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Author: Stephen Weller
590 words, 3 minutes read time

Judgment to Death Period

Scripture: Matthew 27:33-34; Mark 15:25; Luke 23:33-34; John 19:18

With the previous lesson we witnessed Jesus and the two criminals arriving at The Skull to be nailed to their respective cross. With this lesson we will begin a new section which covers some details associated with the crucifixion.

^{Mt 27:33} And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), ³⁴ they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it.

Golgotha is the transliteration of the Aramaic word for “skull.” The location is referred to as The Skull maybe because the site in some way resembles a skull, or maybe because it was a place of many executions, or maybe because there are so many graves there, or some combination of these or other reasons. When Jesus arrived there, he was offered a drink, but it was offered as a form of mockery as the wine was mixed with gall, a bitter herb that was possibly even poisonous.

^{Mk 15:25} And it was the third hour [nine o’clock in the morning], ^{Lk 23:33} there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left, ^{Jn 19:18} and Jesus between them. ^{Lk 23:34} And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

This harmonized statement is very confusing as it says it was the third hour or nine in the morning when they crucified him along with two criminals and then Jesus speaks. Clearly Jesus was not dead at the third hour. I made a note of this in lesson H723 as follows: “According to Mark 15:25, it was the third hour, or 9 AM, when they crucified Jesus. This leads some to say that Jesus was on the cross from 9 AM to 3 PM. The ESV footnote states that the judgment time may have been around 9:30-10:00 AM. It is not clear whether the times mentioned in the gospels are exact times or approximate times and as a result there is much confusion about when things actually happened.”

It is my opinion that Jesus was sentenced to die around 9:00 AM and sent to be scourged and then led to Golgotha, arriving before noon to be nailed to the cross. The time between the third hour and the sixth hour was the time of judgment, scourging, travel time, and nailing to the cross, and the time alive on the cross was from the sixth hour to the ninth hour. Matthew 27:45 and Luke 23:44 indicates darkness between the sixth and ninth hour, the assumed time Jesus was alive on the cross. The third hour given by Mark would be the time of judgment starting the crucifixion time period going from the third hour to the ninth hour.

In the next lesson, Pilate will again appear on the scene with an inscription to be placed on the cross.

Conclusion

There is confusion among commentators over the time Jesus was alive on the cross. A popular view places him there from the third hour to the ninth hour, but this lesson points out a difficulty in this and based on information from Matthew and Luke and a ESV footnote, it is suggested that judgment was passed at the third hour followed by scourging and the trip to Golgotha. By the sixth hour, Jesus was on the cross and alive until the ninth hour.