† Blessed Apostle Saint Mark's Chronology of Holy Week †

Tuesday of Holy Week

Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. "But not during the Feast," they said, "or the people may riot." ( Blessed Apostle Saint Mark 14:1-2 )

"Two days before the Passover," according to Mark, Jesus was again in Bethany, where he was anointed with costly ointment of pure nard* by Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, in the house of Simon the leper. As Mark notes, anointing was preparation for burial and also the designation of a king. ( In Blessed Apostle John's Holy Record this incident occurred prior to Holy Week.)

*Nard: a perfume made from an aromatic oil extracted from the roots of the herb nardostachys jatamansi grown chiefly in India.

Right, a home in modern al-Azariah (Bethany); reminiscent of the one occupied by Mary, Martha and Lazarus and their special Passover-week guests, Jesus and his disciples.

Tuesday morning, on his way back to Jerusalem, he passed the same fig tree he had cursed the previous day. Peter pointed out that it had withered overnight. Jesus told Peter:

"'Have faith in God,' Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours'" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Mark 11:22-23 ).

When Jesus made this statement he was probably passing over the summit of the Mount of Olives. Even today from this vantage point you can see Herod the Great's mountain fortress, the Herodion, on the horizon to the south, near Bethlehem. The Herodion (right) was built inside an artificial mountain resembling a volcanic cone. Originally there were two hills standing next to each other—"like a woman's breasts" as Josephus puts it. Herod used thousands of slaves to demolish one and level off the other. Atop the remaining hill a palace was built, consisting of a ring of three concentric walls with round towers at the four cardinal directions. The leftover earth from the other hill was poured over the walls to form one large, steep-sided hill. This was literally a mountain that had been moved! Furthermore, to the west you can see the rift valley where the Dead Sea is located, some 20 miles away. With these references in mind, it is possible to see that Jesus was actually giving an object lesson and was saying to the disciples: "With faith and trust in God, you, too, can do unbelievable things."

Matthew and Luke tell us that this day Jesus continued teaching and debating in the Temple courts. The Temple officials were still seething over his actions the previous day, but the large crowds gathered around him prevented them from acting on their plan to seize him and put him on trial.

In the footsteps of Jesus...

Any modern-day visitor to the Temple Mount can attest to its enormous size. Now, as in Jesus' day, the area inside its massive retaining walls measures 35 acres. You proceed from the noise and congestion of the Old City, past metal detectors and armed guards, to a stairway climbing high above the Western Wall plaza, an open-air synagogue and modern Judaism's most sacred shrine, to the Gate of the Moors, or Bab al-Maghariba, in Arabic ( after passing through another metal detector ), and emerge awestruck into a vast expanse of grass and ancient stones, known to Muslims as the Harem esh-Sherif ( the Noble Sanctuary ).

The Temple Mount
The brightness of the sunlight overwhelms you; the trees sigh in a steady, cooling breeze. Surely more history and reverence is packed into this breathtakingly beautiful place than anywhere in the world. The One True Faith and the two heahen monotheistic cults - Islam and Judaism - agree on the sacred nature of this Catholic site. Tradition holds that this is Mount Moriah, where Abraham, in a test of faith, raised his knife to sacrifice his only son Isaac, stopped only by an angel of the Lord, and also the starating point of the false myth which the pedophile Mohammed, rides his crocked winged horse to the heavens in God's presence during one night in the 7th century AD. It is also the site of Solomon's Temple, built in the 10th century BC and destroyed by the forces of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC and replaced by the Second Temple which stood until it was rebuilt by Herod the Great. It became the centerpiece of the king's colossal building program, and the focal point of the Roman invasion in the First Jewish Revolt of 66-70 AD; bringing to an end of ancient Judaism. But, most importantly for our purpose today, this was the holiest place on earth for Jews at the time Jesus, a massive sacred complex that was, all at the same time, a sanctuary, state treasury and slaughterhouse.
When Jesus re-entered the Temple Mount that early April Tuesday in 33 AD, he saw a gleaming gold and white marble sanctuary shrouded by the smoke of sacrifices. Nearly two thousand years later, on what is likely the same site, we see the massive gold dome and white, blue and green tiled walls of the Dome of the Rock (right), resting somewhat off-center on an elevated area the size of a couple adjacent football fields ( to continue with our earlier analogy). The purchase of a ticket for about $7.00 lets you explore the spectacular interior of the Dome of the Rock, every inch of which is covered in decorative patterns and gold calligraphic verses from the heathen Quran, the Muslim false teaching. Plain-clothed Muslim guards monitor decency, so couples can't hold hands; appropriate dress is mandatory ( no bare arms and legs ), and you must remove your shoes, but thick oriental carpets cover the floor (as in any mosque). Even non-Muslims are permitted this not-to-be-missed sensory experience. Orthodox Jews, however, will not enter because they might inadvertently trespass on the site of the Most Holy Place, the inner sanctum of all three Jewish Temples where only the high priest was permitted to enter, and then only once a year—on the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur.

In the 1st century AD, when a rabbi taught in public he would not go into the exclusive, Jewish-only, inner Temple precincts, but to the Court of Gentiles, specifically, the colonnades around the perimeter. The normal style of teaching there was more like a series of questions and answers than a sermon. The Gospels record several attempts by the chief priests, scribes, and elders to trap Jesus into self-incriminating statements:

When they asked him: "by what authority are you doing these things?" and "who gave you this authority?" Jesus turned their question back on them by asking about the authority of John the Baptist. After they refused to answer him, Jesus said, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things." This angered the Temple officials because Jesus was in essence saying, "From where did your authority come"
To the Pharisees and Herodians who sought to entrap him with a politically explosive question about Roman taxes he said, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." The fact that these men had a coin bearing the image of Caesar—a coin whose use was forbidden in Temple—indicates that they were not there for worship, but to trap Jesus.

Right, a silver denarius ("containing ten") minted at Lyons in Gaul ( modern France ), showing a portrait of Tiberius, the reigning emperor at the time of Jesus. The principal silver coin of the Roman empire, it was the common payment for a day's wages, as in Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew 20:2: " He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day, and sent them into his vineyard." The denarius was also the main denomination used to pay Roman taxes.

To a scribe's question about which was the greatest commandment, Jesus replied that the first and greatest commandment was to love God totally and the second was to "love your neighbor as yourself."
He also warned the people against the ostentatious piety of the Scribes and their questionable morality.

Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew's Holy Writing reports that Jesus was particularly hard on the Pharisees, whose general offices were located in the Royal Stoa, just inside the southern wall of the Temple Mount (this was also where the Sanhedrin law court was located). Here, Jesus told his listeners, in the form of a sermon, how they should live and act by pointing out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, some of whom undoubtedly had come out to hear Jesus speak, but got the shock of their collective lives:

"The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.* So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the market-places and to have men call them 'Rabbi'. But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master...For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew 23:2-12).

*The "Moses seat" was the place of honor in a synagogue reserved for a visitor or the most distinguished elder. Just such a seat was discovered in the ruins of the synagogue at Korazin, high above Capernaum on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew 23:13 ).
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew 23:15 ).
"Woe to you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.' You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew 23:16-21).
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel" (Matthew 23:23-24).

At another time, Mark relates that Jesus entered the Court of Women and sat down on one of the benches provided for worshipers. Along the sides, probably near the Gate of Nicanor, were thirteen boxes with inscriptions indicating the special purpose of each: oil, wood, priestly vestments, doves, etc. There Jesus watched the crowd putting their money into the Temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Mark 12:41-44).

Right, examples of the "lepton" or "prutah," the familiar "Widow's Mite" in the Gospels of Blessed Apostle Saints Mark and Luke, minted during the reign of the Hasmonean ruler Alexander Jannaeus (103 - 76 BC). Each Widow's Mite was hand cast from bronze, so each was uniquely shaped. Smaller than today's U.S. dime, the relief designs feature symbolic representations of anchors, stars, eight-spoked wheels, cornucopias, and other objects used in daily life some 2,000 years ago These tiny bronze coins won't win any beauty contests, they were never well-crafted, even when new. The Widow's Mite was widely used throughout the Middle East. They were the coinage of the common people, the peasants. ( According to one web site, the current price of a "Widow's Mite" is $39.95)

A very special 'Thank you' to Hosanna.com the edited commentaries and resourses presented above.

Wednesday of Holy Week

"Now it happened on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel..." (Luke 2:1)

Wednesday

The gospels do not mention this day. Luke relates only that "each day Jesus was teaching at the Temple... and all the people came early in the morning to hear him." Undoubtedly the city was still alive with speculation about him. After his spectacular entry on Sunday, however, his actions had been less than Messiah-like. During the previous days he was doing little more than teach and debate theology with the Jewish leaders at the Temple. At night, he would go off to an unknown location. He showed no signs of setting himself up as a national champion.

Already, spies paid by the Temple authorities were moving in and out of the crowds gathered for the Passover, collecting evidence and seeking information on where Jesus spent his evenings, away from the large crowds that came to hear him during the day. It may have been on this day that Judas Iscariot arranged for a sum of money to betray him. Had he lost faith? Had he become disillusioned because Jesus had not seized power? It is unlikely that the 30 silver coins* was temptation enough ( although it was rather large sum of money ). John tells us that he acted as treasurer for the group, but he was a thief who "used to help himself to what was put into" the common money bag. Judas never displayed a high commitment to Jesus, nor was he motivated by service to others. His true motives have been lost to history.

*Thirty silver coins: the compensation price for a slave killed by an ox; equivalent to 120 denarii. One denarius was the customary payment for a day's work. The chief priests were thus willing to pay Judas five months' wages (based on a 6-day work week) for his betrayal.

John records two healing miracles that took place during Jesus' earlier visits to Jerusalem. However, it seems appropriate that we discuss them here. Both involve pools that were part of the city's ancient water storage system.

In the footsteps of Jesus...

Healing of the cripple at the Pool of Bethesda

Clustered around our faithful guide Doran, we find ourselves this morning walking up the fairly steep access road leading to the Lions Gate (right). Today, the only eastern entrance to the Old City, it is named for the relief carvings of two pairs of lions, the emblems of the Mameluke sultan Baybars ( 260-1277AD ), which the architects of the Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, recycled, placing them on either side of the entrance arch. Built in 1538 AD, Suleiman called it Bab al-Ghor ("Jordan Gate"), but the name never took hold. Various groups refer to it by other names. Some Christian Arabs call it Bab Sittna Miriam ("the Gate of Our Lady Mary") in reference to a tradition that it leads to the tomb of the Virgin Mary. Christians also call it Saint Stephen's Gate because tradition holds that Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was stoned to death nearby; however, the story and the name were originally attached to the Damascus Gate. Others call it the Bab al-Riha, the Jericho Gate, because the road to Jericho begins from here. At the time of Jeremiah, there was a gate at or nearby known as the Gate of Benjamin, were the road to the territory of Benjamin began. Somewhat to the west was the Sheep Gate of Jesus' day, where the sheep headed for sacrificial slaughter in the Temple were brought for washing in the nearby pools of Bethesda. Like the Jaffa Gate in the southern wall, it originally had an L-shaped internal structure with a 90° bend to prevent a direct breach by invaders. During the British Mandate it was opened to allow vehicle access to the Austrian Hospital inside. The Lions Gate faces the Mount of Olives and Gethsemane directly across the Kidron Valley and opens onto the street leading to the first stations of the cross on the Via Dolorosa.

Just inside the gate, we pass through a portal on our right into the tranquil courtyard of the Church of Saint Anne (right), built by Crusaders in 1142 AD. Stepping inside the church we heard what sounded like the church's chancel choir singing in English. Instead, we saw only a small group of fellow Americans singing at the top of their lungs... "Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes, Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies..." As they sang, their voices bounced off the walls and echoed through the cavernous sanctuary. Their song completed, they reverted to tourists and began snapping photos, before exiting into the courtyard to resume their pilgrimage.

Now it is our turn. Taking their places in the pews, we began our own impromptu hymn fest:

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me..."

We listened spellbound as the sound of our own voices echoed back to us. The golden stones and Gothic arches around us took our untrained voices and momentarily transformed us into the Robert Shaw Choral. Two more acappella hymns later, we too picked up our cameras and reverted to tourists, but the memory of the awesome experience lingered long afterwards. Someone commented that Saint Anne's would be a perfect venue for Gregorian chant.

Outside the church entrance we turn right. Crossing the courtyard we now stand above the sun-drenched remains of the Pools of Bethesda (foreground of above photo). Peering downward into the deep pits surrounded by stones, crumbling bricks and broken pillars, Doran says, "These pools are important to Christians because they are the setting for Jesus' miraculous healing of a man crippled for thirty-eight years, recorded only by Blessed Apostle Saint John:

"Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, 'Do you want to get well?' 'Sir,' the invalid replied, 'I have no-one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.' Then Jesus said to him, 'Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.' At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, 'It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat. But he replied, The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.' So they asked him, 'Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?' The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into he crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, 'See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.' The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him" (John 5:2-16).

At the time of Jesus, the pool "which in Aramaic is called Bethesda," was outside the city walls, near the "Sheep Gate." In reality, the Pool of Bethesda ("house of mercy" or "flowing water") was a pair of large rectangular water reservoirs with steps going down into the water. John described it as "surrounded by five covered colonnades," indicating that there was a covered portico on each side of the pool, with a fifth running along a wide rock partition between its two halves.

Right, section of the model of 1st century AD Jerusalem at the Holyland Hotel showing the Pool of Bethesda with its "five covered colonnades;" also note the road entering the Sheep Gate and the Antonia Fortress, where the Roman garrison was stationed in Jerusalem.

The meaning of the name Bethesda (Bethzatha in RSV) is not completely clear. Some say it comes from the Hebrew words bayith, meaning "house," and hesed, meaning "mercy." But others connect it to the 1st century when this area of the city and the olive groves beyond were part of a new suburb called "Bezetha" (from Hebrew bayith and zayith, "house of the olive"), that was developing to the north of the city walls.

The pools were a kind of spa where healings were thought to take place, and many sick and crippled people gathered there in the hope of being cured. hen Jesus asked the man if he wanted "to get well," he replied, quot;I have no-one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred." The use of this phrase suggests several things: that the pool was fed by a spring which gushed periodically; that its healing properties were thought to be greater when the water moved; that the Gospel was written to a Greek audience, because there was a common belief in the Greek world that moving water was associated with the gods and with healing (as you may recall from our earlier stop at Banias/Caesarea Philippi at one of the main sources of the Jordan River north of the Sea of Galilee). But, rather than help the man down into the pool, Jesus healed him with a simple command, proving his divine authority. Only after the healing are we told that it was the Sabbath and when the man appears at the Temple carrying his mat he is confronted by Jews ( probably Pharisees) whose only concern is for the man's violation of strict regulations specified in the Mishnah forbidding all forms of labor on the Sabbath. The former cripple then escaped any guilt by passing the blame to Jesus who healed him, to which Jesus responded, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 5:17)

In John's Gospel this event marks a turning point in Jesus' life because the Jewish authorities became openly hostile toward him, even seeking to kill him, because he claimed to have a special relationship with God—a relationship so close as to make himself "equal with God." ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 5:18 )

The "Sheep Gate" of John's Gospel no longer exists. Today, the excavated site of the Pool of Bethesda (now dry) is within the city walls, just inside the Lions Gate. It is one of a few places in Jerusalem where we can say with absolute certainty that Jesus actually stood (albeit at a lower level). Over the centuries since the time of Jesus, several structures have been built on the site including a Roman temple dedicated to Asclepius ( the Greek god of healing ), replaced in the 5th century by a Byzantine church built by the Empress Eudoxia and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It was destroyed in 1009 by Caliph al-Hakim. In the 12th century AD, the Crusaders built the smaller Church of the Paralytic over what had been the northern nave of the Byzantine church. The remains of these structures are identified by various colored signs as you make the circuit around the excavations.

