Mark 15:22-26: Jesus Is Brought to Golgotha and Crucified. The Roman soldiers bring Jesus to the hill of Golgotha, offer Him wine mixed with myrrh, and crucify Him at the third hour. Jesus refuses the offered drink, and after crucifying Him, the soldiers divide His garments by casting lots for them. Above Jesus is written the charge against Him: "THE KING OF THE JEWS."
Mark previously described how the Roman soldiers led Jesus out to crucify Him and pressed Simon of Cyrene into service to bear His cross (Mark 15:20-21).
The soldiers led Jesus, along with the other two criminals who were to be crucified with Him (Luke 23:32), and Simon of Cyrene (Mark 15:21), to a location outside the city walls. The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus "suffered outside the gate" (Hebrews 13:12). John writes that "the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city" where "many of the Jews" could witness it (John 19:20). This would have been according to Roman custom.
Roman crucifixions were intended to be as humiliating and shameful as they were brutal and horrifying. This artistically cruel form of execution was a public stigmatization of the criminal and was designed to terrorize and deter would-be criminals into submission.
Jesus's place of crucifixion being outside the city gate and near a public road is further supported by the fact that "those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads" (Mark 15:29).
All of this indicates that Jesus was crucified in front of tens of thousands of Jews who passed by Him on their way into the city to celebrate the first day of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This made Jesus's execution a national spectacle.
Then they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull (v 22).
Throughout Mark 15:22-26, the pronoun--they--refers to the Roman soldiers who were leading Jesus to His execution.
Mark says they brought Him to the place Golgotha (v 22). It is generally held that the place they brought Jesus to was a hill. There were many hills around Jerusalem, and a hill would have made crucifixions more widely visible. But beyond a few clues and the title, Golgotha, the Bible does not specify which hill.
The term Golgotha is an Aramaic word. Aramaic was the common language used by the Jews in the first century A.D.
Mark explains this Aramaic term for his Roman and Gentile audience: which is translated, Place of a Skull. This is another example of Mark explaining Jewish terms and customs which his Gentile readers might not have understood. Matthew likewise explains the meaning of Golgotha for his readers (Matthew 27:33). John refers to the place as "the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha" (John 19:17).
The Latin word with this meaning is "calva," from which the English term "Calvary" is derived. Therefore, the Aramaic term Golgotha and the English term "Calvary" have the same meaning: Place of a Skull.
The reason this place was called Golgotha, or Place of a Skull, was either because the landscape appeared to resemble a skull, or because it was a place of death and execution--or both.
Golgotha was likely the place where the Romans regularly crucified criminals outside Jerusalem. And so, it may have earned a reputation of being a place of death--hence its name, Place of a Skull. The naming of Golgotha in this manner would be similar to the naming of other locations after the activity that commonly took place there. For instance, inlets that are named "Pirate's Cove" are given this name not because they are shaped like a pirate ship, but because they were known as havens for pirates.
There are at least two possible locations outside the old city walls of Jerusalem that may have been the place where Jesus was crucified.
One possible location for Golgotha is near what the ancient Jewish historian Josephus referred to as "the Gennath Gate." This traditional location for Golgotha is situated about five hundred meters/yards north of the probable location of the Praetorium where Jesus was condemned by Pilate. The location of this site is near where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher presently stands.
The original construction of this church was built in the fourth century A.D. by Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine. She chose this location because, centuries earlier, the Roman Emperor Hadrian had a pagan temple built over a site that had been venerated by first and second century Christians as the place where Jesus was crucified. Ironically, in his apparent attempt to desecrate a site that was special to Christians, Hadrian may have inadvertently preserved Golgotha's location for posterity.
This location is also in harmony with Hebrews 13:12 and John's eyewitness account that the place of Jesus's crucifixion was near the city (John 19:20).
A second possible location for Golgotha is known as "Gordon's Calvary." This site was first suggested in the nineteenth century by a German archeologist, Otto Thenius, in part because the side of the cliff resembled the eyes and nose of a human skull. It is called "Gordon's Calvary" because the English military officer Charles Gordon popularized it for religious pilgrims.
Gordon's Calvary is located to the north of the old city, outside the gate, about a kilometer or half a mile from Herod's palace/the Praetorium where Pilate condemned Jesus. Gordon's Calvary is about five hundred meters/yards farther north from Golgotha's traditional site and about a quarter mile beyond where the outer walls of Jerusalem stood in Jesus's lifetime.
While either location is possible, The Bible Says favors the traditional site of Golgotha rather than Gordon's Calvary.
None of the four Gospel writers describe in detail what Roman crucifixion entailed. Their primary readers would have been familiar with its brutality, making a detailed description unnecessary.
This would have been especially true for Mark's original Roman audience. The Romans knew exactly what crucifixion was and what it did to its victims. Mark does not slow his narrative to explain its horrors. He simply reports the actions and events surrounding Jesus's crucifixion.
To learn more about Roman crucifixion, see The Bible Says article: "Bearing the Cross: Exploring the Unimaginable Suffering of Crucifixion."
