Synoptics 348, 349, 350, 351

We are pressing on here and we have been looking at The section on the crucifixion we I'm just making sure that we've covered these things we we covered the time issues Between Matthew Mark Luke and John.

John writing the Romans the others using Jewish timing. We looked at Eloy Eloy llama suboxone. Hopefully, you know to do that we looked at the centurion we looked at the zombie apocalypse As it has been called recently In Matthew and talked about that we talked about the veil of the temple being torn in two from top to bottom.

The Centurion’s Confession and the Meaning of Jesus’ Death

We looked at the centurion I'm pretty certain I mentioned if I recall correctly. And if I didn't You know we always have visitors and so maybe I'm picking something up, but I Think I mentioned something of the Discussion in about what the centurion said.

Let's see Matthew 2754. Some translations in this translation in the synopsis Centurion and those who were with him keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place they were filled with awe and said truly This was the Son of God.

Mark has truly this man was the Son of God. Which in Luke is simply certainly this man was innocent which is interesting I'm sure that that would be the same. I Don't I'm not sure Luke is communicating the same statement obviously, but the idea being There was a recognition That this was not just an evildoer who had been had been crucified.

But some translations will say for example in Mark truly this man was a son of God without capitalizing son and The Phrase in Greek, that's what I was looking up does not have the definite article night.

I Won't spend time on this you don't have to have a definite article for it to be definite. The most Non similar thing between English and Greek is the article the word the It's incredibly complex in Greek not only complex in English.

And that just means that the article can be used in so many different ways in the original language. That's not used in in Greek. It's not there and so Both are technically appropriate translations of The Greek.

The question is what would a centurion? have said and the argument is well a centurion's can be a pagan and So he's not going to understand the concept of the unique in the Jewish context son of God and So that's why they those translations go for a son of God but How long has this centurion been in Israel?

What interaction has he had we know of another centurion later on? We know of a couple centurions who clearly had religious conviction and and And and centurions would probably be more likely to be in one particular place for longer periods of time Than just a plain old soldier that might get run all over the place, so It is a question and You will find the commentary is discussing it as to whether How deep? was the centurions knowledge of the identity of Christ and That would all have to do with what kind of context did he bring?

To what he saw if he was if he didn't really have any religious background and understanding of the Jewish scriptures. Then that might impact how you how you understand the phrase, but if you encounter that difference That's what the issue is is all about but again the important part that emphasized is the centurion sees Christ die.

The phraseology, it's used all the way across in section 347 in any Normal context would indicate death so giving up his spirit breathed his last Yielded up his spirit. And the only reason I emphasize this is again.

This is surprising to some people but The Gnostics still live the Gnostics were the enemies of the Christian faith in its first centuries, and they're still around and There are books In I don't know why Barnes and Noble and places like that just love to stock these things, but There are books in the religion and spirituality section and all the rest of stuff by.

It's a fairly small cadre of writers, but they produce a lot of books Basically saying You know Jesus didn't die. You know promoting the swoon theory That he only you know passed out and and all the rest this kind of stuff well That is clearly not the intention of the New Testament writers, and that's the thing they will actually say the New Testament writers have Hidden clues in the text all the rest is silliness any meaningful reading of the text is beyond question that they are communicating that the Lord Died upon the cross then in section 348 we have witnesses.

Witnesses of the Crucifixion and the Pierced Side

I mentioned already that the section in occurred earlier from John 19 all the women Again very complex discussion of which women were there and what their relationship was and how many Marys and all the rest of that stuff.

Which is well beyond what I want to try to get into in this study, but there is that controversy. Matthew says there are also many women there looking on from afar who had followed Jesus and Galilee ministering to him.

Among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee and so you have Luke just simply summarizes that as in all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance and saw these things.

Obviously these are not meant to be exhaustive lists. They even give internal evidence of that. Just say saying that there were also women looking on from afar among whom were. And so the the point is that these things were not Done these things are not recorded in a mere second-hand or third-hand way.

Well someone heard from someone who heard from someone that this is what happened when Jesus was crucified and John specifically mentions the disciple whom he loves standing nearby and Said to his mother woman behold your son.

They said the site will behold your mother. There is the theory that I mentioned to you earlier that has A fair number of exponents. It's a minority theory. But I think it's still within the realm of orthodoxy anyways that the Disciple whom Jesus loved is is a different John than the Apostle.

