Crucifixion Removal

The following comments by Bryan Orford were posted in Bible Digs Archaeology and Biblical History group on Facebook. His comments are based on Anne Catherine Emmerich visions.

And now began the transport to Calvary of all that was necessary for the embalming. Besides the instruments to be used in taking the Sacred Body down from the Cross, the servants took with them two ladders from a shed near Nicodemus’s home. Each of these ladders consisted of a single pole in which pieces of thick plank were so fitted as to form steps. They were provided with hooks, which could be hung higher or lower at pleasure, either to steady the ladder itself in some particular position or to hang on it the tools and other articles necessary for the work that was being done. The good women from whom they had received the spices for the embalming packed everything nicely for them. Nicodemus had brought about 34 kilograms of spices. They carried these spices around the neck in little kegs made of bark. One of the kegs contained some kind of powder. In bags made of parchment, or leather, were bunches of aromatic herbs. Joseph also had with him a box of ointment. The box was red with a blue rim. The servants, as already mentioned, carried in a wheelbarrow various kinds of vessels, leathern bottles, sponges, and tools. They took with them some fire in a closed lantern.

As soon as the Centurion Abenadar arrived, they began to sadly and reverently do a labour of love, the taking down from the Cross and preparing for burial the Sacred Body of their Master, their Lord, and their Redeemer. Mary and Magdalene were seated upon the right side of the little mound between the cross of Dismas and that of Jesus. The other women were busied arranging the spices and linens, the water, the sponges, and the vessels. Cassius also drew near when he saw Abenadar approaching, and showed to him the miracle created on his eyes. All were extremely touched. An air of solemn sadness and significance marked their movements. They worked with hearts full of love, but without many words. Sometimes the silence in which the sacred duties were quickly and carefully being done, was broken by a deep sigh or a fervent exclamation of woe. Magdalene gave way unrestrainedly to her grief and her emotion was violent. No consideration, not even the presence of so many around her, could make her suppress it.

Nicodemus and Joseph placed the ladders behind the Cross and mounted, carrying with them a very long strip of linen, to which three broad straps were fastened. They bound the body of Jesus under the arms and knees to the trunk of the Cross and the arms they fastened in the same way at the wrists. Then by striking upon strong pegs fixed against the points of the nails at the back of the Cross, they forced out the nails from Jesus’ hands, which were not shaken much by the blows. The nails fell easily out of the wounds, for they had been enlarged by the weight of the body, which was supported now by means of the linen band, and no longer rested upon them. The lower part of the body, which in death had sunk down on the knees, rested now in a sitting posture upon a linen band that was bound up around the hands on the arms of the Cross. While Joseph was striking out the left nail and allowing the left arm to sink down gently on the body, Nicodemus was binding the right arm in the same way to the Cross, also the thorn-crowned head, which had fallen upon the right shoulder. The right nail was then forced out and the arm allowed to sink into the band that supported the body. Abenadar the Centurion had meanwhile, though with great effort, been driving out the enormous nail from the feet. Cassius reverently picked up the nails as they fell out, and laid them down together by Mary. Next, removing the ladders to the front of the Cross and close to the Sacred Body, they loosened the upper band from the trunk of the Cross, and hung it on one of the hooks of the ladder. They did the same to the two other bands, which they hung on two of the lower hooks. So with the gently lowered bands, the Sacred Body sank by degrees to where the Centurion Abenadar, mounted on portable steps, was waiting to receive it. He clasped the limbs below the knees in his arms and descended slowly, while Nicodemus and Joseph, holding the upper part in their arms, gently and cautiously, as if carrying a beloved and very severely wounded friend, came down the ladders step by step. In this way the sacred and terribly maltreated body of the Redeemer reached the ground.