Instead of describing the mechanics and horrors of crucifixion, the Gospels tend to focus on events or aspects of Jesus’s crucifixion that accomplish one of three objectives:
They demonstrate fulfillments of Messianic prophecies.
They reveal insight into Jesus’s heart as He suffered and died.
They highlight something unusual that demonstrates Jesus’s deity.
Matthew's crucifixion account primarily focuses on prophetic fulfillments and the unusual events that demonstrate how Jesus was the Son of God. One of Matthew's original purposes for writing his Gospel was to demonstrate to the Jews that Jesus was their Messiah.
Mark, writing primarily for Romans, narrates the crucifixion with stark brevity. His account emphasizes what happened and moves quickly from one action to the next. The powerful and obedient Servant of God has reached the climactic fulfillment of His mission--to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).
The first thing Mark records after they brought Jesus to the place Golgotha is that they offered Him wine mixed with myrrh (v 23).
They tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh; but He did not take it (v 23).
Throughout Mark 15:22-26, the pronouns--He, Him, and His (v 24)--refer to Jesus.
Before the soldiers crucified Jesus, Mark says they tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh (v 23).
One of the few acts of mercy commonly shown to victims of crucifixion was to offer them a drink intended to dull the terrible pain they were about to endure. Mark describes this drink as wine mixed with myrrh. This concoction served as a crude anesthetic.
Matthew describes the drink as "wine to drink mixed with gall" (Matthew 27:34) while Mark describes it as wine mixed with myrrh.
These descriptions go well together because "gall" (Matthew 27:34) can refer to something bitter, and myrrh is a substance that would have made the wine bitter. Matthew describes the mixture according to its bitter character, while Mark identifies the specific substance (myrrh) mixed into the wine.
The drink offered to Jesus also recalls the Messianic prophecy of Psalm 69:
"They also gave me gall for my food And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." (Psalm 69:21)
The mixture of wine mixed with myrrh seems to have functioned as an anesthetic. It would have partially dulled some of the sharpest and most severe pains of the cross, including the driving of nails through the victim's wrists and feet.
The nails would crush through the median nerve, located between the ulna and radius bones of the forearm. The median nerve travels from the elbow to the hand. The pain that would have convulsed through the victim's arm from these nails would have been excruciating.
But in addition to dulling the pain, this wine mixed with myrrh would also dull the mind.
Mark says of Jesus: but He did not take it (v 23). This means: Jesus refused the anesthetic.
The likely reason He did not take it was because He was about to face the final and most intense trial of His life. Jesus wanted to have all His faculties to trust God and thus overcome the innumerable and intense temptations to abandon His Father's will that He suffer and die for the sins of the world (Mark 14:36; John 12:27; 1 John 4:9-10).
Had Jesus succumbed to this temptation, He would not have fulfilled His mission.
Abandoning His Father’s will could have manifested in multiple ways.
It could have looked like summoning an angelic rescue instead of obeying God (Matthew 26:53).
It could have looked like giving into despair and cursing God for allowing His Son to suffer like this (Mark 14:34; Job 2:9).
It could have looked like using His divine power to save Himself and humiliate His enemies instead of saving them through His death and suffering (Mark 15:29-32; Luke 23:39).
Jesus could have succumbed to temptation and relied upon His own strength to quit or overcome the cross instead of trusting God by faith. But Jesus did not rely upon His own strength while He was on the cross.
He emptied Himself (Philippians 2:7) and did not use His supernatural power to "win" this fight. Rather, He overcame this terrible trial the same way we are to overcome our trials which is through trusting God in faith. This is why the book of Hebrews calls Jesus "the author and perfecter of faith" (Hebrews 12:2).
Jesus tossed "aside every encumbrance" (Hebrews 12:1) in pursuit of His mission--including the pain-relieving but mind-dulling drink of wine mixed with myrrh. He did not want to compromise Himself. He wanted to remain focused so that He could overcome the trial of the cross by faith.
Jesus cared more about obeying His Father and winning the world’s redemption, even though it meant enduring greater suffering (Philippians 2:8,Hebrews 12:2).
Earlier in Mark's Gospel, Jesus explained His mission:
"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)
Even though Jesus, was the Messiah and God in human form, He did not come to be served. This included rejecting even the comfort which the wine mixed with myrrh might have afforded Him. The Messiah came to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. Therefore, He did not take the wine mixed with myrrh.
Luke informs us that around the time of Jesus’s crucifixion, the Roman soldiers were mocking Him:
"If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!" (Luke 23:37)
Luke's Gospel also records that as Jesus was being crucified, He prayed:
"Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34a)
Mark omits Jesus's prayer for His executioners. But Jesus's merciful prayer may have begun to change the perspective of the Roman centurion who would later confess: "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (Mark 15:39).
The next thing Mark includes in his account of Jesus's crucifixion is another action that the Roman soldiers do in fulfillment of another Messianic prophecy,
And they crucified Him, and divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide what each man should take (v 24).
But before, Mark explains the prophetic action, he first states that the Roman soldiers crucified Jesus.