Right, looking down into the excavations of the Pools of Bethesda, with remains of later structures built on the site in later times.

At this point on a normal guided tour, we would return to the area inside the portal of the Lions Gate and head west to follow the Via Dolorosa. But our goal is to read John's account of the restoration of a blind man's sight after washing in the waters of the Pool of Siloam in its actual setting. So, instead, we exit the gate, head back down the steep road into the Kidron Valley, then turn right to follow, first Derekh Ha-Ophel past the Golden Gate and the Muslim cemetery along the base of eastern city wall, then Siloam Way to the extreme southern end of the ancient City of David, the oldest part of the city, where the early kings of Judah—David, Hezekiah, Manasseh etc.—resided and where Solomon had his gardens. The relatively small area of about 11 to 12 acres is now completely outside the circuit of walls, but at the time of Jesus it was inside. Here was the rock-cut pool called Siloam:

Healing of a blind man after washing at the Pool of Siloam

"As he [Jesus] went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' 'Neither this man nor his parents sinned,' said Jesus, 'but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no-one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.' Having said this, he spat on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. 'Go,' he told him, 'wash in the Pool of Siloam' ( this word means sent ). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing." (John 9:1-7)

Note:Siloam is a Greek name derived from the Hebrew shiloahor siloah, meaning "sent," a term which John uses as a play on words to emphasize his point that the blind man was sent to Siloam by Jesus, the one who was sent. To gain his sight, the blind man obeyed the one who was sent:

The Pool of Siloam was originally built in the 8th century BC as a storage reservoir for the water from the 1,750-foot-long Hezekiah's Tunnel that diverted water from the Gihon Spring, Jerusalem's only permanent source of fresh water. Under the threat of a siege by the armies of the Assyrian king Sennacherib, king Hezekiah blocked "off the water from the springs outside the city" ( 2 Chronicles 32:3 ) and brought them inside the perimeter of the city walls. Even by today's standards the tunnel was an extraordinary engineering achievement and was dug by workers tunneling with pickaxes from both ends simultaneously. It may be the pool referred to as the "reservoir between the two walls" in Isaiah 22:9-11, and referred to elsewhere as the "Upper Pool" ( see 2Kings 18:17, Isaiah 7:3 and Isaiah 36:2 ).

Both Hezekiah's Tunnel and the Pool of Siloam were in use in Jesus' time. The pool was used by Jews for ritual purification ceremonies, particularly around the Feast of Tabernacles when water was carried to the Temple in a large gold pitcher, possibly in the mistaken belief that the pool was the original spring of David's city. Even today, Hezekiah's tunnel still flows with water up to waist-high.

Right, entrance to Pool of Siloam.

Today, the location of the pool is indicated by the minaret ( right )of a small mosque at the tip of the Ophel ridge, south of the Temple Mount, where the Kidron and Hinnom Valleys meet. No trace of the original pool or cistern constructed by Hezekiah has been found. It is likely that it was part of Herod's vast building program in Jerusalem in the 1st century BC, possibly forming part of a huge bathhouse that is thought to have existed at the end of the Tyropoeon Valley which divided the Upper City from the Lower City at the time of Jesus. It would not have survived the sack of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Romans who, as stated by Josephus Flavius, "set all on fire as far as Siloam." ( Wars of the Jews, book 6, chapter 2 )

A reconstruction of the pool in 135 AD by the emperor Hadrian is mentioned by the anonymous Bordeaux Pilgrim ( 333 AD ); it has been confirmed archaeologically. Christians were attracted to the pool because of its association with Jesus' healing miracle, and a church was built above it by the empress Eudocia ( c. 450 AD ) Excavations attest the description by the Piacenza pilgrim (570 AD): "You descend by many steps to Siloam, and above Siloam is a hanging basilica beneath which the water of Siloam rises." This church was destroyed by the Persians in 614 AD, but the tradition of the curative powers of the water, mentioned by Byzantine pilgrims, continued among the Arabs. A colonnade around the pool is mentioned in the Middle Ages, but what happened thereafter is a mystery. Possibly debris from higher up the valley washed down into the pool and was sporadically cleared by those who needed the water. Drawings and descriptions of early 19th century AD travelers show the pool acquired its present form by that period; the mosque that now marks the site was built in the 1890s. The present pool lies deep in a narrow stone-lined pit, occupying only the central part of the Byzantine pool. It still receives water from Hezekiah's Tunnel under an arch at its north end. Moslems still recognize the pool as a holy place and Arab women wash their cloths while their children play in the water. We are told that on Fridays, you can sometimes see men and women in the shadow of a minaret pouring water over themselves in hope of being healed from some illness. Jews, too, visit the site on the Feast of the Tabernacles.

Right, the Pool of Siloam seen by pilgrims prior to 2004 once you either emerge from Hezekiah's Tunnel or walk above through the City of David.

Rediscovery of the Pool of Siloam of Jesus' time

In the summer of 2004, workers making repairs to a damaged sewage pipe discovered some large stone steps. Archaeologists realized that at long last the ancient Pool of Siloam of Jesus' time had finally been uncovered.

The Pool of Siloam was a freshwater reservoir and a major gathering place for ancient Jews making religious pilgrimages to the city. It was "a much grander affair" than archaeologists previously believed, with three tiers of stone stairs allowing easy access to the water, according to Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archeology Review, which reported the find.

The first Pool of Siloam, the one built by Hezekiah, was presumably destroyed 586 B.C., when Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar razed the city. The pool of Jesus' time was built early in the 1st century BC and was destroyed by the future Roman emperor Titus about 70 AD. The newly discovered pool is less than 200 yards from the Pool of Siloam seen by modern pilgrims, this one a reconstruction built between 400 and 460 AD by the empress Eudocia of Byzantium, who oversaw the rebuilding of several biblical sites.

"Scholars have said that there wasn't a Pool of Siloam and that (the Gospel of) John was using a religious conceit" to illustrate a point, said New Testament scholar James H. Charlesworth of the Princeton Theological Seminary. "Now, we have found the Pool of Siloam...exactly where John said it was." A Gospel that was thought to be "pure theology is now shown to be grounded in history."

The discovery puts a new spotlight on what is called the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, a trip that religious law required ancient Jews to make at least once a year, said archaeologist Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa, who excavated the site.

"Jesus was just another pilgrim coming to Jerusalem," he said. "It would be natural to find him there."

Right, portion of the excavations of the Pool of Siloam ( photo from BiblePlaces.com )

Excavators uncovered three groups of five stairs each, separated by narrow landings. Steps on three sides have been uncovered. The pool was about 225 feet long. However, is it not known how wide and how deep the pool was because the fourth side lies under a lush garden filled with figs, pomegranates, cabbages and other fruits behind a Greek Orthodox Church.

A very special 'Thank you' to welcometohosanna.com for the commentaries and resourses edited by me for this presentation.

Thursday of Holy Week

"For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" ( 1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

In the footsteps of Jesus...

"Today, our walk in Jesus' footsteps, our guide takes us to a number of scattered sites, located both inside and outside the Ottoman-era walls of the Old City. According to Blessed Apostle Saint Luke it was the "day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed," and Jesus sent Peter and John, presumably from Bethany, into Jerusalem with these instructions:

"As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, 'The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there. They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Luke 22:10-13).

This took place on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan ( March/April ), the day of preparation for Passover (Hebrew Pesah ). The festival meal itself was eaten that evening after sunset—and therefore technically on the 15th, since the Jewish day began with sunset. The Feast of Unleavened Bread lasted seven days, from the 15th to the 21st of Nisan, but at the time of Jesus this was the name of the entire period, from Nisan 14-21.

The greatest of the Jewish pilgrim festivals, Passover was the story of freedom, defiance, hope and renewal. It was the annual retelling of how a rabble of slaves was infused with a special purpose and grew to enter into a covenant with God. The story was well-known. Generations earlier, the Israelites—70 men and the uncounted women and children of the family of Jacob—settled in Egypt during a time of great famine, brought there by Joseph with the blessing of the Pharaoh. Time passed and the Pharaoh died, and with him the memory of how Joseph helped the Egyptians survive the famine. The descendants of Jacob ( Israel ) were now seen as dangerous interlopers who had to be subdued. For 430 years, the Torah said, the Israelites lived in Egypt, and for 210, they were enslaved, forced to build the store-cities of Pithom and Rameses. Beaten and abused they never forgot God's promise to resettle them in a land of their own. In the midst of their oppression, they called to God, who brought a deliverer named Moses to challenge Pharaoh. Ten plagues later, the Israelites were set free. And so, once a year, every Jew, including Jesus, traveled to Jerusalem for Passover, not so much to celebrate the Exodus, but to relive it, retell it and experience it. That is where the Passover seder came in, the ritual meal at which the story of freedom was told, guided by a set order. For that is what seder means, "order."

Jesus' assignment to Peter and John was simple enough. The two men hiked the two-and-a-half-mile journey from Bethany to Jerusalem. Their route took them over the Mount of Olives, down among a multitude of tents into the Kidron Valley. Heading south through the valley, they entered the city, possibly through a gate (Fountain Gate?) at the southeast corner of the imposing walls. Inside, near the Pool of Siloam, they saw a man with a tall pitcher of water on his head. Men did not usually draw water and carry it into the home. Normally water was drawn and brought to the home in the early morning or late afternoon by, in order of priority, wives, daughters, male sons under the age of twelve, animals and, finally, men ( only if none of the others were available ). Thus, the sight of a man carrying water would have been a sure sign for Peter and John. The man led Peter and John up the stepped street to his home in the precincts of the Upper City, and up a flight of stairs to a second floor room. A roasting oven was there, and so were the unleavened bread, wine, bitter herbs, sauce and lamb necessary for a Passover meal for thirteen men. With the room arrangements made, Peter and John saw to the preparation of the food. The two hurried to build a fire and roast the lamb (zeroa). It was expressly forbidden that it should be boiled, or that any bone be broken because it symbolized Israel, whole and undivided. It also recalled the lamb's blood that the Israelites put on the doors in Egypt as a sign that God should pass over their houses and not kill their firstborn. They fashioned the round, thin, loaves of unleavened bread ( matzah ), called the bread of affliction because the Israelites had left Egypt in such haste that they had no time to use yeast. They also made a salad ( maror ) from the five kinds of bitter-tasting herbs—possibly including horseradish, pepperwort, lettuce, dandelion, and chicory—a reminder of the dinners of the bitter bondage in Egypt. Wine—mixed four parts of wine with one part water—was made ready. Finally, they made the haroset, a dish consisting of almonds, figs, dates, wine and innamon, representing the mortar of bricks the Israelites were forced to make. The modern Passover seder includes the beitzah, a roasted egg symbolizing the sacrifice that was offered at every pilgrimage holiday, and the karpas, greens such as celery or lettuce, a reminder of the freshness of spring ( or baked potato—a reminder of times when greens were hard to find ).

As Blessed Apostles, Saints Peter and John completed their preparations, Jesus and the other ten disciples left Bethany to join them. It was around 6:00 p.m. and the sun had set a few minutes earlier, although, from the top of the Mount of Olives, the last reddish glow of the sunset could be seen on horizon beyond the golden spires of the Temple. Jesus paused and gazed across the valley to the walled city perched high and aloof with pride over the surrounding dark green valleys and hills now dotted with the tents of a quarter-million pilgrims. The men could hear babies crying amidst scattered conversation in Aramaic and smell the roasted meat of Passover lambs. Like Peter and John earlier, they crossed the Kidron Valley and entered the city. There the small group bucked a tide of men heading out to the tent-city outside the walls, carrying dead lambs across the backs of their necks. Near the Pool of Siloam they headed up the steps climbing into the Upper City. In a few minutes they would join with the many thousands of people gathered both inside and outside the walls in giving thanks to God for their deliverance from slavery in Egypt.

As the night watch of the Temple came on duty, a priest standing at the southwest corner of the Temple compound sounded blasts from his shofar marking the beginning of a new day and the start of the Passover. Blessed Apostles Saints Peter and John were just finishing their assignment when Jesus and the other disciples walked upstairs and into the room. The men, all in their thirties, seemed composed, but there was an underlying tension as they exchanged quiet greetings. As the homeowner's servants set the table in the middle of the room, the thirteen men washed their hands in the ceremony of purification. They then moved toward the low tables and took their places on the couches surrounding them. The chill of the early evening could be felt in the room. The disciples looked to Jesus, who said: "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Luke 22:15-16 )

Location of the " Last Supper"

We do not know where the "Last Supper" took place, but ever since the Middle Ages a room on the second floor of a Crusader-period building (right),located near the Church of the Dormition, just beyond the Zion Gate of today's Old City, has been designated as the site. The Cenacle or Coenaculum ( both words mean "dining room" ) is recognized by all Christians, except the Syrian Orthodox, as the site of the Last Supper. However, the heavy pillars, arches and other Gothic-style architectural elements date the structure to the 14th century AD, but it may have been erected on the site of an earlier primitive Jewish-Christian place of worship ( synagogue ). During the 15th century AD the room was transformed into a mosque to the prophet David by Muslims, as evident by the mihrab ( a niche indicating the direction of Mecca for prayer) against the south wall (extreme left in the above photo ). The ground floor of the same building is a Jewish holy site known as "David's Tomb," honoring Israel's most illustrious king. It lies well outside the boundaries of the Jerusalem of his time, but this fact has not deterred Jewish pilgrims from coming here to pray, principally on Pentecost ( Shavuot ), the traditional date of the beloved king's death. As in any synagogue, men must cover their heads when entering ( cardboard yarmulkes or kippot—skull caps—are available at the entrance for those who don't have head coverings ).

The actual Passover observance

The lambs used in the Passover feast were killed on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Nisan ( March-April ), and the meal itself was eaten that evening between sundown and midnight. Since the Jewish day began at sunset, the meal actually took place on the 15th of Nisan. Passover was followed by the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasted until the 21st of Nisan.

Blessed Apostles and Saints Matthew, Mark and Luke indicate that the "Last Supper" was a traditional Passover seder; Blessed Apostle Saint John places the meal "just before the Passover Feast" ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 13:1 ), which some scholars feel more comfortable with, as they believe the trial that took place later that night and into the early hours of the morning would never have been held on the actual day of Passover. Some of the confusion arises from the fact that several different calendars were used to determine the dates of festivals.

