LESSON FOUR
THE EVENTS AS THEY TOOK PLACE IN THEIR ORDER
A QUICK RECAP AND REVIEW OF THE EVENTS UP UNTIL JESUS’ BURIAL
We again take a moment to reexamine the evidences before us that we have thus examined once before, some of whose details we only begin now to uncover even further.
As we continue to do this, we discover that there are details contained within the records which we have either not covered previously, or may have overlooked, for example those which we will cite here in this current part of our study and examinations.
As we have promised before, we will go over every detail several times, and as we do, we will discover new facets of information that will provide us with a richer and more detailed knowledge of the narrative.
We will be methodical in our evidence gathering, and from one part of our study to the next, continue building on what we have covered before, even if some of it may appear anecdotal.
What often appears anecdotal later takes on a whole new light when looked at from a different perspective, or when additional new evidence presents itself.
Now this may seem to some as being repetitious, but the reason for it is twofold: first, to review what we’ve covered thus far so as to glean additional data we may have missed previously, and second, to establish a fact which the evidence points to that will be used when we summarize our findings at the end of our study, and submit them for testimony.
At this point the, we return once again to the time of the Second Temple Era, and return to the places once more where these events took place, where we will discover…….
THE EVENTS AS THEY TOOK PLACE IN THEIR ORDER
JESUS HAD SUFFERED GREATLY EMOTIONALLY AND PHYSICALLY BEFORE AND DURING HIS CRUCIFIXION
1.) He had been betrayed by one of His closest followers.
2.) He had been struck by one of the temple police across the face when He was questioned by Annas at Annas and Caiaphas’ house.
3.) Perhaps the greatest indignity was to be charged by the high priest with blasphemy for answering forthrightly and correctly a question put to Him by the high priest himself if He was the Messiah, the Son of God.
4.) He had been mocked by the temple police and priests allied to Annas and Caiaphas – the high priests; who blindfolded Him and then proceeded to spit on Him, and strike blows upon Him with their fists, as they exclaimed, “Prophesy to us, You Messiah; who is the one who hit You?”
5.) Because of multiple false testimonies and the charges stemming from these by false witnesses brought against Him, Jesus had to suffer the indignity of having His character and word questioned repeatedly; first before Annas, then before Caiaphas, afterwards before Pilate, who at one point surrendered Jesus over to Herod Antipas’ custody, who then remanded Jesus back to Pilate’s.
6.) And even before Pilate, they continued to bear false witness against Him, as they had done before Herod Antipas.
7.) To add insult to injury, Jesus was asked to answer these false charges in front of the high priests in front of Herod Antipas, and in front of the Roman Governor; though not once did Jesus say a thing in His own defense, even though it was well within His right to do so because He was innocent of every single charge brought against Him.
8.) At one point Pilate, after examining all of the charges brought against Jesus; himself finding no guilt in Him as to a single charge, and being warned by his wife not to get involved with “this Righteous Man;” declared Jesus innocent of all of the charges and but had Him flogged, and would have released Him; but because of the high priests’ and their followers’ insistent demands to have Jesus crucified and for Bar Abbas’ – a murderous insurrectionist – be released; Pilate acquiesced and released for them the criminal – Bar Abbas while sentencing the innocent – Jesus to death by crucifixion.
9.) Jesus also suffered the additional insults of the Romans who were tasked by Pilate in having Him flogged.
10.) Sometime during His flogging, the Roman Cohort gathered in the Praetorium and dressed Jesus in a reddish purple robe, and fashioning a crown of thorns, they thrust onto His head.
Relative to our study thus far, a most incredible discovery is what we read in the Sibylline Oracles, which we include here:
“And being beaten He shall be silent lest anyone should know what THE WORD is, or whence it came, that it may speak with mortals; and He shall wear the CROWN OF THORNS.”
The Sibylline Oracles were written approximately one hundred fifty years before the birth of Christ. We continue now in outlining the ways in which Jesus suffered prior to the cross.
11.) The Romans placed a reed in Jesus’ right hand, and gathered all of the troops, and pretended feigned homage to Him, while mocking Him, acclaiming, “Hail, King of the Jews!,” while they each took turns at spitting at Him and beating Him with punches and strikes with the reed.
12.) At one point, before the Cohort was done with their mockery and abuse of Jesus, Pilate had Him taken out of the Praetorium wearing the crown of thorns and purple robe, saying, “Ecce Homo! Behold, the Man!” to them that he could not find any guilt in Him.
13.) This sent the chief priests when they saw Jesus, into a frenzy, and they cried out even more for His crucifixion; to which Pilate told them to crucify Him themselves, because he had found no in Him.
14.) But the crafty high priests, replied, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.”
This made Pilate all the more afraid. What on earth did he get himself involved with here? Taking Jesus back into the Praetorium, Pilate, visibly shaken, questioned Jesus, “Where are You from? But Jesus gave him no answer.
Pilate was exasperated, and uncontrollably shouted at Jesus, “You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have the authority to release You, and I have the authority to crucify You?”
But Jesus answered him, ” You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given to you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”
15.) Every effort of Pilate’s to release Jesus was blunted by the crafty statements of the chief priests, who charged Pilate by inference that if he opposed Jesus’ crucifixion, he then opposed Caesar; because Jesus had said He was a King.
