For blaspheming the name of the Lord the Old Testament decrees that the offender "must be put to death. The entire company must stone him." The Talmud sets here a cautionary remark: 

"If the accused blasphemes and reviles, but is not however guilty of pronouncing 'the unutterable name of God', it is enough that he be scourged."⁵⁶

Jesus was first taken to Pilate in the Antonia fortress, in which he customarily took up residence during the great feasts. He usually transferred a 600 strong reinforcement from Caesarea to Jerusalem with him. He had received his training in Rome at a time when there had been a strong anti-semitic spirit at large. Now Jesus had fallen into the hands of the occupying powers. 
Normally the Procurator should have first of all received an official indictment, a postulatio, which he could also have rejected. Following this, insofar as the indictment was accepted, he should have received the delatio nominis, in which the accuser states that he is not acting out of personal hatred or envy. The charges were made publicly to the judicial authorities, the accused had the right to call his own witnesses and could also conduct his own defence. Not one of these official procedures had been adapted to the conditions in Jerusalem, because the occupying forces were trying to accommodate their laws to the local religious customs. 

Pilate first asked his early morning visitors what charges they were bringing against Jesus. "If he were not a criminal," they replied, "we would not have handed him over to you." Pilate urged them to judge him by their own law. "But," they answered him, "we have no right to execute anyone." Luke adds to John's description: "We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king." Pilate sensed some ulterior motive in the affair. Matthew says that "he knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him". 

This marks the beginning of a remarkable chain of events. Despite the picture we have from Josephus of Pilate as a harsh and highhanded wielder of power, we now see him trying to avoid his responsibility: on hearing that Jesus is a Galilean, he sends him to Herod Antipater. Luke is the only one who gives us an account of this episode. Herod wishes to see some miracle, but when Jesus remains completely silent he is treated with ridicule and cursed. Herod then has him dressed in "an elegant robe" and sends him back to Pilate (Luke 23:7-12). It was publicly asserted of Herod that he aspired to the royal honour of his father, and now it is as if he officially bestows his kingly robes on the Jews' own representative. There may have been an oral message accompanying the action, as Luke says, "That day Herod and Pilate became friends". 

Pilate has a further two attempts at saving Jesus. First he suggests that Barabbas, arrested for "insurrection and murder", stand in Jesus' place. It was customary at the feast to liberate a prisoner favoured by the populace -- which one should be freed, Jesus or Barabbas? Barabbas wins in the shouted voting. Following this Pilate has Jesus flogged, then brought to the wide steps which lead down to the Tyropoean Valley for the whole populace to see. Pilate there pronounces the results of his investigation: "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him. 

The servants of the priesthood are however present. They form a chorus and repeat, "Crucify him, crucify him!" Pilate takes Jesus inside again for a moment to continue the interrogation, "but the Jews kept shouting, 'If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar."' "Distinguished officials were referred to by the name amicus Caesaris, 'Caesar's friend'. This accusation weighs the Procurator in the balance, so much so that he places himself on his judge's seat, known as the Lithostroton, in Hebrew Gabbatha, and from there pronounces his final verdict. 

In the cellar of the Antonia fortress there is the outline of a dice game pattern carved in the stonework, next to which is a drawing reminiscent of a star of David. Its significance was a source of bewilderment for long, until a similar pattern was found in Alexandria. The Romans, it transpires, had a game known as Basilica in which the loser was granted every possible worldly pleasure for three days and then was killed. Princes, when they lost, used slaves to take their place. This Basilica -- the 'game of kings' -- explains the behaviour of the soldiers towards the captive Jesus. First they scourged him, in a way of which only occupying forces are capable, then they pretended he was a king, as Herod Antipater had done before them. A crown of thorns was pressed onto his head and he was arrayed in the purple robe which Herod had sent, and then saluted mockingly: "Hail, O king of the Jews!" This brings to mind the Rabbinic interpretation of Psalm 21, which says that the Messiah-King will be adorned with a golden crown and a purple robe. The Midrash says that thus "God will place his crown on the head of the Messiah-King."⁵⁷ 

