The Tomb of Jesus — Page 21
21 referred to above that Jesus's legs were not broken. At this point, a very pertinent question arises: What was the purpose underlying the prophecy which could not be without meaning?. Had Jesus been already dead, it would be immaterial to him whether or not the legs were broken, or any injury was inflicted on the corpse. . A moment's reflection makes it plain that the. Divine purpose underlying the prophecy was to save Jesus' life from the ignominy of the accursed death. H. Spencer Lewis observes: "In the book of John in the Holy Bible, we have one of the interesting facts concerning the crucifixion which appears in the ancient records from which I am quoting, and which incident is often overlooked by the most critical of the Bible students. It is that although it was a common practice to break the legs of the crucified persons, and to cause these bodies to hang upon the cross for several days so there would be no possibility of the body remaining alive, nevertheless the body of Jesus was taken down without the bones being broken, even though the soldiers broke the bones of the other two criminals that were upon the crosses close by. This was not an oversight on the part of the soldiers by any means, for not only did they fulfil the law by breaking the bones of