That this is this is a John who is associated with The upper room lived there in Jerusalem. And Hence that this is what is being discussed in John chapter 19 that and that that would actually sort of solve a Non contradiction, but it's said to be a contradiction in some texts.

We we have all all of his disciples abandoned and ran away. But then you have John back well, but then you have in the trial scene you've got John inside. And Peter outside, and then you've got the three denials.

We saw we saw that we looked at all that stuff. It's just one of the theories that's out there in regards to the identity of John again John not an overly unusual name in First century Israel at that particular point in time, so it does raise those those questions, but the point is that there are witnesses of the crucifixion recorded by each of the of the Gospels, and then you have the piercing of Jesus's side recorded only by John and Hence it is normally considered to be by liberal critics a questionable or a historical or only having a theological meaning or whatever else it might be.

We know again since it was a day of preparation preparation is the very Greek term for Friday. That's the even to this day. We've confirmed that with our greek-speaking brother. Who's not with us today, but it's the term Paraskew a and So you have The request that the crucifixions be completed very often crucifixions were allowed to take place for lengthy periods of time as a Means a gruesome means of reminding the populace of Roman power and the fact that you should not rebel against well the Jews asked pilot that their legs might be broken that they might be taken away and As we know the reason that the breaking of the legs would bring death was not from the pain.

But from the inability of the individual to push upwards on their legs to be able to breathe. You're hanging from your arms. Eventually the diaphragm gives out you can no longer fill your lungs and you suffocate you die from suffocation.

So soldiers came and broke the legs the first and the other who had been crucified with him. So they had not expired at this particular point in time. But when they came to Jesus thought he was already dead so now you have not only the centurion you have however many Soldiers who have been tasked by the governor With a rather important task if they don't they don't do their job.

The governor looks bad, and there's no place for them to hide and So they see that he is already dead that he has expired there is no breathing going on. There is no life in this individual. So they do not break his legs because if you're not breathing that's not going to accomplish anything.

But one of the soldiers pierced his side of the spear and at once there came out blood and water and of course the big discussion amongst The commentaries and again. I'm not sure how many times. I've said it, but I'll say it again one of the most dangerous Places for a Christian is what's called the Christian bookstore in fact.

I saw I saw a meme a couple weeks ago where someone had taken that that phrase of mine, and it translated it into a Spanish and So I saw a Spanish version of my of my statement one of the most dangerous places for a Christian is a Christian bookstore.

Because you'll find the commentaries there, and you assume if it's found a Christian bookstore. It's written by believer and Well the guy teaches New Testament someplace well None of that really means a whole lot these days.

I'm afraid I hate to hate to have to tell you that but that's the way it is but you will see in most of the commentaries the lengthy discussion of blood and water and Going back to John chapter 3 and you know just doing all sorts of theological connections and The you know there's a picture here.

There's a picture there so on and so forth and and this is why they would say well You know this is this really didn't happen. This is just John creating a theological paradigm That he's utilizing and all the rest is kind of stuff the problem is the very next Phrase is he who saw it has worn witness testimony is true.

He knows it tells the truth that you also may believe and we talked about this before as well in regards to The testimony of the Yohannine community That we will see elsewhere here in John and here John is Specifically in mind because you remember the context connect this with right above it 19 25 to 27.

So John's in the context here, so he sees this happening. So you you would have to really come to the conclusion that the John is 100 fictional. But the problem is we've found John tracking with synoptic Gospels a number of times John is not giving this indication.

He's John is not saying oh by the way wink wink nudge nudge I'm sort of making this up just to make up some really cool Sermon illustrations or something like that and then you have fulfillment passages From the Psalter and so on so forth about not a bone of him should be broken things like that.

So this is not the language that is utilized in any way by any of the gospel writers for mythological creations this this requires you to come up with a particular way of viewing John as Historically improbable or as historical fiction in essence you have to turn John into the Jeff Shara of Historical writers to something to well if you don't who Jeff Shara is that didn't make any sense, but anyway To make any of this make any sense Instead you simply have the narration that there came out blood and water.

There's been all sorts of discussions concerning the pericardial sack and all sorts of things like that which might have some Some validity and interest to it. I I don't know the text is extensive enough to To necessarily allow us to make such Connections, but they are they're interesting to to observe and so We then move on to the burial of Jesus and It gets rather interesting here Because as you know you have Joseph and Then you also have Nicodemus in John and We have pilot asking the question is He dead and we already looked at this the centurion.