Originally, the Passover meal was eaten standing ( see Exodus 12:11 ), but in Jesus' time it was eaten Roman-style, reclining at a three-sided table ("triclinium") (right) about twelve inches above the floor—a style used by the wealthy. Archaeology and historical sources have confirmed this at Zippori ( Sepphoris ), the Herodion and Masada, among other places. During the 1st century AD there was a custom that suggested that all people should eat the Passover as a reclining meal, because God had made all Jews wealthy when they were delivered from slavery to freedom during the Exodus from Egypt. Furthermore, the Gospel of Blessed Apostle Saint John is quite explicit in demonstrating that this was such a meal:

"One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him" ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 13:23 )

At this three-sided table, diners reclined on pillows and cushions. VIP's were positioned on the left-hand side, as an observer would face the table. Moving left to right around the table, diners were placed in descending order of importance. The last place in the right-hand corner, was the place of least importance. At a formal meal, the person sitting there usually had the responsibility of washing the feet of the other guests.

The host would always occupy second position at the table; the attendant would recline in position one, while the guest of honor was always placed at position three. Knowing this, we can locate at least three of the disciples at the Last Supper. Jesus, as the host, would have been reclining in position two. The meal's attendant, the one who refilled the wine glasses or pitchers and food plates, would have been placed on the Jesus' right. This person, identified only as the "one whom Jesus loved," was probably Blessed Apostle Saint John.

The guest of honor, the person in the third position, would have been to Jesus' left, and this would have been (surprise!) Judas Iscariot, the only non-Galilean of the group. How do we know that Judas was in this position? Blessed Apostle Saint Mark's Gospel ( 14:20 ) states that Judas was the one who dipped the unleavened bread in the bowl with Jesus. The only persons who could share common eating vessels with the host were those to his right and left ( the attendant and the guest of honor ). Since the attendant ( Blessed Apostle Saint John ) asked who would betray Jesus, and since Jesus indicated that it was the one sitting next to him, this could only have been Judas!

We do not know which disciples occupied the other places, with the possible exception of the last position. It is probable that Blessed Apostle Saint Peter was there. Two reasons support this theory. First, when Jesus announced that one of the disciples would betray him, Blessed Apostle Saint Peter asked Blessed Apostle Saint John to ask who it was:

"One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, 'Ask him which one he means'" ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 13:24 ).

If Blessed Apostle Saint Peter had been close enough, he could have asked Jesus himself. Second, the person in the last position was responsible for the washing of the feet of the other guests. But Jesus, even though he was the host, assumed this menial task, normally performed by a servant upon the arrival of each guest. It was a dramatic role-reversal, and it was deliberately done during the meal as a lesson in humility and selfless service. Blessed Apostle Saint John's account states the Jesus began washing the other disciple's feet before coming to Blessed Apostle Saint Peter, who seems to have been at or near the end of the table.

The portion of the meal that has become so central in Catholic worship is described in Blessed Apostles Saints Matthew, Mark and Luke. At some point, Jesus gave a new meaning to the bread and wine that were part of the Passover meal. First, he took a loaf of the unleavened bread, thanked God, broke it apart and gave it to the disciples, saying: "Take ye and eat ye all of this: for this is my body." Afterward he took the cup, gave thanks and passed it around for them to drink, saying: "This is the Chalice of my blood, of the new and everlasting testament, the mystery of faith, which for you and for many shall be shed unto the remission of sins." ( a reference to the scene at Mount Sinai in Exodus 24 when God's covenant with his people after their deliverance from Egypt was sealed ). However, for the disciples, the Passover celebration of that deliverance would never again be the same. No longer would it be solely a remembrance of the past. From now on it would look toward the future.

There are four written accounts of the "Last Supper" in the New Testament. The earliest, written about 54 AD, thus predating the Gospels, is found in one of Blessed Apostle Saint Paul's letters to the church in Corinth. We know it as "First Corinthians," but it is actually his second letter ( the first has not survived ):

"The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "Take ye and eat ye all of this: for this is my body." In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, This is the Chalice of my blood, of the new and everlasting testament, the mystery of faith, which for you and for many shall be shed unto the remission of sins." ( 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 ).

Around the time the full moon rose high enough to be seen over the Mount of Olives, Jesus made a shocking statement:

"I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me" ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 13:21 ).

All dining stopped immediately. Did the disciples understand correctly? Was Jesus really saying that one their own company was plotting against him? They glanced around the tables at each other as Peter motioned to John, saying, "Ask him which one he means." John leaned back against Jesus, and he asked him, "Lord, who is it?"

"Jesus answered, 'It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.' Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon."

This turn of events must have sent shivers through each of the men. They had known about the plot of high priest Caiaphas against Jesus' life and the arrest warrant issued weeks earlier by the chief priests and Pharisees. But Caiaphas was not the one "to whom I will give this piece of bread." It was one of their own, the group treasurer, Judas, and Jesus said to him: "What you are about to do, quickly." After Judas had eaten the bread, he left the room, walked down the stairway and headed a couple stone throws away for the palatial mansion of the high priest, Joseph Caiaphas. At this point only three people in the room knew what the Judean was up to—John, Peter and Jesus himself.

After the meal, Jesus and the remaining eleven disciples left the residential districts of the Upper City, possibly eastward on what is now known as the "Hasmonean Staircase."

Hasmonean Staircase
"This stairway (right)is yet another major archaeological find of recent times. It connected the old Pool of Siloam at the southwest corner of the City of David (Lower City) with the Upper City. The name 'Hasmonean' refers to the era in which this stepped-street was built ( 141-37 BC ), and it was definitely in use at the time of Jesus. Most likely Jesus walked here at least three times on the evening of Maundy Thursday: once on his way to the "upper room" for the Passover remembrance, once to Gethsemane after the Last Supper, and again after his arrest at Gethsemane."
In the upper left corner of the photo is the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu ("at the cockcrow"), recalling Peter's denial of Jesus three times before the "cock crowed" twice (more later).

Jesus and the disciples exited the city, crossed the Kidron Valley and turned north. On the other side, on the Mount of Olives, was a place called Gethsemane and there, on this cold evening, Jesus sought strength in prayer and surrendered himself to the will of God. It is not surprising that Jesus was habitually in this area, for the Kidron Valley and the slopes of the Mount of Olives became a campground for thousands of poorer pilgrims during the great Jewish festivals. Though Christian tradition has always placed Gethsemane on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives, this assumption, though ancient, does not have the force of proof. In any case, Jesus 'often met' there with his disciples, and therefore it was well known to Judas.

"A place called Gethsemane"
A stone-carved sign over the gated entrance reads "Hortus Gethsemani," Latin for "Garden of Gethsamane." Few sites connected with Christ's Passion are more famous. Here, within an iron fence, are eight gnarled and ancient olive trees commemorating Jesus betrayal and arrest. It should be noted, however, that the Gospels never mention a "garden of Gethsemane," but rather "a place called Gethsemane" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew 26:36; Blessed Apostle Saint Mark 14:32 ). In the original Greek, Blessed Apostle Saint John's gospel ( 18:1 ) refers to a kepos which has been translated "garden" (KJV, ASV) and "olive grove" (NIV), but really means a cultivated tract of land. Gethsemane is derived from the Hebrew gat shemanim ( Aramaic, gat shamna ), meaning "oil press," indicating that an olive press for extracting precious lamp and cooking oil was located somewhere in the area, but it has never been found.
The trees here are very old, but they did not witness Jesus' night of agonizing prayer. During the Jewish revolt of 70 AD, general Titus' Roman legions cut-down the trees around Jerusalem to build siege towers, as well as crosses to crucify the rebels who attempted to escape the siege—as many as 500 a day. The roots, however, are said to be two-thousand years old and may indeed have seen Jesus' betrayal and arrest.


Above left, ancient olive trees within a gated enclosure adjacent ( north ) to the Church of All Nations ( above right ), also known as the Basilica of the Agony, at the foot of the Mount of Olives.

Immediately south of this small stand of trees is the Church of All Nations, built in 1924. The name refers to the countries who contributed to its construction, and it was designed by the Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi, who also designed Dominus Flevit higher up on the west slope of the Mount of Olives. The present building is the latest in a series of three churches, the first was built between 379 and 384 AD, and destroyed by an earthquake 20 years later; the second was built by Crusaders about 1170 AD.

font color=white>Recent study indicates that the Gethsemane events took place, not in garden, but in a cave where an oil press was located. Olive presses were often placed in caves because their warmth hastened the extraction of oil. Olives were pressed in fall and winter, after the September harvest.

A short distance northwest of the Church of All Nations/Basilica of the Agony is a large cave (right), known as the "Grotto of Gethsemane," or "Cave of the Betrayal." Notwithstanding restoration work done in the 1950's, it has maintained its original appearance, as at the time of Jesus.

By spring, just before Passover, this cave, which may have belonged to or been part of an estate owned by a follower of Jesus, would have been available to pilgrims flocking to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration, held during the month of Nisan (March-April). It would have been a good place for Jesus and the disciples to spend the night—warm, dry and roomy—sheltered from the cold and heavy dew prevalent in the spring. Blessed Apostle Saint John's Gospel ( 18:18 ) refers to the cold the night of Jesus' arrest. There is an old tradition that when Jesus came to Gethsemane after the Last Supper with the remaining eleven disciples, he left eight of them in this cave:

"Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, 'Sit here while I go over there and pray.'" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew 26:36 )

Jesus then went on with the other three disciples—Blessed Apostles, Saints Peter, James and John ( the same three who had earlier witnessed his Transfiguration )— to pray:

"He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, 'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.' Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.'" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew 26:37-39 )

In the Gospel of Blessed Apostle Saint John, this is Jesus' longest recorded prayer.

Blessed Apostles, Saints Matthew, Mark and Luke go on to report that Jesus tried to pray, but his distress would not allow him to concentrate. The picture drawn by the Synoptic Gospels is that of a very anxious Jesus waiting for Judas and those sent by the Temple officials to come for him. This is perfectly understandable. Anyone facing imminent arrest, torture, and execution would find it very difficult, if not impossible, to concentrate or focus on prayer. When he returned to the three disciples he found them asleep. In great anguish, he asked them to stay awake and to watch for him, but to no avail.

Twice more he moved back and forth from his place of solitude to his three sleeping friends but with no luck. He was not able to pray, and they were not able to stay awake. In Blessed Apostle Saint Luke's version we are told that when Jesus prayed he was in so much agony that his perspiration was like drops of blood falling from his head. Christian tradition also suggests that when Jesus prayed he knelt beside a rock that is today located before the altar in the Basilica of the Agony, located immediately south of the Gethsemane olive grove.

After Jesus failed in his efforts to pray, Judas arrived at the olive grove, "guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons" ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 18:3 ). Then Judas, the guest of honor at the Passover Seder/Last Supper earlier that evening, greeted his friend and master in the time-honored Oriental manner—with a kiss—thereby identifying Jesus as the one to be seized. Blessed Apostle Saint John's Gospel ( 18:10 ) relates that Simon Peter, who carried a short sword ( Greek machaira, either a large knife or short sword ) at his side, struck the high priest's servant, Malchus, cutting off his right ear.

The soldiers and officials then bound Jesus and led him away into the wealthy Upper City. Their route probably took them south through the Kidron Valley, past several elaborate Hasmonean-era tombs (right) carved in the bedrock at the base of the Mount of Olives, on the eastern side of the Kidron Valley.

At the rear of the line of march, some of the guards noticed Jesus' followers lagging behind. The guards turned as if to pursue them and all ran off, retreating into the shadows. Only Blessed Apostle Saint Peter and "another disciple" ( presumably Blessed Apostle Saint John ) continued following at some distance. Everyone else, according to Blessed Apostle Saint Mark, "deserted him and fled" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Mark 14:50 ).

The Passion narratives are full of surprising twists and turns. This is hardly a story the gospel writers would have made up about the Apostles. Why would these stalwart leaders of the early church want it known that they had all betrayed or deserted Jesus in his hour of need?

A very special 'Thank you' to welcometohosanna.com for their commentaries and resources sparingly edited by this writer for this presentation.

A Night Of Hearings And Trials

"Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus..." (Blessed Apostle Saint John 18:12 ).

The course of events moved quickly as the silence of the ancient city was disturbed several times during the night and early morning hours. Each Gospel tells of a series of trials after Jesus was arrested at Gethsemane. However, exactly what happened is difficult to reconstruct, since the accounts very considerably in describing the order of events.

In the footsteps of Jesus...

The hearing before Annas, the former high priest

From the Kidron Valley, the detachment of soldiers and officials likely took Jesus through either the Dung Gate or the Fountain Gate, near the old Pool of Siloam, at or near the southeastern corner of the city. From there they made the steep climb back into the wealthy Upper City on the "Hasmonean Staircase" to the home of Annas ( Hebrew Hananiah "God has favored" ), the former high priest, who held office for nine years, from 6-15 AD, when Jesus first appeared in the Temple at age 12. An intriguing question: Did Annas cross paths with the young Jesus as he amazed the teachers in the Temple courts with "his understanding and his answers?". This initial hearing is only recorded in Chapter 18 in the Book of Blessed Apostle Saint John.

Right, view from the south of the "Hasmonean Staircase" on the eastern slope of the hill known today as Mount Zion, the higher of the two hills on which the ancient walled city of Jerusalem was situated ( note the steep slope; Jerusalem was/is a mountain city after all!)

Although Blessed Apostle Saint John ( 18:18 ) calls Annas "high priest," he had been deposed by Valerius Gratus, the Roman prefect of Judea, at the beginning of the reign of Tiberius ( 14 AD ). Gratus replaced him with Ismael, son of Phabi ( 15-16 AD ), who shortly after was succeeded by Annas' son, Eleazar ( 16-17 AD; perhaps the Alexander of Acts 4:6, Alexander being the Greek version of Eleazar). The office then passed on to Simon (17-18 AD ), then to Annas' son-in-law, Joseph Caiaphas (18-36 AD).

These depositions were probably not recognized by the people, because the office was formerly a lifetime appointment. To the Jews, this action represented yet another Roman interference in their religion affairs. This rapid change of succession also accounts for the number of former high priests who continued to bear the title even though they no longer held office. This same principle applies to living former presidents in the United States who are still referred to as "President" out of respect for their former position.

Long after his ouster from office, Annas remained a powerful figure. Being wealthy and devious, he succeeded in getting five of his sons, plus his son-in-law and a grandson, Matthias, appointed to the office of high priest. Later, when Peter and John were brought before the rulers, elders and teachers of the law for a hearing ( recorded in Acts 4:1 ), Blessed Apostle Luke still refers to Annas as the high priest, while Caiaphas ( the recognized high priest ) is simply mentioned as present. Annas was still the heart and soul of the Sanhedrin, so it is no surprise that Jesus was first brought before him.

