Posted by Gary [GLamotta] on April 02, 1999 at 18:30:42 {ppHCdFLRUMMSSTtTA17sboLUiPtahc}:
In Reply to: ***A Physician & Crucifixion posted by Mary on April 02, 1999 at 13:52:35:
Hi Mary,
You are absolutely correct about the time Jesus died which was around 3:00 p.m. But that is not the time he was impaled.
I had in mind Mark 15:25 which says: "It was now the THIRD HOUR, and they impaled him."
To make a long story short, as John 19:14 says, the trial was at Noon, but since we know from other scriptures that it got dark from Noon to 3 and that he was impaled at 9:00 o'clock (third hour), we know something is wrong.
What is wrong is that JWs and others have focussed on the wrong thing and will not allow the Bible to present the correct date for Jesus' death.
Jesus died on a day before a sabbath but was to be in the grave for "three days and three nights" (Matthew 12:40). He rose on Saturday night. If he died on Friday afternoon, that's just two nights, Friday night and Saturday night.
For three nights, Jesus would have to die on a Thursday.
In 33CE, of course, "preparation for passover" (John 19:14) was on a Thursday. The day after Thursday was a passover sabbath day and the day after that was the regular sabbath day.
Thus when Jesus' death is correctly dated on Thursday, Nisan 20th, then everything works out scripturally including the three nights in the grave.
Thus the actual reference in Greek to the trial at the sixth hour "de-preparation for passover" addresses the afternoon before preparation would begin that evening. Thus Jesus trial was at Noon on Wednesday. After his trial he was impaled at the "third hour" or 9 o'clock that night. Thus he was on the torture stake all that night, shivering profusely in the cold, until the next day a Noon when it got dark three hours before his death.
Nighttime excutions were common and, in fact, might have been the rule. It was a good time for the execution, it was near the beginning of the Jewish day and after mealtime, so a nice convenient time to go out
and see the impalements.
It also allowed for a day of shame at least for these condemned ones.
So when Mark 15:25 says it was the "third hour" he meant the third hour of the "night" (compare Acts 23:23).
I agree with you that his impalement suggests a cross-beam. I'm not so sure about a "T" cross though since there was a sign placed above his head and there had to be room for that. Ther may have been a variety of styles used.
Cheers,
Gary