This taking down of Jesus from the Cross was inexpressibly touching. Everything was done with so much care, so much tenderness, as if fearing to cause the Lord pain. Those engaged in it were, penetrated with all the love and reverence for the Sacred Body that they had felt for the Holy of Holies during His life. All were looking up with riveted eyes, and accompanying every movement with the raising of hands, tears, and gestures of pain and grief. But no word was uttered. When the men engaged in the sacred task gave expression to their reverent emotion it was as if involuntary, as if they were performing some solemn function; and when necessary to communicate directions to one another, they did it in few words and a low tone. When the blows of the hammer by which the nails were driven out resounded, Mary and Magdalene, as well as all that had been present at the Crucifixion, were pierced with fresh grief, for the sound reminded them of that cruel nailing of Jesus to the Cross. They shuddered, as if expecting to hear again His piercing cries, and grieved anew over His death, proclaimed by the silence of those blessed lips. As soon as the Sacred Body was taken down, the men wrapped it in linen from the knees to the waist, and laid it on a sheet in His Mother’s arms, which, in anguish of heart and ardent longing, were stretched out to receive it.

Mary was seated upon a large cover spread upon the ground, her right knee raised a little, and her back supported by a kind of cushion, made perhaps of mantles rolled together. There she sat, exhausted by grief and fatigue, in the position best suited for rendering love’s last sad duties to the remains of her murdered Son. The men laid the Sacred Body on a sheet spread upon her lap. The adorable head of Jesus rested upon her slightly raised knee and His body lay outstretched upon the sheet. Love and grief in equal degrees struggled in her breast. She held in her arms the body of her beloved Son, whose long martyrdom she had not been able to ease by any love. At the same time she saw the frightful mistreatment exercised upon it and she gazed upon its wounds now close under her eyes. She pressed her lips to His bloodstained cheeks, while Magdalene knelt with her face bowed upon His feet. The men meanwhile had retired to a little cave that lay deep on the south-western side of the mount. There they completed their preparations for the burial and set all things in order. Cassius and a number of soldiers that had been converted to the Lord remained standing at a respectful distance. All the ill-disposed had returned to the city and those now present served as a guard to prevent the approach of anyone likely to interrupt the last honours being shown to Jesus. Some of them, when called upon, gave assistance here and there by handing different articles. The holy women helped in various ways, presenting when necessary vessels of water, sponges, towels, ointments, and spices. When not so engaged, they remained at a little distance attentively watching what was going on. Among them were Mary Cleophas, Salome, and Veronica, but Magdalene was always busied around the Sacred Body. Mary Heli, Mary’s elder sister, who was already an aged matron, was sitting apart on the earth wall of the circle, looking silently on.

John lent constant assistance to Mary. He went to and fro between the women and the men, now helping the former in their task of love, and afterwards assisting the latter in every way to prepare all things for the burial. Everything was thought of. The women had leathern water bottles, which they opened, and pressed the sides together to pour out their contents, also a vessel nearby on burning coals. They gave Mary and Magdalene clear water and fresh sponges as was required and squeezing into leathern bottles those that had been used. The round lumps that they squeezed out may have been sponges. Mary’s courage and fortitude, in the midst of her inexpressible anguish, were unshaken. Mary suffered pain for a long time and it brought on an illness that was to lead to her eventual death. Her sorrow didn’t stop her trying to remove the marks of outrage and torture from Jesus’ body. She immediately, earnestly and carefully began to wash and purify every trace of ill usage. With great care she opened the crown of thorns in the back and with the assistance of others, removed it from Jesus’ head. Some of the thorns had penetrated deeply and so that the removal of the crown might not disturb them and enlarge the wounds, they had to be first cut off. The crown was deposited near the nails. Then with a pair of round, yellow pincers, Mary drew from the wounds the long splinters and sharp thorns still sunken in the Lord’s head and showed them sadly to the compassionate friends standing around. The thorns were laid by the crown, though some of them may have been kept as tokens of remembrance.