It was now around 3:00 a.m. and the contingent of soldiers arrived with their prisoner at the courtyard before the mansion of Annas in the Upper City. They surged inside, shoving Jesus before them. The leader assured Annas that everything had been handled discreetly and the townspeople and Passover pilgrims were unaware of what had happened. Overjoyed, Annas congratulated them on their good work. Then the old man stared at Jesus. He would not be the one to try him, though. Caiaphas would do that, and by now his son-in-law had awakened and summoned the seventy members of the Sanhedrin, the chief Jewish governing council, for an early morning session. Still, he had questions of his own and asked Jesus "about his disciples and his teaching." The Nazarene looked straight at the former high priest:

"'I have spoken openly to the world,' Jesus replied. 'I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said'" ( Blessed John 18:20-21).

One of the nearby officials struck Jesus in the face. "Is this the way you answer the high priest?" he demanded. Jesus continued:

"'If I said something wrong,' Jesus replied, 'testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?'" ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 18:23 ).

This questioning by Annas violated the principles of a fair and just trial. Jewish law protected a prisoner from self-incrimination. As one Jewish scholar put it: "Our true law does not inflict the penalty of death upon a sinner by his own confession" ( Maimonides, 1135-1204 AD ).

After this brief exchange, Blessed Apostle Saint John states, "Annas sent him, still bound, to Caiaphas the high priest" ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 18:24).

As expressed by a folk song in the Babylonian Talmud, the Annas family of high priests did not have a good reputation. Four of the high-priestly families who held offices in the Temple under Roman rule were neither respected nor esteemed:

"Woe is me because of the house of Boethus woe is me because of their staves.
Woe is me because of the House of Annas, woe is me because of their whisperings.
Woe is me because of the House of Kathros, woe is me because of their pens.
Woe is me because of the House of Ishmael, son of Phiabi, woe is me because of their fists.
For they are the high priests,
and theirs sons are treasurers,
and their sons-in-law are trustees,
and their servants beat the people with staves."

This satirical refrain in a mid-6th century AD document preserves a 1st century reality. These high priestly families were remembered, not for their piety, but for their nepotism, oppression and tight control of debts, legal agreements and written contracts.

In fact, the mansion of one of these priestly families, the Kathros, has been excavated in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. It is now a museum known as the "Burnt House."

This museum takes visitors downstairs to the basement of the residence which was located in the area known at the time of Jesus as the Upper City, where the wealthiest and most prominent Jewish families lived. When the Romans took Jerusalem in 70 AD, they destroyed the Temple and the Lower City. The Upper City, however, managed to hold out against the Romans for a month after the Temple Mount was captured. The Roman legions then rampaged through the Upper City, setting fire to the houses, killing those sheltered inside. Standing here, viewing the blackened remains, you can almost feel the heat of the fire, smell the smoke and hear the panicked, screaming voices of the people fleeing the rampaging Roman soldiers.

Stone weights (right)discovered among the burned remains contained an inscription reading "belonging to Bar Kathros" ("son of Kathros"). Archaeologists have identified the house's occupants as the Kathros family, a priestly family that, according to the above reference from the Babylonian Talmud, abused its position to further its own interests. Charred cooking pots and debris give a vivid sense of the city's fiery destruction by the Romans. Another chilling discovery here was the skeletal lower arm and hand of a young woman of about 20 in the home's kitchen, near the staircase and beside the oven. Her fingers appear to have been grasping for a step as she fell in a futile attempt to escape the flames ( her remains were removed and buried according to Jewish law ). In another room was an iron spear leaning against a wall, where the owner could quickly grab it to defend himself against the Romans. But, it was never used; it was buried in the debris as the home went up in flames.

The Kathros mansion also served as a workshop. Numerous limestone vessels, tables, weights, grinding mortars, and perfume bottles were found here, strongly suggesting the area was used for the manufacture of oil and incense for Temple rituals. There was a constant demand such products and it would indeed have been a profitable industry for the Kathros family. Every time the residents of the city passed this and other wealthy residences in the Upper City, they were reminded of the illegitimacy of their high priesthood. Since 37 BC, the beginning of Herod's reign, only one of the high priests ( the first, named Hananel ) had come from the legitimate line of Zadok, a descendent of Aaron and high priest at the time of Solomon. The remainder were from the families of Boethus ( of which the House of Kathros was an offshoot ), Annas and Phiabi, low-born families who, once they rose to power, strove to keep the office for as long as possible by bribing the Roman governor who appointed the high priest.

Localizing the interrogation by Annas

Left, traditional home of Annas, the high priest emeritus at the time of Jesus in the Holy Archangels Church and Convent within the grounds of the Armenian Convent ( to the southeast of the Cathedral of Blessed Apostle Saint James ), located in the Armenian Quarter, in the southwest corner of the Old City. The local people call the medieval convent Der al-Zeytune ( "Convent of the Olive Tree" ) because Jesus is said to have been tied to an ancient olive tree outside while awaiting his hearing before Annas, who was, it is said, busy with another trial.

Further information from an Armenian Patriarchate website: Special care is taken of the olive tree and the new shoots growing from its roots. The archbishop relates that on the evening of Good Friday, the faithful meet there for a special ceremony. The fruit of the tree is gathered while hymns are sung and rosaries are made from the olive pits.

The trial at the home of Caiaphas, the current high priest and son-in-law of Annas

The brief questioning by Annas is mentioned only in the Holy Writings of Blessed Apostle Saint John; Blessed Apostles Saints Matthew and Mark place their emphasis elsewhere, stating that immediately after his arrest Jesus was taken to the luxurious mansion of Joseph Caiaphas, the current high priest ( his 15th year in office, having been appointed in 18 AD ). Apparently some of the Sanhedrin members had joined Caiaphas in the early morning hours in order to interrogate Jesus regarding his claims of messiahship. Caiaphas presided over the body whose membership included both main Jewish parties, the Sadducees and Pharisees. The Pharisees interpreted the oral law and attempted to find an inner meaning in the older written law. They believed in the resurrection of the dead, the immortality of the soul and the existence of angels. Another group within the Sanhedrin was the Scribes, the mostly younger men, the doctors of the law. The most important group within the Sanhedrin were those members of the 24 priestly families; they were usually Sadducees, the wealthy, elite conservatives who bitterly opposed the Pharisees. They believed only in the written law, denying the oral tradition. The court also included those elderly men who had attained success as laymen and who were appointed as a sign of respect. Many of these "Ancients," as they were called, were also Sadducees. More than once Jesus had publicly rebuked both the Sadducees and Pharisees. On one occasion he warned his followers to "be on your guard against the yeast ( that is, the teaching ) of the Pharisees and Sadducees." ( Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew 16:6 ).

The high priest's residence functioned much as the White House does today in relation to the Presidency of the United States. It contained offices for officials, meeting rooms, courts, and even cells where those charged with civil crimes could be held until their hearings.
During Jesus' trial, Caiaphas was concerned only with political expediency, not with guilt or innocence. He believed that Jesus, no matter how innocent, should die rather than place the nation in jeopardy. Ironically, despite Jesus' execution, the Jewish nation still perished 37 years later, in 70 AD. Matthew reports that only false witnesses came forward to testify against Jesus:

"The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two came forward and declared, 'This fellow said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.' Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, 'Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?' But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, 'I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.' 'Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. 'But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.' Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, 'He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?' 'He is worthy of death,' they answered" (Matthew 26:59-66).

Where did this hearing take place?

Undoubtedly this hearing was conducted in the Upper City, probably a short distance from the mansion of Annas. Influential Jews of Jesus' day lived in this area of large splendid houses, many built during Herod the Great's massive reconstruction of the city in the 1st century BC. Located on the higher western hill, the Upper City was connected directly to the Temple by a viaduct over the Tyropoeon Valley, and was a convenient home for families and officials with Temple duties. We know that Ananias son of Nedebaeus, a later high priest ( from 47 to 58 AD ) appointed by Herod of Chalcis, lived there, thus we may assume that Caiaphas did also. But where?

A high priest's residence?

A 385-foot section of the Upper City of Jesus' time has been preserved in the Wohl Archaeological Museum, located on the edge of Hurva Square, the center of the restored Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. The area became available for excavation when Israeli authorities proceeded to rebuild the ancient Jewish Quarter following its destruction by the Jordanians during the Six-Day War in 1967. According to Israeli law, whenever construction work uncovers ancient remains, the Antiquities Authority must be notified, and construction is halted until the remains are investigated and sometimes excavated. Such was the case here, when archaeologists uncovered six palatial Herodian period homes built on terraces descending down the slope of the western hill, overlooking the Temple Mount.

Constructed in the style of Roman villas, each of these opulent homes of two or more stories had walls of dressed stone built around a central courtyard. Public rooms—reception hall, kitchen, storage rooms and bathrooms—were situated on the ground floor, while family rooms were on the upper floor( s ). Elaborate water systems with large cisterns assured an adequate water supply even in the dry summer months when rain was the only water source. During the wet winter months water was collected from the roofs and stored in 30-foot-deep cisterns in the basements. The most striking feature of the western part of the museum is a complex of mikvaot ( ritual baths ). A mikvah ( singular ) requires a minimum of around 200 gallons of pure rain or spring water, and must be about 5 or more feet deep. Cut into stone, these pools were emptied by hand. This channeling of rainwater to basement mikvot was an expensive process. So too was digging into bedrock, plastering and sealing cavities, building support arches and tiling changing rooms with mosaics.

One residence, dubbed "the Mansion" by excavators, covered an area of 6,500 square feet. Clearly those who owned this house were wealthy Jews who enjoyed all the trappings of a classical Roman life within the constraints of their religious beliefs. They dined at tables with stone tops, decorated their walls with frescoes in the popular Hellenistic style and walked on floors tiled with elegant mosaics. But there were no statues of nymphs or pagan gods, no fountains spouting water from the mouths of mythological creatures, no depictions of humans or animals that the Jews regarded as a violation of the Second Commandment. One room appears to have been a either a living room or reception hall with a magnificent mosaic floor in red, black and white tiles. Another, even larger room boasted plastered walls imitating marble panels or large stones like those of the Temple Mount retaining walls. Remains of a cypress-wood ceiling were found that had collapsed when the Romans burned the building in 70 AD. We know, too, from the account of Josephus Flavius, the exact day the mansion was burned, cruelly disrupting the lives of its owners. One can actually see that the guest rooms were in the process of being redecorated.

As to who lived there: the number of its ritual baths led to the theory that it was the dwelling of a high priest. The owner, whoever he was, could purify himself in the luxury and elegance of his own home, rather than bathe with the masses at the public pools around the Temple compound.

At the very least, seeing this place allows us to better picture the surroundings and atmosphere in which Jesus was interrogated by Annas and Caiaphas.

Peter denies Jesus

Woven throughout the record of Jesus' trial before the Jewish leaders is a moving account of Peter's personal struggle with his loyalty to Jesus. At Gethsemane Blessed Apostle Saint Peter had shown his characteristic impulsiveness when he drew his sword and struck Malchus, the high priest's servant, cutting off his right ear. But, as he came to understand the seriousness of Jesus' arrest, Blessed Apostle Saint Peter, with another unnamed disciple (presumably John), followed at some distance ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 18:15). Blessed Apostle Saint John "was known to the high priest" and had friends among his staff, therefore he was able to gain his and Blessed Apostle Saint Peter's admittance into the grounds of Caiaphas' residence.

As Simon Peter stood warming himself by a brazier full of hot coals against the cold of this April night, a servant girl asked him, "Weren't you with Jesus of Nazareth?" He denied it, saying, "I am not." Later, one of the high priest's servants, a relative of the Malchus whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, "Didn't I see you with him in the olive grove?" Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a cock began to crow. Still later, those standing there went up to Peter and said, "Surely you are one of them, for your Galilean accent* gives you away." Peter lashed back at his accusers, cursing and swearing to emphasize his words, "I don't know the man!" Immediately a cock crowed a second time, and Peter recalled Jesus' earlier words: 'Before the cock crows**, you will disown me three times.' And he went outside and wept bitterly" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew 26:75 ).

* Recall our earlier discussion on the heavy accent of the Galileans when speaking Aramaic.
** "Cockcrow" signified a specific time of night, marking the time of this encounter just before dawn.

Blessed Apostle Saint Peter in Gallicantu

In 808 AD a visitor to Jerusalem wrote of a church of Saint Peter's Tears. Today the Church of Saint Peter in Gallicantu ("at the cock's crow") ( right, as seen from the north ) is almost hidden in the trees on the lower eastern slope of the area known today as Mount Zion, site of the wealthy Upper City in Jesus' day. It was constructed in 1931 over the remains of earlier churches which were themselves built over 1st century ruins claimed to be those of the house of the high priest, Joseph Caiaphas, where Blessed Apostle Saint Peter denied Jesus three times.

It is not certain when tradition first placed this event at this particular location. Ruins alongside the church foundations recall the courtyard where Blessed Apostle Saint Peter sat by a fire warming himself against the cold night air alongside the servants and officials ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 18:18 ). But the first mention of this as the place where Blessed Apostle Saint Peter "went outside and wept bitterly" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Luke 22:62 ) is only recorded centuries later. But, by the 11th-12th centuries AD this site was part of the pilgrim trail.

Traces of a 7th century AD church have been found, together with structures of the Herodian period, including cellars, stables and cisterns. An unused rock-cut cistern in the lower level of the church ( now referred to as the "First Prison of Christ," is claimed to be the dungeon where Jesus was held. If so, he was lowered down through an opening in the top. There are no bars, but escape was impossible. It reminded several of us of the Old Testament story of the patriarch, Joseph, being thrown into an empty cistern by his jealous brothers ( see Genesis 37:17 ). Also here is what appears to have been a holding cell (right) and a whipping area with overhead handholds where a prisoner's arms were stretched taught to receive 39 lashes ( one less than the maximum of 40 prescribed by Jewish law* as a symbolic show of mercy ).

*"But he must not give him more than forty lashes. If he is flogged more than that, your brother will be degraded in your eyes" ( Deuteronomy 25:3 ).

Still, there is no proof that this was the palace/home of Caiaphas and the question has been raised as to the location of the home of such a prominent figure. Why would a high priest have taken up residence on the lower eastern slope of the aristocratic Upper City? Surely such a wealthy and influential man would have placed his residence on top the hill. This alone makes the case for an alternative site:

An alternative House of Caiaphas

Another tradition, going back to the Pilgrim of Bordeaux in 333 AD, places the house of Caiaphas higher up on the western hill, just south of the present Zion Gate, in the same area as the Church of the Dormition, the Dormition Abbey, "Upper Room" (Cenacle or Coenaculum) and "David's Tomb." The property of the Armenian church there was excavated revealing remains of 1st century BC homes and Byzantine period streets and houses, Part of a 5th century AD church, possibly associated with the site of the home of Caiaphas, was also excavated (right).

In the southeast corner of the grounds is a12th century AD Crusader church built to commemorate the trial before Caiaphas. It was acquired by the Armenians in the 14th century AD, repaired and rebuilt in the 15th century AD. Now called the Armenian Church of the Holy Savior, it includes the Chapel of the Second Prison of Christ in the southeast corner, and a piece of the supposed Stone of Angels taken from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Meanwhile, life in the city went on as usual. At midnight, the Temple gates had been opened to the people, earlier than at non-festival times to accommodated the larger numbers of Passover pilgrims. With dawn approaching, the Temple court was already filled with Diaspora worshipers who wished to present their sacrifices, their annual half-shekel payments for Temple upkeep and their heave-offerings from the produce of their land in support of the priests. Undoubtedly, they had no knowledge of the conspiracy being enacted by the Temple officials in the mansion of Caiaphas over in the western part of the city.