And they crucified Him (v 24).
The fact that Mark says and they crucified Him after mentioning the wine mixed with myrrh suggests that they offered Jesus the wine before they nailed Him to the cross.
When Mark writes they crucified Him, it is the closest he comes to detailing what physically happened to Jesus before He breathed His last (Mark 15:37). Mark uses similar expressions throughout his account, such as Pilate handed Him over to be crucified (Mark 15:15) and they crucified two robbers with Him (Mark 15:27).
All four Gospel writers basically avoid describing the brutality of the cross and/or the excruciating details of Jesus's physical suffering. Aside from John quoting Jesus saying, "I am thirsty" (John 19:28), any details describing Jesus's physical agony on the cross are indirectly stated or silently inferred by the Gospel writers.
The probable reason the bloodiness of the cross is not explicitly described in the Gospels is because their first century audiences would have been familiar with the horrific brutality of crucifixion, making its description unnecessary. Simply stating that Jesus was crucified was enough.
This would have been especially true for Mark's original Roman audience. Crucifixion was Rome's instrument of terror, shame, and imperial domination. Mark's Roman readers knew exactly what the words they crucified Him meant and did not need a description of what Rome's method of execution did to its victims.
There is also a powerful irony in Mark's stark statement. Rome appears to have all the power in this scene. Roman soldiers arrested Jesus, scourged Him, mocked Him, led Him away, and now they crucified Him. But Mark has repeatedly shown that Jesus's suffering and death were not an unexpected defeat. Jesus willingly fulfilled His duty and mission as God's Servant by giving His life as a ransom for many (Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:33-34, 45).
After saying they crucified Him, Mark reports that the Roman soldiers divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide what each man should take (v 24).
This action was in fulfillment of a prophecy from Psalm 22:
"They divide my garmentsamong them, And for my clothing they cast lots." (Psalm 22:18)
The Roman detachment assigned to oversee the execution was entitled to keep any clothing that belonged to the man they were crucifying. The fact that they divided up His garments among themselves fits with Rome's customary practice of crucifying their victims naked. Most artistic depictions of Jesus on the cross are historically misleading in their modesty.
John's Gospel account quotes Psalm 22 and explicitly states that the soldiers' casting of lots to divide Jesus's garmentsamong themselves was a prophetic fulfillment (John 19:23-25b).
The typical first-century Jew wore six articles of clothing:
Head covering
Outer robe
Sleeved tunic
Belt
Sandals
Undergarment
Click here to see an artist's rendition.
John, who was an eyewitness to Jesus's crucifixion, explained how the Roman detachment who executed Jesus fulfilled Psalm 22:18 to the letter:
"Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier." (John 19:23a)
According to John, four soldiers were assigned to crucify Jesus and the two robbers. These four soldiers dividedamong themselves Jesus's outer garments--His head covering, outer robe, belt, and sandals--with each taking one article for himself. The soldiers probably discarded Jesus's undergarment.
The soldiers' dividing of Jesus's clothing among themselves fulfilled the first prophecy in Psalm 22:18:
"They divide my garmentsamong them." (Psalm 22:18a)
Next John describes Jesus's final article of clothing--His tunic:
"now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece" (John 19:23b).
A Jewish man's tunic was his largest article of clothing. Apparently, Roman soldiers would sometimes tear and divide the tunic of the convict they were crucifying into pieces amongthemselves, with each getting a piece of the material. Cloth was a valuable commodity in the ancient world.
However, it seems that Jesus's tunic was particularly fine and valuable. This expensive article of clothing may have been provided to Jesus by the wealthy women who were contributing to His ministry (Luke 8:2-3). When the Romans considered what to do with Jesus's tunic, they decided it would have been a waste to tear and divide it,
"So they said to one another, 'Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be.'" (John 19:24a)
The soldiers cast lots. That is, they played a game of chance, such as rolling dice, to see which of the four of them would get to keep Jesus's tunic. John then recorded: "the soldiers did these things" (John 19:25a).
The casting of lots for Jesus's tunic fulfilled the second prophecy in Psalm 22:18:
"And for my clothing they cast lots." (Psalm 22:18b)
Mark summarizes both actions when he writes that the soldiers divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide what each man should take (v 24).
The Roman soldiers divided Jesus's garmentsamong themselves and were casting lots after they crucified Him. That is, they cast lots and began to divide His garments among themselves once they had already nailed Jesus's hands and feet and raised His cross. The main physical labor of their work done. And once the cross was raised, they primarily had to stand around and wait for their victims to die, which would normally take hours if not days. They were now able to divide the spoils as they began to guard Jesus and the other two prisoners who were crucified with Him (Mark 15:27).
The soldiers probably had no awareness that their mundane game of chance had been prophesied centuries before. But as theydivided Jesus's garments and cast lots for His clothing beneath His cross, they fulfilled both parts of Psalm 22:18 precisely.
Mark then provides a precise time marker for Jesus's crucifixion: the third hour.
It was the third hour when they crucified Him (v 25).
