Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

For Jesus, Pontius Pilate’s failed stratagem meant death, and death by one of the most gruesome methods of execution ever devised by human beings to torture others. For Romans, death on the cross was regarded as so dreadful and dishonorable that it could be imposed only on slaves and non-Romans. Cicero wrote, “The executioner, and the veiling of the head, and the mere name of the gibbet, should be far removed, not only from the persons of Roman citizens—from their thoughts, and eyes, and ears” (Pro Rabirio 16). But even in the case of slaves and provincials crucifixion was generally reserved for serious crimes such as murder, temple robbery, treason, and rebellion.

It was the Roman custom to precede every crucifixion with an additional feature: scourging. Mark and Matthew report it in this sense (Mark 15:15; Matt 27:26). For them the scourging of Jesus clearly functions as an added punishment prior to crucifixion and part of the whole process.¹⁵ Thus even before his actual execution Jesus received a punishment so horrible that it often resulted in death. Roman scourging was so dangerous because the number of strokes was not limited and the thongs of the whip often incorporated bits of bone or metal. That gives us a hint of what the brief statement “Pilate had Jesus scourged” means.

In addition, the Roman soldiers, after Jesus was handed over to them for execution, first played games with him. They dressed him as a king, imitated the solemn royal acclamation, and fell on their faces before him. They spat on him and cried, “Hail, king of the Jews!” while striking him brutally in the face (Mark 15:16-20). As a result of the scourging and the subsequent mistreatment, Jesus was no longer able to carry his own cross to the place of execution. Therefore the soldiers forced a certain Simon of Cyrene, who was just coming from the fields and accidentally crossed the path of the execution squad, to carry Jesus’ cross for him (Mark 15:21).

We should not, however, imagine this carrying of the cross as Christian art has portrayed it. For regular executions the condemned did not carry the whole cross, but only the crossbeam. The upright beams were posts that were firmly rammed into the earth, usually as semi-permanent fixtures. When the delinquent arrived at the place of execution he was laid on the ground and his outstretched arms were nailed to the crossbeam; then the beam bearing the condemned man was hoisted onto the fixed upright pole. The crossbeam was fastened to the top; only then were the feet nailed fast. So Jesus and Simon of Cyrene did not carry the whole cross but only the crossbeam. That Jesus could not carry even this single beam shows that he was already at the limits of his physical strength after the scourging.

On the way to the place of execution someone carried a placard (titulus) in front of the condemned person giving the reason for the execution. For Jesus the titulus read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (John 19:19; cf. Mark 15:26). That Pilate had the titulus read “the King of the Jews” and not “he pretended to be the King of the Jews” can only be understood as a malicious mockery directed at the Jewish people. Apparently, after having drawn the short straw in his confrontation with the Sanhedrin, Pilate wanted to revenge himself at least in this way. But at the same time the wording of the titulus represented a spiteful irony against Jesus: the Roman soldiers had played their rough games with him, and now the mockery continues.

It should be noted that the information that Jesus was crucified between two rebels is part of the consistently maintained symbolism of mockery. A king cannot appear on solemn public occasions without his council. The “council” carefully placed to Jesus’ “right” and “left” (Mark 15:27) is made up of two felons, with Jesus enthroned exactly in the middle. The two “thieves” were probably some of the terrorists or freedom fighters who had been imprisoned along with Barabbas. Although the gospels do not say so, we have to assume that Pilate had also condemned these two terrorists on that same Friday morning. Thus the prefect had not wasted much time on Jesus’ condemnation; he made the trial a short one.