The Sanhedrin convenes for a hearing

Some time just before dawn, the entire Sanhedrin convened at its official meeting place on the Temple Mount in order to vote official condemnation. The highest Jewish council in the 1st century AD, the Sanhedrin (from Greek sunedrion, meaning "an assembly") had 70 members presided over by the high priest, who became the seventy-first member. Under the direction of the high priest, the council was both the Jewish supreme court and a political body, which voted the laws and had its own police. It controlled everything having to do with religion. So, when Jesus was brought before the entire assembly ( assuming all members were all present ), he was asked:

"Are you then the Son of God?" to which he replied, "You are right in saying I am" (Luke 22:70).

Jesus' reply, especially his use of the divine name of God ( "I am" ), which no one was supposed to speak, must have angered Caiaphas, who requested an immediate verdict. But since many of the members had already spent much of the night at the high priest's home, their action was merely a ratification of what had already been decided—that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy. But, by their own law, Jesus could only be sentenced by daylight. So Caiaphas delayed the final vote until he heard the signal from the "place of the trumpeting" just off to the west that the sun had begun to climb into the sky from behind the Mount of Olives. Upon hearing the blasts from the shofar ( ram's horn trumpet ) he took a deep breath and ordered a start to the polling procedure. According to custom the vote began with the youngest of the seventy Sanhedrin members—lest he be influenced by his elders—and ended with the oldest. Then the high priest cast the final vote. Again, if all members were present, the final tally would probably have been 69 guilty votes and 2 abstentions ( by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, secret followers of Jesus ).

If Judea had not been a Roman province, Jesus would simply have been executed in one of four ways: burning, decapitation, strangulation or, most commonly, stoning, probably in the Kidron Valley below the east wall of the city. While the Sanhedrin could legally pass sentence on Jesus, it could not legally execute him. And with both the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate and the tetrarch Herod Antipas in town, it is unlikey they would taken the law into their own hands. So Jesus was handed over to Pilate, who had to review the verdict and either agree with the sentence or, as later happened with Blessed Apostle Saint Paul, dismiss the case. ( Blessed Apostle Saint Paul, unlike Jesus, had the benefit of Roman citizenship ). Therefore, as reported by Blessed Apostle Saint Luke 22:1 - "The whole assembly rose and led [ Jesus ] off to Pilate."

The death of Judas

Standing among the crowd of onlookers outside the council chamber, the traitor Judas noted the increased movement of priests and other Temple staff. Had the Sanhedrin decided Jesus' fate? A messenger headed toward the crowd and whispered something to a couple of the men who nodded approvingly. Judas was afraid to ask what the council had decided. He was afraid not to. The excited chatter increased and he heard the words, "The Nazarene will be executed after sunrise."

Judas ran through the crowd toward the men guarding the entrance to the council chamber. Somehow he must make Caiaphas and the other Sanhidrists understand that he and they had made a mistake; that Jesus was as innocent as the many Passover lambs killed that week. The guards turned him back, shouting, "The high priest is too busy to spend time with crazy men like you!" Off to the side he saw several priests in a group holding a discussion. He knew them, because they were the same men who had paid him. Judas wet his lips, cleared his throat and said: "I have sinned, for I have betrayed innocent blood." The priests looked at each other and then back at Judas. "What is that to us?" they replied. "That's your responsibility."

Judas threw the money bag containing the thirty pieces of silver received for his betrayal at their feet and ran off toward the southern end of the city and the gate on the road leading to Bethlehem. Outside the city wall, he ran along the path hugging the Hinnom Valley. In a little field directly across from him stood a lone fig tree. He took off the leather money belt around his waist and climbed to the first strong branch. Straddling the branch, he tied one end of the thong to it and tied the other end securely around his neck. Then he slowly slipped off and, as stated in Acts 1:18 "he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out."

It was the first of at least four gruesome deaths that would occur over the course of this fateful April Friday.

Caiaphas' ossuary

In 1990, an ossuary, a soft limestone box for reburial of remains, was accidentally discovered during construction of a water park in an area known as the Peace Forest in south Jerusalem a tractor plunged into a cave on a ridge in southern Jerusalem, in an area used for burials during the Second Temple period. Around the time of Jesus, it was customary to wrap the dead in linen shrouds and place them in small niches in tombs. About a year later, after the flesh had decayed, the bones were transferred to small stone boxes to save space in tombs. It is interesting to note that Joseph of Arimethea prepared Jesus' body for burial in the same way and, if Jesus had not risen from the dead, his remains would have been treated similarly.

A masterpiece of the stone-cutter's art, the front of this ossuary is especially richly ornamented over its entire surface. The decorations consist of varieties of stylized floral patterns and rosettes drawn with a compass. This ossuary contained the bones of four children, one adult woman and one 60-year-old man. What made it especially interesting is that the name of one of the deceased, apparently the latter, had been inscribed in Aramaic with a sharp nail on the back and on one of the narrow sides: Yehosef bar Qayafa—.Joseph son of Caiaphas—who, in the New Testament is simply called Caiaphas, and the Jewish historian Josephus Flavius identifies as "Joseph who was called Caiaphus" ( Anitquities of the Jews, book 18, chapter 4:3 ). Joseph was his real name; Caiaphas was probably a family nickname, and he was the high priest who interrogated Jesus and handed him over to Pontius Pilate for trial. ( Now exhibited at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem).

Caiaphas was appointed high priest by Valerius Gratus in 18 AD. The two men must have had an excellent working relation, because Caiaphas remained in office exceptionally long. Gratus' successor Pontius Pilate retained the high priest in office. It is possible that Elionaeus, who was appointed high priest by king Herod Agrippa (c.44), was a son of Caiaphas.

A very special 'Thank you' to welcometohosanna.com for the commentaries and resourses edited by me for this presentation.

A Night Of Trials ( Continued )

"Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, 'Are you the king of the Jews?' Jesus said to him, 'You have said so'" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew 27:11 - RSV ).

The "Via Dolorosa," the Way of Sorrow, traces the last steps of Jesus, from where he was tried and condemned before Pontius Pilate, to Golgotha, where he was crucified and buried. Every day countless pilgrims walk the famed route, identifying with Jesus' suffering while stopping at 14 Stations of the Cross, each commemorating some incident in the Passion. There is, however, no historical basis for the route, which has changed several times over the centuries.

The name Via Dolorosa did not come into use until the 16th century AD and originally there were only seven stations. But, in the late Middle Ages, under the influence of the Franciscans, the "Way of the Cross" was introduced into western churches in the form of devotional places in the church nave, or outdoors by a wayside, before which prayers were said. European pilgrims coming to Jerusalem naturally expected to see the same arrangement of fourteen stations as in their churches back home, therefore the Via Dolorosa in the Holy City was made to conform! The present route, with the last five stations inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, was devised in the 18th century AD, but four of the stations were not fixed until the 19th century AD.

Today's Via Dolorosa begins in the courtyard of the al-Omariyyah Madrasah ( school for the false Islamic studies ), a former army barracks built on the site of the Antonia Fortress ( destroyed by Titus in 70 AD ), which was designated early on as the Jerusalem residence of the Roman prefect, Pontius Pilate. From there the devotional route heads west, passing through the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City on its way to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Christian Quarter. The route is crammed with shops and stands selling a wide assortment of kitsch to please almost any tourist/pilgrim seeking personal reminders of their walk in Jesus' footsteps to the cross: painted-velvet Pietas, Jerusalem T-shirts ( two for $10; a bargain compared to prices back home ), postcards, posters, Menorahs, Armenian ceramics, rosaries, kaffiyehs ( Arab headresses in both red—Arab—and black—Palestinian—patterns ), spices, street-food like humus (at Abu Shukri, close by the 5th Station of the Cross), falafel ( fried chickpea balls ) and sticky-sweet baklava, silver and gold "Jerusalem Crosses" ( at Djani's Orient Bazaar, along Souk al-Dabbagha street, opposite the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer ) and, of course, olive-wood crosses.

Right, along the Via Dolorosa, by the 4th Station of the Cross. Note the Muslim woman holding her son while talking on her cell phone.

Tucked amongst all this hawking and hustling for euros, yens and "dollahs" are small chapels that geographically fix incidents recorded in the Passion narratives ( and some that aren't ). A small Franciscan chapel marks the place where Simon of Cyrene was conscripted to carry Jesus' crossbeam, and an ancient archway spanning the road was chosen centuries ago as the place where Pilate spoke to the crowd—Ecce homo! " Here is the man!" Never mind that the arch was long ago proven to date some hundred years after the time of Jesus or that the present street level is several feet higher than in the 1st century AD. If millions of people, day after day, year after year, century after century, have embraced this route and hollowed it with their prayers and devotions, who can contradict it by scholarship and rational reasoning?

In the footsteps of Jesus...

In answer to the above question: sometimes it is necessary, just to separate the truth from all the imbedded pious fiction that has come to be associated with the "Way of the Cross." This day, therefore, rather than follow the traditional Via Dolorosa, we have challenged ourselves to trace, as much as the present topography of the Old City allows, the more authentic route of Jesus from his condemnation to his crucifixion. As we do so, we must be mindful of the fact that the archaeological layer related to the time of Jesus lies from 7 to 13 feet below present street level which rests on several layers of debris from twenty centuries of destruction and rebuilding. Furthermore, we will ignore the non-biblical, mythological stations that have come to be associated with the official way of the cross ( i.e. Station 4 - Jesus meets his mother Mary; Station 6 - a woman named Veronica wipes Jesus' face).

First, a reading from John's Gospel of what happened after the Sanhedrin found Jesus guilty of the serious charge ( according to Jewish law ) of blasphemy:

"Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, 'What charges are you bringing against this man?' 'If he were not a criminal,' they replied, 'we would not have handed him over to you.' Pilate said, 'Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.' 'But we have no right to execute anyone,' the Jews objected—Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, 'Are you the king of the Jews?' 'Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, 'or did others talk to you about me?' 'Am I a Jew?' Pilate replied. 'It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?' Jesus said, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.' 'You are a king, then!" said Pilate. Jesus answered, 'You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.' 'What is truth?' Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, 'I find no basis for a charge against him.'" ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 18:28-38)

John has more to say about the trial before Pilate because he may have been in Pilate's official residence during the proceedings!

The man who heard these charges was the Roman prefect, Pontius Pilate, who ruled over Judea, Idumea, and Samaria. Pilate was appointed by the emperor Tiberius and took office in 26 AD, about the time John the Baptist began his ministry; he remained in office for ten years. Although his primary duty was that of financial administration and collection of taxes for the Roman Empire, he had the added responsibility of approving and carrying out the execution of anyone sentenced to death by the people's own government—in this case the Sanhedrin.

Pontius Pilate

Just who was this man Pontius Pilate whose name we speak every Sunday: "—Crucified under Pontius Pilate—" "—suffered under Pontius Pilate—"? These familiar words from the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds record an event that is one of the cornerstones of the Christian faith. It is also a historical event, and Pontius Pilate was not a fictional character invented by the Gospel authors. The Roman historian, Tacitus, writing of early Christians, said that "Christ, the originator of their name, had been condemned to death by Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius" (Annals 15-44).

The most dramatic evidence of this man's existence came in 1961: a two-by-three-foot stone (right) honoring emperor Tiberius found at the theater in Caesarea, the Mediterranean port that served as the Roman capital of Palestine at the time of Jesus. It was inscribed with a three-line Latin inscription, the left part of which had been chipped away. Most of the fourth line is missing, but a possible reconstruction reads:

[DIS AUGUSTI] S TIBERIEUM
[PO] NTIUS PILATUS
[PRAEF] ECTUS JUDA [EA] E
[DEDIT DEDICAVIT]

It translates: "Pontius Pilatus, prefect of Judea, gave and dedicated a temple of Tiberius." ( Note the letters "IVSPILATVS" in the second line ). Originally it had been placed in a temple dedicated to the Roman emperor Tiberius (successor to Augustus) by Pontius Pilate, the fifth Roman prefect (his proper title) of Judea. The terms 'prefect' and 'procurator' are used interchangeably—and improperly—in many modern historical accounts when referring to Pilate and his predecessors, but the later term was not applied to the Roman military governors until the rule of the emperor Claudius (41 to 54 AD). In the 2nd century AD the Caesarea theater was partially rebuilt and this stone was removed from the Tiberius temple and reused in the theater's steps. The actual stone is now in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, but a replica, shown above, is kept near the restored theater at Caesarea for the benefit of visitors. It is one of the few pieces of extra-Biblical evidence of the life of a man whose name is repeated each Sunday when we recite the Apostles Creed: "—suffered under Pontius Pilate." Pontius Pilate lived in Caesarea and only journeyed to Jerusalem at times of potential unrest, like the Passover. Thus, he was in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus' arrest.

Pilate's name provides us with two hints as to his background and ancestry. His family name, Pontius, is derived from the Pontii, a prominent clan among the Samnites, mountain men from Samnium in the Apennine Mountains southeast of Rome. The Samnites fought the Romans for years and almost conquered Rome in several wars, but were defeated in 290 BC. Although the Pontii were of noble birth, they were demoted to the Equestrian order, the Roman middle-class, when Rome finally absorbed the Samnites.

Pilate's personal name, Pilatus, means "skilled with a javelin." The javelin or pilum was five feet of wooden handle and two feet of pointed iron shaft. It was hurled by Samnite warriors at their enemies with devastating effect. When the point, which was soft and untempered, stuck in a shield, the shaft would bend and hang down, making it impossible for an enemy to throw back. The Romans copied the weapon, and it was the pilum that, in fact, made the Roman Empire possible.

Pilate was born a few years before Jesus. What did he look like? Only two things can be said for certain about his appearance: according to imperial fashion of the day, he was short-haired and clean-shaven. Each morning, after a cursory breakfast of bread and water, he would submit himself to a barber or tonsor. When Jesus was brought before him in the early morning hours of that April Friday, he was probably still hurting from his morning shave.

Pilate held office from 26 to 36 BC, second in length of tenure only to his predecessor, Valerius Gratus, who served eleven years, contradicting the normal impression that he was incompetent. His administration, however, was described in a character sketch by 1st century AD author Philo of Alexandria: He was "naturally inflexible, a blend of self-will and relentlessness," given to "briberies, insults, robberies, outrages and wanton injuries, executions without trial constantly repeated, ceaseless and supremely grievous cruelty" ( Embassy 301-302 ). Some allowance should be made for Philo's bias, as he was writing for the benefit of the emperor Claudius and was clearly endorsing the later kingship of Herod Agrippa I who he wished to portray in the best possible light against previous Roman prefects. In the PBS documentary, "From Jesus to Christ," Pilate is described as a "thug," and up to 31 AD he was supported by Sejanus, the anti-Semitic commander of the Praetorian Guard in Rome, who wielded great authority after 26 AD, when Tiberius retired from active governing to the island of Capri. In all fairness, Judea proved a difficult province to govern and tensions had been rising among the Jewish people during the rule of Pilate's predecessor, made worse by bad government. Also, the first five years of Pilate's reign, he had no one on hand to advise or restrain him. He had some 4,000 men at his command. Only his senior officers ( and perhaps not all ) were Romans and they seemed more anti-Jewish then he himself; in Caesarea they sometimes amused themselves by insulting the local Jews and throwing stones at them. The Romans were present in Judea simply to collect taxes and maintain the Pax Romana ("Roman Peace").

