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That Christ's hands were nailed to the cross is firmly established by Scripture. Following the Resurrection, the Apostle Thomas doubted that Christ was alive:
So he [Thomas] said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." (John 20:25, NKJV)
...
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God is Holy
God is Just
God is Merciful
The combination of these attributes is the answer to your question.
His Holiness demands that He be obeyed, unequivocally.
His justice demands that He deal with disobedience, mercilessly.
His mercy demands that He forgive, lovingly.
How does one strike a balance in a meaningful manner? The answer is that He who knew ...
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Jesus' main purpose in coming to earth was to die on the cross in order to redeem mankind from their sins.
He attests to this in a number of places in the Bible, and other writers of scripture also say this.
Therefore to have Michael or any other archangel rescue Jesus would be to go against the wishes of God the Father - which Jesus, in his obedience, did ...
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First, understanding that this is not a site to learn about Truth, but rather to learn about Christianity - what the various teachings are from an academic perspective, the question "Which is true" is off-topic. However, we could take a couple of approaches that would be within the bounds of the site:
Answering what various denominations believe about ...
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He most likely was crucified naked - this is consistent with the biblical narrative of the guards casting lots for his garment and with standard historical practice.
In the paintings, the artists wanted to preserve some of the dignity and not turn the Lord's body into something that puerile youngsters might be titilated by. It is a condescension to the ...
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From the Orthodox POV, the answer is unequivocally yes.
The Orthodox understand John 1:14 literally:
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (NKJV) [Emphasis mine]
The Word of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, became flesh. Not had flesh. Not ...
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There seems to be two interpretations of the meaning of the skull at the base of the cross, the first is more symbolic and the second is more historical:
The skull represents Adam, the first man, along with original sin. Jesus was sent to Earth to absolve us of our sins through His death. Jesus' blood is washing away our sins by flowing across the skull of ...
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There are two basic theories here. The first is that the crowd misheard Jesus. The second is that they purposefully twisted his words to mock him. Commentators are fairly evenly split on which option is more probable.
Misheard
In the first view, the crowd was at a significant enough distance that they could not hear Jesus clearly. Additionally, those in ...
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Survey of Roman law
A now deleted (near) duplicate of this question asked if a claim that the Roman law forbid the crucifixion of thieves, so I'll start with that question, which is highly relevant to our exegesis of the Gospel accounts.
There are a lot of claims on the Internet and in popular-level books about Roman crucifixion. Some common claims ...
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This is where the doctrine of the hypostatic union is essential. Jesus the Son of God is one person, but he has two natures: the divine nature, and a human nature. The two natures cannot be divided, but neither are they mixed in the union to become hybrid natures.
The divine nature cannot die, but the human nature can. Jesus died completely in his human ...
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The story is found in the Apocryphal Arabic Gospel of the Infancy of the Saviour:
(23) And turning away from this place, they came to a desert; and hearing that it was infested by robbers, Joseph and the Lady Mary resolved to cross this region by night. But as they go along, behold, they see two robbers lying in the way, and along with them a great number ...
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Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski in his book, The Apostles's Creed: and its Early Christian Context, argues that Pilate was specifically mentioned primarily in order to argue for and defend the humanity and real death of Jesus.
He first emphasizes the historical importance of Pilate to Christianity:
Certainly the Scriptural detail that Jesus of Nazareth was ...
answered Jan 11 '16 at 18:32
Nathaniel is protesting
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He was quoting David in Psalm 22. But nevertheless, Jesus must have felt these words Himself. What it was like for the Son of God to experience "Hell", or separation from God, we can not begin to imagine.
We can only speculate that Jesus, when He uttered those words, felt God had abandoned Him in a real way, not a symbolic way. Jesus truly felt separated ...
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We do not know that the third hour was exactly 9:00 AM - that is an estimation for the purpose of providing an understandable translation.
The Jewish day started at dawn and ended at dusk. There were 12 hours, which were each 1/12th of the stretch between dawn and dusk. (More info.)
For simplicity, if we consider dawn to be roughly 6:00 AM, that would ...
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Here are links to official material published by Jehovah's Witnesses which you can read online about this topic:
Why True Christians Do Not Use the Cross in Worship
Reasoning from the Scriptures: Cross
Insight on the Scriptures: Torture Stake
I recommend reading some of these for a more in depth, and rounded out answer with references to back up their ...
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I do not think that one reading the Gospel account could say that Jesus was wondering of the plan of God at this point in the salvation history. Here is how Jesus present himself in the good shepherd discourse :
14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the ...
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Mason and Dan have both noted the literal significance of the blood/water issue. It was a medical indication that A) he was dead and B) he didn't die as the direct result of the crucifixion.
On practical thing we can note from this is that Jesus was in control of things right up to the end. We know from Scripture that nobody forced Jesus's life from him, he ...
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According to the doctrine of the Trinity, Jesus being the Son of God means that He is fully God made manifest in human form (John 1:14). Jesus is simultaneously both fully God and fully man. As such, Jesus being crucified wasn't God sending someone else to be pusnished, but instead God taking the punishment Himself.
This, therefore, does not compromise God'...
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If the narrative is followed from verse 35, one will note that the Roman soldiers were present throughout, they “sitting down they watched him”. Note not all but “some of them that stood there…said, this man calleth for Elias”. Spoken by a Roman soldiers that did not know Aramaic.
Matthew 27:35 And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting ...
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Jesus Christ, on earth, was the incarnate Word: the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son. His earthly body and the soul which animated it were both at once human and divine.
To say “God died” actually denies the human soul and its continued existence after the death of the body. Even though Jesus’ body died, his soul did not — or what hope is there ...
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For the same reason so many other things from the Old Testament are mentioned in the New Testament: they're quotations. This particular one was a reference to the beginning of the 22nd psalm, and it's quite instructive to look at the psalm in its entirety. Of particular interest is verse 18, which had literally happened to him just moments ago. Jesus's ...
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The Veil: Its meaning
Most scholars are in agreement on the ultimate conclusion and meaning of the tearing of the curtain. Perhaps none are so succinct as Ezra Palmer Gould in A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to St. Mark stating:
The rending of the vail would signify therefore the removal of the separation between God and the ...
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Apparently, per Wikipedia, this date corresponds to Nisan 14, converting the date from the Hebrew Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar.
I don't believe they're saying it happened on a Tuesday. In 2012, it was a Thursday.
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The atonement theology is a complicated one to explain. To the believers, it is a simple acceptance of one's imperfection and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ the perfect one to render us perfect in the eyes of God. To the unbelievers, it is foolishness that God would become human to die for their sins.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those ...
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The word used in the Bible can mean any part of the hand or arm. People who study crucifixion in general found that the nails most often went through the wrist and that the weight of the body would cause the nail to tear through the flesh of the hand as is most commonly depicted in Christian art. Thus, a fairly common view is that the nails actually went ...
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Upvote for a good question.
I do not agree that an answer to your question involves mere opinion. The answer is yes, and the scriptural basis for that affirmative answer is both broad and deep.
While the assumption that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in their divine nature is not required in order to understand how the Christ knew "well beforehand" ...
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Gospel of Nicodemus
The earliest known record of the thieves' names occurs in the anonymous work which eventually (several centuries later) became known as the Gospel of Nicodemus. The work is basically orthodox in nature and was likely composed in the early-mid fourth century. The first part of the work purports to be a translation of the official trial ...
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