THE SETTING OF THE CRUCIFIXION

 

The Setting of the Crucifixion 

This title comes above come from Raymond Brown's massive, two-volume treatise The Death of the Messiah. and refers to the events narrated in Mark 15:22-27; Matthew 27:33-38; Luke 23:33-34; and John 19:17b-24. In approximate agreement with this analysis is the section in Robertson's classic A Harmony of the Gospels labeled “The First Three Hours on the Cross.” And as with any parallel accounts in the Bible, it is always of interest to look at the places in which they agree with one another and those in which, for one reason or another, they diverge. Thus the following can be said regarding those details of this period in the life of Christ in which these four writers agree and differ:

All four accounts agree that the guards cast lots to see who would get Jesus' garments. But John goes into much more detail, treating this event as the fulfillment of Psalm 22:18. In fact, John's Gospel contains exactly seven quotations from Psalms, referring to Psalm 22 in both John 2:17 and John 19:24.

The four Gospels all recount that there was a written superscription put over Jesus' head, containing the words “The King of the Jews,” even though the exact wording for the rest of the inscription is not exactly the same in any two of the four cases. One common explanation for the divergences (see Morris, for example) depends on John's elaboration in 19:19-22 that this inscription was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek at Pilate's command, despite objections from the Jewish chief priests.

Alternatively, Bruce considers that (1) Mark may have shortened the inscription because he was about at the end of his papyrus scroll; (2) “John includes the full name for he is going to make a comment on the accusation and the reaction it caused among the Jews (Jn 19:20-22)”; and (3) “The other Gospels have not chosen to discuss the charge, so they can use a shortened form.”

Whatever the case, I prefer Borchert's comments on this discrepancy: “Such a fact may create a problem for some contemporary readers who are word-oriented rather than meaning-oriented. But that would hardly be a concern for the Johannine writer who was not oriented to tape recorders and video cameras...The inscription in all four Gospels asserts that the so-called treasonous offense was that Jesus was 'the King of the Jews.'”

All of the four mention that two people were crucified with Jesus, one on each side. But this fact does not appear in exactly the same place in the different Gospels. Also, the identification of these two differs in that Luke calls them malefactors, Matthew and Mark label them as robbers, and John just calls them “two others (allous).”

Concerning that last Greek word above, it appears in the last part of John's Gospel in a regular fashion, as can be seen below:

                                        Figure 1: “Others” in the John's Passion Narratives

    1. Reference to John himself (18:16)

            2. “Did others tell you about me (Jesus)?” (18:34)

                    3. Two others crucified (19:18, 32)

    1' .Reference to John himself (20:2-8)

                    3' .Two other disciples (21:2, 8)

            2'. Other things not written down about Jesus (21:25)

In addition, only Luke's account contains Jesus' prayer to God: “Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing.” Since this line is not present in the earliest manuscripts of this Gospel, it was felt to have been added later by another hand, however, “relatively early in the transmission of the Third Gospel.” (Metzger) Comfort also notes the omission of these words in most early manuscripts but seriously considers that they may have been excised by later scribes who were not yet willing to extend forgiveness to the Jews in that manner. In either case, one must consider that the second volume in Luke's Gospel-Acts also mentions that another prominent martyr, namely Stephen, forgave his executioners in Acts 7:60. And that same sort of Jesus // Stephen pattern is also present in the parallels between Acts 7:56 and Luke 22:69 and between Acts 7:59 and Luke 23:46.

John 19:23-24 is the only place where it is mentioned that Jesus' coat was woven without seam, and not divided like His other garments. Culpepper explains: “His robe is seamless (19:23), and the net remains untorn (21:6,8,11); these images remind the reader of the emphasis on the unity of Jesus with his Father and his followers (17:11, 21-23).”

Mark 15:25 is the only one of the four accounts to note that the crucifixion took place on the third hour. Lane rejects this verse as not being authentic, saying that “evidence suggests that verse 25, in spite of its firm textual support, is a gloss inserted by an early reviser who noticed that Mark had failed to state the hour when Jesus was nailed to the cross.”

Despite that strong opinion shared with most other scholars, Metzger notes the somewhat divided manuscript evidence here as well as in John 19:14 indicating that in one or both of these verses there may have been confusion in copying due to the very close appearances of the letters representing the numerals 3 and 6. In any case, as Anderson says, “This is God's time and throughout it his plan and purpose are steadily worked out.”

Only Matthew (see 27:36) mentions that the soldiers sat down and kept watch on Jesus. This brings up an unusual verbal pattern shown in Figure 2 and present only in this account involving the repetition of the words “soldiers” (stratiotes) and “guard/watch/observe” (tereo).

                                   Figure 2: Word Symmetry in Matthew's Passion Account

    1. “Observe what the scribes and Pharisees say” (23:3)

            2. Governor's soldiers torture Jesus (27:27)

                    3. Soldiers keep watch under the cross (27:36)

                    3'. Soldiers keeping watch were filled with awe (27:54)

            2'. Governor's soldiers bribed to keep quiet (28:12-15)

    1'. “Observe what I have commanded you (28:20)

Of the other Gospel accounts, John's is the one which utilizes the word “soldier” the most, and tellingly, he uses it exactly six times in the Passion narrative. That number is of symbolic importance to John in that it falls one short of the “perfect” number seven, thus perhaps indicating the inability of the soldiers to prevent Jesus from carrying out his plan. In addition, there is a definite symmetry in the way those six passages are arranged (see Figure 3 below).

                                          Figure 3: “Soldiers” in John's Gospel

    1. Soldiers torture Jesus (19:2)

            2. Tunic not parted (19:24a)

                    3. Scripture fulfilled (19:24b)

            2'. Bones not broken (19:33)

    1'. Soldiers pierce Jesus' side (19:24)

                    3'. Scriptures fulfilled (19:36-37)

John, in 19:20, is the only Gospel writer to point out that many people passing by read the inscription over Jesus' head. Regarding this event, Borchert says, “John makes it clear just how public the event was intended to be...Moreover only John indicates that the entitlement was written in Hebrew or Aramaic (the language of the general populace), Latin (the language of the army and the presiding government), and Greek (the universal language of commerce in that time). There is little doubt that John saw in this entitlement an ironic declaration that Jesus was in death being declared universally the expected Messiah, the King of the Jews.”

I could go on in much more detail by referring to the thoughts of other scholars, but the above few examples should suffice to demonstrate that there are many different ways of conveying the same basic historical events depending on each author's theological perspective, use or non-use of standard literary techniques, sources utilized, favorite vocabulary words, and where the Passion Narrative fits into the overall scheme of each one's overall plan for presenting the whole Gospel. Keep in mind that if all four writers were to put down the same information in word-for-word agreement, any one of the accounts would suffice for inclusion into the Bible. But as it is, we have a much richer understanding of the events when seen in “stereo” instead of in “mono,” to use some rather dated sound recording nomenclature.