John's Crucifixion Account

• The first involves Jesus handing over the custody of his mother to one of his disciple.
• The second is the act of the Roman soldiers breaking of the legs of the two robbers crucified with Jesus and piercing Jesus' side.

Jesus Handing Over Custody of His Mother

John 19:25-27 Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

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Piercing the Side

John 19:31-35 Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the sabbath, especially because that sabbath was a day of great solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. (He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth.)

The author's claim of complete veracity notwithstanding, we have a few reasons for thinking that this episode is fictional:[4]

• The existence of a doublet:
  We see that the Jews asked for the legs to be broken and the bodies to be taken down. Pilate, according to John, acquiesced to that. Yet just a few verses later (John 19:38) Joseph of Arimathea was reported to have come later and did the same thing (i.e. asked for permission to remove Jesus from the cross). This suggests that this episode was inserted rather hastily into the Johanine account.

• The construction[a] of the story from Old Testament stories.
  The breaking of the legs and the piercing of Jesus' side with the lance clearly fulfills Old Testament prophesies, as John himself admits:

  John 19:36-37 These things happened so that the scripture might be fulfilled, "Not one of his bones will be broken." [Exodus 12:46], [b] and another passage of scripture say, "They will look on the one whom they have pierced." [Zechariah 12:10]

That leave us to consider the source of the blood and water. The source for the fluid flow is not to be found in physiology but in theology: the water represents baptism and the blood represents the Eucharist. [7] The historical witness of John vanishes into thin air!

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Notes

References

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