Thus ended what was both the shortest and the longest trial in the history of the human race, as it is still going on to this day in our hearts. Judge Cohen, in his treatment of Jesus' words on the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing", says beautifully of this most sensitive subject: 

"These words leave open at least the possibility that the Jews acted in good faith, either that they were led astray or that they were incited to the deed."⁵⁸

Cohen, Israel's Supreme High Court judge, when alluding to the accusations of the Talmud, says that, "Jesus never incited or encouraged anyone to idolatry. Everything which he taught, he taught exclusively in the name of the God of Israel".⁵⁹ 

Facts relating to Jesus' death 

The death and resurrection of Jesus are inseparably bound up one with the other. The notices he gave of his suffering always included a mention of his resurrection. We will only see the resurrection if we are convinced of the fact that Jesus did actually die. If we study the detailed directions given by the Talmud and the Roman law regarding execution we will understand the care with which the sentence of death was carried to its final conclusion. 

The Talmud decrees inform us that the execution had to take place publicly, in daylight. A herald had to go before the execution procession carrying a board stating the crime of the condemned person. Two students of the Rabbis walked alongside the latter urging him to confess his guilt and preparing him to die. The Sanhedrin always sent its own delegate who gave an official report of the execution's implementation. 

Roman law also demanded that there be an official witness in the procession, the exactor mortis, who certified the death. There were always at least four soldiers present. If disturbances were feared in the crowds, a whole company of soldiers might be commanded to action. The law also required an official notice of guilt to be carried in the procession. The words "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" which Pilate ordered to be put at the top of the cross were unacceptable to the priests sent by the Sanhedrin, and they wished to add that it was Jesus who "had said" so. Pilate would not, however, rescind his order. Might he have consciously aimed at offending the Jews? Perhaps he also wished to leave this wording in the copy which he was required to send to Tiberius. It showed, after all, that the sentence was punishment for a crime against Caesar himself. The Roman historian Tacitus states in his Annals that the Emperor Tiberius was exceptionally sensitive about his own power. Imprisonment and death awaited all those who were found guilty of directly or indirectly speaking against the divine potentate. 

Roman custom decreed that the one condemned carry his own cross to the place of execution. Perhaps a soldier carried in front of him the board on which were written the charges against him, the causa poenae. It would also contain, as was required, the offender's name, his home district and the indictment itself. The writer Shalom Ben- Chorin conjectures that the original Hebrew initial letters may have been the same as those in the name of God: Yeshua Ha-notsri, U- melech Ha-yehudim -- 'Jesus of Nazareth, and King of the Jews'. 

The prisoner was first nailed with three-quarter inch thick seven- inch nails to the transverse member of the cross, then the whole structure was raised to stand in a ready-made hole. The nails pierced the wrists, which were bound to the cross-member so that they would not tear immediately. A sitting support was often used (sedile) and a bar to hold the feet (suppedaneum). In 1968 on the Givat Ha-mivtar hill on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Israeli archeologists found the remains of ancient ankle bones in which there was the remnant of a well-preserved nail. The cross in question had been made of olive wood and the bar to hold the feet of acacia: 

 

When thousands of Christians were sent to the cross in Rome, the philosopher Seneca around the year 63 AD said of one: 

"In the midst of his suffering he made no complaint at all; no, he begged no mercy for himself; on the contrary, he even smiled, smiled with a joyful heart."

"When he had ordered eight hundred of them to be hung upon crosses in the midst of the city, he had the throats of their wives and children cut before their eyes".⁶⁰

Deuteronomy 21:23 speaks of "hanging on a tree": 

"If a man guilty of a capital offence is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse."

On the cross Jesus was cursed that we might be blessed. This mystery dawned one day on the son of a rich Jewish family, whose Rabbi had had him thrown out of his home on account of his Christian faith. While tramping the streets of London the words of Gal. 3:13 suddenly flashed meaningfully into his mind: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree."' Through this realisation the man, a well-known Jewish Christian, found immediate peace. 

