.

THE DEAD CHRIST

It was not usual to remove bodies from the cross immediately after
their death. They were allowed to hang, exposed to the weather, till
they rotted and fell to pieces; or they might be torn by birds or
beasts; and at last a fire was perhaps kindled beneath the cross to rid
the place of the remains. Such was the Roman custom; but among the
Jews there was more scrupulosity. In their law there stood this
provision: "If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be
put to death, and thou hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain
all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day
(for he that is hanged is accursed of God); that thy land be not
defiled which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance." [1]
Whether or not the Jews always tried to get this provision observed in
executions carried out in their midst by their Roman masters, we cannot
tell; but it was natural that they should do so in reference to
executions carried out in the neighbourhood of the holy city and at
Passover time. In the present instance there was the additional
reason, that the morrow of the execution of Jesus was a high day--it
was the Sabbath of the Passover--a kind of double Sabbath, which would
have been desecrated by any unclean thing, like an unburied corpse,
exposed to view. The Jews were extremely sensitive about such points.
At any time they regarded themselves as unclean if they touched a dead
body, and they had to go through a process of purgation before their
sense of sanctity was restored. But on the occasion of a Passover
Sabbath they would have felt it to be a desecration if any dead thing
had even met their eyes or rested uncovered on the soil of their city.
Therefore their representatives went to the Roman governor and begged
that the three crucified men should be put to death by clubbing and
their bodies buried before the Sabbath commenced.

The suggestion has often been made that, behind this pretended
scrupulosity, their real aim was to inflict additional pain and
indignity on Jesus. The breaking of the bones of the body, by smashing
them with clubs, was a peculiarly horrible form of punishment sometimes
inflicted by the Romans.[2] It was nearly as cruel and degrading as
crucifixion itself; and it was an independent punishment, not conjoined
with crucifixion. But the Jews in this case attempted to get them
united, that Jesus, besides being crucified, might, so t