We sort of skipped ahead some of this is repetition. The centurion is Inquired is summoned. It's not just someone sends the message the centurion. It's not like you've got some lame-headed private soldier sent from the You know from the governor's Location to a centurion, and then he gets the answer wrong when he runs back or something.

The centurion is actually summoned into the presence of the governor so you've got the guys that were sent to finish the execution and Then you've got the centurion himself, and these are from different sources and When he learned from the centurion that he was dead he granted the body to Joseph so clear Absolute documentation as far as you can have documentation from you know It's not like we had a medical doctor who filled out a death certificate.

You know there weren't such things. But about as close as you can get is what we have here, but then we have the issue of The description of the burial now some light has been shed On this issue especially over the past hundred years or so our knowledge of Jewish burial practices has Really increased by it by a lot a lot of what was Written especially from third century on Really isn't all that relevant to the issue of the actual burial of Jesus why?

Because once most of the writing is Outside of the land of Israel, so I would say after the first century especially because the destruction of Jerusalem Once you have most people who are writing Who did not live amongst the Jews once the Jews are dispersed their burial Practices of that day would become pretty much unknown.

And certainly not common knowledge and certainly it's different than than how we do things and So what we've come to understand is that in general and of course it would depend I mean if you were a super poor person you didn't get to do all this stuff, but in in general these sepulchers The reason they were constructed the way they were constructed was so they could be reopened.

So that you would place the body in the sepulcher Allow the natural processes to take place and then a year after the death you would open the sepulcher and you would gather the bones and Place them in an ossuary a bone box.

And that ossuary is just a fancy way of I mean ass is the bone Osteo that you know you hear the connection and Then those Bone boxes would sometimes be reused for multiple members of the same family. So we found numerous ossuaries that have multiple names Associated you know scribbled on the side in different languages, that's that's another area of interesting inquiry as To what languages were being spoken.

I mean all through my seminary education. It was just a given. It was just a granted accepted idea That pretty much everybody in Israel spoke Aramaic and only the invaders spoke Greek. But the reality is the evidence is not is not substantiating that there is strong evidence against the Aramaic Priority hypothesis and more and more evidence coming to light that in all probability Jesus did speak Greek and that hence Unlike in the older days.

The idea being that everything you're reading of Jesus words is translated by somebody else. That's not necessarily the case and certainly it should have been rather obvious in some places like John I really doubt that Jesus was having a conversation with Pilate in Aramaic.

It would have been Greek. So anyway that the ossuaries show us that you not only had Hebrew slash Aramaic names and and language being used, but you had a lot of Greek as well right there in Jerusalem.

Because it was a common language of the day but so the the body would be wrapped and. And What does that mean to wrap. All we have is wrapped in a linen shroud. Bound in linen cloths. Is what we have as is the burial custom of the Jews.

John chapter 19. Well is that wrapping like this. Is that wrapping like this. Is that doing this and this. I Don't know. We are told at a later point in John 20 and they both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first and Stooping to look in he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.

Then Simon Peter came following him went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying and the napkin which had been on his head not lying with linen cloths. But rolled up in a place by itself. Lots of interesting detail.

But but the point is that's that's not enough to Give us a final Understanding of exactly the the methodology that was used. How the spices were used. I mean you're talking about a hundreds pounds weight mixture of myrrh and aloes about a hundred pounds weight that is that is mentioned here that Probably would not have been normative for someone of Jesus economic level, but Nicodemus is a wealthy man.

But yes, sir. Yeah, I was about to mention that yeah, I was about to mention that. Obviously those that promote the shroud of Turin there have been all sorts of Documentaries and books That have been written on the subject of the shroud of Turin, and I'm sure you could Go online even now.

Don't do that and pull up a video Documentary pro or con on the subject of the shroud of Turin and I remember back in the 90s ish There was a book from an evangelical that came out promoting the shroud of Turin as being a Valid Evidence of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ and so on so on and then they did carbon dating on a small piece of it and of course as you know Carbon dating requires the destruction of that which is Dated and So that's why there's a lot of things that will never get carbon dated because no one wants to break a chunk off of some ancient super valuable thing Just to do carbon dating.

But there there was a section that was carbon dated and it came back to like the 13th century as I recall It was not ancient. But it still has its defenders who say yeah, but that was just this portion over here Was was repaired at a later time.