Aside from his familiar role on Good Friday, both Josephus and Philo recorded a number of incidents involving Pilate, and they show that he was neither able nor fair-minded, and that he was, in fact, devious, anti-Semitic and brutal:

Pilate's first serious clash with the Jews took place in his very first year in office when his troops marched into Jerusalem at night with their regimental standards bearing medallions with the emperor's image ( imperatorum imagines ). Pilate made this move under cover of darkness as it went contrary to the policy of his predecessors who had refrained from introducing such images into the city out of deference to the religious beliefs of the Jews. Because the emperor was worshiped as a god, the medallions were seen as engraved images, expressly forbidden by Jewish law ( Exodus 20:4-5 ). Pilate's callous action provoked a demonstration by large crowd of Jews at his residence in Caesarea. Only after a strenuous diplomatic effort and a confrontation in the stadium there did Pilate relent and have the offensive images removed.

Josephus' description of this incident: "So he introduced Caesar's effigies, which were upon the ensigns, and brought them into the city; whereas our law forbids us the very making of images; on which account the former procurators were wont to make their entry into the city with such ensigns as had not those ornaments. Pilate was the first who brought those images to Jerusalem, and set them up there; which was done without the knowledge of the people, because it was done in the night time" (Antiquities of the Jews, book 18, chapter 3:1).

Later, Pilate built an aqueduct to carry water to Jerusalem from three large rectangular cisterns—called "Solomon's pools"—located just south of Bethlehem. His intent was to improve the city's water supply. But even this action led to trouble between the prefect and the Jewish authorities. No Jerusalem institution benefited more from the increased water-supply as the Temple did, and Pilate thought he was fully justified in demanding funds from the Temple treasury. Jewish law permitted the use of surplus funds from the mandatory annual Temple tax for civic projects, but Gentiles were not permitted to enter the inner Temple courts where the treasury was kept. Since the aqueduct fed cisterns below the Temple, construction had to be approved by religious authorities. The leadership probably gave Pilate the funds, while warning him that the people might protest the use of monies they saw as pledged to God, which is exactly what happened. This time, however, Pilate did not relent. He had his soldiers circulate among the people disguised in civilian clothes, killing or wounding many of them. He proceeded with construction leaving himself the cruel victor.

Again, from the writings of Josephus: "But Pilate undertook to bring a current of water to Jerusalem, and did it with the sacred money, and derived the origin of the stream from the distance of two hundred furlongs. However, the Jews were not pleased with what had been done about this water; and many ten thousands of the people got together, and made a clamor against him, and insisted that he should leave off that design. Some of them also used reproaches, and abused the man, as crowds of such people usually do. So he habited a great number of his soldiers in their habit, who carried daggers under their garments, and sent them to a place where they might surround them. So he bid the Jews himself go away; but they boldly casting reproaches upon him, he gave the soldiers that signal which had been beforehand agreed on; who laid upon them much greater blows than Pilate had commanded them, and equally punished those that were tumultuous, and those that were not; nor did they spare them in the least: and since the people were unarmed, and were caught by men prepared for what they were about, there were a great number of them slain by this means, and others of them ran away wounded. And thus an end was put to this sedition" ( Antiquities of the Jews, book 18, chapter 3:2 ).

Pilate exhibited this same disregard for Jewish sensibilities in his policy of minting coins decorated with symbols connected with pagan worship. This matter is clear testimony to his personality and invalidates any recent attempts to whitewash him.
Yet another act of violence involving Pontius Pilate is referred to in Blessed Apostle Saint Luke 13:1, where he was said to have mixed the blood of certain "Galileans with that of their animal sacrifices." This incident is not referenced in sources outside the Bible, but we can safely assume it took place during one of the major festivals, such as Tabernacles, Passover or Pentecost, since they provided an opportunity for messianic or social demonstrations. The Galileans probably broke an important Roman regulation, which led to the their bloody punishment.
In 31 AD, Pilate placed some golden shields on the walls of his praetorium, or headquarters, in Jerusalem. They had no images, only dedicatory inscriptions to the emperor Tiberius and it was done to flatter the emperor and display his loyalty following the overthrow of Sejanus, the prefect of the Praetorian Guard, after an attempted coup. Nevertheless, all levels of Jewish society, including Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, united in protest against the act. Unlike the earlier incident with the standards, Pilate refused to remove them. Although the shields bore no images, they offended Jewish feelings because they mentioned a man who was honored as a god. The Jews sent a letter to the aged emperor living on the island of Capri who responded with his own letter in very nasty Latin ordering Pilate to remove the shields to a temple in Caesarea, the official Roman seat of government. Several months later, Pilate was asked to judge Jesus of Nazareth, and this incident is particularly important in understanding Pilate's conduct of the trial, as well as its final outcome.

Pilate's final act as prefect

Anxious to avoid disturbances or riots by his subjects, Pilate saw himself bound to suppress all demonstrations. Three years after he condemned Jesus to death, an obscure prophet with Messianic pretensions promised the Samaritans that he would uncover some sacred Temple vessels believed to have been buried on Mount Gerizim (right, with buildings of modern Nablus) since the time of Moses. A host of Samaritans actually gathered to witness the event, but Pilate ordered his troops to block the route to the summit. In a pitched battle with the armed Samaritans, the Roman forces were victorious, and the uprising's leaders were executed. The Samaritans complained to Vitellius, the Roman legate in Syria, and Pilate's superior, who placed an otherwise unknown man named Marcellus in charge as acting prefect and ordered Pilate to Rome for a hearing before the emperor Tiberius. The final outcome of the affair is unknown, because all information about Pilate ceases. The record of Josephus Flavius, our main source, ends with: "but before he could get to Rome Tiberius was dead." His successor, Gaius Calligula, probably quashed the case, as he did with most of those carried over from Tiberius' rule.

Josephus' record of this incident: "But the nation of the Samaritans did not escape without tumults. The man who excited them to it was one who thought lying a thing of little consequence, and who contrived every thing so that the multitude might be pleased; so he bid them to get together upon Mount Gerizim, which is by them looked upon as the most holy of all mountains, and assured them, that when they were come thither, he would show them those sacred vessels which were laid under that place, because Moses put them there. So they came thither armed, and thought the discourse of the man probable; and as they abode at a certain village, which was called Tirathaba, they got the rest together to them, and desired to go up the mountain in a great multitude together; but Pilate prevented their going up, by seizing upon file roads with a great band of horsemen and foot-men, who fell upon those that were gotten together in the village; and when it came to an action, some of them they slew, and others of them they put to flight, and took a great many alive, the principal of which, and also the most potent of those that fled away, Pilate ordered to be slain.
"But when this tumult was appeased, the Samaritan senate sent an embassy to Vitellius, a man that had been consul, and who was now president of Syria, and accused Pilate of the murder of those that were killed; for that they did not go to Tirathaba in order to revolt from the Romans, but to escape the violence of Pilate. So Vitellius sent Marcellus, a friend of his, to take care of the affairs of Judea, and ordered Pilate to go to Rome, to answer before the emperor to the accusations of the Jews. So Pilate, when he had tarried ten years in Judea, made haste to Rome, and this in obedience to the orders of Vitellius, which he durst not contradict; but before he could get to Rome Tiberius was dead" ( Antiquities of the Jews, book 18, chapter 4:1-2 ).

Note: The same year (36 AD) he ordered Pilate to Rome to answer for his actions against the Samaritans, Vitelius remitted Jerusalem's taxes, restored the high priestly vestments to Jewish control and deposed Joseph Caiaphas, who had served as high priest during Pilate's entire tenure in office. One explanation for the long length Caiaphas held office—18 years ( 18-36 AD )—is that he was a loyal alley to Pilate and knew how to act in complete accord with him. The two stood together but, in the end, they fell together. Vitelius was warmly received by the people when he came to the Passover celebration, so Josephus says, therefore his actions must have met with their approval.

Where did the fateful confrontation between the Jewish officials, Jesus and Pontius Pilate take place?
Since the early 4th century AD, there has been a nearly unbroken tradition that the Antonia Fortress, located at the southwest corner of the Temple Mount, was the residence ( praetorium ) of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate while in Jerusalem. Today no archaeologist supports this identification, although several guidebooks and references still maintain this early assumption as fact.
It is the above referenced episode of the "golden shields" that provides the best clue as to where Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate on Good Friday. When the Jewish philosopher Philo recorded the details of this incident, he stated Pilate hung the shields "in Herod's palace in the Holy City," which he further identifies as "the house of the governors." Furthermore, Jewish historian Josephus Flavius stated that the Roman governors occasionally stayed in the palace of the long-since-dead Herod the Great ( died 4 BC ). This belief is reflected in the NIV translations of Blessed Apostle Saint John 18:28: "Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor" and Mark 15:1: "The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium*)."

* The term praetorium was used to indicate the residence of the governor. Originally it referred to the "tent of the commander" ( praetor ), and thus denoted a military headquarters. By extension, it came to refer to those who assembled at the commander's tent, and subsequently to the residence of the provincial prefect, or governor, wherever it was located. Pontius Pilate resided full-time in the regional capital of Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean coast and came to Jerusalem only during the major Jewish festivals when the maintenance of public order might necessitate his presence. Thus Pilate was in Jerusalem during Passover at the time of Jesus' arrest, and his praetorium was a temporary residence.

It is further unlikely that Pilate's wife, Procula, who accompanied him to Jerusalem that week ( see Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew 27:19 ), would have stayed in the Antonia Fortress. Although, as Josephus stated, "by its magnificence it seemed a palace," (Wars of the Jews, book 5, chapter 5:8 ), the Antonia was little more than a huge army barracks for the 500-600 men of the Jerusalem garrison. While it is likely government business was conducted in the Antonia, the arrest of Jesus took place at night, and Pilate would have been in his living quarters, his Praetorium. Given a choice, he and Procula would have preferred life in the lavish palace of a king over the spartan accommodations of uncultured soldiers. Undoubtedly, Jesus' trial took place in Herod the Great's grand palace ( below ), which was located in the Upper City, on the very highest part of the western hill now called Mount Zion. In Jesus' day, this section of the city was populated by the wealthy and ruling classes. The people who lived there were Hellenistic; they supported the Roman government because they benefited from it. Covering about five acres, this elegant structure consisted of two huge wings, named the Caesareum and Agrippium;each had huge porches, banquet halls, baths and bedrooms for hundreds of guests. Its beauty rivaled that of the Temple itself. All around were groves of trees bordered by canals and ponds with bronze figures discharging water. The palace was protected on the city side by a separate wall with towers ( running left to right in the center of the below photo ). When the Magi came to Jerusalem around the time of Jesus' birth seeking the newborn "king of the Jews" they almost certainly came here first, no doubt expecting to find him in such a kingly setting.

Above,Herod's palace as depicted in the 1:50 scale model of 1st century AD Jerusalem at the Israel Museum ( looking west to east): left, the three defensive towers named Phasael (the largest, extreme left in above photo), Mariamne and Hippicus; bottom center, the palace and its courtyards; beyond, to the east, are the lavish homes of the Upper City with their red-tile roofs, also the Temple Mount with the Herodian-era Temple, guarded by the Antonia Fortress at its southwest corner.

Little remains of Herod's once magnificent palace. The site of Herod's three defense towers is now occupied by the Citadel, located just south of today's Jaffa Gate (aerial view, right). Also known as the Tower of David*, the Citadel is protected by a high wall and large towers, and it is surrounded by a wide, deep moat, part of which was blocked in modern times.
Although some of the palace's foundations have been discovered in the Armenian Quarter in the southwest corner of today's Old City, the largest extant structure of the Herodian complex is the base of Phasael's Tower (nearest tower in photo to right), one of three huge defense towers that once guarded the palace's north side. Named for Herod's brother, it once stood 148-feet-high, and it was built like a palace with luxurious apartments and baths. According to Josephus, it resembled and was "much larger" than the Pharos lighthouse at Alexandria, Egypt which ranked as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The three towers were so magnificent that when the Roman legions destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD, general Titus left them standing to show future generations their beauty. However, the emperor Hadrian ordered them torn down in 135 AD, leaving only the massive bulk of their foundations.
Now occupied by the Tower of David Museum of the History of Jerusalem, the Citadel is built on the highest point of the western hill of Jerusalem, higher than any other point in the ancient city, including the Temple Mount. It is the most recent in a series of fortifications built there in the course of more than 20 centuries to protect Jerusalem from the west. In the 12th century AD the Crusaders added the dry moat, but the Citadel took much of its present form under the Mameluke sultan Malik an-Nasir in the 14th century AD with the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent making additional changes in the 16th century AD.
* The traditional name Tower of David is the result of a misidentification by the 1st century AD historian Josephus Flavius, who stated that the southwestern hill of Jerusalem "was called the 'Citadel,' by king David" ( Wars of the Jews, book 5, chapter 4:1 ) In fact, the Jerusalem of King David never extended this far west.

The beginning of our historically correct Via Dolorosa:

Our walk along the historically correct "Way of Sorrow" begins just inside today's Jaffa Gate (right), alongside the Citadel ( large wall, right ). Today, plastic tables and chairs from cafes spill out onto the adjacent plaza. Munching on pita stuffed with falafel from a nearby shop, we push past hustlers tempting us with various trinkets—olive twigs, scarves and postcards—and head south ( right in photo ) on Armenian Patriarchate Road. Just beyond the Cathedral of St. James, on our right, is a walled compound known as the "Armenian Garden." This area, south of the Citadel was previously occupied by Herod's palace, where Pontius Pilate would have begun his preliminary questioning of Jesus.

First Station of the Cross - Jesus' first interrogation by Pontius Pilate

The time was shortly after dawn, between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m., when the Roman governors normally began their official duties. The chief priests brought Jesus to the residence of Pontius Pilate to press their charges against him. All the governor needed to do was to affirm their earlier verdict of condemnation so they would be rid of this upstart messiah whose popularity posed a threat to their influence and personal wealth.

Right, along Armenian Patriarchate Road in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City: our First Station of the Cross.

Caiaphas must have given Pilate advance notice that the case of Jesus of Nazareth was coming before his court, because the prefect ordered his official magistrate's chair moved outside the palace, to a raised platform overlooking the stone-paved plaza to the east ("Stone Pavement" in NIV ( Aramaic Gabbatha; Greek Lithostratos; translated in the NIV as "Stone Pavement" ). This was done to accommodate the Jews who would have defiled themselves for the Passover Seder if they entered a pagan headquarters. Throughout the trial, Pilate moved back and forth, inside the palace to question Jesus, then outside to hear the charges of the Jewish officials.