16.) This forced Pilate’s hand, and at a place called the Pavement, but in Hebrew Gabbatha; he pronounced Jesus’ death by crucifixion.
17.) When the Romans finished mocking Him, they took the purple robe off of Him and put His garments on Him, and led Jesus out to be crucified, and arriving at the location, the Romans tried to give Jesus wine mingled with gall, but He refused it after tasting it.
18.) At the place of execution atop the Golgotha Hill, the Romans stripped the prisoners completely naked of all of their clothes, furthering the humiliation in the presence of scores of on-lookers. Large spike-like nails were driven into the prisoner’s wrists and feet. Jesus was crucified between the other two.
19.) Displaying acute disrespect and insensitivity, the Roman soldiers cast lots for Jesus’ only earthly possessions; His robe, as His life was slowly ebbing away before them. These, they divided into four parts, without tearing.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SIGN FASTENED ABOVE JESUS’ CROSS
We must pause again for a moment, to examine a piece of evidence about Jesus’ crucifixion which ties in to His Person and mission. We have overlooked this in our previous three examinations, but are compelled to address it here. It deals with the placard fastened atop Jesus’ cross.
Above the execution stake, they fastened inscriptions written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek; displaying the charges against the prisoners. The inscription above Jesus, read:
“THIS IS YESHUA, THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS” , to which the religious authorities took issue with Pilate on. But Pilate did not acquiesce; his reply to them was a simple:
“What I have written, I have written.”
The wording of the accusation used on that sign in this case is significant. There is a Hebrew acrostic which is lost when read in English.
An acrostic is defined as a composition in verse, in which the first, and sometimes the last, letters of a line, if read in order; forms a title, a name, or a statement. The epitaph written above Jesus’ execution stake, if read in Hebrew, reads:
Ha Yehudim v Melech HaNazarie Yeshua.
Now Hebrew is read from right to left. Thus we have the following:
Yeshua HaNazarei v Melech Ha Yehudim.
What eludes English translations of the scriptures is the acrostic comprised of the first Hebrew letters on the sign above Jesus’ cross.
This acrostic forms the sacred letters of the Tetragrammaton: the ineffable name of God! It is believed by many faithful Jewish and Gentile Christians and Messianic Jews that God took human form, and that form which He took was the historical Yeshua Ben Yosef ha Nezter; Jesus Son of Joseph, of Nazareth.
How fitting it is that this should be further born out! Whether by human or divine design, this is truly significant! Chuck Missler writes:
“If Pilate had rewritten it in the manner they had requested him to, it would not have spelled out the Name of God. Did Pilate realize this? Was it deliberate? Did he do it just to upset the Jewish leadership, which he realized delivered Him up for Envy? Or was he beginning to suspect that there was more going on here than he previously realized?”
THE PHYSICAL STATE OF JESUS BEFORE HE WAS CRUCIFIED
Again, we step back a moment to analyze the physical hardship Jesus suffered when He was flogged by the Romans.
The flogging Jesus received with a whip containing pieces of sharp metal and bone, tore into His flesh, and disfigured Him so greatly that He ceased to resemble a normal human being, and took on the appearance of a living mass of raw bleeding shredded flesh.
“In the Roman Empire, flagellation was often used as a prelude to crucifixion, and in this context is sometimes referred to as scourging. Whips with small pieces of metal or bone at the tips were commonly used. Such a device could easily cause disfigurement and serious trauma, such as ripping pieces of flesh from the body or loss of an eye. In addition to causing severe pain, the victim would approach a state of hypovolemic shock due to loss of blood.
The Romans reserved this treatment for non-citizens, as stated in the lex Porcia and lex Sempronia, dating from 195 and 123 BCE. The poet Horace refers to the horribile flagellum (horrible whip) in his Satires. Typically, the one to be punished was stripped naked and bound to a low pillar so that he could bend over it, or chained to an upright pillar so as to be stretched out. Two lictors (some reports indicate scourgings with four or six lictors) alternated blows from the bare shoulders down the body to the soles of the feet. There was no limit to the number of blows inflicted - this was left to the lictors to decide, though they were normally not supposed to kill the victim. Nonetheless, Livy, Suetonius and Josephus report cases of flagellation where victims died while still bound to the post. Flagellation was referred to as "half death" by some authors and apparently, many victims died shortly thereafter. Cicero reports in In Verrem, "pro mortuo sublatus brevi postea mortuus" ("taken away for a dead man, shortly thereafter he was dead"). In some cases the victim was turned over to allow flagellation on the chest, though this proceeded with more caution, as the possibility of inflicting a fatal blow was much greater.”
ISAIAH’S MESSIANIC PROPHECY PROVIDES A DESCRIPTION OF JESUS’ DISFIGUREMENT
So that the reader may get a better appreciation of the extent of Jesus’ disfigurement, the following differing versions of the same Scriptural Text are provided of Isaiah 52:14’s description of the Messiah’s suffering:
AS MANY WERE ASTONISHED AT THEE; HIS VISAGE WAS SO MARRED MORE THAN ANY MAN, AND HIS FORM MORE THAN THE SONS OF MEN;
JUST AS MANY WERE ASTONISHED AT YOU, MY PEOPLE, SO HIS APPEARANCE WAS MARRED MORE THAN ANY MAN AND HIS FORM MORE THAN THE SONS OF MEN.
