The Cross to Calvary

As was the custom, the condemned man carried his cross to the place of execution. It was usually not the whole cross but just the cross-beam, because the upright was already secured in the ground. Estimates vary, but Pontius Pilate who was governor of Palestine for 11 years was not reticent about putting down rebellions immediately and ordering crucifixions, both to end the incident and as a deterrent. Historians put the number he crucified between four and six thousand. So the crucifixion of our Lord was far from a unique event. Hence the labour-saving practice of leaving the uprights securely planted.

The eve of Passover in 30 AD, what we call Good Friday, fell on April 7 (13th of Nisan). It was already spring and midday can be hot. The exhausted Jesus, harassed and shoved by the soldiers, set out for Calvary, the hill shaped like a skull outside the city walls, around 7:00 am.

At Calvary, Jesus is stripped of his clothes and his wrists are transfixed to the cross-beam. The traditional depiction of the nails through the palms of the hands is impossible. There is nothing but skin to prevent the nail tearing out when the weight of the man is suspended. But nature has provided a neat hole in the bone formation of the wrist which the Romans used.

The allusion to hands arises from the many references in Psalm 22 which the evangelists showed were fulfilled in our Lords passion and death. Just as John shows, when the soldiers divide Jesus clothing among them and then throw dice for the seamless robe rather than cut it. When officiating on the day of Atonement, the high priest wore an outer garment that was made like a poncho, a single strip of cloth with a hole for the head. Not only is Jesus a king, but also the new high priest.

To prolong the agony for the crucified man, there was either a small block for his feet or the so-called saddle, a short pole which took his weight as he perched on it. The cross-beam was affixed to the upright and the feet nailed. From Josephus and other historians we know that there were many variations for the cross. Deuteronomy refers to the man being nailed to a tree which leaves open what form the wood was shaped.

A pre-Vatican II devotion for midday on Good Friday was to preach on the seven last words of Jesus from the cross. Apart from his forgiveness of his executioners, his welcoming of the good thief into his kingdom, and his cry of abandonment by his Father from Psalm 22, for me the most important is the instruction to his mother and John to accept each other as son and mother. So we can truly refer to her as our blessed mother. And Jesus verifies, by his care for her in consigning her to Johns protection, that she is a widow by now and that Jesus was indeed her only son.

Deuteronomy instructs that the body of the crucified man shall not be left hanging on the cross after sunset (21:22). The Jewish authorities are punctilious about this observance in contrast to their casual dismissal of a human life for no real reason. So Pilate is requested to speed up the process so the bodies of the three men can be removed in accordance with the law.

Breaking the victims legs had a two-fold result. The shock to a weakened system when the iron hammer struck the legs could cause instant death. If this did not happen, then the crucified was no longer able to lift the weight off his arms to inflate his lungs, what the process of crucifixion involved, and he soon died of asphyxiation.

In the case of Jesus, the Roman officer, well versed in crucifixions, could see that Jesus had already expired. But to ensure no mistake, he stabbed the torso of Jesus with his short broadsword and, as John verifies as an observer, blood and water flowed out. This is evidence of a ruptured pericardial sac when the fluid (water for John untrained in human anatomy) and blood from a ruptured heart flowed out. Jesus is well and truly dead and the Roman officer willingly permits his friends to remove his body to the tomb nearby.

It amazes me that supposed scripture scholars, such as Barbara Thiering and others, can maintain, after this specific evidence, that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross, that he revived in the cool of the tomb to roll the heavy stone away and to walk free on Sunday morning, just over 48 hours after being crucified. And there are people who accept and believe this explanation!