Chronology There is no consensus regarding the exact date of the crucifixion of Jesus, although it is generally agreed by biblical scholars that it was on a
Friday on or near
Passover (
Nisan 14), during the governorship of Pontius Pilate (who ruled AD 26–36). Various approaches have been used to estimate the year of the crucifixion, including the canonical Gospels, the chronology of the life of Paul, as well as different
astronomical models. Scholars have provided estimates in the range AD 30–33, Another preferred date among scholars is Friday, 3 April, AD 33. The consensus of scholarship is that the New Testament accounts represent a crucifixion occurring on a Friday, but a Thursday or Wednesday crucifixion have also been proposed. Some scholars explain a Thursday crucifixion based on a "double sabbath" caused by an extra Passover sabbath falling on Thursday dusk to Friday afternoon, ahead of the normal weekly Sabbath. Some have argued that Jesus was crucified on Wednesday, not Friday, on the grounds of the mention of "three days and three nights" in before his resurrection, celebrated on Sunday. Others have countered by saying that this ignores the Jewish idiom by which a "day and night" may refer to any part of a 24-hour period, that the expression in Matthew is idiomatic, not a statement that Jesus was 72 hours in the tomb, and that the many references to a resurrection on the third day do not require three literal nights. Furthermore, a few scholars have made the case that Matthew used the phrase "the heart of the earth" to refer to Jerusalem, and thus the period includes the entirety of the time Jesus spent in Jerusalem following his return from
Bethany on Thursday, which lasted exactly three days and three nights. In
Mark 15:25 crucifixion takes place at the third hour (9
a.m.) and Jesus' death at the ninth hour (3 p.m.). In
John 19:14 Jesus is still before Pilate at the sixth hour. Several scholars have argued that the modern precision of marking the time of day should not be read back into the gospel accounts, written at a time when no standardization of timepieces, or exact recording of hours and minutes was available, and time was often approximated to the closest three-hour period.
Path ,
Way to Calvary, c. 1400. The cluster of halos at the left are the
Virgin Mary in front, with the
Three Marys. The three
Synoptic Gospels refer to a man called
Simon of Cyrene whom the Roman soldiers order to carry the cross after Jesus initially carries it but then collapses, while the Gospel of John just says that Jesus "bears" his own cross. Luke's gospel also describes an interaction between Jesus and the women among the crowd of mourners following him, quoting Jesus as saying "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us,' and to the hills, 'Cover us.' For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?" The
Gospel of Luke has Jesus address these women as "daughters of Jerusalem", thus distinguishing them from the women whom the same gospel describes as "the women who had followed him from Galilee" and who were present at his crucifixion. Traditionally, the path that Jesus took is called
Via Dolorosa (
Latin for "Way of Grief" or "Way of Suffering") and is a street in the
Old City of Jerusalem. It is marked by nine of the fourteen
Stations of the Cross. It passes the
Ecce Homo Church and the last five stations are inside the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There is no reference to a woman named
Veronica in the Gospels, but sources such as
Acta Sanctorum describe her as a pious woman of
Jerusalem who, moved with pity as Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha, gave him her veil that he might wipe his forehead.
Location and the historical site The precise location of the crucifixion remains a matter of conjecture, but the biblical accounts indicate that it was outside the city walls of Jerusalem, accessible to passers-by and observable from some distance away.
Eusebius identified its location only as being north of
Mount Zion, which is consistent with the two most popularly suggested sites of modern times.
Calvary as an English name for the place is derived from the Latin word for skull (), which is used in the
Vulgate translation of "place of a skull", the explanation given in all four Gospels of the Aramaic word
Gûlgaltâ (transliterated into the
Greek as (Golgotha)), which was the name of the place where Jesus was crucified. The text does not indicate why it was so designated, but several theories have been put forward. One is that as a place of public execution, Calvary may have been strewn with the skulls of abandoned victims (which would be contrary to Jewish burial traditions, but not Roman). Another is that Calvary is named after a nearby cemetery (which is consistent with both of the proposed modern sites). A third is that the name was derived from the physical contour, which would be more consistent with the singular use of the word, i.e., the place of "a skull". While often referred to as "Mount Calvary", it was more likely a small hill or rocky knoll. The traditional site, inside what is now occupied by the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the
Christian Quarter of the
Old City, has been attested since the 4th century. A second site (commonly referred to as Gordon's Calvary), located further north of the Old City near a place popularly called the
Garden Tomb, has been promoted since the 19th century.
