The Passion (from Latin patior, "to suffer, bear, endure") is the short final period before the death of Jesus, described in the four canonical gospels.
Passion can mean the suffering, but it can also mean the love….
- Triumphal entry into Jerusalem: some people welcome Jesus when he enters Jerusalem.
- The Cleansing of the Temple: Jesus expels livestock merchants and money-changers from the Temple of Jerusalem.
- The Anointing of Jesus by a woman during a meal a few days before Passover. Jesus says that for this she will always be remembered.
- The Last Supper shared by Jesus and his disciples in Jerusalem. Jesus gives final instructions, predicts his betrayal, and tells them all to remember him.
- Jesus predicts the Denial of Peter: on the path to Gethsemane after the meal, Jesus tells the disciples they will all fall away that night. After Peter protests he will not, Jesus says Peter will deny him thrice before the cock crows.
- The Agony in the Garden: later that night at Gethsemane, Jesus prays while the disciples rest. Luke 22:43–44 adds that Jesus was terrified, and sweating blood; however, the oldest manuscripts of the Gospel of Luke do not contain these two verses, the other three canonical gospels do not mention this event either, and various manuscripts contain these verses elsewhere, even in the Gospel of Matthew (suggesting repeated attempts at insertion); thus, most modern scholars consider this tradition a later Christian interpolation, probably to counter docetism.
- The Arrest of Jesus: then Judas Iscariot leads in either "a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees" (accompanied according to Luke's Gospel by the chief priests and elders), or a "large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and elders of the people," which arrests Jesus; all his disciples run away. During the arrest in Gethsemane, someone (Peter according to John) takes a sword and cuts off the ear of the high priest's servant, Malchus.
- The Sanhedrin trial of Jesus at the high priest's palace, later that night. The arresting party brings Jesus to the Sanhedrin (Jewish supreme court); according to Luke's Gospel, Jesus is beaten by his Jewish guards prior to his examination; the court examines him, in the course of which, according to John's Gospel, Jesus is struck in the face by one of the Jewish officials; the court determine he deserves to die. According to Matthew's Gospel, the court then "spat in his face and struck him with their fists." They then send him to Pontius Pilate. According to the synoptic gospels, the high priest who examines Jesus is Caiaphas; in John, Jesus is also interrogated by Annas, Caiaphas' father-in-law.
- The Denial of Peter in the courtyard outside the high priest's palace, the same time. Peter has followed Jesus and joined the mob awaiting Jesus' fate; they suspect he is a sympathizer, so Peter repeatedly denies he knows Jesus. Suddenly, the cock crows and Peter remembers what Jesus had said.
- Pilate's trial of Jesus, early morning. Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, questions Jesus, but cannot find any fault with him (according to some gospels, Pilate explicitly declares Jesus's innocence); however, the Jewish leaders and the crowd demand Jesus' death; Pilate gives them the choice of saving Barabbas, a criminal, or saving Jesus. In response to the screaming mob Pilate sends Jesus out to be crucified.
- The Way of the Cross: Jesus and two other convicts are forced to walk to their place of execution. According to the Synoptics, Simon of Cyrene is forced to carry Jesus's cross, while John writes that Jesus carried his cross himself.
- The Crucifixion of Jesus: Jesus and the two other convicts are nailed to crosses at Golgotha, a hill outside Jerusalem, later morning through mid afternoon. Various sayings of Jesus on the cross are recorded in the gospels before he dies.
- The Burial of Jesus: the body of Jesus is taken down from the cross and put in a tomb by Joseph of Arimathea (and Nicodemus according to John).
- The Resurrection of Jesus: Jesus rises from the dead, leaving behind an empty tomb and reportedly appearing to several of his followers.