JUST AS THERE WERE MANY WHO WERE APPALLED AT HIM – HIS APPEARANCE WAS SO DISFIGURED BEYOND THAT OF ANY MAN AND HIS FORM MARRED BEYOND HUMAN LIKENESS –
BUT MANY WERE AMAZED WHEN THEY SAW HIM. HIS FACE WAS SO DISFIGURED HE SEEMED HARDLY HUMAN, AND FROM HIS APPEARANCE, ONE WOULD SCARCELY KNOW HE WAS A MAN.
MANY WILL BE SHOCKED BY HIM. HIS APPEARANCE WILL BE SO DISFIGURED THAT HE WON’T LOOK LIKE ANY OTHER MAN. HIS LOOKS WILL BE SO DISFIGURED THAT HE WILL HARDLY LOOK LIKE A HUMAN.
There are more, but these will suffice to provide the reader with a descriptive illustration which should form a mental picture of Jesus’ suffering as He faced the cross.
THIS PROPHETIC DESCRIPTION OF GOD’S SUFFERING SERVANT IS MESSIAH YESHUA/JESUS, BUT WHAT DO THE ANCIENT RABBIS SAY?
Of whom does this prophecy speak? It speaks of the Servant of the Lord, and this Servant of the Lord in this passage is not Israel, for the distinction is made between “You My people” – meaning Israel and this Servant Who would be so brutally beaten that He would scarcely appear human anymore.
We understand this prophecy to be about the Messiah, the Suffering Servant of the Lord, but how did the ancient rabbis; before the advent of Catholic and Protestant Christianity, interpret this prophecy?
The rabbis too in times past interpreted Isaiah 52:14 as applying to Messiah. Here we offer a small sample of their opinions:
“Our Rabbis expound this in a Midrash of the KING MESSIAH, saying, “He shall be higher than Abraham, exalted above Moses, and loftier than the ministering angels.”
“MY servant ie., the KING MESSIAH, shall be high and exalted, and lofty exceedingly…..”
“Behold, my Servant MESSIAH shall prosper; HE shall be high, and increased, and be exceedingly strong.”
“The expression ‘My Servant,’ is applied to the MESSIAH as it is applied to HIS ancestor in the verse, ‘I have sworn to David my Servant.”
“Messiah, who is the perfection of the world, will be high and lofty, and exalted.”
And Rashi himself attributes the passage to the Messiah, where he writes:
“’BEHOLD MY SERVANT SHALL PROSPER’ Our Rabbis apply this to the Messiah.
WE NOW EXAMINE THE AFFECTS AND MARKS OF CRUCIFIXION ON JESUS’ BODY
We now come to the part in our study where we must examine the physical marks that Jesus suffered – perhaps one of the most painful aspects of our study.
The book Verdict On the Shroud, makes the following observation about Jesus’ crucifixion aside from His resurrection:
"... the crucifixion and burial of Jesus differed significantly from the ordinary ways the Romans crucified criminals and the Jews buried their dead. Jesus' case was irregular. He was scourged [whipped, flogged], crowned with thorns, nailed to his cross, stabbed in the side (instead of his legs being broken), buried well but incompletely, and his body left the cloth before it [his body] decomposed."
This observation is significant because it presents additional evidence that Jesus not only suffered the death of a common criminal on the cross, but He was made to suffer greatly, even uniquely, before that death.
Jesus’ suffering is most unique, and when examined, as we do here, attests to that uniqueness. Again, we return to the Shroud of Turin, because it provides us with the image of a man who suffered and died exactly as Jesus did.
“Irrespective of how the images were made, there is adequate information here to state that they are anatomically correct. There is no problem in diagnosing what happened to this individual. The pathology and physiology are unquestionable and represent medical knowledge unknown 150 years ago.
“This is a 5-foot, 11-inch male Caucasian weighing about 178 pounds. The lesions are as follows: beginning at the head, there are blood flows from numerous puncture wounds on the top and back of the scalp and forehead. The man has been beaten about the face, there is swelling over one cheek, and he undoubtedly has a black eye. His nose tip is abraded, as would occur from a fall, and it appears that the nasal cartilage may have separated from the bone. There is a wound in the left wrist, the right one being covered by the left hand. This is the typical lesion of crucifixion. The classical artistic and legendary portrayal of a crucifixion with nails through the palms of the hands is spurious [i.e., wrong]: the structures in the hand are too fragile to hold the live weight of a man, particularly of this size. Had a man been crucified with nails in the palms, they would have torn through the bones, muscles, and ligaments, and the victim would have fallen off the cross.
“There is a stream of blood down both arms. Here and there, there are blood drips at an angle from the main blood flow in response to gravity. These angles represent the only ones that can occur from the only two positions which can be taken by a body during crucifixion. [A momentary 'T' position to breathe, until the pain on the feet becomes too great, and a "Y" position with bent knees, which quickly paralyzes the chest muscles from strain and pain.]
