[Swordmaker]

Thank you so much for this information. I have heard that the nose and knees of the image of the Shroud were shown to be scraped raw - the explanation being that the Cross that Jesus bore was a plank of wood carried on his shoulders and his arms outstretched and tied to it, so that whenever he fell he was unable to break the fall with his hands and would land on his knees or face down.

I have not heard that He was tied to the patibulum (the cross bar of the Cross) was actually tied to Jesus on the way to the crucifixion site, but consider that Jesus had been cruelly beaten, flayed with a Roman flagrum—a very vicious tool designed to inflict as much pain and damage possible, and was carrying a heavy wooden beam (the practice was not to tote the entire cross, but just the cross beam).

Many victims of such treatment alone did not survive it. In fact the Jewish Talmud rules limited such corporal punishment to 40 lashes for that reason, and traditionally those imposing corporal punishment would stop at 39 in case they had miscounted the lashes to avoid accidentally inflicting more than 40. However, if the evidence of the Shroud is to be believed, the Romans were not restrained by such limitations. The Shroud evidence indicates that the man shown on the Shroud received far more than 40 hits by the flagrum applied by two men, one taller than the other (the angles of the wounds differ), working from both sides. The wounds cover the back, sides, front, thighs, and even lower legs, and all of them are seeping blood. There are more than 125 vicious wounds breaking the skin, some of which appear to be up to a half inch deep.

Is it any wonder Jesus would have fallen on the way to His site of crucifixion. There are obvious bloody abrasions on the knees of the Man on the Shroud.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Jesus stood up to it all, in fact, like the proverbial Chuck Norris. “The Passion Of The Christ,” whatever its theological wanderings, imparts the general idea. He had to show SOME sign of suffering, or the entire passion episode would have looked robotic.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Also the Jewish legal mode of flogging punishment was more pro forma than focused torture. Typically the weakest member of the court was chosen to carry out the whipping. It was meant to be more humbling than degrading, the idea that this person must be whipped in public. And it was meant to stop short of a spiritually inverted sadomasochism scenario.

Stonings and other capital punishments of the Jewish law were designed to bring death quickly, so also as not to be cruel.

What happened to Jesus was at the hands of pagans, who were not under any orders to be under such compunction. But Jesus never bowed His soul to these pagans, much less worshiped them or their acts. He was bearing the anger of the Father at the sin of those He was sent to save.