According to Jewish timekeeping, daylight hours were generally counted beginning around sunrise, approximately six o'clock in the morning. Therefore, the third hour corresponds approximately to nine o'clock in the morning according to modern timekeeping.
Mark's statement means that Jesus was crucified around 9:00 a.m.
John's Gospel says that it was "about the sixth hour" when Pilate presented Jesus to the Jews shortly before handing Him over to be crucified (John 19:14).
At first glance, Mark's third hour and John's "sixth hour" may appear to contradict one another.
But this apparent contradiction is resolved if we consider that there were different methods of time keeping that were used in the ancient world. There was a Jewish way of noting time and a Roman way of noting time.
Mark, even though he was writing to the Roman audience, was likely using Matthew’s already existing text as a template to follow. And Matthew uses Jewish timekeeping a few verses later--the sixth hour (Matthew 27:45)--when he comments on the moment the sky became dark while Jesus hung on the cross. Mark adopts Matthew's Jewish usage of time when he writes about the darkness (Mark 15:33) and he also uses it when he notes the moment Jesus was first crucified--the third hour.
John, who was writing to Jews and Gentiles alike, appears to have used Roman civil time when he described the moment that Pilate presented Jesus to the Jews shortly before He was crucified as "about the sixth hour" (John 19:14).
Therefore, Mark, following Matthew (and Luke following both) used Jewish time while John used Roman time in their accounts of Jesus's trial and crucifixion. From John we learn that Jesus was presented to the Jews between 6:00 and 9:00 a.m. And from Matthew, Mark, and Luke we learn that Jesus was crucified at 9:00 a.m.
Mark's time marker establishes that Jesus's crucifixion began in the morning. Later, Mark will say that darkness fell over the whole land from the sixth hour until the ninth hour (Mark 15:33)--approximately noon until 3:00 p.m.
Jesus therefore suffered on the cross for approximately six hours, from the third hour (9:00 a.m.) until His death around the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.) (Mark 15:25, 33-37).
By way of convention, the first three hours that Jesus hung on the cross is sometimes referred to as "The Wrath of Man"because He was mocked by the religious leaders, Roman soldiers, those passing by, and even the two prisoners who were crucified on either side of Him. The second three hours Jesus hung on the cross is referred to as "The Wrath of God" because it is during this time that darkness covered the earth and Jesus cried out "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?" (Mark 15:33-37).
Next, Mark describes the inscription of the charge against Him (v 26).
The inscription of the charge against Him read, "THE KING OF THE JEWS" (v 26).
Roman crucifixions publicly displayed the crime for which the condemned person was being executed. This warned everyone who saw the crucified victim what offense Rome believed he had committed and what would happen to anyone who did the same.
Mark says that the charge against Jesus read, "THE KING OF THE JEWS."
This was the charge for which Jesus was officially executed.
The Jewish leaders had accused Jesus before Pilate of "saying that He Himself is Christ, a King" (Luke 23:2). Pilate repeatedly found Jesus to be innocent of any crime against Rome (Luke 23:4, 14, 22, John 18:38, 19:4, 6). Nevertheless, when Pilate surrendered to the crowd and condemned Jesus to crucifixion, he used the accusation that Jesus was THE KING OF THE JEWS as the official charge againstHim.
The irony is in the charge. Jesus was innocent of insurrection against Rome. But the inscription above His cross declared the truth about His identity. Jesus really was THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each report the inscription with slightly different wording:
Matthew: "THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS" (Matthew 27:37).
Luke: "THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS" (Luke 23:38).
John: "JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS" (John 19:19).
These descriptions are easily harmonized. Each Gospel writer records all or part of the same inscription. Taken together, the complete wording was likely: "THIS IS JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS."
John explains that the inscription was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek (John 19:20). It is possible that some of the variation among the Gospel accounts reflects the wording of the inscription in its three different languages. But in any case, none of the accounts contradict one another. Each faithfully reports the substance of the same charge.
John also records an exchange between Pilate and the chief priests concerning the inscription.
The chief priests objected:
"Do not write, 'The King of the Jews'; but that He said, 'I am King of the Jews.'" (John 19:21)
Pilate answered:
"What I have written I have written." (John 19:22)
Pilate's refusal to alter the inscription was likely his final act of spite against the chief priests who had politically forced him to crucify a man whom he knew was innocent. But Pilate's inscription accomplished more than he intended. The Roman governor publicly proclaimed the truth of who Jesus was. The beaten, bloodied, and crucified Jesus was THE KING OF THE JEWS (v 26).
For Mark's Roman audience, the scene would have been striking. Rome appeared to possess all the power. Roman soldiers arrested Jesus, scourged Him, mocked Him, led Him away, and crucified Him. The Roman governor authorized His execution, and a Roman inscription announced the charge againstHim. And even as Rome crucified Him as a condemned criminal, Rome unwittingly proclaimed His true identity: THE KING OF THE JEWS (v 26).
Throughout Mark's Gospel, Jesus had repeatedly explained that His suffering and death were not the triumph of His enemies over Him. Jesus was not trying to preserve His life. He was devoted to the mission He had willingly come to fulfill (Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:33-34, 45). The powerful Servant of God fulfilled His duty and mission by obediently giving His life as a ransom for many.
