|
|
|
|
Crucifixion of Jesus
|
| |
|
| |
The crucifixion of Jesus is an event described in all four gospels which takes place immediately after his arrest and trial. In Christian theology, the death of Jesus by crucifixion is a core event on which much depends. It represents a critical aspect of the doctrine of salvation, portraying the suffering and death of the Messiah as necessary for the forgiveness of sins. According to the New Testament, Jesus rose from the dead after three days and appeared to his Disciples before his ascension to heaven.
In Mark, Jesus is crucified along with two rebels, and the day goes dark for three hours.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Crucifixion of Jesus' Start a new discussion about 'Crucifixion of Jesus' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
The crucifixion of Jesus is an event described in all four gospels which takes place immediately after his arrest and trial. In Christian theology, the death of Jesus by crucifixion is a core event on which much depends. It represents a critical aspect of the doctrine of salvation, portraying the suffering and death of the Messiah as necessary for the forgiveness of sins. According to the New Testament, Jesus rose from the dead after three days and appeared to his Disciples before his ascension to heaven.
In Mark, Jesus is crucified along with two rebels, and the day goes dark for three hours. Jesus calls out to God, then gives a shout and dies. The curtain of the Temple is torn in two. Matthew follows Mark, adding an earthquake and the resurrection of saints. Luke also follows Mark, though he describes the rebels as common criminals, one of whom defends Jesus, who promises that the two of them will be together in paradise. Luke portrays Jesus as impassive in the face of his crucifixion. John includes several of the same elements as those found in Mark, though they are treated differently.
Jesus' redemptive suffering and death by crucifixion are referred to as the Passion, from the Latin verb patior, to experience. In the Christian tradition, Jesus is said to have died for the sins of the world, a doctrine generally known as atonement, and in some cases as substitutionary atonement. Jesus' suffering is said to be foretold in Hebrew scripture, such as in Isaiah's songs of the suffering servant.
Historians regard Jesus' crucifixion under Pontius Pilate as a historical event. Early Christians are considered unlikely to have invented Jesus' crucifixion because it embarrassed them (see criterion of embarrassment).
Overview
The following picture is what emerges from taking jointly the (non-identical, but often overlapping) accounts in the four gospels. Following the Last Supper with the twelve Apostles, Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane and forced to stand trial before the Sanhedrin, Pontius Pilate, and Herod Antipas, before being handed over for crucifixion. After being flogged, Jesus was mocked by Roman soldiers as the "King of the Jews", clothed in a purple robe, crowned with thorns, beaten and spat on. Jesus then had to make his way to the place of his crucifixion.
Once at Golgotha, Jesus was stripped and nailed to the beam and hung for some hours, from the third hour (Mark 15:25) to the ninth hour (Mark 15:34-37), between two convicted thieves. The soldiers affixed a sign above his head stating "King of the Jews" in three languages, divided his garments and cast lots for his seamless robe, and offered him wine mixed with gall to drink, before eventually piercing his side with a spear to be certain that he had died. The gospels mention a total of seven statements that Jesus made while he was being crucified, as well as several supernatural events that occurred. Following his death, his body was removed from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea and buried in a rock-hewn tomb, with Nicodemus assisting.
Accounts of the crucifixion
That Jesus was crucified is a well-attested event of Roman history. All four Gospels attest to its historicity by recording in great detail the events surrounding the crucifixion. Although almost all ancient sources relating to crucifixion are literary, the 1968 archeological discovery just north east of Jerusalem of the body of a crucified man dated to the first century provided good confirmatory evidence of the gospel accounts of crucifixion. The crucified man was identified as Yohan Ben Ha'galgol and probably died about 70AD, around the time of the Jewish revolt against Rome. The analyses at the Hadassah Medical School estimated that he died in his late 20s. These studies also showed that the man had been crucified in a manner resembling the Gospel accounts. Another relevant archaeological find, which also dates to the first century AD, is an unidentified heel bone with a spike discovered in a Jerusalem gravesite, and is now held by the Israel Antiquities Authority and displayed in the Israel Museum.
Gospel narratives
The earliest detailed historical narrative accounts of the death of Jesus are contained in the four canonical gospels: Matthew , Mark , Luke , and John . There are other more implicit references in the New Testament epistles.
According to all four gospels, Jesus was brought to the "Place of a Skull" and crucified with two thieves, with the charge of claiming to be "King of the Jews", and the soldiers dividing his clothes before he bowed his head and died. Following his death, Joseph of Arimathea requested the body from Pilate, which he then placed in a new garden tomb.