People present , between 1390 and 1396, depicting several
women at the crucifixion The Gospels describe various
women at the crucifixion, some of whom are named. According to Mark, many women were present, among them
Mary Magdalene,
Mary, mother of James and
Mary of Clopas, commonly known as "
the Three Marys". The Gospel of Matthew also mentions several women being present, among them Mary Magdalene, Mary, mother of James and the mother of Zebedee's children. Although a group of women is mentioned in Luke, neither is named. The Gospel of John speaks of women present, among them the
mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Mary of Clopas. Aside from these women, the three Synoptic Gospels speak of the presence of others: "the chief priests, with the scribes and elders", two crucified criminals, to Jesus' right and left, "the soldiers", "the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus", passers-by, "bystanders", "the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle", and "his acquaintances". The Gospel of John mentions the soldiers and "the
disciple whom Jesus loved", who is with the women. The Gospels also tell of the arrival, after the death of Jesus, of
Joseph of Arimathea (in the four Gospels) and of
Nicodemus (only in John).
Method and manner . Most Christians believe the
gibbet on which Jesus was executed was the traditional two-beamed cross.
Jehovah's Witnesses hold the distinctive view that a single upright stake was used. The Greek and Latin words used in the earliest Christian writings are ambiguous. The
Koine Greek terms used in the New Testament are () and (). The latter means wood (a live tree, timber or an object constructed of wood); in earlier forms of Greek, the former term meant an upright stake or pole, but in Koine Greek it was used also to mean a cross.
Early Christian writers who speak of the shape of the particular gibbet on which Jesus died invariably describe it as having a cross-beam. For instance, the
Epistle of Barnabas, which was certainly earlier than 135, and may have been of the 1st century AD, the time when the gospel accounts of the death of Jesus were written, likened it to the letter T (the Greek letter
tau, which had the
numeric value of 300), and to the position assumed by
Moses in .
Justin Martyr (100–165) explicitly says the cross of Christ was of two-beam shape: "That lamb which was commanded to be wholly roasted was a symbol of the suffering of the cross which Christ would undergo. For the lamb, which is roasted, is roasted and dressed up in the form of the cross. For one spit is transfixed right through from the lower parts up to the head, and one across the back, to which are attached the legs of the lamb."
Irenaeus, who died around the end of the 2nd century, speaks of the cross as having "five extremities, two in length, two in breadth, and one in the middle, on which [last] the person rests who is fixed by the nails." The assumption of the use of a two-beamed cross does not determine the number of nails used in the crucifixion and some theories suggest three nails while others suggest four nails. Throughout history, larger numbers of nails have been hypothesized, at times as high as 14 nails. These variations are also present in the artistic depictions of the crucifixion. In
Western Christianity, before the
Renaissance usually four nails would be depicted, with the feet side by side. After the Renaissance most depictions use three nails, with one foot placed on the other. The placing of the nails in the hands, or the wrists is also uncertain. Some theories suggest that the Greek word () for hand includes the wrist and that the Romans were generally trained to place nails through
Destot's space (between the
capitate and
lunate bones) without fracturing any bones. Another theory suggests that the Greek word for hand also includes the forearm and that the nails were placed near the
radius and
ulna of the
forearm. Ropes may have also been used to fasten the hands in addition to the use of nails. Another issue of debate has been the use of a hypopodium as a standing platform to support the feet, given that the hands may not have been able to support the weight. In the 17th century
Rasmus Bartholin considered a number of analytical scenarios of that topic.
Words of Jesus spoken from the cross '', by
James Tissot, c. 1890,
Brooklyn Museum The Gospels describe various
last words that Jesus said while on the cross, as follows:
Mark / Matthew • (
Aramaic for "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"). Aramaic linguist Steve Caruso said Jesus most likely spoke Galilean Aramaic, which would render the pronunciation of these words: . The only words of Jesus on the cross mentioned in the Mark and Matthew accounts, this is a quotation of
Psalm 22. Since other verses of the same Psalm are cited in the crucifixion accounts, some commentators consider it a literary and theological creation.
Geza Vermes noted the verse is cited in Aramaic rather than the usual Hebrew, and that by the time of Jesus, this phrase had become a proverbial saying in common usage. Compared to the accounts in the other Gospels, which he describes as "theologically correct and reassuring", he considers this phrase "unexpected, disquieting and in consequence more probable". He describes it as bearing "all the appearances of a genuine cry".
Raymond Brown likewise comments that he finds "no persuasive argument against attributing to the Jesus of Mark/Matt the literal sentiment of feeling forsaken expressed in the Psalm quote".
Luke • "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." • "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise." • "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." The Gospel of Luke does not include the aforementioned exclamation of Jesus mentioned in the Matthew and Mark accounts.
John • "Woman, here is your son ... Here is your mother." • "I am thirsty." • "It is finished." The words of Jesus on the cross, especially his
last words, have been the subject of a wide range of Christian teachings and sermons, and a number of authors have written books specifically devoted to the last sayings of Christ.