Mark 15:22-26
The Crucifixion
22 Then they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull.
23 They tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh; but He did not take it.
24 And they crucified Him, and divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide what each man should take.
25 It was the third hour when they crucified Him.
26 The inscription of the charge against Him read, “THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
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Mark 15:22-26 meaning
The parallel gospel accounts of Mark 15:22-26 are found in Matthew 27:33-37, Luke 23:33-34, and John 19:16-22.
Mark previously described how the Roman soldiers led Jesus out to crucify Him and pressed Simon of Cyrene into service to bear His cross (Mark 15:20-21).
The soldiers led Jesus, along with the other two criminals who were to be crucified with Him (Luke 23:32), and Simon of Cyrene (Mark 15:21), to a location outside the city walls. The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus "suffered outside the gate" (Hebrews 13:12). John writes that "the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city" where "many of the Jews" could witness it (John 19:20). This would have been according to Roman custom.
Roman crucifixions were intended to be as humiliating and shameful as they were brutal and horrifying. This artistically cruel form of execution was a public stigmatization of the criminal and was designed to terrorize and deter would-be criminals into submission.
Jesus's place of crucifixion being outside the city gate and near a public road is further supported by the fact that "those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads" (Mark 15:29).
All of this indicates that Jesus was crucified in front of tens of thousands of Jews who passed by Him on their way into the city to celebrate the first day of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This made Jesus's execution a national spectacle.
Then they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull (v 22).
Throughout Mark 15:22-26, the pronoun--they--refers to the Roman soldiers who were leading Jesus to His execution.
Mark says they brought Him to the place Golgotha (v 22). It is generally held that the place they brought Jesus to was a hill. There were many hills around Jerusalem, and a hill would have made crucifixions more widely visible. But beyond a few clues and the title, Golgotha, the Bible does not specify which hill.
The term Golgotha is an Aramaic word. Aramaic was the common language used by the Jews in the first century A.D.
Mark explains this Aramaic term for his Roman and Gentile audience: which is translated, Place of a Skull. This is another example of Mark explaining Jewish terms and customs which his Gentile readers might not have understood. Matthew likewise explains the meaning of Golgotha for his readers (Matthew 27:33). John refers to the place as "the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha" (John 19:17).
The Latin word with this meaning is "calva," from which the English term "Calvary" is derived. Therefore, the Aramaic term Golgotha and the English term "Calvary" have the same meaning: Place of a Skull.
The reason this place was called Golgotha, or Place of a Skull, was either because the landscape appeared to resemble a skull, or because it was a place of death and execution--or both.
Golgotha was likely the place where the Romans regularly crucified criminals outside Jerusalem. And so, it may have earned a reputation of being a place of death--hence its name, Place of a Skull. The naming of Golgotha in this manner would be similar to the naming of other locations after the activity that commonly took place there. For instance, inlets that are named "Pirate's Cove" are given this name not because they are shaped like a pirate ship, but because they were known as havens for pirates.
There are at least two possible locations outside the old city walls of Jerusalem that may have been the place where Jesus was crucified.
One possible location for Golgotha is near what the ancient Jewish historian Josephus referred to as "the Gennath Gate." This traditional location for Golgotha is situated about five hundred meters/yards north of the probable location of the Praetorium where Jesus was condemned by Pilate. The location of this site is near where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher presently stands.
The original construction of this church was built in the fourth century A.D. by Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine. She chose this location because, centuries earlier, the Roman Emperor Hadrian had a pagan temple built over a site that had been venerated by first and second century Christians as the place where Jesus was crucified. Ironically, in his apparent attempt to desecrate a site that was special to Christians, Hadrian may have inadvertently preserved Golgotha's location for posterity.
This location is also in harmony with Hebrews 13:12 and John's eyewitness account that the place of Jesus's crucifixion was near the city (John 19:20).
A second possible location for Golgotha is known as "Gordon's Calvary." This site was first suggested in the nineteenth century by a German archeologist, Otto Thenius, in part because the side of the cliff resembled the eyes and nose of a human skull. It is called "Gordon's Calvary" because the English military officer Charles Gordon popularized it for religious pilgrims.
Gordon's Calvary is located to the north of the old city, outside the gate, about a kilometer or half a mile from Herod's palace/the Praetorium where Pilate condemned Jesus. Gordon's Calvary is about five hundred meters/yards farther north from Golgotha's traditional site and about a quarter mile beyond where the outer walls of Jerusalem stood in Jesus's lifetime.
While either location is possible, The Bible Says favors the traditional site of Golgotha rather than Gordon's Calvary.
None of the four Gospel writers describe in detail what Roman crucifixion entailed. Their primary readers would have been familiar with its brutality, making a detailed description unnecessary.
This would have been especially true for Mark's original Roman audience. The Romans knew exactly what crucifixion was and what it did to its victims. Mark does not slow his narrative to explain its horrors. He simply reports the actions and events surrounding Jesus's crucifixion.
