The Life of Jesus Part 37

[Footnote 1: Talm. of Bab., _Sanhedrim_, fol. 43 _a_. Comp. _Prov._ xxi. 6.]

[Footnote 2: Talm. of Bab., _Sanhedrim_, _l.c._]

[Footnote 3: Mark xv. 23; Matt. xxvii. 34, falsifies this detail, in order to create a Messianic allusion from Ps. lxix. 20.]

[Footnote 4: Matt. xxvii. 35; Mark xv. 24; John xix. 23. Cf.

Artemidorus, _Onirocr._, ii. 53.]

[Footnote 5: Lucian, _Jud. Voc._, 12. Compare the grotesque crucifix traced at Rome on a wall of Mount Palatine. _Civilta Cattolica_, fasc.

clxi. p. 529, and following.]

[Footnote 6: Jos., _B.J._, VII. vi. 4; Cic., _In Verr._, v. 66; Xenoph. Ephes., _Ephesiaca_, iv. 2.]

[Footnote 7: Luke xxiv. 39; John xx. 25-27; Plautus, _Mostellaria_, II. i. 13; Lucan., _Phars._, vi. 543, and following, 547; Justin, _Dial. c.u.m Tryph._, 97; Tertullian, _Adv. Marcionem_, iii. 19.]

[Footnote 8: Irenaeus, _Adv. Haer._, ii. 24; Justin, _Dial. c.u.m Tryphone_, 91.]

[Footnote 9: See the _graffito_ quoted before.]

Jesus tasted these horrors in all their atrocity. A burning thirst, one of the tortures of crucifixion,[1] devoured him, and he asked to drink. There stood near, a cup of the ordinary drink of the Roman soldiers, a mixture of vinegar and water, called _posca_. The soldiers had to carry with them their _posca_ on all their expeditions,[2] of which an execution was considered one. A soldier dipped a sponge in this drink, put it at the end of a reed, and raised it to the lips of Jesus, who sucked it.[3] The two robbers were crucified, one on each side. The executioners, to whom were usually left the small effects (_pannicularia_) of those executed,[4] drew lots for his garments, and, seated at the foot of the cross, kept guard over him.[5]

According to one tradition, Jesus p.r.o.nounced this sentence, which was in his heart if not upon his lips: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."[6]

[Footnote 1: See the Arab text published by Kosegarten, _Chrest.

Arab._, p. 64.]

[Footnote 2: Spartia.n.u.s, _Life of Adrian_, 10; Vulcatius Gallica.n.u.s, _Life of Avidius Ca.s.sius_, 5.]

[Footnote 3: Matt. xxvii. 48; Mark xv. 36; Luke xxiii. 36; John xix.

28-30.]

[Footnote 4: Dig., XLVII. xx., _De bonis d.a.m.nat._, 6. Adrian limited this custom.]

[Footnote 5: Matt. xxvii. 36. Cf. Petronius, _Satyr._, cxi., cxii.]

[Footnote 6: Luke xxiii. 34. In general, the last words attributed to Jesus, especially such as Luke records, are open to doubt. The desire to edify or to show the accomplishment of prophecies is perceptible.

In these cases, moreover, every one hears in his own way. The last words of celebrated prisoners, condemned to death, are always collected in two or three entirely different shapes, by even the nearest witnesses.]

According to the Roman custom, a writing was attached to the top of the cross, bearing, in three languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, the words: "THE KING OF THE JEWS." There was something painful and insulting to the nation in this inscription. The numerous pa.s.sers-by who read it were offended. The priests complained to Pilate that he ought to have adopted an inscription which would have implied simply that Jesus had called himself King of the Jews. But Pilate, already tired of the whole affair, refused to make any change in what had been written.[1]

[Footnote 1: John xix. 19-22.]

