Where Did Jesus Die? — Page 50
? 50 ‘Does Pilate send you?’… ‘I come not from Pilate, but from the Secretary, who acts for the governor in such unimportant matters. ’ (p. 69–70) The Centurion observing my anxiety, looked at me, and in the manner of a friend I said to him: ‘You have seen that this man that is crucified is an uncommon man. Do not maltreat him, for a rich man among the people is now with Pilate to offer him money for the corpse, that he may give it decent burial. ’ My dear Brethren, I must here inform you that Pilate often did sell the bodies of the crucified to their friends, that they might thus bury them. And the Centurion was friendly to me, inasmuch as he had conceived from the events that Jesus was an innocent man. And therefore, when the two thieves were beaten by the soldiers with heavy clubs and their bones broken, the centurion went past the cross of Jesus, saying to the sol- diers: ‘Do not break his bones, for he is dead. ’ (p. 70) Soon after this a messenger from Pilate came to the centurion and said that: … Pilate desired to know if Jesus was indeed dead. ‘So he is,’ said the Centurion; ‘therefore we have not broken his bones. ’ To be the more sure of it, one of the soldiers struck his spear into the body in such manner that it passed over the hip and into the side. The body showed no convulsions, and this was taken by the centurion as a sure sign that he