“On the back and on the front there are lesions which appear to be scourge marks. Historians have indicated that Romans used a whip called a flagrum. This whip had two or three thongs, and at their ends there were pieces of metal or bone which look like small dumbbells. These were designed to gouge out flesh. The thongs and metal end-pieces from a Roman flagrum fit precisely into the anterior and posterior scourge lesions on the body. The victim was whipped from both sides by two men, one of whom was taller than the other, as demonstrated by the angle of the thongs.
“There is a swelling of both shoulders, with abrasions indicating something heavy and rough had been carried across the man's shoulders within hours of death. On the right flank, a long, narrow blade of some type entered in an upward direction, pierced the diaphragm, penetrated into the thoracic cavity through the lung into the heart. This was a post-mortem event, because separate components of blood cells and clear serum drained from the lesion. Later, after the corpse was laid out horizontally and face up on the cloth, blood dribbled out of the side wound and puddled along the small of the back. There is no evidence of either leg being fractured. There is an abrasion of one knee, commensurate with a fall (as is the abraded nose tip); and, finally, a spike had been drive through both feet, and blood had leaked from both wounds onto the cloth. The evidence of a scourged man who was crucified and died from the cardiopulmonary failure typical of crucifixion is clear-cut. [Italics added]
Further down, we read the following about the manner in which Jesus died:
“Physicians who have examined the Shroud image are unanimous in their belief that the man was dead when he was placed in the Shroud, and that his death was caused by crucifixion and the tortures that preceded it. They also agree that he was dead when the spear pierced his side. They are not as sure about the exact [emphasis in original] cause of Jesus' death, but their opinions are quite similar.
“Most experts hold that Jesus died primarily of asphyxiation, the usual cause of death in crucifixion. According to this view, Jesus died more quickly than most victims because scourging and beating had gravely weakened him. He was eventually unable to pull himself up on the cross in order to breathe [the "T" position described above], and he asphyxiated in the "down" position [the bent-knee "Y" position] on the cross. In this case, the muscles around his lungs kept him from exhaling and directly caused his death. Bucklin adds that complications due to congestive heart failure were likely as well.
“Sava offers a related alternative. He holds that the internal hemorrhaging in the chest cavity caused by the fierce scourging was a cause of death. The liquids slowly compressed the lungs, causing asphyxiation by pleural effusion.
“Davis presents another somewhat similar view. He holds that the pericardium, the sac surrounding the heart, filled with fluid under the stress of suffering. This liquid compressed the heart, eventually causing heart failure. After Jesus was dead, the Roman lance pierced both the pericardium and the heart, and released the blood and watery fluid.
A consensus is visible among these views. Most scholars hold that asphyxiation played an important part in Jesus' death. He struggled on the cross to keep breathing. Some scholars hold that he asphyxiated directly when the chest muscles fail to sustain breathing. Others suggest asphyxiation as the blood and fluid also compressed his lungs. But all these scholars agree that the Shroud contains conclusive evidence that Jesus indeed died and that it reveals the general features of his death. [End-note number omitted]”
[end of quote] “
Part of this suffering is what we have reexamined here, because it is unique to Jesus and to no other person in the annals of recorded history. And it is this evidence which establishes Jesus’ death.
THE EVENTS AS THEY TOOK PLACE IN THEIR ORDER
THE NATURAL OCCURRENCES BEHELD BY MANY THAT DEFIED NATURE THE DAY WHEN JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED AND DIED
Though Jesus was crucified at the third hour, darkness had covered the land from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, and there had occurred a great earthquake that caused the heavy lintel holding the great veil of the temple to fall, and with its fall, the veil itself to rip from top to bottom.
There is one secular independent source who attests to this darkness. He is Phlegon of Tralles, a second century Roman astronomer, whose record has the following to say in witness of this event:
"that the greatest eclipse of the sun that was ever known happened then, for the day was so turned into night that the stars appeared."
The third century Christian historian Sextus Julius Africanus, has this to say about Phlegon’s observation and record of this event:
"Phlegon records that during the reign of Tiberius Caesar there was a complete solar eclipse at full moon from the sixth to the ninth hour."
Another church historian, Eusebius of Caesarea, writing in his Chronicle, quotes Phlegon as saying that during the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad:
“a great eclipse of the sun occurred at the sixth hour that excelled every other before it, turning the day into such darkness of night that the stars could be seen in heaven, and the earth moved in Bithynia, toppling many buildings in the city of Nicaea.”
The rocks had split, graves were opened, and many other signs had accompanied this event the moment Messiah had expired, and those who saw these things – a great number of people – both friends and supporters of Jesus, as well as His enemies and detractors – witnessed at least the most significant ones.
The Roman Centurion commanding a full cohort of hundreds of Caesar’s finest troops, guarding Golgotha and its perimeter in case there should be any rioting or insurrection because of Jesus’ execution; seeing from a distance atop the hill across into the temple itself the heavy doors opening by themselves, the falling of the huge and heavy lintel, the rending of the thick veil, the earthquake, the darkness over all the earth, the rocks split; the moment Jesus dies, and noting how gracious Jesus had been throughout His entire ordeal; himself exclaims, “Truly this Man was Righteous! Truly this Man was the Son of God!”
