Killing Jesus: A History

Jesus is manacled to a scourging post and endures a horrific beating. Two Roman soldiers lash in tandem, so that the prisoner receives no breaks. Their orders are to hurt but not kill him. The soldiers take a broken Jesus, bleeding from his lacerated back, to the prison once more, where they mock him by dressing him in a purple cloak and weaving a crown of thorns to place on his head. The authors claim that the crown of thorns was an improvisation on the part of the guards to further Jesus’s torture. Pilate sends a message that Jesus should be brought to him. Jesus is brought before Pilate and the Sanhedrin in the public square. The high priests and religious leaders look on unsympathetically as Jesus struggles to stand, covered in his own blood. Pilate, now unwilling to engage in any of the proceedings, confirms with the Sanhedrin that they desire Jesus’s execution, then symbolically washes his hands in a small basin, signifying that he declines the responsibility of execution, though in reality he is the only person who can order it.

The death squad places a heavy plank on Jesus’s shoulders and forces him to carry it to his execution site. The Roman officer known as the exactor mortis holds a sign detailing the prisoner’s crimes: Pilate, to spite Caiaphas, writes on the sign that Jesus is the king of the Jews.

The walk to the execution is half a mile, and Jesus is flagging. The exactor mortis enlists a bystander, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the crossbeam. Meanwhile, the celebration of Passover begins, distracting the people who might otherwise have rioted to save Jesus. The procession reaches the execution site, Golgotha, a small hill just outside the walls of Jerusalem. The death squad forces Jesus to lie down on the cross and nails his wrists to the crossbeam; then they hoist Jesus and the beam onto an already standing pole. They bend his knees and nail his feet to the cross with one nail.

Jesus slowly suffocates on the cross, as the Roman squad watches, waiting for him to die. After three hours, Jesus asks for water and is given wine on a sponge. After that, he states “it is finished” (250) and dies.

Roman practice dictates leaving a crucified corpse on the cross for days as a humiliation and a warning. However, Jewish law forbids the presence of hanging bodies during the Sabbath, so the Roman death squad has to remove Jesus’s body. The exactor mortis ensures death by jabbing a spear into Jesus’s chest, which releases blood as well as the water that has built up around his heart and lungs while he suffocated. The death squad uses teamwork to bring Jesus and the cross back down to the ground. They carefully remove the nails for reuse, since iron is expensive. Most of the witnesses of the crucifixion have departed, except for Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy member of the Sanhedrin and secret disciple of Jesus. Along with Nicodemus the Pharisee, another follower, Joseph has received permission to retrieve Jesus’s body. Joseph takes the body to his own private family tomb, a surprising display of respect and allegiance. They coat the corpse in “expensive myrrh and aloe” (254) then wrap the body tightly in linen. According to Jewish law, after three days, the body will be inspected and Jesus will be formally declared dead.

Jesus’s mother, Mary, and Mary Magdalene watch as Joseph and Nicodemus lay Jesus’s body to rest, then roll a huge stone across the tomb entrance for security.

Caiaphas and the Pharisees visit Pontius Pilate once more, now able to step inside his palace since Passover is complete. Caiaphas asks Pilate to place an armed guard at Jesus’s tomb, worried that Jesus’s disciples try to bolster his prophecy by stealing the body and claiming that Jesus rose from the dead. Pilate agrees, realizing that Caiaphas is actually still frightened of Jesus’s power. Pilate reflects that the danger of Jesus appears to have passed, since his followers dispersed after the crucifixion. Anxious, Caiaphas seeks reassurance that Pilate will not blame him for the death of Jesus when reporting back to Tiberius. Pilate, however, offers no such assurances.

Mary Magdalene and her companion, another female disciple named Mary, walk through a quiet Jerusalem to perform the Jewish ritual of examining a dead body on the third day after its burial. They plan to anoint the body with spices to mask the smell of decomposition and to honor Jesus. As the two women approach the tomb, they are stunned to see that the stone in front of the cave entrance has been rolled away and “the crypt is empty” (259). Mary Magdalene steps inside and sees the linen shroud and smells myrrh and aloe but sees no body. The chapter ends by noting that Jesus’s body has never been found.