Ted Grant II
Registered Senior Member
We are told that within a few hours of the Crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea, possibly with assistants, took down the body of Christ, wrapped it in a cloth and placed it in his own tomb.
We are not given any details, that is, we have no idea how Joseph did it.
It was a very strange thing to do and even stranger that the Romans allowed him to do it. Normally, the naked crucified person was left on the cross (or stake or tree) for a long time until reduced to a skeleton, eaten by wild animals and birds and weathered. From the Roman's point of view, the humiliation and cruelty of the spectacle was intended to show others that they should behave themselves and the Roman laws.
"If you don't behave, this will happen to you".
We can think about the problem of taking down a bloody dead body, even though we don't have the details.
One assumes that the body was quite high up so that it could be seen from a great distance. Joseph would need at least one ladder or platform to reach the body.
Assuming a ladder, where did he place it? On the front perhaps ? Would that mean it rested on the body ? On the back perhaps ? but then it would be difficult to access the nails at the front.
Presumably, he remove one nail at a time. How? They must have been big nails in big pieces of wood. Did he use a crow bar ? If so, how was it placed ? A crow bar needs to rest on something, but the body would be in the way and he wouldn't want to damage the body.
Suppose he used pincers. He would find it very difficult to remove a big nail with pincers whilst balancing on a rickety old ladder and holding on to the corpse. Bear in mind, there were three nails. As soon as he removed one (assuming that was possible), the body would slump. Then matters would worsen on removing the second nail. In addition, the body must have been bleeding profusely, so imagine handling that, with all the other problems to manage.
Then there is the big question, why did he bother ?
The story of the resurrection depends on the body being removed from the cross.
The removal is a key, albeit difficult, part of the story.
No way could Jesus come back to life whilst nailed to the cross.
So the story composers had to get him down and placed somewhere safe, where his body could be miraculously restored without the attentions of wild beast to worry about.
The snag in the story is HOW ?
I just thought of an answer.
A miracle !
The nails fell out and the body floated gently down into the arms of Joseph.
Simple !
We are not given any details, that is, we have no idea how Joseph did it.
It was a very strange thing to do and even stranger that the Romans allowed him to do it. Normally, the naked crucified person was left on the cross (or stake or tree) for a long time until reduced to a skeleton, eaten by wild animals and birds and weathered. From the Roman's point of view, the humiliation and cruelty of the spectacle was intended to show others that they should behave themselves and the Roman laws.
"If you don't behave, this will happen to you".
We can think about the problem of taking down a bloody dead body, even though we don't have the details.
One assumes that the body was quite high up so that it could be seen from a great distance. Joseph would need at least one ladder or platform to reach the body.
Assuming a ladder, where did he place it? On the front perhaps ? Would that mean it rested on the body ? On the back perhaps ? but then it would be difficult to access the nails at the front.
Presumably, he remove one nail at a time. How? They must have been big nails in big pieces of wood. Did he use a crow bar ? If so, how was it placed ? A crow bar needs to rest on something, but the body would be in the way and he wouldn't want to damage the body.
Suppose he used pincers. He would find it very difficult to remove a big nail with pincers whilst balancing on a rickety old ladder and holding on to the corpse. Bear in mind, there were three nails. As soon as he removed one (assuming that was possible), the body would slump. Then matters would worsen on removing the second nail. In addition, the body must have been bleeding profusely, so imagine handling that, with all the other problems to manage.
Then there is the big question, why did he bother ?
The story of the resurrection depends on the body being removed from the cross.
The removal is a key, albeit difficult, part of the story.
No way could Jesus come back to life whilst nailed to the cross.
So the story composers had to get him down and placed somewhere safe, where his body could be miraculously restored without the attentions of wild beast to worry about.
The snag in the story is HOW ?
I just thought of an answer.
A miracle !
The nails fell out and the body floated gently down into the arms of Joseph.
Simple !