It can be demonstrated on the basis of both the Talmudic and the Roman law that great care was taken to ensure the death sentence which fell upon Jesus was carried out right to the end. Both Jew and Roman swore to their respective legal organs that it had been done so. That is what was at issue when the Centurion ordered one of his soldiers to pierce Jesus' side with his spear, "bringing a sudden flow of blood and water". The blood plasma and serum had already separated in the ventricles of the heart -- Jesus was already dead by that time. A further requirement of the Jewish law was fulfilled in this: not a bone of the Paschal lamb was to be broken. When the soldiers smashed the bones of the robbers with a sledgehammer they left the 'Lamb of God' untouched. In this way Jesus made an intact whole-offering on his nation's behalf. 

Once on the cross the accused generally had time to say their final farewells and give instructions to their families. The gospels tell us of the "seven words" of Christ on the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing"; The words to one of the robbers: "This day you will be with me in paradise"; The words to his mother and to John: "Dear woman, this is your son" and "Here is your mother"; Also: "I am thirsty"; "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"; "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit"; "It is finished". The words about being forsaken and about the finishing of the task relate to Psalm 22, which Jesus seems to have recited in order to comfort his nearest and dearest.⁶² 

Matthew and John report that Jesus accepted wine vinegar offered him in a sponge placed on the end of a stalk of the hyssop plant before his final cry on the cross. Mark mentions that before being nailed to the cross he was offered a stupefying mixture of wine mixed with myrrh, "but he did not take it". These details all have their own background. The Talmud says: 

"When one is led out to crucifixion, he is given a goblet of wine containing a grain of myrrh, in order to benumb his  senses and confuse him a little, so that he will not suffer so much from the fear of death, for it is written, 'Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto the bitter in soul' (Prov. 31:6). . . The noble women in Jerusalem used to donate and bring this to them."⁶³

The proofs of Jesus' resurrection 

We have already shown earlier that the resurrection was one of the things which belonged to the Messianic office: the Messiah holds the keys to the resurrection and will one day swallow death. Similarly, we have seen the significance of the reference to the third day in the Midrashic literature as a sign of the resurrection. Jesus spoke of this very third day, somewhat enigmatically, in the intimations he gave of his suffering. 

Proofs of the resurrection can be divided into three groups: external signs, resurrection appearances and the testimony of the apostles' preaching. 

There are many external signs relating to Jesus' death and resurrection which were afterwards interpreted spiritually through the eyes of faith. At about nine o'clock Jesus was crucified (Mark 15:25). From 12 until 3 in the afternoon an extraordinary darkness came over all the land (Matt. 27:45-46), a darkness which cannot be explained as simply the result of a sandstorm which may have occurred at the time. The Samarian-born historian Thallus writing around the year 52 AD also refers to this. At the moment of Jesus' death, at three o'clock in the afternoon, a miracle happened which is spoken of by all the synoptic gospels (Matt. 27:51, Mark 15:38 and Luke 23:45): 

"The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life . . . and they appeared to many people."

The centurion, who as the exactor mortis supervisor had to stay at the cross until the end, drew his own conclusions. He, and even his companions too, said, "Surely he was the Son of God" (Matt. 27:54). The letter to the Hebrews understands the rending of the curtain as signifying that our hope "enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain" (6:19). Jesus has "entered the Most Holy place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption" (9:12). In this way he has ushered us into the Most Holy place "by a new and living way" (10:20). This naturally relates to the prophecy in Daniel 9:24 which promises that the Messiah will "put and end to sin, atone for wickedness and bring in everlasting righteousness". The Hebrew Bible uses here twice the concept to "Seal". No-one may tamper with the seal of forgiveness signed in the blood of Jesus. 

Similar events are spoken of by both Josephus and the Talmud. Josephus tells us of the Temple's bronze east gate which "opened itself" in the middle of the night and which the Temple guards succeeded in closing only with great difficulty. The Talmud refers in three places to what would appear to be these same happenings. In one of these mention is made of Nicodemus' friend Johanan Ben Zakkai: 

"40 years before the destruction of the sanctuary, its western lamp went out and the doors of the Temple opened of their own accord. At that R. Johanan Ben Zakkai rebuked them saying, 'Temple, O temple, why do you grieve? I know that they will come to destroy you. For the prophet Zechariah has foretold of you "Open your doors, O Lebanon, so that fire may devour your cedars!"' (11:1) Rabbi Yitshak Ben Tablai says, 'It is called Lebanon because it whitens Israel's sins".