The face of the Lord was hardly recognizable, so greatly was it disfigured by blood and wounds. The torn hair of the head and beard was clotted with blood. Mary washed the head and face and soaked the dried blood from the hair with sponges. As the washing proceeded, the awful cruelties to which Jesus had been subjected became more apparent and roused emotions of compassion, sorrow and tenderness, as she went from wound to wound. With a sponge and a little linen over the fingers of her right hand, she washed the blood from the wounds of the head, from the broken eyes, the nostrils and the ears. With the little piece of linen on the forefinger, she purified the half-opened mouth, the tongue, the teeth, and the lips. She divided into three parts the little that remained of His hair. One part fell on either side of the head, and the third over the back. The front hair, after disengaging and cleansing it, she smoothed behind His ears. When the sacred head had been thoroughly cleansed, Mary kissed the cheeks and covered it. Her care was next directed to the neck, the shoulders, the breast and the back of the Sacred Body, the arms and the torn hands filled with blood. And there was the terrible condition to which it had been reduced displayed in all its horror! The bones of the breast, as well as all the nerves, were dislocated and strained and thereby had become stiff and inflexible. The shoulder upon which Jesus had borne the heavy cross, was so lacerated that it had become one great wound, and the whole of the upper part of the body was full of welts and cuts from the whipping.

There was a small wound in the left breast where the point of Cassius's lance had come out and in the right side, was opened that great, wide wound made by the lance, which had pierced His heart through and through. Mary washed and purified all these wounds, while Magdalene, kneeling before her, frequently lent assistance, though for the most part she remained at Jesus’ feet, bathing them for the last time, more with her tears than with water and wiping them with her hair. The head, the upper part of the body and the feet of the Lord had now been cleansed from blood. The Sacred Body still lay in Mary’s lap, bluish white, glistening like flesh drained of blood, with here and there brown stains of coagulated blood that looked like red moles and red places where the skin had been torn off. Mary covered the parts as they were washed and began to embalm the wounds, commencing with those of the head. The holy women knelt by her in turn, presenting to her a box from which, with the forefinger and thumb of the right hand, she took out something like salve, or precious ointment, with which she filled and anointed all the wounds. She put some upon the hair also, and she took the hands of Jesus in her own left hand, reverently kissing them, and then filling the wide wounds made by the nails with the ointment, or sweet spices. The ears, nostrils and the wound of Jesus’ side, she likewise filled with the same. Magdalene was busied principally with the feet of Jesus. She repeatedly wiped and anointed them, but only to bedew them again with her tears, and she often knelt long with her face pressed upon them. The water used was not thrown away, but poured into the leathern bottles into which the sponges had been squeezed. The women had brought with them leathern bottles and jugs. Some of the men, Cassius or some other soldier occasionally brought fresh water in these containers. They procured it at the well of Gihon, which was so near that it could be seen from the garden of the tomb.

When Mary had anointed all the wounds, she bound up the sacred head in linen, but the covering for the face, attached to that of the head; she did not as yet draw down. With a gentle pressure, she closed the half-broken eyes of Jesus and kept her hand upon them for a little while. Then she closed the mouth, embraced the Sacred Body of her Son, and weeping bitter tears, allowed her face to rest upon His. Magdalene’s reverence for Jesus did not permit her to bring her face to His. She pressed it to His feet only. Joseph and Nicodemus had already been standing awhile at some distance waiting, when John drew near to Mary. He requested that she permit them to take the body of Jesus that they might proceed in their preparations for the burial, as the Sabbath was near. Once more Mary closely embraced Jesus and in touching words took leave of Him. The men raised the Sacred Body in the sheet upon which it was resting in the lap of His Mother and carried it down to the place where the burial preparations were to be made. Mary’s grief, which had been somewhat assuaged by her loving ministrations to Jesus, now burst out once again. Quite overcome, she rested with covered head in the arms of the women. Magdalene, as if fearing that they wanted to rob her of her Beloved, with outstretched hands ran some steps after the Sacred Body, but soon she turned back again to Mary. They carried the body of Jesus a little distance down from Calvary’s summit to a cave on the side of the mount in which there was a beautiful flat rock. It was here that the men had prepared the place for embalming.

