The Crucifixion
In his early thirties, Jesus of Nazareth was crucifiedunder Roman Law by edict of Pontius Pilate (reluctantly it is believed) who had been placed in an impossible political position by the Pharisees and Sadducees. According to Roman Law, the crimes for which a prisoner was crucified were nailed on a board above their head. Because Jerusalem was a polyglot society, criminals had their crimes written in the three main languages of that society. Thus, Pilate had ordered that in Greek, Latin and Hebrew was written 'Jesus of Nazareth. King of the Jews'. Jerusalem was politically legally culturally and ethnographically cosmopolitan. It was this richness of population that deemed that we know Christ by His Greek Name (Jesus) and not by His Hebrew Name (Joshua Bar Joseph). His crucifixion took place on a Friday, and concern was raised that He wouldn't be dead by dusk on Friday, as that was the beginning of the Shabbes.
Jewish Law stipulated that there should be no one still alive on a cross by the time the Shabbes began. Jewish law forbids crucifixion, indeed, Jews revolted more than once when the Romans, within Judea, crucified people. Jewish law stipulates that, if a man is hung, his body is brought down by nightfall. Jewish law also stipulates that the dead are buried within 24 hours of death, and that no one is left unburied over Shabbes.
Crucifixion was a slow painful and lingering death, occasionally made easier by those compassionate enough in the crowd (often family members or friends) passing up a hypnotic drug contained in vinegar suspended in a sponge. Despite being offered a sponge, Jesus refused this aid. Death in this way placed enormous strain on the cardiac and pulmonary systems. As the arms are stretched by the weight of the body, the rib cage is impaired from movement leading to slow suffocation. To spread the torture and punishment out a little longer, prisoners had their ankles bound or nailed to a ledge upon which they could push themselves to help their breathing. This in turn added to their pain as they were pushing against the nails in their ankles. Eventually weakened by all this they died, sometimes days later. To avoid being left till after the Sabbath, Roman soldiers were instructed to break the bones to hasten death by preventing them from breathing longer. Unusually, Jesus had died by this time and the soldiers instead thrust a spear into his abdomen, from which fluid drained. This fluid is quite possibly a product of Congestive Heart Failure and Pulmonary Oedema caused by the crucifixion, where the heart being unable to pump effectively, backed up blood and fluid decreasing the volume of blood the heart could pump round, leading to fluid building up in the lungs.
The crucified were stripped naked to compound their humiliation, though Christian art applies modesty to the depiction. Everything possible was done to make the torture of crucifixion as cruel as possible. The condemned were made to carry the instrument of their death through the streets, witnessed by the crowds, outside the city walls to the place of execution. On the day in question, we know of two others who were crucified with Jesus. As the condemned were being prepared for death, it was a perk of the job for the soldiers on duty to divide the possessions the condemned among them.
In particular Jesus was stripped of his expensive seamless robe which was woven top to bottom and was identical to that worn by Priests serving in the Temple. It is unclear if it was the techelet,which was 12 ply sky blue dyed wool, or, possibly more likely, made of six ply woven white flax, the sort of robe the High Priest would have worn on the Day of Atonement. The High Priest would have two sets, one for use in the morning and one in the evening, and he only wore these once. The robe was a closed garment and slipped on over the head. The opening at the neck was round, with a hem that was doubled over and closed by weaving-not by a needle. The garment hung down in front and in back, and its length extended all the way down to the priest's feet. There is a difference of opinion as to whether there were sleeves, but if so these would also have been seamless and attached separately.
(Incidentally, this robe is akin to the same as the robe worn by patriarch Joseph but, due to an oft repeated mistranslation, was called a "coat of many colours", and was in fact white).
