…but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”
(John 19.25–27 ESV)
And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”
(Luke 23.35–38 ESV)
And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. And it was the third hour [9 AM] when they crucified him. And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.”And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left.
(Mark 15.22–27 ESV)
According to the Gospels, Jesus has been arrested and tried by both the Sanhedrin and Pilate (and questioned by Herod). He has had no sleep. He has been scourged. He has been betrayed and abandoned by friends and followers, rejected by a crowd of people, exchanged for a murderer, and near this time, sometime before 9:00 AM in the morning, the scriptures tell us:
John Hobbins over at Ancient Hebrew Poetry made a good post recently about Martin Luther’s thoughts concerning the importance of Hebrew and Greek. I thought I would share a couple of his quotes (but do read his original post!).
[originally posted April 2009, some edits have been made to update links.]
Since we are on the eve of Good Friday, I thought I might share some information on early depictions of Christ’s crucifixion.
Given all the hubbub about eclipses (lunar and solar) lately, and how such events are interpreted as having potential prophetic or symbolic meanings for Israel and the world, I thought I would do a quick search of what Jewish extra-biblical sources say about celestial eclipses. Here are the results:
Though he wrote it a week earlier, today is the anniversary of the publishing of Reverend Martin Luther’s King’s “Letter From A Birmingham Jail”. Last week Jamaal Bell, Director of Communications at Kirwan Institute at Ohio State, shared with me this video that he directed and gave me permission to share. It’s fantastic. Here’s the info from the Vimeo page:
Tomorrow is the beginning of Passover. Dr. James F. Strange has a really good post over at the American Schools for Oriental Research (ASOR) blog about Passover practices in the first century. I encourage you to read it in it’s entirety. Here are some excerpts:
You may be seeing headlines today on various news sources about the “Jesus Wife” manuscript. While students of ancient Christian texts from the early to Medieval period will find this fascinating, most of the headlines are sensationalistic. It’s important to note that this Coptic manuscript looks to be from the 8th century and has very little potential to have any connection to the historical Jesus.
One thing that I have appreciated since getting back from my trip to Israel is a deeper understanding of the locations and journeys in the scripture. This week I have been thinking both about Jesus’ last week in Jerusalem (celebrated next week by Christians as Holy Week) and also about his last journey from Galilee to Judea (which likely would have started a week or less earlier).
From the Israeli Antiquities Authority:
“A 3,300 Year Old Coffin was Exposed Containing the Personal Belongings of a Wealthy Canaanite – Possibly an Official of the Egyptian Army
Among the items discovered – a gold signet ring bearing the name of the Egyptian pharaoh Seti I.