Reported extraordinary occurrences The synoptics report various
miraculous events during the crucifixion. Mark mentions a period of darkness in the daytime during Jesus' crucifixion, and the Temple veil being torn in two when Jesus dies.
Darkness , showing the skies darkened In the synoptic narrative, while Jesus is hanging on the cross, the sky over
Judaea (or the whole world) is "darkened for three hours," from the sixth to the ninth hour (noon to mid-afternoon). There is no reference to darkness in the Gospel of John account, in which the crucifixion does not take place until after noon. Some ancient Christian writers considered the possibility that pagan commentators may have mentioned this event and mistook it for a solar eclipse, pointing out that an eclipse could not occur during the Passover, which takes place during the full moon when the moon is opposite the sun rather than in front of it. Christian traveler and historian
Sextus Julius Africanus and Christian theologian
Origen refer to Greek historian
Phlegon, who lived in the 2nd century AD, as having written "with regard to the eclipse in the time of Tiberius Caesar, in whose reign Jesus appears to have been crucified, and the great earthquakes which then took place". Sextus Julius Africanus further refers to the writings of historian
Thallus: "This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun. For the Hebrews celebrate the Passover on the 14th day according to the moon, and the passion of our Saviour falls on the day before the Passover; but an eclipse of the sun takes place only when the moon comes under the sun." Christian apologist
Tertullian believed the event was documented in the Roman archives.
Colin Humphreys and Graeme Waddington of
Oxford University considered the possibility that a lunar, rather than solar, eclipse might have taken place. They concluded that such an eclipse was visible in Jerusalem on the date of April 3, AD 33, that its peak was at 5:15 pm Jerusalem time, but that it was visible after sundown (the beginning of the Sabbath and of Passover) for half an hour. Some of the oldest manuscripts of Luke say "the sun was eclipsed" () at the time of the crucifixion. The authors suggest that this may be due to a scribe changing the word "moon" to "sun" to explain the darkness, or else that the word "eclipsed" just meant darkened or hidden, as in a passage of the
Sibylline Oracles. Historian David Henige dismisses this explanation as "indefensible". More objectively, astronomer Bradley Schaefer later found that the lunar eclipse would not have been visible at moonrise due to the brightness of the sky, and the umbra (the part that would be red) would not have been visible before it disappeared a few minutes later. In an edition of the BBC Radio 4 program
In Our Time entitled "Eclipses",
Frank Close, Emeritus Professor of Physics at Oxford University, noted that certain historical sources say that on the night of the Crucifixion "the moon had risen blood red," indicating a lunar eclipse. He further confirmed that, as Passover occurs on a full moon, calculations show that a lunar eclipse did in fact take place on the night of Passover, Friday, 3 April AD 33, and would have been visible in the region of modern Israel, ancient Judaea, just after sunset. Modern biblical scholarship treats the account in the Synoptic Gospels as a literary creation by the author of the Mark Gospel, amended in the Luke and Matthew accounts, intended to heighten the importance of what they saw as a theologically significant event, and not intended to be taken literally. This image of darkness over the land would have been understood by ancient readers, a typical element in the description of the death of kings and other major figures by writers such as
Philo,
Dio Cassius,
Virgil,
Plutarch and
Josephus.
Géza Vermes describes the darkness account as typical of "Jewish eschatological imagery of the day of the Lord", and says that those interpreting it as a datable eclipse are "barking up the wrong tree".
Temple veil, earthquake and resurrection of dead saints The synoptic gospels state that the
veil of
the temple was torn from top to bottom. The Gospel of Matthew mentions an account of earthquakes, rocks splitting, and the opening of the graves of dead
saints, and describes how these resurrected saints went into the holy city and appeared to many people. In the Mark and Matthew accounts, the
centurion in charge comments on the events: "Truly this man was the Son of God!" or "Truly this was the
Son of God!". The Gospel of Luke quotes him as saying, "Certainly this man was innocent!" The historian
Sextus Julius Africanus in the early-3rd century wrote, describing the day of the crucifixion, "A most terrible darkness fell over all the world, the rocks were torn apart by an earthquake, and many places both in Judaea and the rest of the world were thrown down. In the third book of his Histories,
Thallos dismisses this darkness as a solar eclipse. ..." A widespread earthquake of magnitude at least 5.5 has been confirmed to have taken place in the region between AD 26 and 36. This earthquake was dated by counting
varves (annual layers of sediment) between the disruptions in a core of sediment from
En Gedi caused by it and by an earlier known quake in 31 BC. The authors concluded that either this was the earthquake in Matthew and it occurred more or less as reported, or else Matthew "borrowed" this earthquake which actually occurred at another time or simply inserted an "allegorical fiction". ==Medical aspects==