Lion, are you claiming that the crucifixion was somehow greater suffering than anyone else experienced?
Are you unaware that it was a common form of execution at the time? I mean even if you think that's the worst way to be tortured to death (which is debatable), this was something that happened many times before, during, and after the supposed crucifixion. In fact it was so common that we know how the Romans did things. If Jesus was a real person and if Jesus was crucified by the Romans, we know that his corpse was not placed in a tomb of any kind. The Romans always left the bodies up to be picked at by crows and to serve as a warning to others.
And if the story is in any way true—and Jesus was taken down by Joseph on the evening of the first day—it is easily possible that Jesus’ apparent death was merely a coma or something similar (aka, the “fainting theory” I believe), due to blood loss from the crucifixion wounds and alleged whipping, such that being wrapped in medicinal bandages (aka, the traditional form of annointed burial linens) and placed in an above ground, but rock “sealed” tomb (rather than buried) that protected him from the elements simply allowed his wounds/body to heal for a few days.
Here’s what we have from GMark, the creator of the passion narrative. I’ve removed the parts not relevant to this point:
33 Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”[f]
...
And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.
...
42 Now when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath
So we have clearly established that Jesus was only on the cross for nine hours. It is well documented that crucifixion was a notoriously slow death, often taking several days for people to die. That’s why it was so terrible a fate and why the Romans used it as a punishment for murderers and seditionists in particular; because it was a slow, painful and very public death, serving as a daily reminder/deterrent to others.
Imagine knowing your loved ones/friends are slowly rotting to death for
days up on that hill and you can’t do anything to stop it. Horrifying, which was the point.
Now we get:
Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent council member, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God
Iow, a fellow “christian.”
coming and taking courage, went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 44 Pilate marveled that He was already dead
Again underscoring the fact that nine hours was very little time to have caused death.
and summoning the centurion, he asked him if He had been dead for some time. 45 So when he found out from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. 46 Then he bought fine linen, took Him down, and wrapped Him in the linen. And he laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock, and rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.
So, easily not yet dead, just the appearance of death (i.e., coma or otherwise unconscious) and pulled from the cross early and wrapped in what would effectively have been bandages. I don’t have the source handy, but such burial linens were typically annointed with oils and herbs that would clean and help still living wounds heal.
Next we have:
Mark 16:1 Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. 2 Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. 3 And they said among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” 4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away—for it was very large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.
6 But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. 7 But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.”
And that’s the end of the story (the rest being added later). After being taken down prematurely (thought to be dead, but actually was not) and spending two nights wrapped in medicinal bandages (not intentionally; effectively) in a temperate, protected cave (so no exposure to the elements), Jesus recovers from his wounds and either moves the stone himself or with the help of whoever this young man is (not an angel; very specifically a young man in some sort of ceremonial robe, like a disciple might wear for instance).
Does he say Jesus resurrected from the dead? No. He says he is risen. Now, either that’s accurate or apocryphal but either way, it is NOT “he resurrected from the dead.”
So one can easily take the original story at face value and still not come away from it with a resurrection narrative to anyone who may have known the facts the story is purporting to tell (some forty years after any such events). Iow, the author—presumed to be a Roman, no less and certainly not a Jew—could have been relaying certain accurate sequence of events and merely implying a conclusion that the author stops short of actually specifying.
I have a theory as to why that may have been, but no need to get into that here. The point is that even if we take the creator of the passion narrative’s version of events at face value, we
still do not have a story proving/establishing resurrection from the dead. “Risen”
does not mean “Resurrection.” It implies it, perhaps, but it is not accurate to say that the two words are equivalent and considering the importance of that one word,
implied isn’t acceptable to any critical thinker.
