Romans crucified thousands of people. For them, it was a “normal” thing to do. They were known for this ruthless model of punishment (If you know what the victims actually died of on the cross, I’m buying a beer!). Crucifixion goes back to ancient Persians who, according to Herodotus, used it to punish a particular class of criminals. Romans probably took it from Carthaginians with whom they had a complex history – as most of my students are well aware. All that would be totally irrelevant if not for the fact that the most important individual in the history of our civilization didn’t end up on a cross. Jesus is, by far, the most significant person to die in this dreadful way. But, what happened to his body after the punishment was carried out?

According to the Gospels, his body was taken from the cross and laid in the tomb. In the words of the first written Gospel:

Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. So, Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.

Is this what really happened? Several New Testament scholars have raised doubt about the historicity of the story of Joseph of Arimathea. To take a recent example, Bart Ehrman changed his view and sided with the shocking hypothesis of John D. Crossan. Their proposal is that Jesus’ body was probably either left on the cross or disposed of in a shallow pit nearby. Both Crossan and Ehrman remind us that the Romans, as a rule, when they crucified people, left them up on the cross for scavenges or took them down and just threw them into the shallow pit for dogs and other animals to eat them. Indeed, that seems to be the usual course of events for the victims of Roman crucifixion. Just to give one example. An ancient inscription found on the tombstone of a man who was murdered by his slave in the city of Caria tells us that the murderer was hung . . . alive for the wild beasts and birds of prey. Could that be what happened to Jesus?

A few years ago, I was quite surprised to discover that Ehrman changed his position. In his book How Jesus Became God, Ehrman presented his arguments for thinking that Jesus was either left on the cross or thrown in a shallow pit. The arguments he gives are actually updated versions of a theory that J. D. Crossan proposed in the sixth chapter of his infamous book Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. However, I don’t find them persuasive. This may come as a surprise to those who think I’m following Ehrman wherever he goes. I’m not. I try to go wherever the evidence leads me. Sometimes I go with him; sometimes I go in a different direction! So, what do we, as historians, can know about Jesus’ burial?

JESUS’ BURIAL: HISTORY OR MYTH?

First of all, the earliest tradition about Jesus’ death comes from 1 Corinthians 15 where Paul quotes an earlier creed that goes back to the first several years after the crucifixion. In it, he informs us:

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.

Most experts believe that this creed was developed in the first few years after Jesus’ crucifixion and that it was widely known to Christian communities in the 30s and 40s of the 1st century. Reasons for thinking that are beyond the scope of this article! I can’t imagine Paul speaking that way if Jesus was just thrown into a pile and eaten by dogs. Moreover, as indicated, all of the four Gospels convey the story of Jesus’ burial. Furthermore, there aren’t any rival traditions in the New Testament documents (or anywhere else for that matter!) that would stipulate a different outcome. In other words, Ehrman and Crossan are working (essentially) only on the basis of usual Roman practice in dealing with crucified criminals. The next important thing to note is that a Jewish historian Josephus (1st century AD) actually says that the Jewish custom is to take down criminals from crosses and bury them before nightfall. This practice derives from the Old Testament law (Deuteronomy 21) according to which Jews are not allowed to leave a body on a tree (or a cross) overnight. We know from the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient Jewish texts that this law was understood to refer to crucifixion. In other words, Josephus tells us that the practice of his people is to take down crucified criminals whenever they can. Precisely that is what you have in the Gospels! Joseph of Arimathea took care of the removal of Jesus’ body from the cross thus providing him with a decent burial.

Apart from that, we have a Rabbinic text that mentions somebody being crucified. His relatives went to the Romans asking for the body of their deceased family member. Interestingly enough, in this particular case, Romans said NO! This prompted Jews to even think of stealing the body just so that they can uphold their own law and tradition. The point is that this source remembers that Jewish people in antiquity asked for bodies to be taken down from crosses. Moreover, we also have the body of a crucified 28 years old man named Jehohanan Son of Hagkol. “He” was found in an ossuary dated prior to AD 70! The ossuary was discovered in 1968. We know he was crucified because Romans hammered a nail into his ankles to hold them together. When it was time to take him down, they couldn’t take the nail out. So, they just cut the wood and the wood is still there with the nail. In the picture below, you can see a replica of a right heel bone of a crucified victim. This replica is presented in the Israel Museum. Amazing!

The point, of course, is that this man was both crucified and buried. So, here we have strong archeological evidence of a crucified victim from the 1st century who was given a decent Jewish burial in a bone box. To those who claim that one example is not enough, I can just respond by reminding them of how few Jewish bones from antiquity we actually have! There is a fine line between justified and radical skepticism. The latter is always in the service of a predetermined theory which, surprise-surprise, is always in line with personal beliefs. As a final note, I don’t think that the later Christians would invent a story about how Jesus’ burial was made possible by a member of the Jewish council called Sanhedrin. I don’t see how that would be a likely story to invent since that council was (in part) responsible for Jesus’ trial and execution.

CONCLUSION

If we consider all the evidence, Crossan’s and Ehrman’s theory turns out to be too skeptical. It goes far beyond the available information and neglects several key aspects of the whole story. My position is that the stories of Jesus’ burial contain authentic memories and that Jesus was probably taken down the cross and given a decent Jewish burial. Needless to say, I’m open to the possibility of being convinced otherwise. For now, I’m sticking with the traditional story found in the Gospels!