To learn more about Roman crucifixion, see The Bible Says article: "Bearing the Cross: Exploring the Unimaginable Suffering of Crucifixion."
Instead of describing the mechanics and horrors of crucifixion, the Gospels tend to focus on events or aspects of Jesus’s crucifixion that accomplish one of three objectives:
Matthew's crucifixion account primarily focuses on prophetic fulfillments and the unusual events that demonstrate how Jesus was the Son of God. One of Matthew's original purposes for writing his Gospel was to demonstrate to the Jews that Jesus was their Messiah.
Mark, writing primarily for Romans, narrates the crucifixion with stark brevity. His account emphasizes what happened and moves quickly from one action to the next. The powerful and obedient Servant of God has reached the climactic fulfillment of His mission--to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).
The first thing Mark records after they brought Jesus to the place Golgotha is that they offered Him wine mixed with myrrh (v 23).
They tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh; but He did not take it (v 23).
Throughout Mark 15:22-26, the pronouns--He, Him, and His (v 24)--refer to Jesus.
Before the soldiers crucified Jesus, Mark says they tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh (v 23).
One of the few acts of mercy commonly shown to victims of crucifixion was to offer them a drink intended to dull the terrible pain they were about to endure. Mark describes this drink as wine mixed with myrrh. This concoction served as a crude anesthetic.
Matthew describes the drink as "wine to drink mixed with gall" (Matthew 27:34) while Mark describes it as wine mixed with myrrh.
These descriptions go well together because "gall" (Matthew 27:34) can refer to something bitter, and myrrh is a substance that would have made the wine bitter. Matthew describes the mixture according to its bitter character, while Mark identifies the specific substance (myrrh) mixed into the wine.
The drink offered to Jesus also recalls the Messianic prophecy of Psalm 69:
"They also gave me gall for my food
And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."
(Psalm 69:21)
The mixture of wine mixed with myrrh seems to have functioned as an anesthetic. It would have partially dulled some of the sharpest and most severe pains of the cross, including the driving of nails through the victim's wrists and feet.
The nails would crush through the median nerve, located between the ulna and radius bones of the forearm. The median nerve travels from the elbow to the hand. The pain that would have convulsed through the victim's arm from these nails would have been excruciating.
But in addition to dulling the pain, this wine mixed with myrrh would also dull the mind.
Mark says of Jesus: but He did not take it (v 23). This means: Jesus refused the anesthetic.
The likely reason He did not take it was because He was about to face the final and most intense trial of His life. Jesus wanted to have all His faculties to trust God and thus overcome the innumerable and intense temptations to abandon His Father's will that He suffer and die for the sins of the world (Mark 14:36; John 12:27; 1 John 4:9-10).
Had Jesus succumbed to this temptation, He would not have fulfilled His mission.
Abandoning His Father’s will could have manifested in multiple ways.
Jesus could have succumbed to temptation and relied upon His own strength to quit or overcome the cross instead of trusting God by faith. But Jesus did not rely upon His own strength while He was on the cross.
He emptied Himself (Philippians 2:7) and did not use His supernatural power to "win" this fight. Rather, He overcame this terrible trial the same way we are to overcome our trials which is through trusting God in faith. This is why the book of Hebrews calls Jesus "the author and perfecter of faith" (Hebrews 12:2).
Jesus tossed "aside every encumbrance" (Hebrews 12:1) in pursuit of His mission--including the pain-relieving but mind-dulling drink of wine mixed with myrrh. He did not want to compromise Himself. He wanted to remain focused so that He could overcome the trial of the cross by faith.
Jesus cared more about obeying His Father and winning the world’s redemption, even though it meant enduring greater suffering (Philippians 2:8, Hebrews 12:2).
Earlier in Mark's Gospel, Jesus explained His mission:
"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
(Mark 10:45)
Even though Jesus, was the Messiah and God in human form, He did not come to be served. This included rejecting even the comfort which the wine mixed with myrrh might have afforded Him. The Messiah came to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. Therefore, He did not take the wine mixed with myrrh.
Luke informs us that around the time of Jesus’s crucifixion, the Roman soldiers were mocking Him:
"If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!"
(Luke 23:37)
Luke's Gospel also records that as Jesus was being crucified, He prayed:
"Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."
(Luke 23:34a)
Mark omits Jesus's prayer for His executioners. But Jesus's merciful prayer may have begun to change the perspective of the Roman centurion who would later confess: "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (Mark 15:39).
To learn more about Jesus’s prayer for His executioners, see The Bible Says article: "Why Did Jesus Pray, 'Father Forgive Them?'"
The next thing Mark includes in his account of Jesus's crucifixion is another action that the Roman soldiers do in fulfillment of another Messianic prophecy,
And they crucified Him, and divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide what each man should take (v 24).
But before, Mark explains the prophetic action, he first states that the Roman soldiers crucified Jesus.
And they crucified Him (v 24).
The fact that Mark says and they crucified Him after mentioning the wine mixed with myrrh suggests that they offered Jesus the wine before they nailed Him to the cross.