The three synoptic gospels also describe Simon of Cyrene bearing the cross, the multitude mocking Jesus along with the thieves, darkness from the 6th to the 9th hour, and the temple veil being torn from top to bottom. The synoptics also mention several witnesses, including a centurion, and several women who watched from a distance two of whom were present during the burial.
Luke is the only gospel writer to omit the detail of sour wine mix that was offered to Jesus on a reed, while only Mark and John describe Joseph actually taking the body down off the cross.
There are several details that are only found in one of the gospel accounts. For instance, only Matthew's gospel mentions the earthquake and resurrected saints and that Roman soldiers were assigned to guard the tomb, while Mark is the only one to state the actual time of the crucifixion (the third hour, or 9 am) and the Centurion's report of Jesus' death. The Gospel of Luke’s unique contributions to the narrative include Jesus' words to the women who were mourning, one criminal's rebuke of the other, the reaction of the multitudes who left "beating their breasts", and the women preparing spices and ointments before resting on the Sabbath. John is also the only one to refer to the request that the legs be broken and the soldier’s subsequent piercing of Jesus' side (as fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy), as well as that Nicodemus assisted Joseph with burial.
Other accounts
Since crucifixion was a common punishment for first century Jews thought to be traitors against Rome, it is not surprising that only a few secular historians record the event (and then without much commentary). For instance, Roman historian Tacitus, in his Annals (c. A.D. 116), mentions only in passing that "Christus...suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators..." (see also: Tacitus on Christ)
Additionally, first-century Jewish historian Josephus (in a disputed passage) records:
Another possible Jewish reference to the crucifixion ("hanging" cf. ; ) is found in the Babylonian Talmud:
Although the question of the equivalence of the identities of Yeshu and Jesus has at times been debated, many historians agree that the above passage is likely to be about Jesus.
Date, place and people present
The exact time, date and place of the crucifixion, and the list of people present, have been the subject of a wide range of research and speculation.
Date of the crucifixion
Although there is no final consensus regarding the specific year or day, it is generally agreed that it occurred during the governorship of Pontius Pilate (between AD 26 and AD 36 ) on a Friday on or near Passover (Nisan 15). (Thursday or even Wednesday crucifixion scenarios have also been suggested.) John's Gospel implies that at the time of the trial the Jewish leaders had not yet eaten the Passover meal and explicitly states just prior to his sentencing "Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour." This places the crucifixion on Nisan 14, since the law mandated the lamb had to be sacrificed between 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm and eaten before midnight on Nissan 14. This understanding fits well with Old Testament typology, in which Jesus entered Jerusalem to identify himself as the Paschal lamb on Nisan 10, was crucified and died at 3:00 in the afternoon of Nisan 14, at the same time the High Priest would have sacrificed the Paschal lamb, and rose before dawn the morning of Nisan 16, as a type of offering of the First Fruits.
The chronology presented by John is problematic in reconciling with the Synoptic passages and the tradition that the Last Supper was a Passover meal, placing the crucifixion instead on Nisan 15. However, the apparent contradiction may be resolved by postulating differences in how post-exilic Jews reckoned time. For Jesus and his disciples, the Passover could have begun at dawn Thursday, while for traditional Jews (following ), it would not have begun until dusk that same day. Another potential solution is that Jesus chose to celebrate the Passover meal a day early with his disciples.
Isaac Newton was one of the first scientists to estimate the date of the crucifixion by calculating the relative visibility of the crescent of the new moon between the Hebrew and Julian calendars. Newton suggested the date as Friday, April 23 AD 34 . Yet, using similar computations, in 1990 astronomer Bradley Schaefer arrived at the date Friday, April 3 33 AD. In 2003, using a computer program, astronomers Liviu Mircea and Tiberiu Oproiu estimated that Jesus died at 3 pm on Friday, April 3, 33 AD, and rose on Sunday, April 5, dates that agree with Schaefer, but not with Newton. Writing in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1991, John Pratt argued that Newton's reasoning was effectively sound, but included a minor error at the end. Pratt suggested the year 33 AD as the accurate answer. Another computer calculation suggests somewhat different dates.
Path to the crucifixion
The three Synoptic Gospels refer to a man called Simon of Cyrene who is made to carry the cross, while in the Gospel of John, Jesus is said to "bear" his own cross.