Many of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who had stood there at the crucifixion, and seen all of these things, but had not been part of the earlier crowd allied with Annas and Caiaphas who had demanded Jesus’ execution; returned to their homes with great wailing, mourning; beating their breasts along the way as they went along.
We are reminded of the words of the prophet Zephaniah who says:
“THEN IT WILL COME ABOUT ON THE DAY OF THE LORD’S SACRIFICE,
THAT I WILL PUNISH THE PRINCES, THE KING’S SONS,
AND ALL WHO CLOTHE THEMSELVES WITH FOREIGN GARMENTS.
“AND I WILL PUNISH ON THAT DAY ALL WHO LEAP ON THE TEMPLE THRESHOLD,
WHO FILL THE HOUSE OF THEIR LORD WITH VIOLENCE AND DECEIT.
“AND ON THAT DAY,” DECLARES THE LORD,
“THERE WILL BE THE SOUND OF A CRY FROM THE FISH GATE,
A WAIL FROM THE SECOND QUARTER,
AND A LOUD CRASH FROM THE HILLS.
“WAIL, O INHABITANTS OF THE MORTAR – JERUSALEM,
FOR ALL THE PEOPLE OF CANAAN WILL BE SILENCED;
ALL WHO WEIGH OUT SILVER WILL BE CUT OFF.
…“MOREOVER, THEIR WEALTH WILL BECOME PLUNDER,
YES, THEY WILL BUILD HOUSES BUT NOT INHABIT THEM,
AND PLANT VINEYARDS BUT NOT DRINK THEIR WINE.”
THE EVENTS AS THEY TOOK PLACE IN THEIR ORDER
THE LOCATION WHERE JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED IS SIGNIFICANT
There are a couple of details pertaining to the location chosen for Jesus’ execution which we will analyze, because these will provide us with additional data upon which we will build this examination into a cohesive narrative and report of the events, people, location, and occurrences that surrounded the death burial, resurrection, and ascension of the Messiah.
Jesus had died, high on a hill above a hill resembling a skull just outside the gate to the city of Jerusalem with a great number of people – both friends and foes – looking on, witnessing this death.
The location was not an obscure far from the environs of Jerusalem, but just outside of the city walls themselves on a hill opposite them – outside its gate.
This hill allowed passersby to view those being executed, along a road that led to a street within the walls, just within shouting distance; from which the same passersby could hurl their insults at Jesus which the Gospels say they did.
THE LOCATION WHERE JESUS WAS BURIED IS SIGNIFICANT
Still trembling in fear for his life, but gathering enough courage; Joseph and Nicodemus – both members of the Sanhedrin, but who did not agree to the high priesthood’s plans; both being righteous men awaiting God’s kingdom – went to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus so they could bury it.
After confirming that Jesus had died, Pilate granted them His body, and they had it taken down from the cross, Joseph wrapped it in clean linen, and laid it in a nearby unused tomb within a garden hewn into solid rock on the side of Golgotha.
Nicodemus had his servants bring a hundred pounds of spices, perfumes, and aloes, and had Jesus embalmed before returning home.
THE EVENTS AS THEY TOOK PLACE IN THEIR ORDER
SUMMARY OF THE KEY EVENTS OF THAT DAY IN THEIR ORDER
1.) The Third Hour: Jesus is sentenced by Pilate and crucified.
2.) The Sixth Hour: Darkness descends over the entire land.
3.) The Ninth Hour: Jesus dies.
Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn has written a very interesting sidebar to the hour in which Messiah died:
“In Micah 5:2, it says, “You Bethlehem, one will go forth from you whose days or origins are from ancient times.” The word in Hebrew for ancient times is kedem which actually means the east or the sunrise because that is how everything begins. The sunrise is in the east. So He comes, His origins are from the beginning, the kedem, the place of the sunrise. It is interesting because if that is where He is from, then His destination would be the place of the sunset or in Hebrew, that is the word for the west, which is the maharav, which means the sunset place, the going down, awesome thing. Because what was Messiah’s destination? It was the cross, the crucifixion. And where was it to the west to the maharav of the city. When did He die on the cross? He died as the sun was going down. The time of the beginning of the sunset the maharav. In fact, there was a sacrifice in the temple called the maharav, which is the sunset sacrifice and when that was going down, you know when it is offered up? Three o’clock in the afternoon. When did Messiah die, 3 o’clock, when the sunset sacrifice, because He came from the east to the west. He came to be the sunset. He is the light of the world and when He goes down, the old life is over. Thank God that He is the maharav, the evening, the sunset sacrifice. It means that the sun has gone down on your sins, on your old life, down on your past, down on even today’s sin. You can be finished now with the old life because He is the sunset.”
The significance of the Gospel account of the hour of Jesus’ death would not be lost on Jesus’ Jewish followers, and its significance would not be rediscovered until the modern era by a Jewish believer in Jesus as Messiah with knowledge of such things – Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn.
4.) Evening Before Shabbat: Joseph obtains Jesus’ body and buries it in his own unused tomb cut on the side of the hill by a garden out of solid rock with only one entrance/egress point.
The women whom have followed these men look on and see where the body of Jesus has been lain, for they plan to return there after Shabbat to perfume it.
