Truth 6: The suspicious crucifixion circumstances …
*Truth #06: THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF JESUS’ CRUCIFIXION ARE SUSPICIOUS …
First of all, it was well-known in Jesus’ day that the Roman government openly respected the legal customs of the Jews. The historian Josephus mentioned the same in his wirings, and August Caesar even passed a Roman law that stated: “Jews are to follow their own customs in accordance with their ancestral law.” This is especially intriguing in our case because — according to Jewish law — Jesus the “blasphemer” should have been stoned to death (see Mark 14:64, Matthew 26:65-66, John 19:7 + Leviticus 24:16). And yet he wasn’t stoned at all. Instead, he was crucified (at the behest of the Jews, no less – see Matthew 27:22, Mark 15:13, Luke 23:21 & John 19:15) — which was a Roman form of punishment typically reserved for political rebels.
In addition, it was typical for the Romans to deny the families of such “bandits” the right to bury their dead, allowing them to decompose for several days on the cross as an example to other “enemies of the state”. This was a terrible insult to the Jews and a defilement of their culture. Pilate was known to be a particularly cold & cruel ruler, so such brazen callousness is not unreasonable to assume. Indeed, archaeologists have only found one body from the Holy Land which was clearly crucified, and the reason behind this lack of remnants was possibly because the Romans disposed of the bodies only after they had significantly deteriorated, disallowing any “normal” Jewish burial. As such, the removal of the bodies from these three particular crosses was in & of itself quite odd (though the Passover Sabbath in question does serve to mute this anomaly somewhat).
Finally, Joseph’s going to Pilate and persuading him to give him Jesus’ body was no small feat (see Matthew 27:58, Mark 15:43, Luke 23:52 & John 19:38). As a Jew, entering the court of a Gentile like Pilate would have made Joseph ceremonially unclean to eat the Passover the next day, and touching the dead body of Jesus would have compounded that uncleanness.
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