Luke's gospel also describes an interaction between Jesus and the women among the crowd of mourners following him, quoting Jesus as saying "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us,' and to the hills, 'Cover us.' For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?"
Traditionally, the path that Jesus took is called Via Dolorosa (Latin for "Way of Grief" or "Way of Suffering") and is a street in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is marked by nine of the fourteen Stations of the Cross. It passes the Ecce Homo Church and the last five stations are inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
There is no reference to the legendary Saint Veronica in the Gospels. But according to the Acta Sanctorum published by the Bollandists, Saint Veronica was a pious woman of Jerusalem who, moved with pity as Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha, gave him her veil that he might wipe his forehead. Jesus reportedly accepted the offering and after using it handed it back to her, the image of his face miraculously impressed upon it. This reported image then became known as the Veil of Veronica (in Italian as the Volto Santo) and was the starting point for the devotions to the Holy Face of Jesus by Roman Catholics.
Place of the crucifixion
The precise location of the crucifixion remains a matter of conjecture, but the biblical accounts indicate that it would have been outside the city walls, accessible to passers-by, and observable from some distance away. Eusebius identified its location only as being north of Mount Zion, which is consistent with the two most popularly suggested sites of modern times.
Calvary is an English name derived from the Latin word for skull (calvaria), which is how Jerome translated the Aramaic word Gûlgaltâ which identifies the place where Jesus was crucified. Although the text does not indicate why it was so designated, several theories have been put forward. One is that as a place of public execution, Calvary may have been strewn with the skulls of abandoned victims (which would be contrary to Jewish burial traditions, but not Roman). Another is that Calvary is named after a nearby cemetery (which is consistent with both of the proposed modern sites). A third is that the name was derived from the physical contour, which would be more consistent with the singular use of the word, i.e. the place called "a skull". While often referred to as "Mount Calvary", it was more likely a small hill or rocky knoll.
The traditional site, inside what is now occupied by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian Quarter of the Old City, has been attested since the 4th century. A second site (commonly referred to as Gordon’s Calvary), located further north of the Old City near a place popularly called the Garden Tomb, has been promoted since the 19th century, mostly by Protestants.
People present at the crucifixion
The Gospel of Luke (Luke 23:28-31) states that on the way to Calvary Jesus spoke to a number of women within the crowd of mourners following him, addressing them as "Daughters of Jerusalem". Biblical scholars have produced various theories about the identity of these women, and those actually present during the Crucifixion itself, including among them the Virgin Mary and Saint Mary Magdalene.
Luke's Gospel does not mention that the Virgin Mary was present during crucifixion. However, the Gospel of John (John 19:26-27) does place the Virgin Mary at the Crucifixion and states that while on the Cross: Jesus saw his own mother, and the disciple standing near whom he loved, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son".
The Gospel of John also places other women (The Three Marys), at the Cross. John 19:25 states that Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. It is uncertain whether the Gospel of John totally refers to three or four women at the Cross. References to the women are also made in Matthew 27:56 and Mark 15:40 (which also mentions Salome) and comparing these references they all seem to include Saint Mary Magdalene.
The Gospel of Mark states that Roman soldiers were also present at the Crucifixion: And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!".
Last words of Jesus
The gospel writers record seven statements uttered by Jesus while he was on the cross:
- "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
- "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
- "Woman, behold, your son!"
- "E'li, E'li, la'ma sa?bach?tha'ni?" (; ) (Aramaic for "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?")
- "I thirst."
- "It is finished."
- "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!"
These are all short utterances. See the section below on the Medical aspects of crucifixion, on how in the face of exhaustion asphyxia, obtaining enough air to utter any words on the cross can be very tiring and painful for the victim.
Phenomena during the crucifixion
Mark mentions darkness in the daytime during Jesus' crucifixion and the Temple veil being torn in two when Jesus dies. Matthew follows Mark, adding an earthquake and the resurrection of saints. Luke also follows Mark. In John, there are no such miraculous signs. Instead, Jesus' triumph over death is the only sign revealing Jesus' divinity.