The significance of what happened next in the course of these proceedings can only be understood in light of the political relationship between the Jews and their Roman rulers. The Sanhedrin had condemned Jesus to death on the basis of the Jewish religious laws against blasphemy. While the chief Jewish judicial body had the power to impose capital punishment by stoning ( as happened later with Stephen, one of the original seven church deacons ), it could not crucify a man, because it was not a punishment according to the Jewish law. Therefore the approval of the Roman government was needed Pontius Pilate, as the official representative of that pagan government had no interest in Jewish religious matters, and it made no difference to him if Jesus, or anyone else, was blaspheming God. Therefore more appropriate charges had to be laid before the governor. Being politically astute, the Jewish leaders accused Jesus of sedition, alleging that he urged the people not to pay taxes while claiming to be the King of the Jews.

Second Station of the Cross - A hearing before Herod Antipas

Pilate must have been informed by the chief priests and elders of the charge they were bringing against Jesus, because he asks the same initial question in all four Gospels, "Are you the king of the Jews?" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew 27:11, Blessed Apostle Saint Mark 15:2, Blessed Apostle Saint Luke 23:3, Blessed Apostle Saint John 18:33).

To this, Jesus replied:

"Yes, it is as you say" ( Synoptic Gospels ) or "Is that your own idea, or did others talk to you about me?" ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 18:34).

Apparently Pilate was baffled by Jesus' failure to give an adequate defense, but his initial interrogation evidently convinced him of Jesus' innocence. The Gospel accounts then relate a series of moves by the prefect to avoid or delay granting the Jewish authorities their desired outcome. First, upon learning that Jesus was a Galilean ( Blessed Apostle Saint Luke 23:6 ), and knowing that Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, had arrived for the Passover celebration, he sent Jesus under armed guard to the old Hasmonean palace (right), which lay due east, about two-thirds of the distance between Herod's palace and the Temple Mount. Pilate was not required to turn Jesus over to Antipas; he had full authority to try Jesus in Judea. Probably he figured that Antipas was better versed in Jewish law than he and chose to remand the case over to his jurisdiction. This served two purposes: first, it allowed him to avoid dealing with matter, second, it improved his strained relationship with Herod.

Right,the Hasmoean Palace, as depicted in the model of 1st century AD Jerusalem at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Herod could not have been more pleased. For months he had wanted to meet this man about whom stories had been spreading across the land. "From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Luke 23:8 ). But Jesus said and did nothing. He would not stage a spectacle for the one who had killed his cousin, John the Immerser. Frustrated, Herod invited his troops to have their way with him. Dressing him in an brilliant white robe, like the Messiah was expected to wear, they mockingly ridiculed and reverenced him. Finally, Herod sent him back to Pilate.

Third Station of the Cross - A second hearing before Pontius Pilate

Disappointed at the return of the prisoner, Pilate seized a second opportunity to rid himself of this troublesome case. He announced to the Jews gathered outside his headquarters:

"You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, I will punish him and then release him" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Luke 23:14-16 ).

This statement provoked the crowd for the first time and they began shouting, "Away with him! Crucify him!"

These back and forth questioning sessions frustrated Pilate. Out of desperation, he adopted a third ploy, which soon turned against him. Roman law specified that amnesty could be granted just before the Passover was eaten, either to an unconvicted prisoner or to a condemned criminal. Pilate tried to offer the mob a choice between amnesty for Jesus of a notorious revolutionary and bandit named Barabbas [ meaning "son" ( bar ) "of a father" ( abba ) ], assuming they would clamor for Jesus' release. But they surprised him, choosing Barabbas instead.

Next, Pilate's wife sent him a message:

"Don't have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew 27:19 ).

Taken aback by this turn of events, Pilate evidently thought better of his scheme and sought yet another way to release Jesus, who in his eyes was clearly less dangerous than Barabbas. Hoping to finally gain the mob's sympathy, he had Jesus brought into the palace courtyard. There, Pilate's soldiers stripped Jesus and administered a brutal beating.

Fourth Station of the Cross - A brutal beating at the hands of Roman soldiers (the "Kings Game")

Etched into an area of nearly 2,000 year-old paving stones in the basement of the Sisters of Zion Convent, near the start of the traditional Via Dolorosa in today's Muslem Quarter, is the game board of an ancient dice game called "basileus" ( Greek king )—note the "B" to the right of the circle in the lower left corner of the stone. Jesus was probably the victim of this cruel game, which was popular among soldiers stationed in Palestine in the 1st century AD. According to the throw of the dice, a player advanced through increasingly larger boxes in a race to the king's tower in the center. The game concluded with the execution of a mock king. It conjures up images of the soldiers playing their game, and of Jesus became a living "game piece" who was taunted and beaten as the "king" who would soon be put to death. The resemblance between this game and the mockery of Jesus by the soldiers in Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew is striking:

"Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers round him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. 'Hail, king of the Jews!' they said. They spat on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again'" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew 27: 27-30 ).

These paving stones were not here at the time of Jesus. They were part of a magnificent pavement laid down some 100 years after the Crucifixion. Around 135 AD, the emperor Hadrian built a new Roman city called Aelia Capitolina over the ruins of the Jerusalem Jesus' knew. Over the old Struthion Pool ( the "Sparrow Pool" or Double Pool ), a rock-cut cistern for collecting rainwater to augment the city water supply, Hadrian constructed a large marketplace/forum. Even though these cold, reddish paving stones and the games etched into them date to a later time, anyone who has stood in the convent basement, some seven feet below street level, will swear they have heard the angry, mocking words of the soldiers and the sound of leather and bone ripping into Jesus ' skin, reverberating off the surrounding walls.

Fifth Station of the Cross - A final hearing: Jesus is condemned by Pontius Pilate

Pilate halted the soldiers' fun and brought him out to the plaza by his headquarters, still wearing the crown of thorns and red robe ( the outer cloak of a Roman soldier). Surely the punishment was enough he thought. "Here is the man!" ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 19:5 ), he said, to Jesus' accusers. However, the mob gathered outside the palace continued their chant, "CRUCIFY HIM! CRUCIFY HIM!"

This was not the same crowd that shouted 'Hosanna' on Palm Sunday and now shouted 'Crucify him.' This was a carefully orchestrated lynch-mob consisting mainly of priest-controlled Temple staff. The Temple police alone numbered 10,000. It is important to remember that this was all being done at night and the early morning hours to keep those who had celebrated Jesus' arrival from finding out until it was too late to act to save him.

Having lost patience, Pilate shouted back, "You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him." This statement is an indication of his level of frustration, because he knew full well the Jews could not carry out this form of punishment.

With Pilate now on the verge of releasing Jesus, the prosecution, perhaps even Caiaphas himself, said, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar" ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 19:12 ).

That turned the tide! It was simple blackmail. With Pilate's previous record, he could not afford another review by Emperor Tiberius of his dealings with the Jews. You could almost hear them telling Pilate that if he set Jesus free, they would make another formal protest to emperor, as in the two previous "golden shields" incidents, accusing him of failing to uphold the Jewish religious laws and of condoning treason by one who claimed to be king in opposition to Rome. After all, the chief priests answered sarcastically, "We have no king but Caesar."

With that, Pilate crumbled. Faced with the prospect of losing official status as a member of the "Friends of Caesar" club ( which actually existed, complete with a ring sporting the emperor's image ), he opted to save his career over Jesus' life. After all, he was appointed by Caesar and to fall from his grace meant trouble, especially now that Sejanus' power on the wane. Even though he may not have believed Jesus was guilty of high treason ( Jesus certainly gave him no reason to think so ), he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood, it is your responsibility!" Then he released Barabbas and handed Jesus over to be crucified.

A very special 'Thank you' to welcometohosanna.com for their commentaries and resources sparingly edited by this writer for this presentation.

Crucifixion

"Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull ( which in Aramaic is called Golgotha ). Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle" ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 19:17-18 ).

Crucifixion was described by the Roman orator Cicero as "the most cruel and hideous of punishments." It was reserved for criminals without Roman citizenship and usually only for those who threatened the Roman social order: rebels, runaway slaves, those who attacked the property of the wealthy and those who committed treason by claiming power not authorized by Rome. It was designed to deter crime. Perhaps invented in a somewhat different form by the Persians and spread to the Middle East by Alexander the Great, this means of execution was said to have been adopted by the Romans from their blood enemies, the Carthaginians, who used it to execute defeated admirals; the Romans refined it to produce a very slow and extremely painful death.

In the footsteps of Jesus...

Fifth Station of the Station of the Cross - Jesus takes up his cross

We are now standing alongside Phasael's Tower (right)at the Citadel, the only extent remains of three defense towers that once guarded the north side of the palace of Herod the Great, where Pontius Pilate set up his praetorium, his temporary Jerusalem residence. The upper part of the tower is Islamic, but the stones at the base (which is solid all the way through) are original. This is where we have chosen to mark our Fifth Station of the Cross because these 16 courses of large protruding stones, weighing about a ton each, may have borne silent witness to Jesus' first halting steps northward toward the rocky outcropping called Golgotha in Aramaic and Calvaria in Latin—the place of his crucifixion.

It was early on Friday morning, April 5, 33 AD* ( after 6:00 a.m. but before 9:00 a.m. ). As recorded by Matthew, following the severe beating and mocking homage by the "the whole company of soldiers," a four-man execution detail, commanded by a centurion, led Jesus toward the site set aside for crucifixions. Stumbling over the rough pavement, Jesus was weighed down by the heavy wooden beam ( patibulum ) of his cross. Two other condemned men were also straining under their crossbeams on the way to their executions, a pair about whom nothing is known. Processions were part of Roman crucifixions, especially in the case of political prisoners, because they added to the humiliation and disgrace, and demonstrated to onlookers what would happen to anyone else who rebelled against Roman rule.

* This date for Good Friday is given in Dr. Paul Maier's book "First Easter" ©1973 by Paul L. Maier. Assuming 6 BC as the year of Jesus' birth, he would have been 38/39 years old at the time of his crucifixion.

Today, the most direct route to Golgotha from the Citadel heads east along David Street (right), a narrow stepped alleyway lined with shops mostly devoted to selling household items and tourist trinkets, everything from Dome of the Rock paperweights and mother-of-pearl rosary beads to carved olive-wood nativity scenes. In the 1st century AD, as now, Jerusalem was a city teaming with life, with people going about their normal business. Then, as now, shopkeepers were beginning to set out tables of handcrafted wares to entice Passover pilgrims into making last minute purchases; women, too, had begun preparations for their Sabbath meals.

Sixth Station of the Cross - The women of Jerusalem weep over Jesus

Early this Friday morning, word had just begun to spread among city-dwellers and visitors that the Jewish officials had seized the popular rabbi from Nazareth the previous evening, then succeeded overnight in getting him convicted and sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate. Upon hearing the news, a "large number of people followed him" along the narrow street, including some of those who had joyously hailed his arrival five days ago. Jesus turned to a number of them and said:

"Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Luke 23:28 ).

Right,stone-carved marker at the 8th Station of the Cross on the Via Dolorosa, commemorating Jesus' statement to the women of Jerusalem; note the Latin cross and the Latin word nika (Greek niki) meaning "victory."

Seventh Station of the Cross - Simon of Cyrene is made to carry the cross for Jesus

Severely weakened by horrific beatings, exhaustion and loss of blood, Jesus was soon unable to carry his own crossbeam any farther. The soldiers assigned to his execution detail seized a bystander, a Diaspora Jew named Simon who had come to Jerusalem on pilgrimage from the region of Cyrene in North Africa, and commanded him to carry the crossbar for the weak and bleeding Jesus. The experience is thought to have converted him. From Acts, we know that the Cyrinian Jews had their own synagogue ( "Synagogue of the Freedmen," see Acts 6:9 ) in Jerusalem. Blessed Apostle Saint Mark 15:21 records that he was the "the father of Alexander and Rufus" ( Greek names, but not uncommon among contemporary Jews ), who were undoubtedly known to the early Christians to whom the Gospel of Blessed Apostle Saint Luke was written. The name Rufus also crops up again at the conclusion to Blessed Apostle Saint Paul's letter to the Romans ( 16:13 ).


Above left, 3rd Station of the Cross on the traditional Via Dolorosa, commemorating Jesus falling under the weight of his cross; Above center, entrance to the small Franciscan chapel at the 5th Station of the Cross: Simon of Cyrene made to carry the cross for Jesus; Above right,stacked wooden cross along the Via Dolorosa awaiting pilgrims who wish to literally take up his or her cross and follow in the footsteps of Jesus to Golgotha.

Two thousand years ago, the topography of the city was roughly the same. David Street heads steadily downhill until it intersects with three covered parallel streets that are Jerusalem's central market. They date back to the reign of Queen Melisenda ( 1143-52 AD ), the widow of the Crusader King Fulk of Anjou, who had built them over the Cardo Maximus, the main street and marketplace of Roman and Byzantine ( 2nd-6th centuries AD ) Jerusalem. At one time the Cardo ran the entire length of the city, up to what is now Damascus Gate. A section of the street to our right ( south ) has been restored to something like its original appearance to give tourists an idea of what it looked like: a wide pavement flanked by roofed colonnades and lined with shops. Here, however, we turn left (north ) onto the center of the three streets ( right ), called Souk al-Attarin ( the spice market ), now mostly clothing shops where veiled Arab women gather around stalls selling tennis shoes and cheap plastic toys. The smell of grilled lamb fills the air; men sit sipping tea.

Right, the narrow Souk al-Attarin Street; it was roofed over by the Crusaders, who perhaps could not stand the blazing summer sun of the Holy Land.

Shortly, another left takes us onto Souk al-Dabbagha Street which follows what would have been the course of the northern city wall at the time of Jesus. With the entrance plaza of the Holy Sepulcher church at the end of the street, the few shops here undoubtedly have no shortage of customers for their religious souvenirs. Just after rounding the corner, on our right, is the Alexander Hospice belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church; across the street is the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. The area opposite the west-facing church entrance is known as the Muristan ( Persian for hospital ), now an Arab market. During the Crusades this was where the order of the Knights Hospitalers ( also known as the Knights of Saint John and Knights of Malta ) had their headquarters and hospitals for tending wounded knights and sick and injured pilgrims. Some members of the group opt to climb up the seemingly endless spiral staircase within the church's landmark bell tower to take in the amazing views of the city, especially the Dome of the Rock, with the Mount of Olives beyond; also the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Somewhere in the northern wall was the Gennath** Gate, where roads led west to Emmaus and Joppa ( today's Route 1 to Tel Aviv/Jaffa ) and south to Bethlehem and Hebron ( modern Route 60 ). In Christian tradition it is called the Gate of Judgment where Christ's death notice was posted. Here, the execution detail exited the city, squeezing past grumbling pilgrims who were forced to step aside. Many of them had walked all night to ensure arriving in the Holy City before the start of the Passover Sabbath. But their joy soon turned to sadness and anger when they saw the Romans about to execute three more Jews during this holiest of festivals.