Here was a linen cloth that was open worked and looked like a net. It looked as if it had been pierced with a sharp instrument and looked like a large white linen cloth. Perhaps it was pierced like a net in order to allow the water used in washing to flow through it. There was also another large cloth opened out. They laid the body of the Lord on the open worked one and some of them held the other over it. Nicodemus and Joseph knelt down and under cover of this upper cloth, loosened from the lower part of Jesus’ body the bandage that they had bound around it from the knees to the hips, when taken down from the Cross. They also removed that other covering which Jonadab, the nephew of His foster father Joseph, had given Him before the Crucifixion. So with great regard to modesty, they sponged, under cover of the sheet held over it, the lower part of the Lord’s body. Then, linen bands being stretched under the upper part of the Sacred Body and the knees, it was raised, still under cover of the sheet and the back treated in the same way, without turning the body over. They washed it until the water squeezed from the sponges ran clean and clear. After that they poured water of myrrh and aloe over the whole body and they lay it down and reverently, with their hands, stretched it out at full length, for it had stiffened in the position in which, when in death it had sunk down upon the Cross, the knees bent. Under the hips they laid a linen strip, 45 inches in width and about 135 in length, and almost filled the lap with bunches of herbs and fine, crisp threadlike plants, like saffron, and then sprinkled over all a powder, which Nicodemus had brought with him in a box. The bunches of herbs were laid upon little green and gold plates, which had blue rims. Next they tightly bound the linen strip around the whole, drew the end up between the sacred limbs, and stuck it under the band that encircled the waist, so fastening it securely. After this they anointed the wounds of the thighs, scattered sweet spices over them, laid bunches of herbs between the limbs all the way down to the feet, and bound the whole in linen from the feet up.

John once more led Mary and the other holy women to the sacred remains of Jesus. Mary knelt down by Jesus’ head, took a fine linen scarf that hung around her neck under her mantle and which she had received from Claudia Procla, Pilate’s wife and laid it under the head of her Son. Then she and the other holy women filled in the spaces between the shoulders and the head, around the whole neck and up as far as the cheeks with herbs, some of those fine threadlike plants, and the costly powder mentioned before, all of which Mary bound up carefully in the fine linen scarf. Magdalene poured the entire contents of a little flask of precious balm into the wound of Jesus’ side, while the holy women placed aromatic herbs in the hands and all around and under the feet. Then the men covered the pit of the stomach and filled up the armpits and all other parts of the body with sweet spices, crossed the stiffened arms over the bosom, and closely wrapped the whole in the large white sheet as far as the breast, just as a child is swathed. Then having fastened under one of the armpits the end of a broad linen band, they wound it round the arms, the hands, the head, and down again around the whole of the Sacred Body until it presented the appearance of a mummy. Lastly, they lay the Lord’s body on the large sheet, 22.5 feet long, that Joseph of Arimathea had bought. The Sacred Body was laid on it crosswise. Then one corner was drawn up from the feet to the breast, the opposite one was folded down over the head and shoulders and the sides were doubled round the whole person.

While all were kneeling around the Lord’s body, taking leave of it with many tears, a touching miracle was exhibited before their eyes: the entire form of Jesus’ Sacred Body with all its wounds appeared, as if drawn in brown and reddish colours, on the cloth that covered it. It was as if He wished gratefully to reward their loving care of Him, gratefully to acknowledge their sorrow and leave to them an image of Himself imprinted through all the coverings that enveloped Him. Weeping and lamenting, they embraced the Sacred Body and reverently kissed the miraculous portrait. Their astonishment was so great that they opened the outside wrapping and it became still greater when they found all the linen bands around the Sacred Body white as before and only the uppermost cloth marked with the Lord’s figure. The cloth on the side upon which the body lay received the imprint of the whole back of the Lord; the ends that covered it were marked with the front likeness. The parts of this latter, to produce the perfect form, had to be laid together, because the corners of the cloth were all crossed over the body in front. The picture was not a mere impression formed by bleeding wounds, for the whole body had been tightly wrapped in spices and numerous linen bands. It was a miraculous picture, a witness to the creative Godhead in the body of Jesus.