Darkness
In the synoptic narrative, while Jesus is hanging on the cross, the sky is "darkened for 3 hours," from the sixth to the ninth hour (noon to mid-afternoon). Both Roman orator Julius Africanus and Christian theologian Origen refer to Greek historian Phlegon as having written "with regard to the eclipse in the time of Tiberius Caesar, in whose reign Jesus appears to have been crucified, and the great earthquakes which then took place" Julius Africanus further refers to the writings of historian Thallus when ruling out the possibility of a solar eclipse: "This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun. For the Hebrews celebrate the passover on the 14th day according to the moon, and the passion of our Saviour falls on the day before the passover; but an eclipse of the sun takes place only when the moon comes under the sun." A solar eclipse concurrent with a full moon is a scientific impossibility. Christian apologist Tertullian wrote "In the same hour, too, the light of day was withdrawn, when the sun at the very time was in his meridian blaze. Those who were not aware that this had been predicted about Christ, no doubt thought it an eclipse. You yourselves have the account of the world-portent still in your archives."
Temple veil, earthquake and resurrection
The synoptic gospels state that the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom. According to Josephus, the curtain in Herod's temple would have been nearly high and thick. According to , this curtain was representative of the separation between God and man, beyond which only the High Priest was permitted to pass, and then only once each year (cf. ) to enter into God's presence and make atonement for the sins of Israel . Bible expositors agree that the rending of the veil is symbolic of Jesus establishing a new and living way of access to God .
The Gospel of Matthew states that there were earthquakes, splitting rocks, and the graves of dead saints were opened (and subsequently resurrected after the resurrection of Jesus). The fate of these resurrected saints is never elaborated upon.
In the synoptic accounts, the centurion in charge, witnessing these events, says: "Truly this was the Son of God!" ; or "Truly this man was the Son of God!" ; or "Certainly this man was innocent!" .
Death of Jesus: Theological significance
The theological significance of death by crucifixion is at times discussed in terms of the cross being a curse. The Heidelberg Catechism suggests that the special meaning behind Jesus' death by crucifixion rather than some other method is that the believer is "assured that He took upon Himself the curse which lay on me, for a crucified one was cursed by God" (Q & A 39).
Similarly, Galatians 3: 13 quotes Deuteronomy 21: 23 in its assertion that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."
Atonement
Jesus' death and resurrection underpin a variety of theological interpretations as to how salvation is granted to humanity. A common feature of all these interpretations is that they place greater emphasis on the death and resurrection than on his words.
To most Christians, Jesus willingly sacrificed himself as an act of perfect obedience as a substitutionary atonement, a sacrifice of love which pleased God. Many modern branches of Christianity embrace substitutionary atonement as the central meaning of Jesus' death on the cross. These branches however have developed different theories of atonement. The Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholics incorporates substitutionary atonement as one (relatively minor) element of a single doctrine of the Cross and Resurrection, the Roman Catholic church incorporates it into Aquinas' Satisfaction doctrine rooted in the idea of penance, and Evangelical Protestants interpret it largely in terms of penal substitution.
In the Roman Catholic tradition this view of atonement is balanced by the duty of Roman Catholics to perform Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ which in the encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor of Pope Pius XI were defined as "some sort of compensation to be rendered for the injury" with respect to the sufferings of Jesus. Pope John Paul II referred to these Acts of Reparation as the "unceasing effort to stand beside the endless crosses on which the Son of God continues to be crucified."
The Christus Victor view, which is more common among Eastern Orthodox Christians, holds that Jesus was sent by God to defeat death and Satan. Because of his perfection, voluntary death, and Resurrection, Jesus defeated Satan and death, and arose victorious. Therefore, humanity was no longer bound in sin, but was free to rejoin God through faith in Jesus.
Medical aspects of the crucifixion
A number of theories that attempt to explain the circumstances of the death of Jesus on the cross via medical knowledge of 19th and 20th century have been proposed by a range of people, including physicians, historians and even mystics.
Most theories proposed by trained physicians (with specialties ranging from forensic medicine to ophthamology) conclude that Jesus endured tremendous amounts of pain and suffering on the Cross before his death. In 2006, general practitioner John Scotson reviewed over 40 publications on the cause of death of Jesus and theories ranged from cardiac rupture to pulmonary embolism.
As early as 1847, drawing on John 19:34, physician William Stroud proposed the ruptured heart theory of the cause of Christ’s death and it influenced a number of other people. The asphyxia theory has been the subject of several experiments that simulate crucifixion in healthy volunteers and many physicians agree that crucifixion causes a profound disruption of the victim’s ability to breathe. A side effect of exhaustive asphyxia is that the crucifixion victim will gradually find it more and more challenging to obtain enough breath to speak. This provides a possible explanation of the fact that the last words of Christ were short utterances.
