manner in an attempt to appease the High Priest.
Placing a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head
One of the soldiers decided to create a
crown of thorns. to be placed on Jesus’ head. The Syrian Thorn was available in Jerusalem as it was the plant most
likely to be used for Jesus crown of thorns. The plants have sharp, closely
spaced thorns. The nerve supply for pain
perception to the head region is distributed by branches of two major nerves
such as the trigeminal nerve, which essentially supplies the front half of
Jesus’ head, and the greater occipital branch, which supplies the back half of
his head.” These two nerves enervate all areas of his head and face.
The trigeminal nerve, also
known as the fifth cranial nerve, runs through the face, eyes, nose, mouth, and
jaws. Irritation of this nerve by the crown of thorns would have caused a condition
called trigeminal neuralgia or tic (twitching of his eyes) Irritation of this nerve by the crown of
thorns would have caused a condition called trigeminal neuralgia - This
condition causes severe facial pain that may be triggered by any light touch, swallowing,
eating, talking, temperature changes, and exposure to wind. Stabbing pain
radiates around the eyes, over the forehead, the upper lip, nose, cheek, the
side of the tongue and the lower lip. Spasmodic episodes of stabbing by the
thorns into the nerves causes explosive pain that are often more agonizing
during times of fatigue or tension. It is said to be the worst pain that anyone
can experience.
These pains would have been
felt all the way to the hill outside the walls of the city here he was to be
crucified and even when he was hanging on the cross.
When he walked and fell when being
pushed and shoved, the slightest movement and even when the breeze touched his face,
new waves of intense pain would have been triggered. The thorns would have cut
into the large supply of blood vessels in the head area. Jesus would have bled
profusely, contributing to increasing hypovolemic shock.
And don’t forget that he also suffered from the bloody slashes against his body
caused by the scourging. And on top of that, he had to drag the T-shaped cross that
weighed between 175 to 200 pounds part way by
himself to the hill where he would be crucified.
Jesus carrying the cross to the
place of his execution.
The cross used in Roman
crucifixions consisted of two parts: “the upright or mortise, referred to as the stipes, or staticulum, and
the tenon or crosspiece, which is called the patibulum or antenna.
Historic information shows
that the upright posts were already at the Gothra hill. I am inclined to
believe that because the two thieves were only carying the cross pieces behind their necks so why
wouldn’t Jesus be doing the same? However, if the Romans wanted Jesus to really
suffer more than the two thieves, the
cross piece would be already attached to the upright post prior to him pulling
it to the place of his execution.
Did Jesus carry the
crosspiece over one shoulder or over both shoulders? Investigators who studied
the Shroud of Turin have interpreted
two images on the back of the shroud as evidence that Jesus carried the cross
over both shoulders while it was tied to both of his wrists.
It is a known fact that Jesus
fell at least three times on the way to the hill as his physical condition was
serious. Each time he fell, it would have been more difficult for him to get
up. The soldiers needed to keep him alive until his crucifixion so they made
Simon of Cyrene help Jesus carry the cross to the rocky hill called Golgotha
(meaning skull) that was outside
the walls of Jerusalem.
The Roman’s form of capital
punishment, crucifixion was widespread prior to Jesus’ birth. It was later abolished
by Emperor Constantine in 341 AD but it continued to be used against both
Christians and non-Christians. Dring the war years in last century. Jews were crucified in the Dachau
Concentration Camp. In Sudan and Egypt, there are reports of Christians being
crucified by Muslim extremists.
The crucifixion of Jesus
Teams of well-trained Roman
soldiers carried out the crucifixions. Each team consisted of the exactor
mortis or centurion, and four soldiers called the quaternio.
Crucifixions were carried out
in full view of citizens who went outside of the city to watch them.
TheRoman crosses probably
stood about seven to seven-and-a-half feet in height because from a practical
point of view, it was easier to lift the crosspiece and victim into position on
a shorter cross. It was also easier to remove the victim from a short cross
after death. Shorter crosses also made it easier for wild animals to finish off
the victims if they were still alive which they normally would be since many 0f
them hung on their cross for days.