And because there was a fire in the and there was a fire in the Cathedral of Turin and you can see some damage to it from the fire and So it had been repaired and that's why that date came back that way and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Obviously the shroud would require a single sheet Of being placed over the body and and I Well, of course if it's some kind of a quote-unquote miracle, then all the rest of stuff's irrelevant. But it if you did a single sheet, you still got to do something Winding to hold it in place.

I mean, it just doesn't show that kind of Image the the image is is Explained by its defenders as being you know sort of the photographic negative that Resulted from the power of the resurrection and when Jesus just went straight through it or something.

I don't know. And I You know, obviously I'm not a fan of the of the shroud. I don't I don't think that It strikes me, you know, we don't have any evidence of its existence before about the 13th century something around there as I recall Maybe a little bit earlier than that.

It's been a while since I've done a reading on it but Yeah, I It always comes up around this time of year as it will over the next, you know I'm sure Simca Yakubovitch the guy who did the Jesus family tomb stuff will well, actually he came up with something last year, so.

And normally it's normally a three-year. It's like a Cycle to when the when they Come out with their new books to make some more money. They got to let people forget them for a while so they can make enough money on the next book, I guess but Anyway, yeah, I'm sure we got some more stuff coming but all of them agree on the on the utilization the standard Jewish burial practice 100 pounds weight wrapped up if if the swoon theory is true and Jesus awakes in The cold of the tomb he ain't getting out of this thing.

Okay. It's not like it was just you know Some nice little linen claws laid over your body or something like that. You're you're yeah, you're you're stuck. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you're you're toast and so anyway.

The Burial of Jesus and Jewish Burial Customs

So this tomb which had been hewn out of the rock Where no one had ever yet been laid, so this is a new tomb. Which might indicate that Joseph is getting up there in years? And It is simply notice where no one had ever been yet belated.

When you think about that's a strange thing to say until you understand Jewish burial practice. Because if they buried like we bury. That's a dumb thing to say that's like saying we put him in a in a grave that no one else have been buried in.

Well, duh, and that what a grave is supposed to be. I mean, you know, but now when you think about it You would read and it makes sense given the the size of the area. And how long people have been living there.

That you would reuse sepulchers because you go in you collect the bones clean things up ready for business. And the point was to be able to have a place where you could steal it because Lord he stinketh John 11 and.

But then by time you'd open it it wouldn't stink anymore because all that stuff is gone. And the the only thing left the bones and you could use a sepulcher over and over and over and over again this was a newly hewn one nearby in which no one had been laid and.

So they put Jesus there and again Matthew Mark and Luke all mentioned the women Who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. So what's the point? The point is these women remain witnesses.

It's almost it almost strikes me as a chain of custody thing. Are you noticing that? They're they're watching from afar off. Pilot gives the body. They take the Joseph and Nicodemus take the body. It's it's prepared, you know the wrapping.

It's not finished which is why the women want to come back. Obviously had to hurry it's like but we brought all this stuff. Well, we don't have time. We'll do it on Sunday because the Sun's setting and this is gonna be a high Sabbath and let's let's get this taken care of and so.

The point is the women who had come with him from Galilee followed saw the tomb how his body was laid. Magalie Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph's saw where he was laid. All of this is an end.

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there sitting opposite the sepulcher so there is a witness that is there as to Where this takes place and Luke says then they returned paired spices anointments on the Sabbath day and the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment and.

The Guard at the Tomb and the Meaning of the “Last Fraud”

So you have the beginning? Well, it's one last section the guard of the tomb. Next day that is after day of preparation the chief priest and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate. And said sir, we remember now notice after day of preparation.

So They're so concerned about this. They will appear before a Gentile on the Sabbath day. Sir, remember how that imposter said while he was still alive. Sounds like they have a really guilty conscience.

I don't know about you, but I think that's and they're they're scared to death. And if I had seen Jesus Raising people from the dead. I'd probably be a little bit on the concerned side as well when you think about it.

After three days, I will rise again therefore order the sepulcher to be made secure until the third day lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people he has risen from the dead and the last trial be worse than the first.

Pilate said to them you have a guard of soldiers go make it as secure as you can. So they went and made the sepulcher secure by sealing the stone and setting the guard. Now the nature of this guard is again an area of dispute and discussion.

Was Pilate saying I'm giving you a guard of soldiers or is he saying you have a guard of soldiers? Go make it as secure as you can. People argue both directions. The point is that they went and made the sepulcher secure by sealing the stone.