The cardiovascular collapse theory is a prevalent modern explanation and suggests that Jesus died of profound shock. According to this theory, the scourging, the beatings, and the fixing to the cross would have left Jesus dehydrated, weak, and critically ill and that the stage was set for a complex interplay of simultaneous physiological insults: dehydration, massive trauma and soft tissue injury (especially from the prior scourging), inadequate respiration, and strenuous physical exertion, leading to cardiovascular collapse.
In her 1944 book Poem of the Man God Italian writer and mystic Maria Valtorta (who had no medical education) provided a very detailed account of the death of Jesus that supports the cardiovascular collapse theory, compounded by partial asphyxiation, and she wrote that the account was dictated to her by Jesus himself in a vision. Endocrinilogist Nicholas Pende expressed agreement with Valtorta's account and expressed surprise at the level of detail in which Valtorta depicted Christ's spasms in Crucifixion..
Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, physician William Edwards and his colleagues supported the combined cardiovascular collapse (via hypovolemic shock) and exhaustion asphyxia theories, assuming that the flow of water from the side of Jesus described in the Gospel of John, 19:34 was pericardial fluid. Some Christian Apologists seem to favor this theory and maintain that this medical anomaly would have been a fact that the author of the Gospel of John would have been tempted to leave out, had he not been interested in accurate reporting.
In his book The Crucifixion of Jesus, physician and forensic pathologist Frederick Zugibe provides a set of theories that attempt to explain the nailing, pains and death of Jesus in great detail. Zugibe carried out a number of experiments over several years to test his theories while he was a medical examiner. These studies included experiments in which volunteers with specific weights were hanging at specific angles and the amount of pull on each hand was measured, in cases where the feet were also secured or not. In these cases the amount of pull and the corresponding pain was found to be significant.
Pierre Barbet, a pharmacist and science fiction writer, advanced a set of detailed theories on the death of Jesus. He hypothesized that Jesus would have had to relax his muscles to obtain enough air to utter his last words, in the face of exhaustion asphyxia. Barbet hypothesized that a crucified person would have to use his pierced feet to lift his body in order to obtain enough breath to speak. Some of Barbet's theories, e.g. location of nails, are disputed by Zugibe.
Ophthalmologist and pastor C. Truman Davis also published a physician's view of the crucifixion, agreeing with Barbet, but his analysis is far less detailed than Zugibe.
Orthopedic surgeon Keith Maxwell not only analyzed the medical aspects of the Crucifixion, but also looked backed at how Jesus could have carried the cross all the way along Via Dolorosa.
In an article for the Catholic Medical Association, Phillip Bishop and physiologist Brian Church suggested a new theory based on suspension trauma.
In 2003, historians FP Retief and L Cilliers reviewed the history and pathology of crucifixion as performed by the Romans and suggested that the cause of death was often a combination of factors. They also state that Roman guards were prohibited from leaving the scene until death had occurred.
Crucifixion in art, symbolism and devotions
Since the crucifixion of Jesus, the cross has become a key element of Christian symbolism, and the crucifixion scene has been a key element of Christian art, giving rise to specific artistic themes such as Ecce Homo, The Raising of the Cross, Descent from the Cross and Entombment of Christ.
The symbolism of the cross which is today one of the most widely recognized Christian symbols was used from the earliest Christian times and Justin Martyr who died in 165 describes it in a way that already implies its use as a symbol, although the crucifix appeared later. Masters such as Caravaggio, Rubens and Titian have depicted the crucifixion scene.
Devotions based on the process of crucifixion, and the sufferings of Jesus are followed by various Christians. The Stations of the Cross follows a number of stages based on the stages involved in the crucifixion of Jesus, while the Rosary of the Holy Wounds is used to meditate on the wounds of Jesus as part of the crucifixion.
The presence of the Virgin Mary under the Cross, as stated in the Gospel of John (John 19:26-27), has in itself been the subject of Marian art, and well known Catholic symbolism such as the Miraculous Medal and Pope John Paul II's Coat of Arms bearing a Marian Cross. And a number of Marian devotions also involve the presence of the Virgin Mary in Calvary, e.g. Pope John Paul II stated that "Mary was united to Jesus on the Cross". Well known works of Christian art by masters such as Raphael (e.g. the Mond Crucifixion), and Caravaggio (e.g. his Entombment) depict the Virgin Mary as part of the crucifixion scene.
Gallery of art
- For larger galleries, please see: Icons of crucifixion and Paintings of crucifixion
Further reading
See also
External links
|
| |
|
|
