"The Crucifixion of Jesus"
How Things Work – Consideration #123 (Book II Science & Religion)
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Tuesday February 20, 2024
“A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
Crucifixion is actually more a form of torture than it is a form of execution. Traditional methods of capital punishment such as beheading, hanging, firing squad, electrocution and lethal injection all result in very quick deaths. Crucifixion, on the other hand, is specifically designed for prolonged torture. It was invented by the Persians and perfected by the Romans.
“Depending on the form of crucifixion a victim could survive from ten minutes to several days.”
The usual cause of death from crucifixion was suffocation, although other causes, such as loss of bodily fluids, were also possible. Depending on the form of crucifixion a victim could survive from ten minutes to several days. However, victims crucified as described in the gospels usually did not survive longer than the day of their crucifixion. Here’s how it worked:
“Someone nailed to a crucifix with their arms stretched out on either side could expect to live for no more than 24 hours. Seven-inch nails would be driven through the wrists so that the bones there could support the body's weight. The nail would sever the median nerve, which not only caused immense pain but would have paralysed the victim's hands.
The feet were nailed to the upright part of the crucifix, so that the knees were bent at around 45 degrees. To speed death, executioners would often break the legs of their victims to give no chance of using their thigh muscles as support...
Once the legs gave out, the weight would be transferred to the arms, gradually dragging the shoulders from their sockets. The elbows and wrists would follow a few minutes later; by now, the arms would be six or seven inches longer. The victim would have no choice but to bear his weight on his chest. He would immediately have trouble breathing as the weight caused the rib cage to lift up and force him into an almost perpetual state of inhalation.
Suffocation would usually follow, but the relief of death could also arrive in other ways…”
– Alok Jha (“How did Crucifixion Kill?”)
Essentially, crucifixion involves a constant balance of excruciating pain between the nailed hands and the nailed feet in a pathetically desperate and futile attempt to keep from suffocating. According to the gospels, Jesus was crucified around 9:00 a.m. and died at about 3:00 p.m. the same day; approximately six hours of constant torture.
CONSIDERATION #123 – The Crucifixion of Jesus
According to Matthew, Pilate’s soldiers strip Jesus, give him a scarlet robe to wear, embed a crown of thorns into his head and place a staff in his hand; then they begin to mock him.
Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.
Matthew 27:29-31
A man from Cyrene, named Simon, is forced to carry Jesus’ cross for him part of the way to Golgotha, the place of the skull, where the soldiers divided up Jesus’ clothes by casting dice after nailing him to the cross. Jesus is crucified between “two rebels,” who mock him along with the crowd that has gathered.
Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him.
Matthew 27:39-41
According to Matthew, a darkness came over all the land from noon until about three o’clock in the afternoon. Jesus calls out to his Father, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Then Jesus cries out once more and gives up his spirit.
In Matthew, the proof of Jesus’ claim to be the “Son of God” occurs when the curtain in the Temple is torn in two, signifying God’s remorse for the loss of His Son. In Jewish tradition, rending a garment is a sign of deep grief, usually performed after the death of a close relative. Earlier, the high priest, Caiaphas, in outrage, tore his garment when he proclaimed Jesus guilty of blasphemy. Now, God was proclaiming His grief over the death of His Son.
At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open…
When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
Matthew 27:51-54
According to Matthew, the only disciples of Jesus to actually witness the crucifixion were a group of women including Jesus’ mother and Mary Magdalen.
POSTSCRIPT
Matthew’s description of the crucifixion reinforces the idea that “humanity itself” turns against Jesus, not just the Jewish leadership. The Roman soldiers mock him, strike him, spit on him, and crucify him. Various spectators at the event mock him “in the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him.” Even his own apostles had betrayed and abandoned him. In the end, essentially the entire world turns against him; Jesus is completely alone.
Matthew directly connects Jesus with being the Son of God in his description of the event. The Temple curtains being torn is a metaphor for God rending his garment (the Temple curtain), a physical manifestation of His infinite and intense grief over the death of His son. The crucifixion of Jesus represents the darkest moment of the Biblical narrative. The light of the world had been extinguished.
Next week, it is rekindled in the resurrection…
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