For now, after securing the tomb with a huge heavy stone, everyone returns to their homes and prepare for Shabbat.
5.) The next day, after the preparation day, during Shabbat: The high priests visit Pilate and request that a Roman Guard be placed at the tomb where Jesus’ body is laid, and Pilate grants their request, and dispatches a Guard to secure the tomb and its perimeter.
6.) As this is being done, Jesus’ followers are observing Shabbat with their families.
We know from the records themselves, these people are upright in heart, being observant Jews of the highest moral character, zealous for the Law and their ancestral traditions.
This is why throughout the Gospel of John, for example; the narrator to the story repeatedly attests to their veracity.
And here we stop for now our examination, and Lord willing, we will pick up our examination by studying Jewish methods of embalmment at the time, the various tombs of the Second Temple Era, and more in our next part.
________________________________________SOURCES CITED:
Matthew 26:17-16, 20-25, 47-50, 27:3-10, Mark 14:10-11, 18-21, 43-46, Luke 22:3-6, 21-22, 47-48, John 6:64, 13:18, 21—30, 18:2-12, Acts 1:15-20.
John 18:22.
Matthew 26:63-66, Mark 14:61-64, Luke 22:66-71.
Matthew 26:67, Mark 14:65, Luke 22:63-64.
Matthew 26:59-61, Mark 14:55-59, Luke 22:54, Luke 22:65. John 18:19-21.
John 18:12, 19-24.
Matthew 26:57, Mark 14:53, Luke 22:54a, John 18:24.
Matthew 27:1-2, Mark 11a, 15:1, Luke 23:1, John 18:28.
Luke 23:6-11.
Matthew 27:12a, Mark 15:3, Luke 23:2, 5,.13.
Luke 23:10.
Matthew 26:62-63a , Mark 14:60-61a.
Luke 23:6-7, 9.
Matthew 26:62-63, 27:13-14, Mark 14:61, 15:4-5, Luke 23:9
Daniel 9:26 says: “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself.”(NKJV) This indicates that Messiah’s death would not be for His own guilt, because He would be innocent of the charges leveled against Him; yet henceforth from that time onwards, He would be cut off from His nation and His people by the leaders of Judaism. This prophetic Scripture ties in precisely with Isaiah 53:8, where it says of Messiah: “For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.” Messiah would die, not for Himself, but for His nation; for His people – the Jewish people.
Matthew 27:19.
Luke 23:4, 14-15, John 18:38.
Matthew 27:26a.
Luke 23:16, 20-22, John 19:12.
Luke 23:25
Luke 23:19, 25.
Isaiah 53:9b.
Prophetically He had to be pierced, and so He was. See Psalm 22:16. Zechariah 12:10-114, 13:6-7.
Luke 23:16, John 19:1. This was done with 39 lashes and perhaps more.
Roman Cohorts numbered between 480 and 800 troops.
Matthew 27:27, Mark 15:16, John 19:1-3, Pilate brings Jesus out of the Praetorium for a moment wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe (John 19:4-7), then takes Jesus back into the Praetorium to question Him again privately in connection to the charge that Jesus “made Himself out to be the Son of God.” (John 19:7-12). Jesus’ reply to Pilate compels him to seek to release Jesus, but to no avail (John 19:12), which is part of what we outline above as part of Jesus’ great suffering before being crucified. It is interesting that Luke does not reference this incident (the entire Praetorium Guard’s mockery of Him), but only has Pilate’s statement of punishing (flogging) Jesus (Luke 23:16), followed by the following his sentencing of Jesus for crucifixion and release of the insurrectionist Bar Abbas (Luke 23:24-25).
Matthew 27:28.
Mark 15:17, John 19:2b.
John 19:2a.
Matthew 27:29.
Sibylline Oracles.
Around between 117-184 B.C.
Mark 15:18, John 19:3a.
John 19:3b.
Matthew 27:30, Mark 15:19.
John 19:5. The words of Pilate in the Latin Vulgate Version of John 19:5. It is the Latin words of “Behold the Man!” that Pilate uttered in Latin. From Wikipedia, the Online Encyclopedia: “The original Greek is Ἰδοὺ ὁ ἄνθρωπος (Idou ho Anthrōpos). The King James Version translates the phrase into English as Behold the Man. The scene is widely depicted in Christian art.” The link to the full article can be found at the following URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecce_Homo.
John 19:4-5.
John 19:4.
John 19:6.
John 19:7.
John 19:9.
John 19:10.
John 19:11. This would imply that Joseph Caiaphas’ guilt in delivering Jesus to Pilate was greater than Pilate’s, because , whereas Pilate was following Roman policy against sedition of those calling themselves kings, Caiaphas intentionally did everything possible to assure that Jesus be executed one way or another – he wanted Jesus dead.
– whether out of altruism – something Pilate was not known to have – or out of fear for getting himself involved in something he sensed he would later regret -
John 19:12. . Imagine suffering rejection by your own religious leaders – the very people to whom the people would normally look to for support and help under these circumstances.
John 19:13-15. Pilate mocked the high priests and their guards – the temple police right to the end.
Matthew 27:31, Mark 15:20.
John 19:16.
