Jesus was NOT executed on top of a hill. He was, as covered in a previous Post, executed at what was the “regular” execution place, north of the city walls. the cliff face is still there today. It still looks like a Skull. The executions took place on the ledges in front of the cliff face.
Golgotha: “Place of a Skull”
Pilate’s “Notice” was not something pinned to the top of Jesus’ cross.
There was a HUGE Billboard up above where the crosses were placed. That Billboard displayed, in HUGE words and letters, why the criminal or criminals, were being executed. The “Billboard” could be read, easily read, from the roadways, just as modern Billoards beside a highway are easily read. If they could not be easily read by passing traffic, there would be no point in having the Billcoard. Duh!!
People often think the Bible is full of “contradictions”.
But there are no many nears as many “contradictions” as people think. The apparent “contradictions” often hide secrets. In many cases the apparent contradictions are BOTH true. Pilate asked Jesus:
“What is Truth?”
One of the examples of “apparent conradictions” BOTH being true, is the story of the two thievies executed with Jesus. One story has them BOTH insulting and abusing Jesus. Another story says that one asked Jesus:
Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom?”
People “write those two stories off as just being the result of different eyewitnesses having different recall, or even that the Gospels were written LONG after the events happened, so people just “made up” their version so as to “pad out the story”.
The truth is that BOTH stories are true. BOTH thieves DID mock and insult Jesus. But one “repented”. Despite the horror, the blood , the suffering, the cruelty and the degradation, the “good thief” realised Who Jesus was/is/ The thief “changed his mind, repented, and asked Jesus to remember him after they were all dead.
It does NOT take great intelligence to figure out the way through the contradictions. The message is that even at the lowest point in Jesus’ life, people could still see who He was. Even a hardened criminal could see it !
Duh !!
Even a tough and hard Roman officer could see it:
“Truly, this was the Son of God!”
Duh Again !
The “classic design and layout” of western Christian curches up until the Reformation, was based on the Golgotha site. That site was the location of the first Christian “Chapel”. The “history” is interesting:
- There was a massive public outcry and “backlash” over what had been done to Jesus. The New Testament records that many of the priests “believed”. The priests, or at least many of them, like the common people, and like the Romans, had “figured out” Who Jesus was. And they all knew just what the religious leaders had done, and had a good idea as to why they had done it. The wickedness, the hate, the spite, the sadism, the cunning . . . . it was obvious to almost everybody, including the Romans.
- So, “public opinion” saw the site as “now” a sacred site. Public opinion was also offended at the idea of more executions there. Even the Romans were offended by the idea of more executions there.
- It took a while, but public opinion, and money, and “Christian pressure” saw to it that the site was sold to Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph “had the money” and he was part of Jesus’ extended family. So he was a popular choice to become the “new owner”. His plan was to build a memorial to Jesus on the site, a “chapel” where the early Curch could celebate Communion Services.
- What Joseph built was a relatively small chapel. It had the “ledges”, i.e. the ledges where the crosses had been. Jesus’ cross had been on the highest ledge. That is why Catholic and Anglican churches to this day, usually have steps leading up to the “altar” or Communion Table. For Catholics, the “Mass facing the people” is something that only started after the Vatican Council of the 1960’s.
- Prior to that Council, everybody, Congregation, “Altar Boys” and Catholic Priest, all faced that back wall, where there was always a giant cross with a figure of Jesus on it.
- That large “Crucufix” against the back wall, was the reproduction of the Cliff Face behind Jesus’ cross.
Sitting up above and behind Jesus’ cross was the giant “BILLBOARD”, on which, that day almost 2,000 years ago, Pilate had his notcie displayed. He wrote there what he wanted to write in the midst of his burning rage at the religious leadership.
What is one of the main characteristics of modern “heavily born-again” fundamentalist Christians? Yes, there are some good ones, even very great ones. But as a group, they are notorious for being heavily judgemental, condemning people, left, right and centre.
Pilate had dealt with that same judgemental condemning spirit in religious people that day. And Pilate was furious at them for what they had done, and for their cunning and deceit, and for the way they had forced him to do what he had not wanted to do.
So Pilate “let loose”, expressing his anger by saying, in giant letters that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God. Pilate had probably little to no idea that God worked through his (Pilate’s) righteous anger. What came out on that Billboard is a masterpiece. It connects the start of Genesis, the Garden of Eden, Jesus, The Shema, the 72 Triplets, and Jesus’ naming of the Apostles with the Burning Bush, with Moses splitting the Sea, and with the Great Pyramid. Add in Leah’s daughter, Dinah, and her husband Job. They take us straight to Abraham, Isaac and the Fine Structure Constant of The Universe. Yes, it just “keeps coming” and those connections are veral real. Dinah’s first child was a baby girl. That little girl was sold into Egypt as a “slave girl” and then “adopted daughter” of Potiphar and his lonely young “cover marriage” wife, Zeleca. Zeleca’s adopted daughter, Asenath, saved Joseph’s life when a desperate and lovesick Zeleca accused Joseph of attempted rape. Everyone knew the truth. It was why Pharoah “gave” Asenath to Joseph. She had loved him since she was a little girl. It is one of the greatest love stories in history and Pilate managed to connect it to Jesus and Jesus’ unjust execution.Some of those links and interconnections are included in the Posts/Articles that accompany this Post.
Even Pilate’s name is connected with The Tree of Life:
Pilate put his notice on a Billboard that was clearly visible from the road. (The Gospel account talks about the people passing by who mocked Jesus). We STILL put Billboards near roads today.
The words Pilate wrote, are shown below;
MOST OF THE PASSERS-BY WERE JEWISH. Would they have had a good enough grasp of Greek to “see” the values of the words that were on Pilate’s Billboard. Passover was a “religious” festival. So maybe some of the people knew their Greek that well. But the mathematics would probably have been unknown to most of them.
But the majority of the people would have known this verse in Hebrew, the first verse of the Bible. That verse describes the Creation of the Universe. It is 7 words long. That is where (our era) British Intelligence got “007 as in, James Bond. Those 7 words are comprised of 28 letters. Even if people spoke another language as their first language, they heard their Sabbath Torah readings once in Hebrew, “packaged” with two readings in the “native language. The main “native languages” used in Synagogue services were either Greek or Aramaic.
Plety of people would have known the values of those Hebrew letters in Genesis 1:1. “Counting” is one of the things Jews do. They are known for “counting” the money! They are also known for a very “mathematical approach” to scripture study.
People would have known that verse, and its “numerics” by heart. They could have counted the letters on that giant Billboard. That 46 Letters with the 28 letters would have given them the “74” that is enlarged as two letters in The Shema, said twice daily by all devout Jews. There were PLENTY of devout Jews at that Passover – more than around 1.4 to 1.5 million people, most of whom were devout.