Jesus' resurrection appearances themselves, nevertheless, constitute the most important factor in our belief in the resurrection. No theological doctrine is insisted upon as much as the faith in the resurrection. We find in the NT 10 resurrection appearances: 1. To Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18, Mark 16:9); 2. To the women returning from the tomb (Matt. 28:9); 3. To Peter (Luke 24:34, 1 Cor. 15:5); 4. To the two on the Emmaus road (Luke 24:13-45, Mark 16:12); 5. To the ten in the upper room (Luke 24:36-42, John 20:19-24); 6. One week later, to the eleven, among whom was Thomas (John 20:26-29 and Mark 16:14); 7. To the 500, all together (1 Cor. 15:6, Matt. 28:16-20); 8. To James (1 Cor. 15:7); 9. Simultaneously to 7 of the disciples on the shores of Lake Tiberias (John 21:1-23) and 10. Near Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, to a great crowd of his followers (Luke 24:50-52, Acts 1:6-12). The apostle Paul also considered himself one of the number who had seen the Risen Saviour. 

Jesus' resurrection took his disciples by surprise, although he had spoken of it beforehand in many ways. If the gospel writers had been trying to make a largely fictitious narrative sound more credible they would hardly have entertained the idea of writing that women were the first at the tomb, as Jewish law did not accept the testimony of women. Luke in fact tells us that the apostles "did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense" (24:11). Mark says that the little band of Jesus' friends "were mourning and weeping", and that they did not believe Mary Magdalene or the testimony of the two who had been "walking in the country". That is why Jesus "rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen" (Mark 16:9-14). The disciples were "slow of heart" and Jesus had to "open their minds so they could understand the Scriptures" (Luke 24:25, 45). 

Confusion such as we witness among the disciples testifies to the genuineness of the issues here. The gospels are not some kind of spiritualist automatic writing, as some seem to expect, but the testimony of eye witnesses. Different aspects are brought out in these reports, as is normal in life. 

The preaching of the Apostles was the proclamation of the resurrection. Eligibility for Apostleship nevertheless required that the candidate had known the whole of Jesus' life on this earth. This is made clear when a twelfth Apostle is chosen in place of Judas Iscariot. Peter said that, "It is necessary to chose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us . . . to become a witness of his resurrection" (Acts 1:21-22). We read of the Apostles that they were "teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead", and that "with great power they continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was with them all" (Acts 4:2, 33). Paul's method was to "reason from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead" (Acts 17:2). 

The whole of Jesus' life is full of mysteries. His birth was miraculous; his words and actions differed totally from that which had been seen and heard; the empty tomb remained as a sermon to the church of the reality of the resurrection; the burial cloth and the strips of linen, in which were strewn crushed herbs, were still in the form of a mummy, "wrapped together" (Gr. entetyligmenon John 20:7) to proclaim: "Truly, he is risen". The history of the martyrs speaks of the same thing: a church historian has estimated that in the first Christian centuries about 10 million people died for their faith in Christ. 

The resurrection of Jesus is so convincing that two leading Jewish NT scholars, professors David Flusser and Pinchas Lapide, speak of it as an "indisputable historical truth". The early church condemned as heresy the Docetism, a belief which maintained that Jesus' death was a mere sham, an theatrical stunt. The crucifixion, however, took place in circumstances which totally nullify such theorising. It is obvious that Jesus really did die and really did rise from the dead. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit alone can open our hearts and understanding to comprehend this. 
---------- 
56.    Makkoth III 15. 
57.    Midrash Tehillim and Midrash Shemoth Rabbah, par. va-erah 8. See also The Messiah in the Old Testament, pp111-112 
58.    Cohen's boo p162. 
59.    Ibid p36. 
60.    Wars of the Jews I 4:6 
61.    M. Sanhedrin VI 4. 
62.    The Messiah in the Old Testament, pp128-133. 
63.    Sanhedrin 43a. 
64.    A.A. Kabab, Be-Mishol ha-TSar, Mosad Bialik, Tel-Aviv 1938. 
65.    Yoma 39b, Shabbath 22b and Minhoth 86b.