Some 30 feet beyond the gate was an abandoned rock-quarry, now converted into a burial complex for wealthy families. Here there was a bare, isolated, 16-foot-high called "Golgotha" ( derived from Aramaic, meaning skull, supposedly because it resembled a human skull ). No stranger could mistake the fact that this was a place of execution, because upright beams, left there from previous crucifixions, stood naked against the brilliantly blue sky. Today, instead of a stark hill, we see a domed pile of limestone blocks and columns that is the holiest place in the Christian world.

Right,the rocky outcropping called "Golgotha" in an abandoned quarry outside the city walls, as depicted in the scale model of 1st century AD Jerusalem at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

** Gennath, from the Hebrew gannah, meaning "gardens" or "orchard." The gate is not mentioned in the Bible, only by Josephus. Its name indicates that it led to a garden outside the city wall. It is interesting that Blessed Apostle Saint John 19:41 tells us that at "the place here Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no-one had ever been laid."

A right turn at the end of Souk al-Dabbagha Street brings us into the courtyard before the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, called the greatest shrine in all Christendom. Before we can enter the church we have to wait for the completion of a recession by a large group of Armenian monks and priests. That gives us time to review some background.

Church of the Holy Sepulcher

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is one of the most complex, yet fascinating, structures in existence. Belying its status as Christianity's holiest shrine, it lies almost hidden within the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City; only its two domes distinguish it from its surroundings ( right ).

First time visitors to the church may be surprised, even shocked, at its unimpressive, almost shabby, appearance. After years of hearing the crucifixion accounts in the Gospels, imaginations may be filled with images of an isolated skull-shaped hill, situated outside city walls, and a nearby rock-carved tomb in a tree filled garden. Instead they are greeted by a building that is not only inside city walls, its exterior has no visual impact, appearing to be made up of a clutter of mismatched elements. It certainly doesn't rank among the world's most beautiful churches; some have called it ugly. You hardly know where to look for something that will awe or inspire or make you feel closer to Jesus. Its interior has been described as looking like "a cross between a building site and a used furniture depot." American author Herman Melville, of Moby Dick fame, visiting the Holy Land in the mid-19th century AD, was hardly enamored with the church. He thought it "a sickening cheat." But the architectural jumble that is today's church is the result of its tortured history rather than the plan of architects. Consequently, the holiest place in the Christian world is beautiful in its parts, but difficult to consider as a whole.

Here, our tracing of the actual route of Christ's Passion merges with the final five stations of the cross of the traditional Via Dolorosa:

Passing through the main church entrance (right), immediately to the right, a steep flight of 19 steps climbs 16 feet to an archway, beyond which are two chapels:

The first is Catholic ( right ) with a mosaic over the altar depicting Jesus being stripped of his garments and nailing to the cross.

Immediately left of this chapel, over the actual rock of Golgotha, is the Altar of the Cross tended by the Greek Orthodox ( below ) commemorating the crucifixion. Behind the altar are life-size icons depicting Christ on the cross clad in a silver loin cloth. He is flanked by icons of the virgin Mary and the disciple Blessed Apostle Saint John. Below is the rocky summit of Golgotha enclosed by glass to protect it from those who would chip away pieces as souvenirs, as has undoubtedly happened in the past. Under the small altar table is an inconspicuous silver ring marking the spot where it is said Jesus' cross stood. Many, including myself, bend down on hands and knees to reach through the opening and touch the rock below. Two black disks on either side of the altar indicate the positions of the crosses of the two men executed with Jesus.

While artists can admire the skill it took to create the elaborate icons displayed here, they seem cold, lifeless and out-of-place. I wished the rocky summit of Golgotha had been left in a more natural state—stark and bare.

Eighth Station of the Cross - The crucifixion of Jesus

Stumbling weakly to the base of the hill, Jesus was offered a mixture of wine mixed with myrrh (used as sedative to dull pain; ironically, one of the gifts of the Magi at his birth ). Blessed Apostle Saint Mark records that he refused it. He and the other two condemned men were stripped naked and knocked to the ground flat on their backs. Their arms were stretched out over their crossbeams and tied in place. Long iron nails were driven between the bones of their wrists into the wood, probably piercing a nerve and causing excruciating pain. The soldiers then grabbed each crossbeam ( patibulum ) and lifted them by ropes, dragging the men by the wrists until their feet were off the ground. The three must have writhed with the pain. Each crossbeam was then fixed onto its upright (stipes crucis) already standing atop the hill, forming a cross shaped like a capital T. Then the condemned men's' feet may have been nailed through the ankles to a wooden foot rest ( called a suppedaneaum ), or against the upright itself. If the feet were pulled downward and nailed close to the foot of the cross, the prisoner died too quickly. The Romans learned to push the feet upward so the condemned could use the nails to stretch upward, prolonging their agony. Their legs were made to straddle a wooden peg—called the sedile or sedere cruce—causing extreme pain because it concentrated the weight of their bodies at the end of the spine. It was a Roman refinement meant to lengthen the time condemned hung on their crosses—from hours to days. At the top of each cross, a sign (titulus) was attached proclaiming each victim's name and crime. The four Gospel writers present Jesus' titulus in slightly different forms, but all include "King of the Jews," and it was written, according to Blessed Apostle Saint John, in "Aramaic, Latin and Greek" ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 19:20 ). The chief priests protested the wording to Pilate, saying that he should have written, "This man claimed to be king of the Jews." But Pilate shot back, "What I have written, I have written." It was the anti-Semitic governor's way of making a final stab at the Jewish subjects he despised, saying in essence, "What a pitiful king you Jews have!" Beneath this mocking titulus, Jesus began his ordeal, according to Blessed Apostle Saint Mark, about the "third hour" ( 9:00 a.m. ).

The trio hung on their crosses totally naked, unable to control normal bodily functions and in agonizing pain; muscle-cramps made breathing increasingly more difficult. "From the sixth hour until the ninth hour ( noon to 3:00 p.m. ) darkness came over all the land" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Matthew 27:45 ). Passersby entering and leaving the city through the nearby Gennath Gate joined the soldiers to sneer at Jesus: "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Mark 15:31-32 ).

The Gospels record seven statements by Jesus on the cross: three in Blessed Apostle Saint Luke only, three in Blessed Apostle Saint John only, one in Blessed Apostles Saints Matthew and Mark:

Near the start of the ordeal, he prayed on behalf of his executioners: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Luke 23:34 ).
When one of the felons hanging next to him chided, "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus replied: "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise" ( Blessed Apostle Saint Luke 23:43).
According to Gospels, the only members of Jesus' inner circle to witness the crucifixion were his mother Mary, his aunt Mary ( wife of Clopas, also called Cleopas or Alphaeus, mother of James, sometimes called "the younger" or "the less" and Joses), Salome ( wife of Zebedee and mother of the Blessed Apostles Saint James "the older" or "the great" and Blessed Apostle Saint John ) and Mary Magdalene. Of all his male disciples, only "the disciple whom he loved" ( presumably Blessed Apostle Saint John ) came to Golgotha, and when Jesus noticed him standing near his mother he made final provision for her: "Dear woman, here is your son." And to Blessed Apostle Saint John he said, "Here is your mother" ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 19:26,27 ). Later, the story is told, Blessed Apostle Saint John took her to Ephesus in the Roman province of Asia ( modern western Turkey ), and there she lived out the remainder of her life. Her supposed house is shown to tourists visiting this major archaeological site.
About 3:00 p.m., with the sky growing darker, Jesus cried in Aramaic, the common spoken language of Palestine: "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" ( meaning "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" ). But onlookers mistook him as asking the prophet Elijah for help.
Jesus' ordeal was coming to an end. But at the Temple on the opposite side of the city, the opening ceremony of the Passover was about to commence. The high priest, Joseph Caiaphas, in his ceremonial clothing consisting of a blue headdress and blue robe ( fringed with golden bells and pomegranates ) ascended the steps into the inner Temple precincts. Although extremely tired from the night-long interrogations of Jesus, he was now totally absorbed in his ritual duties. Simultaneously, on Golgotha, Jesus weakly uttered a mild complaint: "I am thirsty" ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 19:28 ).
Immediately one of the soldiers filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. After taking the drink, Jesus cried out in a loud voice: "It is finished" ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 19:30 ), announcing the completion of his life's work.
Finally, as recorded by Blessed Apostle Saint Luke 23:46, Jesus spoke one last prayer, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit," echoing the words of his ancestor David: "Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O Lord, the God of truth" ( Psalm 31:5 ).
After this, he died.

Back at the Temple, at the moment Jesus took his last breath and, as the sound of a flute rose up before the altar of sacrifice, the curtain veiling the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place was torn in two from top to bottom, and an earthquake rocked the massive Temple foundations.

There were other strange phenomena; dead men came out of their graves and appeared to many. The hour of judgment had come, but how many in the city knew it? Certainly not Joseph Caiaphas and the other Jews engaged in the Passover ceremonies realized the importance of the drama on rocky hill of Golgotha to the west. They may not even have taken the darkness brooding over the city as a warning sign. One man, however, felt a connection between the shaking of the earth and the final cry of the man who's execution he had been charged with overseeing—the centurion placed in charge of the execution detail. Standing on the darkened hillside just beyond the city walls, light came to him. "Surely this was a righteous man," he said ( Blessed Apostle Saint Luke 23:47 ). Nothing more is known of him, the first of millions of non-Jews who came to believe.

Ninth Station of the Cross - Jesus' body is prepared for burial

Except for the centurion and those family members and followers still standing watch near the crosses, Jesus' death went unnoticed. The soldiers were still gambling over the condemned men's possessions. Then one of the Sanhedrin emissaries sent to observe the execution noticed that Jesus had not moved in a while. With the special Passover Sabbath fast approaching, the men headed quickly to Herod's palace to ask Pontius Pilate to have the men's legs broken to hasten their death so their bodies could be removed from the crosses. We have a law, they said, quoting:

"You must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance" ( Deuteronomy 21:23 ).

This breaking of the legs was a procedure use only in the case of Jewish crucifixions. Elsewhere the bodies were left on the crosses and might take up to three or four days to die. Per Pilate's orders, the soldiers took large mallets and swung them as hard as they could into the shins of the two men to either side of Jesus, shattering their bones. Without support from their legs to relieve the pressure exerted on the lungs when hanging by the writs, the men suffocated in minutes. When the soldiers came to Jesus' limp body, they saw that he was no longer breathing. To make sure that he was dead, one soldier rammed a spear into his side, producing a flow of "blood and water" ( the result of piercing the pericardium, the sac surrounding the heart and the heart itself, according to one medical diagnosis).

Normally the bodies would have been left to the elements—wild animals and scavenger birds. But, Joseph of Arimathea,* boldly came to Pilate, asking that he be allowed to bury Jesus' body. A member of the Sanhedrin and a secret follower of Jesus, he had not voted to condemn Jesus at the earlier trial. Pilate did not grant permission immediately, but waited until he had first checked with the centurion in charge of the crucifixion detail to ascertain that Jesus had indeed died.

* Arimathea, a place not certainly identified; Luke calls it "a Judean town." The name means quot;heights" and some sources have identified it with Ramah, 5 miles north of Jerusalem.

Rushing to beat the start of the Sabbath ( which began, then as now, at sunset ), Joseph went to the market and purchased linen cloth in which to wrap the corpse. Then he and his Sanhedrin colleague, Nicodemus (another secret disciple who, as reported in Blessed Apostle Saint John 3:1-21, had a private conversation with Jesus earlier in his ministry ), lovingly prepared Jesus' body. The normal burial procedure, according to the Mishnah, was to first anoint the body with oil to clean it; followed by a bath with water to rinse off any soil and blood; then a second anointing followed by perfume. Possibly these first steps were omitted because of the approaching start of the Sabbath, because the men simply covered Jesus' body with a mixture of dry spices—"myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds" ( Blessed Apostle Saint John 19:35). Then they wrapped him in the linen strips, and his head in a separate cloth and placed it on a pillow of stones—all according to Jewish custom of the time.

Stone of Unction

Back down on the main floor of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, directly inside the entrance, is the so-called "Stone of Unction," the supposed place where Jesus' body was taken down from the cross and prepared for burial. Tradition has it that this polished pink stone protects the actual stone where Jesus' body was prepared for burial with "myrrh and aloes" by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. The present limestone slab dates to 1810; it replaces a 12th century AD stone lost in the fire of 1808. Still, many people, upon entering the church, drop down on their knees to kiss the stone, some lingering for a few minutes to pray.

We watched as one pilgrim after another dropped to his or her knees to kiss the slab as if it were the very stone where their Savior's cold stiff body had lain. One elderly woman pulled a scarf from her neck, rubbed it on the stone as if to extract its latent healing-force. Returning the now sacred relic to her neck, she stood up, crossed herself on the chest and moved slowly toward the tomb, some 65 feet off to her left.

Below, the edicule ( Latin little house ) beneath the main dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchrer enclosing what is thought to be the actual tomb of Christ.

Tenth Station of the Cross - Jesus' lifeless body is placed in Joseph of Arimathea's family tomb

Nicodemus and Joseph then placed Jesus' body in a new, unused, rock-cut tomb in an abandoned quarry. According to Blessed Apostle Saint John's Gospel it was in a garden ( Greek kepos ) near the place of execution. This action by Joseph is made doubly meaningful when you realize that such rock-cut tombs were very expensive because of the labor involved in carving them and the fact that he commissioned it for his own burial and that of his family. Thus, Jesus was accorded all the respect of a valued and loved family member. Jesus' burial in this manner must have truly angered Caiaphas, Annas and their Sadducee cronies because interment in a new tomb in a garden setting was akin to treating Jesus as royalty, like two kings of Judah from the line of David—Manasseh, who "rested with his fathers and was buried in his palace garden, the garden of Uzza," and Amon, who "was buried in his grave in the garden of Uzza" ( 2 Kings 21:18, 26 ).

Right, the so-called "Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea," an anonymous burial cave in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This rock-cut Jewish tomb, dating from the time of Jesus, is located in the Syrian-Jacobite chapel directly behind the edicule containing tomb of Christ. The presence of these tombs within the church and so near Jesus' tomb proves that Golgotha and the "new tomb" in a garden of Blessed Apostle Saint John's Gospel was originally outside the city walls, since burial of the dead was forbidden within the city.

It was now about 6:00 p.m. Across the city, a priest climbed to the top of the tower at the southwest corner of the Temple Mount. Standing alongside a stone marked: "to the place of the trumpeting," he raised a shofar ( ram's horn trumpet ) to his mouth and sounded a long sad note, announcing the start of the holiest of all days, the Passover Sabbath ( and the cessation of all work ). As the incessant noise and busyness of the city fell into quietness, Joseph and Nicodemus removed the wedge holding the heavy wheel-shaped stone. It rolled across the outer burial chamber, blocking the tomb entrance against grave robbers and animals. With heavy hearts, they proceeded to their homes in the Upper City for their own Passover observances.

Left, tomb with rolling stone found at Abu Gosh ( Old Testament Kiriath-Jearim ), on Road 1, about 8 miles west of Jerusalem. Similar ones are found elsewhere in Israel.

A very special 'Thank you' to welcometohosanna.com for their commentaries and resources sparingly edited by this writer for this presentation.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.