His disciples had fled. John, nevertheless, declares himself to have been present, and to have remained standing at the foot of the cross during the whole time.[1] It may be affirmed, with more certainty, that the devoted women of Galilee, who had followed Jesus to Jerusalem and continued to tend him, did not abandon him. Mary Cleophas, Mary Magdalen, Joanna, wife of Khouza, Salome, and others, stayed at a certain distance,[2] and did not lose sight of him.[3] If we must believe John,[4] Mary, the mother of Jesus, was also at the foot of the cross, and Jesus seeing his mother and his beloved disciple together, said to the one, "Behold thy mother!" and to the other, "Behold thy son!" But we do not understand how the synoptics, who name the other women, should have omitted her whose presence was so striking a feature. Perhaps even the extreme elevation of the character of Jesus does not render such personal emotion probable, at the moment when, solely preoccupied by his work, he no longer existed except for humanity.[5]

[Footnote 1: John xix. 25, and following.]

[Footnote 2: The synoptics are agreed in placing the faithful group "afar off" the cross. John says, "at the side of," governed by the desire which he has of representing himself as having approached very near to the cross of Jesus.]

[Footnote 3: Matt. xxvii. 55, 56; Mark xv. 40, 41; Luke xxiii. 49, 55; xxiv. 10; John xix. 25. Cf. Luke xxiii. 27-31.]

[Footnote 4: John xix. 25, and following. Luke, who always adopts a middle course between the first two synoptics and John, mentions also, but at a distance, "all his acquaintance" (xxiii. 49). The expression, [Greek: gnostoi], may, it is true, mean "kindred." Luke, nevertheless (ii. 44), distinguishes the [Greek: gnostoi] from the [Greek: sungeneis]. Let us add, that the best ma.n.u.scripts bear [Greek: oi gnostoi auto], and not [Greek: oi gnostoi autou]. In the _Acts_ (i.

14), Mary, mother of Jesus, is also placed in company with the Galilean women; elsewhere (Gospel, chap. ii. 35), Luke predicts that a sword of grief will pierce her soul. But this renders his omission of her at the cross the less explicable.]

[Footnote 5: This is, in my opinion, one of those features in which John betrays his personality and the desire he has of giving himself importance. John, after the death of Jesus, appears in fact to have received the mother of his Master into his house, and to have adopted her (John xix. 27.) The great consideration which Mary enjoyed in the early church, doubtless led John to pretend that Jesus, whose favorite disciple he wished to be regarded, had, when dying, recommended to his care all that was dearest to him. The presence of this precious trust near John, insured him a kind of precedence over the other apostles, and gave his doctrine a high authority.]

Apart from this small group of women, whose presence consoled him, Jesus had before him only the spectacle of the baseness or stupidity of humanity. The pa.s.sers-by insulted him. He heard around him foolish scoffs, and his greatest cries of pain turned into hateful jests: "He trusted in G.o.d; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of G.o.d." "He saved others," they said again; "himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him! Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself."[1] Some, vaguely acquainted with his apocalyptic ideas, thought they heard him call Elias, and said, "Let us see whether Elias will come to save him." It appears that the two crucified thieves at his side also insulted him.[2] The sky was dark;[3] and the earth, as in all the environs of Jerusalem, dry and gloomy. For a moment, according to certain narratives, his heart failed him; a cloud hid from him the face of his Father; he endured an agony of despair a thousand times more acute than all his torture. He saw only the ingrat.i.tude of men; he perhaps repented suffering for a vile race, and exclaimed: "My G.o.d, my G.o.d, why hast thou forsaken me?" But his divine instinct still prevailed. In the degree that the life of the body became extinguished, his soul became clear, and returned by degrees to its celestial origin. He regained the idea of his mission; he saw in his death the salvation of the world; he lost sight of the hideous spectacle spread at his feet, and, profoundly united to his Father, he began upon the gibbet the divine life which he was to live in the heart of humanity through infinite ages.

[Footnote 1: Matt. xxvii. 40, and following; Mark xv. 29, and following.]

[Footnote 2: Matt. xxvii. 44; Mark xv. 32. Luke has here modified the tradition, in accordance with his taste for the conversion of sinners.]

[Footnote 3: Matt. xxvii. 45; Mark xv. 33; Luke xxiii. 44.]