The procession came to a halt at the entrance of the garden. It was opened by removing some of the poles, which were afterwards used as levers for rolling away the stone from the door of the cave. Before reaching the rock, they took the cover from the litter, raised the sacred body and placed it upon a narrow board, which had previously been covered with a linen cloth. Nicodemus and Joseph took one end of the board, the other two the upper end, which was covered. The cave, which was perfectly new, had been cleaned out and fumigated by Nicodemus’s servants. It was very neat inside and was ornamented by a beautifully carved coping. The funereal couch was broader at the head than at the foot. It was cut out in the form of a body swathed in its bands and winding sheet and slightly elevated at the head and foot. The holy women sat down upon a seat opposite the entrance of the cave. The four men carried the Lord’s body down into it, set it down, strewed the stone couch with sweet spices, spread over it a linen cloth and deposited the sacred remains upon it. The cloth hung down over the couch. Then, having with tears and embraces given expression to their love for Jesus, they left the cave. Mary now went in and she sat on the head of the tomb, which was about two feet from the ground. She was bending low over the corpse of her Child and weeping. When she left the cave, Magdalene hurried in with flowers and branches, which she had gathered in the garden and which she now scattered over the Sacred Body. She wrung her hands and with tears and sighs embraced the feet of Jesus. When the men outside gave warning that it was time to close the doors, she went back to where the women were sitting. The men raised the cloth that was hanging over the side of the tomb, folded it around the Sacred Body and then threw the brown cover over the whole. Lastly, they closed the brown doors, probably of copper or bronze, which had a perpendicular bar on the outside, crossed by a transverse one.

The holy women, when the Lord arose from the dead, were near the little gate belonging to Nicodemus. The women who went to the tomb were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several others. They knew nothing of the wonders that were taking place; they did not even know of the guard at the sepulchre, for they had remained shut up in their house the whole of the preceding day, the Sabbath. They anxiously inquired of one another, “Who will roll away for us the stone from the doors?” Full of longing desire to show the last honours to the sacred body in the tomb, they had entirely lost sight of the stone. They wanted to pour nard water and precious balm over the sacred body and scatter their flowers and aromatic shrubs upon it; for to the spices of yesterdays embalming, which Nicodemus alone had procured, they had contributed nothing. They wished therefore to offer now to the body of their Lord and Master, the most precious that could be obtained. Salome had shared with Magdalene in defraying most of the cost. She was not the mother of John, but another Salome, a rich lady of Jerusalem, and a relative of Joseph (Jesus’ adopted father). At last the holy women decided to set the spices on the stone before the tomb and to wait till some disciple would come, who would open it for them. And so they went on towards the garden. Outside the tomb the stone was rolled to the right, so that the doors, which were merely lying to, could now be easily opened. The linens in which the sacred body had been enveloped were in the tomb in the following order: the large winding sheet in which it had been wrapped lay undisturbed, only empty and fallen together, containing nothing but the aromatic herbs; the long bandage that had been wound around it was still lying twisted and at full length just as it had been drawn off, on the outer edge of the tomb; but the linen scarf with which Mary had enveloped Jesus head lay to the right at the head of the tomb. It looked as if the head of Jesus was still in it, excepting that the covering for the face was raised. When, as they approached, the holy women noticed the lanterns of the guard and the soldiers lying around, they became frightened, and went a short distance past the garden toward Golgotha. Magdalene, however, forgetful of danger, hurried into the garden. Salome followed her at some distance, and the other two waited outside.