Isaiah 52:13–53:12 (either 8th or 6th century BC).[30] This prophetic oracle describes a sinless man who will atone for the sins of his people. By his voluntary suffering, he will save sinners from the just punishment of God. The death of Jesus is said to fulfill this prophecy. For example, "He had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed" (53:2–5).[31]
The second prophecy of Christ's Passion is the ancient text which Jesus himself quoted, while he was dying on the cross. From the cross, Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" These words of Jesus were a quotation of the ancient HE. King David, in Psalm 22, foretold the sufferings of the messiah. For example, "I am a worm and no man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people. All who see me, laugh me to scorn, they draw apart their lips, and wag their heads: 'He trusts in the Lord: let him free him, let him deliver him if he loves him.' Stand not far from me, for I am troubled; be thou near at hand: for I have no helper. ...Yea, dogs are round about me; a company of evildoers encircle me; they have pierced my hands and feet – I can count all my bones – they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my raiment they cast lots" (Psalm 22:7–19).
The third main prophecy of the Passion is from the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon. Protestant Christians place it in the Apocrypha, Catholics and Eastern Orthodox among the deuterocanonical books. But it was written about 150 BC, and many have understood these verses (12–20 of chapter 2) as a direct prophecy of Jesus' Passion. For example, "Let us lie in wait for the just, because he is not for our turn. ...He boasteth that he hath the knowledge of God, and calleth himself the son of God ... and glorieth that he hath God for his father. Let us see then if his words be true. ...For if he be the true son of God, he will defend him, and will deliver him from the hands of his enemies. Let us examine him by outrages and tortures. ...Let us condemn him to a most shameful death. ...These things they thought, and were deceived, for their own malice blinded them" (Wisdom 2:12–20).
In addition to the above, it deserves to be mentioned that at least three other, less elaborate messianic prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus' crucifixion, namely, the following Old Testament passages:
"Many are the afflictions of the just man; but the Lord delivers him from all of them. He guards all his bones: not even one of them shall be broken" (Psalm 34:20).
"And they gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink" (Psalm 69:21).
"And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for an only son; and they shall grieve over him, as the manner is to grieve for the death of the firstborn" (Zechariah 12:10).
Arma Christi
Arma Christi ("weapons of Christ"), or the Instruments of the Passion, are the objects associated with the Passion of Jesus Christ in Christian symbolism and art. They are seen as arms in the sense of heraldry, and also as the weapons Christ used to achieve his conquest over Satan.
- The Cross on which Jesus was crucified (True Cross), either depicted alone or with the crosses of the two thieves
- The Crown of Thorns
- The pillar or column where Jesus was whipped in the Flagellation of Christ
- The whip(s), in Germany often birches, used for the 39 lashes
- The Holy Sponge set on a reed, with which gall and vinegar were offered to Jesus
- The Holy Lance with which a Roman soldier inflicted the final of the Five Wounds in his side
- The Nails, inflicting four wounds on the hands and feet
- The Veil of Veronica
Other common ones are:
- The reed which was placed in Jesus' hand as a sceptre in mockery
- The purple robe of mockery
- The Titulus Crucis, attached to the Cross. It may be inscribed in Latin (INRI, Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum), Greek, Hebrew, or some other language.
- The Holy Grail, the chalice used by Jesus at The Last Supper, and which some traditions say Joseph of Arimathea used to catch his blood at the crucifixion
- The Seamless robe of Jesus
- The dice with which the soldiers cast lots for Christ's seamless robe
- The rooster (cock) that crowed after Peter's third denial of Jesus
- The vessel used to hold the gall and vinegar
- The ladder used for the Deposition, i.e. the removal of Christ's body from the cross for burial
- The ropes used for the Raising of the Cross
- The hammer used to drive the nails into Jesus' hands and feet
- The pincers used to remove the nails
- The vessel of myrrh, used to anoint the body of Jesus, either by Joseph of Arimathea or by the Myrrhbearers
- The shroud used to wrap the body of Jesus before burial
- The sun and moon, representing the eclipse which occurred during the Passion
- Thirty pieces of silver (or a money bag), the price of Judas' betrayal
- A spitting face, indicating the mockery of Jesus
- The hand which slapped Jesus' face
- The chains or cords which bound Jesus overnight in prison
- The lantern or torches used by the arresting soldiers at the time of the betrayal, as well as their swords and staves
- The sword used by Peter to cut off the ear of the High Priest's servant. Sometimes a human ear is also represented.