A place atop a hill called a skull, because it resembled a human skull, and it is here where the Romans staged their executions so that everyone could view them as they walked along in and out of the city.
Matthew 27:34, Mark 15:23, which was administered to ease the pain, but Jesus refused such an escape. See Psalm 69:20-21.
Matthew 27:35-36, Mark 15:24, Luke 23:34b.
Jn. 19:20b.
Mt. 27:37. Yeshua was and is the way His name would be pronounced in Hebrew.
John 19:19.
Matthew 27:37c, Mark. 15:26b, Luke 23:38b, John 19:19b. Each of the Gospel narratives records only a portion of the full inscription. I have reconstructed what the full inscription may have said by combining all four accounts. Some believe that each of the Gospels contains the inscription in each of the three languages in use in that day, and therefore each translation of the charge would differ slightly from the other. The languages were Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Matthew records the inscription in Aramaic or Hebrew; Mark and Luke record it in Latin, and John records it in Greek. The versions in the different languages differed slightly from one another, though the recreation we have included should be the closest and most complete version of it.
John 19:21-22.
יהוה in Hebrew. In English: YHWH, sometimes written YaHWeH (pronounced, Yodh Hey Vav Hey; which is the pronunciation of each of the letters of the Tetragrammaton or erroneously; Jehovah; in some translations: the Lord. Jesus’ name in Hebrew incorporates these sacred letters. His name in Hebrew means God saves or God is salvation, or just plain salvation.
The religious leadership.
Chuck Missler, The Epitaph on the Cross of Yeshua, an Internet article from his book, The Creator Beyond Time and Space. For more information, the reader is directed to the following URL: http://www.khouse.org/6640/CD103/
From Wikipedia the Online Encyclopedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagellation
King James Version (Cambridge).
New American Standard Bible.
New International Version
The New Living Translation.
GOD’S WORD Translation.
Although some translations render it hardly distinctive one from another, though it is obvious Isaiah the prophet makes a distinction between his people – the Jewish people, and this Servant of the Lord whom God refers to as “My Servant” and distinguishes “You My People from “My Servant.”
R. Sa’adyah Ibn Danan.
Rabbi Sh’muel Lanyado.
Targum Jonathan.
Rabbi Yepheth ben Ali.
Rabbi Lieva of Prague.
Rashi.
The reason for using the Shroud of Turin as a template is because the image of the person on the shroud resembles a man whose sufferings mirror those of Jesus in the Gospels. Regarding the Shroud, however, four points are important:
1. Aside from issues of Resurrection, Jesus Christ's crucifixion is unique in a number of ways, described below.
2. Scientists agree that even if the Shroud is genuine, they cannot prove that the man in it is Christ, because science deals with repeatable natural phenomena and the Crucifixion and Resurrection were one-time events.
3. Scientists have been able to do a forensic pathological analysis of the man who was in the Shroud. They have been able to determine the causes of the wounds he suffered and the medical results.
4. The man in the Shroud was executed in exactly the same way Jesus reportedly was executed.
From an internet article titled, Forensic Pathology Report on Jesus at the following URL: http://www.godonthe.net/evidence/forensic.htm
Kenneth Stephenson, Gary Habermas, Verdict on the Shroud, pg. 162, Dell/Banbury Books, 1981, Wayne, Pennsylvania.
Report on the Shroud of Turin, Dr. Joseph Heller, was a former head of Harvard’s Internal Medicine and Pathology. His report is presented in a simplified format by Dr. Robert Buklin, coroner and Forensic Pathologist for LA County. From an internet article titled, Forensic Pathology
Report on Jesus at the following URL: http://www.godonthe.net/evidence/forensic.htm
Report on the Shroud of Turin, Dr. Joseph Heller, was a former head of Harvard’s Internal Medicine and Pathology. His report is presented in a simplified format by Dr. Robert Buklin, coroner and Forensic Pathologist for LA County. From an internet article titled, Forensic Pathology
Report on Jesus at the following URL: http://www.godonthe.net/evidence/forensic.htm
This is necessary because the Muslims and skeptics claim that Jesus did not die on the cross, when in fact the records provide ample evidence that indeed He did die a most gruesome death. In the face of such evidence it is preposterous to claim otherwise, even by those who claimed that He was drugged and later revived – impossibility now, even with our advances in medicine, and a greater impossibility then. Even He had been in some altered state of consciousness , as some have conjectured erroneously, or in some state of deep hypnosis; there is a threshold that one cannot physically return from; and Jesus had long previously breached that threshold. There was absolutely no way that such a person, having undergone such traumatic physical torture and punishment could recover in a span of three days from such a state as that suffered by Jesus. He was quite dead by 3:00PM.
Mark 15:25, 9:00AM. Jesus was on the cross from sometime between 9:00 AM and sometime after 3:00PM, when His body was taken down by Joseph and Nicodemus and their servants.
Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44.
Matthew 27:51.
This, according to him, occurred in the fourteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, precisely the year Jesus died!
Circa 264 – 340A.D.
Circa 32 or 33 A.D.
Chronicle, Olympiad 202, trans. Carrier (1999).
This would account for Matthew, who had connections with the Romans, being the only one recording these incredible occurrences the day Jesus died. The Romans and those at Golgotha, saw nature’s upheaval.
