Where Did Jesus Die? — Page 49
Chapter Four—Early Documentary Evidence 49 said to him: ‘As sure as is my knowledge of life and nature, so sure is it possible to save him. ’ (p. 67) Nicodemus shouted: ‘We must immediately have the body with its bones unbroken, because he may still be saved’; then, realizing his want of caution, he continued in a whisper, ‘saved from being infamously buried. ’ (p. 68) They kept it secret and did tell nothing to John about it. He persuaded Joseph to disregard his own interest, that he might save their Friend by going immediately to Pilatus, and prevailing upon him to permit them to take Jesus’ body from the Cross that very night and put it in the sep- ulchre, hewn in the rock close by, and which belonged to Joseph. I, understanding what he meant, remained with John to watch the Cross and prevent the soldiers from breaking the bones of Jesus. (p. 68) The Jewish council had already demanded of Pilate an order to the soldiers to break the bones of the crucified, that they might be buried. (p. 68–69) The letter further says that soon after Joseph and Nicodemus had departed, a messenger brought the order to the centurion to take down the corpses and bury them. The author of the letter says: As the messenger arrived I hastened to him, thinking and hoping that Joseph already might have seen Pilate, a thing of which there in reality was no possibility. (p. 69)