The peculiar atrocity of crucifixion was that one might live three or four days in this horrible state upon the instrument of torture.[1]

The haemorrhage from the hands quickly stopped, and was not mortal. The true cause of death was the unnatural position of the body, which brought on a frightful disturbance of the circulation, terrible pains of the head and heart, and, at length, rigidity of the limbs. Those who had a strong const.i.tution only died of hunger.[2] The idea which suggested this cruel punishment was not directly to kill the condemned by positive injuries, but to expose the slave nailed by the hand of which he had not known how to make good use, and to let him rot on the wood. The delicate organization of Jesus preserved him from this slow agony. Everything leads to the belief that the instantaneous rupture of a vessel in the heart brought him, at the end of three hours, to a sudden death. Some moments before yielding up his soul, his voice was still strong.[3] All at once, he uttered a terrible cry,[4] which some heard as: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!" but which others, more preoccupied with the accomplishment of prophecies, rendered by the words, "It is finished!" His head fell upon his breast, and he expired.

[Footnote 1: Petronius, _Sat._, cxi., and following; Origen, _In Matt.

Comment. series_, 140 Arab text published in Kosegarten, _op. cit._, p. 63, and following.]

[Footnote 2: Eusebius, _Hist. Eccl._, viii. 8.]

[Footnote 3: Matt. xxvii. 46; Mark xv. 34.]

[Footnote 4: Matt. xxvii. 50; Mark xv. 37; Luke xxiii. 46; John xix.

30.]

Rest now in thy glory, n.o.ble initiator. Thy work is completed; thy divinity is established. Fear no more to see the edifice of thy efforts crumble through a flaw. Henceforth, beyond the reach of frailty, thou shalt be present, from the height of thy divine peace, in the infinite consequences of thy acts. At the price of a few hours of suffering, which have not even touched thy great soul, thou hast purchased the most complete immortality. For thousands of years the world will extol thee. Banner of our contradictions, thou wilt be the sign around which will be fought the fiercest battles. A thousand times more living, a thousand times more loved since thy death than during the days of thy pilgrimage here below, thou wilt become to such a degree the corner-stone of humanity, that to tear thy name from this world would be to shake it to its foundations. Between thee and G.o.d, men will no longer distinguish. Complete conqueror of death, take possession of thy kingdom, whither, by the royal road thou has traced, ages of adorers will follow thee.

CHAPTER XXVI.

JESUS IN THE TOMB.

It was about three o'clock in the afternoon, according to our manner of reckoning,[1] when Jesus expired. A Jewish law[2] forbade a corpse suspended on the cross to be left beyond the evening of the day of the execution. It is not probable that in the executions performed by the Romans this rule was observed; but as the next day was the Sabbath, and a Sabbath of peculiar solemnity, the Jews expressed to the Roman authorities[3] their desire that this holy day should not be profaned by such a spectacle.[4] Their request was granted; orders were given to hasten the death of the three condemned ones, and to remove them from the cross. The soldiers executed this order by applying to the two thieves a second punishment much more speedy than that of the cross, the _crurifragium_, or breaking of the legs,[5] the usual punishment of slaves and of prisoners of war. As to Jesus, they found him dead, and did not think it necessary to break his legs. But one of them, to remove all doubt as to the real death of the third victim, and to complete it, if any breath remained in him, pierced his side with a spear. They thought they saw water and blood flow, which was regarded as a sign of the cessation of life.

[Footnote 1: Matt. xxvii. 46; Mark xv. 37; Luke xxiii. 44. Comp. John xix. 14.]

[Footnote 2: _Deut._ xxi. 22, 23; Josh. viii. 29, x. 26, and following. Cf. Jos., _B.J._, IV. v. 2; Mishnah, _Sanhedrim_, vi. 5.]

[Footnote 3: John says, "To Pilate"; but that cannot be, for Mark (xv.

44, 45) states that at night Pilate was still ignorant of the death of Jesus.]

[Footnote 4: Compare Philo, _In Flacc.u.m_, -- 10.]

[Footnote 5: There is no other example of the _crurifragium_ applied after crucifixion. But often, in order to shorten the tortures of the sufferer, a finishing stroke was given him. See the pa.s.sage from Ibn-Hischam, translated in the _Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes_, i. p. 99, 100.]