- Sometimes the heads or hands of figures from the Passion are shown, including Judas, Caiaphas, or the man who mocked Christ spitting in Christ's face. The washing hands of Pontius Pilate may be shown. The Lorenzo Monaco painting below has several such images.
- The trumpet played for mocking Christ on the Way to Calvary.
Stigmata
From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. - Galatians 6:17
Stigmata (Ancient Greek: στίγματα, plural of στίγμα stigma, 'mark, spot, brand'), in Catholicism, are bodily wounds, scars and pain which appear in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ: the hands, wrists, feet, near the heart, the head (from the crown of thorns), and back (from carrying the cross and scourging).[1]
St. Francis of Assisi is widely considered the first recorded stigmatic. For over fifty years, St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin reported stigmata which were studied by several 20th-century physicians
A high percentage (probably over 80%) of all stigmatics are women.
crucifixion darkness
The crucifixion darkness is an event described in the synoptic gospels in which the sky becomes dark in daytime during the crucifixion of Jesus for roughly three hours.
In his apologetic work Contra Celsum, the third-century Christian scholar Origen offered two natural explanations for the darkness: that it might have been the eclipse described by Phlegon of Tralles in his Chronicle or that it might have been clouds. In his Chronicle of Theophanes the fifth-century chronicler George Syncellus quotes the History of the World of Sextus Julius Africanus as stating that a world eclipse and an earthquake in Judea had been reported by the Greek 1st century historian Thallus in his Histories.
The text of the Gospel of Matthew reads: "From noon on, darkness came over the whole land [or, earth] until three in the afternoon."[12] The author includes dramatic details following the death of Jesus, including an earthquake and the raising of the dead, which were also common motifs in Jewish apocalyptic literature:[13][14] "At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised."[15]
The Gospel of Mark concurs with the timing of events, stating that, on preparation day (the eve of the Sabbath), Jesus was crucified at "the sixth hour", or around noon, and darkness fell over all the land, or all the world (Ancient Greek: γῆν, romanized: gēn can mean either) from around noon ("the sixth hour") until 3 o'clock ("the ninth hour").[16] It adds, immediately after the death of Jesus, "The curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom",[17] but does not mention an earthquake or the opening of tombs.
The Gospel of Luke concurs with the length and timing of the darkness but also does not mention an earthquake or the opening of tombs. Contrary to Matthew and Mark, however, the text mentions the tearing of the Temple veil prior to the death of Jesus,[18] and provides the obscuring of the Sun as the cause of the darkness:[19][20]
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land [or, earth] until three in the afternoon, while the sun's light failed [or, the sun was eclipsed]; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two.[21]
It appears that Luke may have originally explained the event as a miraculous solar eclipse. The majority of manuscripts of the Gospel of Luke have the Greek phrase eskotisthe ho helios ("the sun was darkened"), but the earliest manuscripts say tou heliou eklipontos ("the sun's light failed" or "the sun was in eclipse").[22] This earlier version may have been amended by later scribes to correct what they assumed was an error, since Passover occurs during a full moon but a solar eclipse occurs during a new moon.[23][24] Furthermore, a total eclipse could mean darkness at one location of up to a maximum of seven and a half minutes,[25] whereas the gospel texts state that the darkness covered the land for roughly three hours.
The Gospel of Peter, - In this version, the darkness which covers the whole of Judaea leads people to go about with lamps believing it to be night.[30]
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, a 5th or 6th century anonymous author writing under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, claims to have observed a solar eclipse from Heliopolis at the time of the crucifixion.[33]