Ernest L. Martin, Secrets of Golgotha, page 88, Associates for Scriptural Knowledge, 1996, Portland, Oregon.
Matthew 27:51-54.
Luke 23:48.
“The family of Annas had gained much of their wealth from the four “booths of the sons of Annas”, which were market stalls located on the Mount of Olives. They also had other market stalls inside the temple complex, in the Court of the Gentiles. Through these, they had a monopoly on the sale of sacrificial animals, as well as on the exchanging of money into temple coins for the offerings. This enabled them to charge exorbitant prices, effectively gaining their wealth through the exploitation and oppression of the poor. When Jesus entered the temple, he saw all this, became angry and drove them all out of temple, denouncing them by saying, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of robbers” (Mark 11:17). When the chief priests heard about this, they looked for a way of killing Jesus. His action had hurt the family of Annas financially, so they wanted to kill him.” From the following link: http://julianspriggs.com/annascaiaphas.aspx Of these priests, Josephus writes that the corrupt priesthood robbed the regular priests their portion of the tithe, so that they and their families starved. He writes the following: “As for the high priest Ananias, he increased in glory everyday, and this to a great degree, and had obtained the favour and esteem of the citizens in a signal manner, for he was a great hoarder of money; he cultivated the friendship of Albinus (the Roman governor), and of the high priest (Jesus) by making them presents. He also had servants who were very wicked, who joined themselves to the boldest sort of people, and went to the thrashing floors, and took away the tithes that belonged to the priests by violence, and did not refrain from beating such as would not give these tithes to them. So the other high priests acted in the like manner, as did those his servants without anyone being able to prohibit them, so that (some of the) priests, that of old were wont to be supported with those tithes, died for want of food”(Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 20:9:205-207).
The records are clear about this, where it says that the great crowd that witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion returned home wailing, beating their breasts (Luke 23:48).
This loud crash of the lintel of he great veil of the temple, which came crashing down and tore the veil of the temple from top to bottom, could have been heard from the surrounding areas facing the temple the day Messiah died.
Zephaniah 1:7-13. All of these things came upon that generation. Jerusalem and the temple were leveled to the ground, the corrupt priesthood ended, Hellenistic Second Temple “Biblical” Post Exilic Judaism ended, and a new “Rabbinic” Judaism began. Jewish religious life as that generation had come to know it, ended, just as Peter had prophesied in his letter it would (1Peter 4:7). When Peter wrote his letters, the region had through the years become increasingly unstable, and since the fight was between Jewish Zealots and Rome, the peaceful Nazarenes were caught in the middle, and in his letter Peter was admonishing them to remain an example in their character and law-abiding, though Rome – under Nero – had begun increasingly repressive policies against the Christians, while being increasingly punitive with his Jewish subjects overall.
Matthew 27:33, Mark 15:22, Luke 23:33, John 19:17.
Hebrews 13:11-13.
Hebrews 13:12.
Matthew 27:39, Mark 15:29.
Luke 23:51.
Matthew 27:57-Mark 15:42-43, Luke 23:50, John 19:38-42.
Matthew 27:58b, Mark 15:45.
John correctly uses the plural “them” to denote Joseph and Nicodemus, who would have brought their servants with them to handle the physical labor of bringing Jesus’ body down, wrap it in the clean linen shroud, carry it to the nearby tomb, and lay it in the tomb, where the two men would get right to work, quickly preparing the body in Nicodemus’ myrrh and aloes (John 19:40. Wherever the narrative use’s Joseph’s name to denote the disposition of Jesus’ body, it is understood that the Gospel writer is referring to all those under Joseph and Nicodemus, who were present doing their bidding.
Matthew 27:60, Luke 23:53.
Matthew 27:59-60, Mark 15:46b, It was the nearest location to where Jesus was crucified. One of the Gospels says it was nearby (John 19:42b).
John 19:39-41.
9:00AM.
Mark 15:25.
12:00PM – Noon.
Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44. See the prophecy of Amos 8:9-10. This could not have been an eclipse of the sun, for the Passover was celebrated at the time of the full moon, when the moon is opposite to the sun.
3:00PM.
Matthew 27:46, 50, Mark 15:34, 37, Luke 23:44, 46, John 19:30. It is significant that all four Gospels record Jesus’ death.
Jonathan Cahn, Sapphires Devotional Booklet, “Mystery of the Kedem,” Hope of the World Ministries, Lodi, New Jersey.
In Judaism, this time is known as “between the two evenings” – that is from the Sixth Hour – 3:00PM onwards. Sometime after 3:00PM (the 6th hour) after Jesus had expired and hung on the cross, Joseph and Nicodemus went to Pilate to ask for His body in order to place it securely in Joseph’s tomb before the beginning of Shabbat which approached. Luke 23:54 says that it was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
Matthew 27:57-61, Mark 15:42-45, Luke 23:50-56, John 19:38-42.
Matthew 27:61, Mark 15:47, Luke 23:55.
Matthew 27:60, Mark 15:46b.
Luke 24:56b.
Matthew 27:62-66.
Luke 23:56b.
John 15:27, 19:35, 20:30-31, 21:24-25.________________________________________
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