So a seal was placed upon the stone so that the stone were to be moved. Then they would have a broken seal to be able to say see. The graves been tampered with. There wasn't a resurrection. Etc etc and they set a guard before the tomb.

Now what though. Might that last phrase about that that phrase from what they had said mean and. The last fraud will be worse than the first. The last fraud will be worse than the first now. We've all read it before but have you ever stopped to go?

What does that mean? This is where I stopped talking for a moment. It becomes very awkwardly quiet. All of a sudden everybody starts paying close attention to the sound of the fan and the the air coming out of the vent.

You start looking like you're Deeply involved in writing an extremely important note of divine revelation that you cannot be interrupted. Lest I ask you the question that kind of thing. So what's what's what's talking about?

Remember this person. Look what happened.

No, I think they're. I think they're definitely talking about events in Jesus's life, that's interesting. Last followed you worse than the first. That's interesting. Yeah. That's that's what he just said.

Yeah, I I just think the most natural way of reading it is the the the first fraud was his claim to be the Messiah and. Then the last fraud would be that he rose from the dead. He claimed to be the Messiah claiming his son of God.

He was a false teacher. That's the first fraud. But then if his disciples don't go around Proclaiming these risen the dead then the last of the worst in the first. I think that would be the natural way of looking at it.

I only mentioned in passing because of again My work with Islam Ahmed D dot who I have introduced you to before. The most listened to Muslim speaker in the world. He continues to speak though dead. No, he died in 2006 he really really is dead.

That he looked at this and said that what's referring to here is the and. Don't ask me how this makes a lick of sense. But this is the kind of argumentation you'll get especially because most of us have not ever really thought about it before so if we haven't thought through what it's saying.

We may hear somebody misusing the text and going that's not right. But if you go, that's not right, so he goes well. What is right, and you go? I don't know you you don't have much in the way of credibility at that point obviously so His argument was the first fraud was the crucifixion itself because remember Muslims don't believe Jesus was crucified in a cross and so the first fraud would be the crucifixion the second would be Resurrection.

Which doesn't make a lick of sense because if he wasn't crucified what in the world are you doing sealing a tomb anyways? But that's the level of non exegesis that you get from street level Islam. You know they'll just quote a section and and given that 99 .9 of their audience is never going to read anything other than that if they ever look at a Bible at all.

They're not going to read the context, so I don't know what the context is so you can get away with. You can get away with exegetical murder. In that context sort of like uncertain channels between 20 and 22 here in Phoenix.

You can do so it sort of works out so you have the ceiling of the temple and the setting of The guard and then the next section is titled amazing enough page 325 and how many pages do we? Wow the last page is 338 so 13 pages 13 pages last section titled the resurrection here.

The Silence of Holy Saturday and the Hope of the Resurrection

But here begins That period of time where we are only given a slight Insight by Luke. When we have as we're going to read the story of the the disciples on the road to Emmaus. That's not the only insight.

We're given to what was it like. For the 12 now the 11. At this at this point in time. What was that Sabbath day like especially? The nighttime. That day what what were they thinking? You know if this was a if this was a made-up religion.

That was just simply trying to impress people. Then what you would do is you would have entire books written about the emotional life of the disciples and The great crisis of faith they went through and all the rest.

That's it. Not a word not a word. And so all we're left with is speculation, but it must have been an incredible Experience for all of them. I mean we can start it. We sort of see a little bit with Thomas.

You know hey unless I you know I mean totally crushed faith totally crushed faith. You see a little difference in how Peter and John react you you're given little rays of light that sort of illuminate a few things, but what we want this full discussion of.

They go into the upper room they close the doors, and what do they say is it just silence? How could we have been wrong I? Mean Wow. It must have seemed like an eternity it must have seemed the the dark hours.

I Think if you're gonna write a book about it. It would be called the dark hours. Maybe I'll do that sometime. That would be that'd be interesting the dark hours, and you were there when we we came up with the idea, but but The gospel writers don't go there.

They don't go there next section the resurrection all right. Let's close the word of prayer. Father we thank you for your word. We do. Thank you for the great work of the cross and We thank you that that was not the end that we are not finished with this study.

But there is the great work of the resurrection. We live in light of that this day in that power. We ask that you would Cause our hearts and our minds to be open to your truth as we go in to worship you we pray in Christ's name Amen.