Crucifixion of Jesus

thumb|When the Son dies on the cross, he dies the death of all sinners and all saints At the time of his crucifixion, Jesus was put to death by being nailed on an execution device made by the Romans, commonly named as a cross. The instrument of crucifixion is taken to be an upright wooden beam to which was added a transverse wooden beam, thus forming a "cruciform". His crucifixion occurred in 1st-century Judaea, most likely in AD 30 or AD 33. The event is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, and later attested to by other ancient sources. Scholars nearly universally accept the historicity of Jesus' crucifixion. Quotes about The abandonment in which the Crucified One is left by the Father makes us understand what we have been freed and saved from, namely, the definitive loss of God, which no personal effort, apart from grace, could ever have spared us. Hans Urs von Balthasar, Solo l'amore è credibile, translation into Italian by Mario Rettori, Borla, Torino, 1965. ISBN 978-88-16-70120-5. The crucifixion of Jesus in itself has nothing eschatological about it. Many men have been crucified throughout history. What matters is the meaning of his death. An observer sees in it only an insignificant or, strictly speaking, painful fact. For the historian, “it is hardly probable that Jesus was crucified as a messianic prophet, in the same way as other agitators.” For the non-believer, the crucifixion simply marks the end of an idealist. The bare facts are nothing; their true essence is their meaning. But meaning is always the object of revelation and election, which explains precisely why, while everyone agrees on the death of Jesus, there is absolute disagreement on its meaning, which constitutes its profound reality. André Malet, Le Pensée de Rudolf Bultmann; quoted in Christian Duquoc, Cristologia, Queriniana, Brescia 1972 (in Italian). The focus of his prayer and his ardent supplication, repeated three times with insistence and prostration, was that the Father would take “this cup” away from him [...] The truth is that “this cup” represented in Christ's eyes the ‘how’ he would have to drink the sins and infamy of humanity, the “how” he would have to appear on the cross, taking upon himself the most scandalous sins of men: adultery, murder, blasphemy. On the threshold of crucifixion, he had to decide: would he accept to be the author of all these sins, so that his crucifixion and death would be possible? Matta El Meskin, Il cristiano: nuova creatura, pp. 30-31 (in Italian). When the Son dies on the cross, he dies the death of all sinners and all saints. The moment of his death means for all the dead a shift to the plane of eternity, which will be experienced by each of them, since the Lord, through his death, has saved each of them. :*Adrienne von Speyr, Il mistero della morte (Das Geheimnis des Todes, 1953), translation into Italian by Giacomo Coccolini, Centro ambrosiano, Milano, 2011. ISBN 978-88-8025-820-9, p. 80. Every time I think of Christ's crucifixion, I sin with envy. Simone Weil, Attesa di Dio, translation by Orsola Nemi, Rusconi, Milano, 1972, p. 46 (in Italian). Around the ninth hour, Jesus shouted in a loud voice, saying "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" which is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew ESV 27:46. 1. On Pilate's judgment and condemnation before the tribunal, they took the Lord Jesus Christ, about the sixth hour, and led Him away. And He, bearing His cross, went forth into the place that is called Calvary, but in Hebrew, Golgotha; where they crucified Him. What else, then, is the meaning of the evangelist Mark saying, And it was the third hour, and they crucified Him, Mark 15:25 but this, that the Lord was crucified at the third hour by the tongues of the Jews, at the sixth hour by the hands of the soldiers? That we may understand that the fifth hour was now completed, and there was some beginning made of the sixth, when Pilate took his seat before the tribunal, which is expressed by John as about the sixth hour; and when He was led forth, and nailed to the tree with the two robbers, and the events recorded were enacted beside His cross, the completion of the sixth hour was fully reached, being the hour from which, on to the ninth, the sun was obscured, and the darkness took place, we have it jointly attested on the authority of the three evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But as the Jews attempted to transfer the crime of slaying Christ from themselves to the Romans, that is to say, to Pilate and his soldiers, therefore Mark suppresses the hour at which Christ was crucified by the soldiers, and which then began to enter upon the sixth, and remembers rather to give an express place to the third hour, at which they are understood to have cried out before Pilate, Crucify, crucify him John 19:6, that it not only may be seen that the former crucified Jesus, namely, the soldiers who hung Him on the tree at the sixth hour, but the Jews also, who at the third hour cried out to have Him crucified. 2. There is also another solution of this question, that we should not here understand the sixth hour of the day, because John says not, And it was about the sixth hour of the day, or about the sixth hour, but says, And it was the parasceve of the passover, about the sixth hour John 19:14. And parasceve is in Latin præparatio (preparation); but the Jews are fonder of using the Greek words in observances of this sort, even those of them who speak Latin rather than Greek. It was therefore the preparation of the passover. But our passover, Christ, as the apostle says, has been sacrificed; 1 Corinthians 5:7 and if we reckon the preparation of this passover from the ninth hour of the night (for then the chief priests seem to have given their verdict for the sacrifice of the Lord, when they said, He is guilty of death, Matthew 26:66 and when the hearing of His case was still proceeding in the high priest's house: whence there is a kind of harmony in understanding that therewith began the preparation of the true passover, whose shadow was the passover of the Jews, that is, of the sacrificing of Christ, when the priests gave their sentence that He was to be sacrificed), certainly from that hour of the night, which is conjectured to have been then the ninth, on to the third hour of the day, when the evangelist Mark testifies that Christ was crucified, there are six hours, three of the night, and three of the day. Hence in the case of this parasceve of the passover, that is, the preparation of the sacrifice of Christ, which began with the ninth hour of the night, it was about the sixth hour; that is to say, the fifth hour was completed, and the sixth had already begun to run, when Pilate ascended the tribunal: for that same preparation, which had begun with the ninth hour of the night, still continued till the sacrifice of Christ, which was the event in course of preparation, was completed, which took place at the third hour, according to Mark, not of the preparation, but of the day; while it was also the sixth hour, not of the day, but of the preparation, by reckoning, of course, six hours from the ninth hour of the night to the third of the day. Of these two solutions of this difficult question let each choose the one that pleases him. But one will judge better what to choose who reads the very elaborate discussions on The Harmony of the Evangelists. And if other solutions of it can also be found, the stability of gospel truth will have a more cumulative defense against the calumnies of unbelieving and profane vanity. And now, after these brief discussions, let us return to the narrative of the evangelist John. Augustine of Hippo, Trattate 117 on the Gospel of John, n°. 1-2. External links Crucifixion of Christ Icons of the crucifixion of Christ Paintings of the Crucifixion of Christ Category:Episodes of the life of Jesus