When Mark writes they crucified Him, it is the closest he comes to detailing what physically happened to Jesus before He breathed His last (Mark 15:37). Mark uses similar expressions throughout his account, such as Pilate handed Him over to be crucified (Mark 15:15) and they crucified two robbers with Him (Mark 15:27).
Similarly, Matthew, Luke, and John simply state in various ways that Jesus was "crucified" (Matthew 27:26, 35, 38; Luke 23:23, 33; John 19:16, 18, 20, 23, 32) or "hanged" (Luke 23:39).
All four Gospel writers basically avoid describing the brutality of the cross and/or the excruciating details of Jesus's physical suffering. Aside from John quoting Jesus saying, "I am thirsty" (John 19:28), any details describing Jesus's physical agony on the cross are indirectly stated or silently inferred by the Gospel writers.
The probable reason the bloodiness of the cross is not explicitly described in the Gospels is because their first century audiences would have been familiar with the horrific brutality of crucifixion, making its description unnecessary. Simply stating that Jesus was crucified was enough.
This would have been especially true for Mark's original Roman audience. Crucifixion was Rome's instrument of terror, shame, and imperial domination. Mark's Roman readers knew exactly what the words they crucified Him meant and did not need a description of what Rome's method of execution did to its victims.
There is also a powerful irony in Mark's stark statement. Rome appears to have all the power in this scene. Roman soldiers arrested Jesus, scourged Him, mocked Him, led Him away, and now they crucified Him. But Mark has repeatedly shown that Jesus's suffering and death were not an unexpected defeat. Jesus willingly fulfilled His duty and mission as God's Servant by giving His life as a ransom for many (Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:33-34, 45).
After saying they crucified Him, Mark reports that the Roman soldiers divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide what each man should take (v 24).
This action was in fulfillment of a prophecy from Psalm 22:
"They divide my garments among them,
And for my clothing they cast lots."
(Psalm 22:18)
The Roman detachment assigned to oversee the execution was entitled to keep any clothing that belonged to the man they were crucifying. The fact that they divided up His garments among themselves fits with Rome's customary practice of crucifying their victims naked. Most artistic depictions of Jesus on the cross are historically misleading in their modesty.
John's Gospel account quotes Psalm 22 and explicitly states that the soldiers' casting of lots to divide Jesus's garments among themselves was a prophetic fulfillment (John 19:23-25b).
The typical first-century Jew wore six articles of clothing:
Click here to see an artist's rendition.
John, who was an eyewitness to Jesus's crucifixion, explained how the Roman detachment who executed Jesus fulfilled Psalm 22:18 to the letter:
"Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier."
(John 19:23a)
According to John, four soldiers were assigned to crucify Jesus and the two robbers. These four soldiers divided among themselves Jesus's outer garments--His head covering, outer robe, belt, and sandals--with each taking one article for himself. The soldiers probably discarded Jesus's undergarment.
The soldiers' dividing of Jesus's clothing among themselves fulfilled the first prophecy in Psalm 22:18:
"They divide my garments among them."
(Psalm 22:18a)
Next John describes Jesus's final article of clothing--His tunic:
"now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece"
(John 19:23b).
A Jewish man's tunic was his largest article of clothing. Apparently, Roman soldiers would sometimes tear and divide the tunic of the convict they were crucifying into pieces among themselves, with each getting a piece of the material. Cloth was a valuable commodity in the ancient world.
However, it seems that Jesus's tunic was particularly fine and valuable. This expensive article of clothing may have been provided to Jesus by the wealthy women who were contributing to His ministry (Luke 8:2-3). When the Romans considered what to do with Jesus's tunic, they decided it would have been a waste to tear and divide it,
"So they said to one another, 'Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be.'"
(John 19:24a)
The soldiers cast lots. That is, they played a game of chance, such as rolling dice, to see which of the four of them would get to keep Jesus's tunic. John then recorded: "the soldiers did these things" (John 19:25a).
The casting of lots for Jesus's tunic fulfilled the second prophecy in Psalm 22:18:
"And for my clothing they cast lots."
(Psalm 22:18b)
Mark summarizes both actions when he writes that the soldiers divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide what each man should take (v 24).
The Roman soldiers divided Jesus's garments among themselves and were casting lots after they crucified Him. That is, they cast lots and began to divide His garments among themselves once they had already nailed Jesus's hands and feet and raised His cross. The main physical labor of their work done. And once the cross was raised, they primarily had to stand around and wait for their victims to die, which would normally take hours if not days. They were now able to divide the spoils as they began to guard Jesus and the other two prisoners who were crucified with Him (Mark 15:27).
The soldiers probably had no awareness that their mundane game of chance had been prophesied centuries before. But as they divided Jesus's garments and cast lots for His clothing beneath His cross, they fulfilled both parts of Psalm 22:18 precisely.
Mark then provides a precise time marker for Jesus's crucifixion: the third hour.
It was the third hour when they crucified Him (v 25).