There is
something that I want to point out to you about the walls of Jerusalem. When my
wife and I visited the Old City of Jerusalem in 1995, we entered into the Church of the Holy Sepulchure (also
called the Church of the Resurrection),
that is in the Christian Quarter of the Old City where the Church is considered
the location where Jesus was crucified and buried in the small grotto at the
foot of the Golgotha hill.
I was obviously confused because the Church was inside the walls of Jerusalem and it was
considered the location where Jesus was crucified. I was under the impression
that Jesus was actually crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem. A priest
inside the church told me that Jesus was crucified outside the walls of
Jerusalem and that the Church is located where he was crucified. He explained to
me the confusion. The walls that I saw a short distance away were not the walls
that stood around the city in Jesus ‘time. When the Jews later revolted against
the Romans. the Roman emperor, Tiberius ordered
the original walls to be destroyed so that his soldiers could get into the
city. Years later, new walls were built and those were the walls that were just
a short distance from the Church.
As soon as Jesus arrived at his
place of his execution, he was first stripped of His garments. Crucifixes
and paintings of Jesus always show Jesus wearing a loin cloth, but in reality, Roman crucifixion was designed to not only be gruesome, it was also to be
humiliating a death as possible. The condemned were always stripped naked
in order to die with as little dignity as possible.
Iron spikes that averaged 5-7 inches in length were used to nail Jesus
wrists to the crossbeam. In paintings
and in statutes of Jesus, the nails were shown as being driven through Jesus’
hands. To do that would result in Jesus ‘weight causing his hands to be pulled
away from the muscles between his fingers.
After the victims’ wrists were nailed to the
crossbeam, it was raised up and attached to the vertical beam. Then the
victim’s feet were then nailed into the vertical beam.
Death would surely come eventually and most
often by a combination of blood loss (from the scourging only) and asphyxiation.
The victim would only
be able to take shallow breaths, until his arms weakened. At that point,
he would have to push his body upwards with his feet in order to breathe. This would be
terribly painful on multiple levels such as putting pressure on the nail wounds
in his feet and hands and rubbing the open wounds on his back up against beam
of wood. Jesus had seven last words from the cross, all of which were probably
labored and difficult
to speak.
I will explain why Jesus would chose to have to endure the agonizing pain
of pulling himself upwards by his arms and using his feet in order to push his
body upwards so that he can breathe.
Our diaphragm is an organ at the lower part of our bellies and without
it, we wouldn’t be able to breathe in or out. Our arm muscles are connected to
muscles all the way down to our hips. If
we are hanging by our arm muscles, then the muscles next to our diaphragms will
be pulled pull against that organ which results in us being unable to exhale.
If we can’t exhale, we won’t be able to breath in air either and as such, we
would suffocate to death.
This will explain why the Roman soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves who were crucified on either side of Jesus.
If they hadn’t done that, the two men would hang on their crosses for
days. Since they and Jesus were
crucified on Friday, they had to be removed from their crosses before four in
the afternoon since the Jewish holy day of the week begins at that particular
hour on Friday afternoons.
Jesus’
last seven statements
The
first one was, "Father, “forgive them,
for they do not know what they are doing." He was probably referring
to the soldiers who crucified him.
His second one
was; “Today you will be with me in paradise."
He
said that to the thief who was on the left side of Jesus and who had recognized who Jesus was and expressed his faith in him.
His third statement was given when he saw his mother standing next to
his disciple John; Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother.”
His fourth statement was given in the ninth hour he was on the cross. He
said, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken
me?”
You remember that when he was in the field of olives. he prayed to whom he thought was his father (God) and
asked him to spare him the pain on the cross and send a host (army)of
angels to free him from the cross. By
now, he realized that his perceived Father
(God) was not going to save him.
