Well, the jpeg filename posted below is crucifiction. It's not that the event is fictional, the depiction is sterilized/stylized. You know, we have a sensitive market out there - no need to offend anyone. This christian business has to be mass marketed properly. Just like a real money makin' biz, ya' know. No need to give
the impression that we just fell off the turnip truck.
Sorry, I cut all the classes on modern consumerism. Never pass up a good excuse to go fishin'.
Here's what the record shows:
Jn 18:37 Then Pilate said to him, Are you then a king? Jesus made answer, You say that I am a king.For this purpose was I given birth,and for this purpose I came into the world, that I might give witness to what is true. Every lover of what is true gives ear to my voice.
38 Pilate said to him, True? what is true?
Having said this he went out again to the Jews and said to them, I see no wrong in him.
39 But every year you make a request to me to let a prisoner go free at the Passover. Is it your desire that I let the King of the Jews go free?
40 Then again they gave a loud cry, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was an outlaw.
Jn 19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped with cords.
2 And the men of the army made a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a purple robe on him.
3 And they kept coming and saying, Long life to the King of the Jews! And they gave him blows with their hands.
4 And Pilate went out again and said to them, See, I let him come out to you to make it clear to you that I see no wrong in him.
5 Then Jesus came out with the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, Here is the man!
6 So when the chief priests and the police saw him they gave a loud cry, To the cross! to the cross! Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and put him on the cross: I see no crime in him.
7 And the Jews made answer, We have a law, and by that law it is right for him to be put to death because he said he was the Son of G-d.
8 When this saying came to Pilate's ears his fear became greater;
9 And he went again into the Praetorium and said to Jesus, Where do you come from? But Jesus gave him no answer.
10 Then Pilate said to him, You say nothing to me? Is it not clear to you that I have power to let you go free and power to put you to death on the cross?
11 Jesus gave this answer: You would have no power at all over me if it was not given to you by G-d; so that he who gave me up to you has the greater sin.
12 Hearing this, Pilate had a desire to let him go free, but the Jews said in a loud voice, If you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend: everyone who makes himself a king goes against Caesar.
13 So when these words came to Pilate's ear, he took Jesus out, seating himself in the judge's seat in a place named in Hebrew, Gabbatha, or the Stone Floor.
14 (It was the day when they made ready for the Passover; and it was about the sixth hour.) And he said to the Jews, There is your King!
15 Then they gave a loud cry, Away with him! away with him! to the cross! Pilate said to them, Am I to put your King to death on the cross? The chief priests said in answer, We have no king but Caesar.
16 So then he gave him up to them to be put to death on the cross. And they took Jesus away;
17 And he went out with his cross on him to the place which is named Dead Man's Head (in Hebrew, Golgotha):
18 Where they put him on the cross with two others, one on this side and one on that, and Jesus in the middle.
19 And Pilate put on the cross a statement in writing. The writing was: JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
20 The writing was seen by a number of the Jews, for the place where Jesus was put to death on the cross was near the town; and the writing was in Hebrew and Latin and Greek.
21 Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, Do not put, The King of the Jews, but, He said, I am the King of the Jews.
22 But Pilate made answer, What I have put in writing will not be changed.
23 And when Jesus was nailed to the cross, the men of the army took his clothing, and made a division of it into four parts,to every man a part, and they took his coat: now the coat was without a join, made out of one bit of cloth.
It was finished. Jesus completed the work of redemption at the cross. But it did not look exactly as the artist renders. Crucifixion was a gruesome ordeal. The artist knows that we don't want to see the pain of death. It's the job of the artist to soften the harshness of detail. Did you ever see impressionist art? Did an impressionist ever do a crucifixion? I truely don't know. Why am I doubting it? I would guess that the best candidate for that would be Van Gogh. But he's famous for sunflowers.
Did you notice the stunning reply of the religious leaders in verse 15 -- we have no king but Caesar. That's not Newman's Own, that's the Roman Emperor. This is what the glory of the former theocracy had come to. Wow, talk about a total collapse! Herod's Temple was nothing much more that a symbol of ancient glory. In the sweep of history the time was right for regime change. Jesus appeared in the fullness of time, to complete the transition.
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I do not feel obliged to believe that the same G-d who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
- Galileo Galilei
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