According to Jewish timekeeping, daylight hours were generally counted beginning around sunrise, approximately six o'clock in the morning. Therefore, the third hour corresponds approximately to nine o'clock in the morning according to modern timekeeping.
Mark's statement means that Jesus was crucified around 9:00 a.m.
John's Gospel says that it was "about the sixth hour" when Pilate presented Jesus to the Jews shortly before handing Him over to be crucified (John 19:14).
At first glance, Mark's third hour and John's "sixth hour" may appear to contradict one another.
But this apparent contradiction is resolved if we consider that there were different methods of time keeping that were used in the ancient world. There was a Jewish way of noting time and a Roman way of noting time.
Mark, even though he was writing to the Roman audience, was likely using Matthew’s already existing text as a template to follow. And Matthew uses Jewish timekeeping a few verses later--the sixth hour (Matthew 27:45)--when he comments on the moment the sky became dark while Jesus hung on the cross. Mark adopts Matthew's Jewish usage of time when he writes about the darkness (Mark 15:33) and he also uses it when he notes the moment Jesus was first crucified--the third hour.
John, who was writing to Jews and Gentiles alike, appears to have used Roman civil time when he described the moment that Pilate presented Jesus to the Jews shortly before He was crucified as "about the sixth hour" (John 19:14).
Therefore, Mark, following Matthew (and Luke following both) used Jewish time while John used Roman time in their accounts of Jesus's trial and crucifixion. From John we learn that Jesus was presented to the Jews between 6:00 and 9:00 a.m. And from Matthew, Mark, and Luke we learn that Jesus was crucified at 9:00 a.m.
Mark's time marker establishes that Jesus's crucifixion began in the morning. Later, Mark will say that darkness fell over the whole land from the sixth hour until the ninth hour (Mark 15:33)--approximately noon until 3:00 p.m.
Jesus therefore suffered on the cross for approximately six hours, from the third hour (9:00 a.m.) until His death around the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.) (Mark 15:25, 33-37).
By way of convention, the first three hours that Jesus hung on the cross is sometimes referred to as "The Wrath of Man" because He was mocked by the religious leaders, Roman soldiers, those passing by, and even the two prisoners who were crucified on either side of Him. The second three hours Jesus hung on the cross is referred to as "The Wrath of God" because it is during this time that darkness covered the earth and Jesus cried out "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?" (Mark 15:33-37).
Next, Mark describes the inscription of the charge against Him (v 26).
The inscription of the charge against Him read, "THE KING OF THE JEWS" (v 26).
Roman crucifixions publicly displayed the crime for which the condemned person was being executed. This warned everyone who saw the crucified victim what offense Rome believed he had committed and what would happen to anyone who did the same.
Mark says that the charge against Jesus read, "THE KING OF THE JEWS."
This was the charge for which Jesus was officially executed.
The Jewish leaders had accused Jesus before Pilate of "saying that He Himself is Christ, a King" (Luke 23:2). Pilate repeatedly found Jesus to be innocent of any crime against Rome (Luke 23:4, 14, 22, John 18:38, 19:4, 6). Nevertheless, when Pilate surrendered to the crowd and condemned Jesus to crucifixion, he used the accusation that Jesus was THE KING OF THE JEWS as the official charge against Him.
The irony is in the charge. Jesus was innocent of insurrection against Rome. But the inscription above His cross declared the truth about His identity. Jesus really was THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each report the inscription with slightly different wording:
These descriptions are easily harmonized. Each Gospel writer records all or part of the same inscription. Taken together, the complete wording was likely: "THIS IS JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS."
John explains that the inscription was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek (John 19:20). It is possible that some of the variation among the Gospel accounts reflects the wording of the inscription in its three different languages. But in any case, none of the accounts contradict one another. Each faithfully reports the substance of the same charge.
John also records an exchange between Pilate and the chief priests concerning the inscription.
The chief priests objected:
"Do not write, 'The King of the Jews'; but that He said, 'I am King of the Jews.'"
(John 19:21)
Pilate answered:
"What I have written I have written."
(John 19:22)
Pilate's refusal to alter the inscription was likely his final act of spite against the chief priests who had politically forced him to crucify a man whom he knew was innocent. But Pilate's inscription accomplished more than he intended. The Roman governor publicly proclaimed the truth of who Jesus was. The beaten, bloodied, and crucified Jesus was THE KING OF THE JEWS (v 26).
For Mark's Roman audience, the scene would have been striking. Rome appeared to possess all the power. Roman soldiers arrested Jesus, scourged Him, mocked Him, led Him away, and crucified Him. The Roman governor authorized His execution, and a Roman inscription announced the charge against Him. And even as Rome crucified Him as a condemned criminal, Rome unwittingly proclaimed His true identity: THE KING OF THE JEWS (v 26).
Throughout Mark's Gospel, Jesus had repeatedly explained that His suffering and death were not the triumph of His enemies over Him. Jesus was not trying to preserve His life. He was devoted to the mission He had willingly come to fulfill (Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:33-34, 45). The powerful Servant of God fulfilled His duty and mission by obediently giving His life as a ransom for many.