His fifth statement was given because he was thirsty He said, “I
thirst.” However, Jesus refused the initial drink in which a sponge was dipped in vinegar
and gall that was placed at the end of a
spear and pressed against his mouth.
His sixth statement was. “It is finished.” He knew that he could end his suffering by
simply by making no effort to ease the pressure against hisdiaphragm. But before that was to occur, he had one more statement to
make.
His seventh and final statement was, "Father, into your hands I commit my
spirit."
I don’t know what made the soldiers come to the conclusion that he had
died, but when it was obvious that he wasn’t breathing anymore, one of the
solders grabbed a spear and pushed the tip of the spear onto the right side of
his chest and shoved it in between two of his ribs. When he pulled it out, the
tip was bloody and water oozed from the wound. Keep in mind that the average
human adult male has approximately 70% of his weight as water in his body.
It was then that one of the soldiers made a statement when he realized
that Jesus was dead. He said, “This man is surely a son of God.” He didn’t say that he was the son of God. To the Jews, a son of God is a man who is kind and thoughtful of others.
The soldier must have come to that concision after listening to Jesus say, Father, “forgive them,
for they do not know what they are doing."
About this particular time, there was a violent earthquake occurring. It
was so violent, the huge curtain in the temple had spilt asunder from the bottom upwards.
This was the time for the soldiers to break the legs of the two thieves
so that they couldn’t breathe anymore.
Jesus was removed from the cross by some of the men who were present and
who loved Jesus.
Jesus’ burial
Generally,
those persons who were crucified on that hill, their bodies would have been thrown into a
common grave with the other criminals who couldn’t afford a proper tomb or
burial in the ground.
However,
a Jew whose name was Joseph of
Arimathea donated his tomb to Jesus that was in a cemetery which was
nearby.
Joseph of was a highly
visible, distinguished member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council led by the
high priests.
After Jesus crucifixion, he went to Pilate and boldly asked for Jesus'
body. This generous man risked his reputation among the religious leaders to
give Jesus a proper burial. Since Joseph Arimathea was a rich man, he could afford
to make a new tomb for him and his family to lie in after their deaths.
It was also important that Jesus’
body was not put with other dead bodies. If Jesus’s body had been laid among
others who had died, some might have been claimed that it was not him that was later
resurrected, but instead another body.
Nicodemus later brought a mixture
myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds to the tomb according to (John 19:39). Nicodemus was a Pharisee
who believed in Jesus’s teachings.
The women watched as the men laid the
body of Jesus on a slab of rock inside the tomb and after the men left the
tomb, the woman who previously prepared their own spices and ointments to be placed
on the body of Jesus after the Sabbath
which would end in the early hours of
Sunday.hey then left the tomb and it was Joseph of
Arimathea who rolled the heavy stone across the entrance of the tomb on
that Friday late afternoon.
Considering the size of the stone,
it would have been similar in weight to a small car and we know how heavy
small stones are, let alone a huge stone used to cover the entrance of that
particular tomb.
Most tombs in that era were dug
out of the ground and lined with individual stones. Grave robbers could easily
dig into those graves and steal any gold or other riches buried with the bodies.
If the tomb was hewn out of a
solid rock, that would have been very expensive and as such, it would mean that it
would have been a solid tomb with only one entrance and exit.
The chief of the priests and the Pharisees
together went to Pilate and asked him to provide a guard for the tomb. Pilate
agreed and told them to take a guard with them an order to secure the tomb.
The guard placed upon the large heavy circular stone that blocked the entrance to the tomb, the “Roman Seal” which told the
people that there was someone buried in the tomb and the that the “power and authority of Rome stood behind the
seal. If anyone was caught tampering with the entrance to the tomb that was marked
with the Roman Seal, their punishment would be death.
End of Part Two
I found nothing as to what happened on the Saturday, the day after Jesus was crucified. The next article about the Easter story will be published on Sunday.
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