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The Life of ChristSection 104 / 113
Section 104 · The Trials, Crucifixion & Burial (Wednesday Night to Thursday)

Sentenced; the Road to Golgotha

A garrison amuses itself with a condemned man for an hour, then takes the costume back off him and walks him out of the city. A stranger from north Africa is pulled out of the crowd to carry the beam. Women are weeping, and he tells them to weep for themselves.

Matthew 27:27–34; Mark 15:16–23; Luke 23:26–32; John 19:174 of 4 accountsReading: CCE

Tap a Gospel to show or hide its column. Narrow to any two to read them side by side.

ProvenanceJSTJoseph Smith TranslationCCECovenant Christian EditionDeleted text shown struck, attributed
Study: reading text with parallel accounts; changes available.

Note. The Joseph Smith Translation calls Golgotha “the place of a burial” rather than “the place of a skull”, and does it in Matthew, Mark and John alike, the only change in the whole Passion made in every Gospel that carries the phrase. Luke instead receives a gloss telling the reader what the green tree and the dry actually are.

? How to read this edition

The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.

JST
Green: Joseph Smith Translation. Where the Covenant Christian Edition departs in substance from the King James text and the change is in the JST (confirmed against the parallel-column edition). Modernized English (“has” for “hath,” “you” for “thou”) is not marked.
CCE
Burgundy: Covenant Christian Edition. Where the CCE’s reading departs from the King James but the change is not in the Joseph Smith Translation manuscript (e.g. “this day I have begotten you” at the baptism). Some are Joseph’s own readings from his sermons; the section’s Joseph Smith commentary then gives the sermon.
MatthewKJVMatthew 27:27–34CCEMatthew 12:23–24NT 2

27Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band, 28and they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet purple robe. 29And when they had plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his right hand. And they bowed the knee before him and they mocked him, saying, Hail, king of the Jews! 30And they spit upon him, and took the reed and smote him on the head. 31And after they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. 32And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name; him they compelled to bear his cross.

33And when they had come unto a place called Golgotha — that is to say, a place of a skull burial — 34they gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall. And when he had tasted the vinegar, he would not drink.

MarkKJVMark 15:16–23CCEMark 7:22–23NT 2

16And the soldiers led him away into the hall called Praetorium, and they called together the whole band. 17And they clothed him with purple, and plaited a crown of thorns and put it upon his head, 18and began to salute him, saying, Hail, king of the Jews. 19And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and, bowing their knees, worshipped him. 20And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him. 21And they compelled one Simon, a Cyrenian who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexandria and Rufus, to bear his cross.

22And they bring him unto the place called Golgotha — which is (being interpreted) the place of a skull a burial. 23And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh, but he received it not vinegar mingled with gall. And when he had tasted the vinegar, he would not drink.

LukeKJVLuke 23:26–32CCELuke 13:18–20NT 2

26And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.

27And there followed him a great company of people, and of women who also bewailed and lamented him. 28But Jesus turned unto them and said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children; 29for behold, the days are coming in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs which never bore, and the breasts which never gave suck. 30Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. 31For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? And if these things are done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry tree? This he spoke signifying the scattering of Israel and the desolation of the heathen — or in other words, the gentiles.

32And there were also two others, malefactors, led with him to be put to death.

JohnKJVJohn 19:17CCEJohn 10:12NT 2

17And he, bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull a burial (which is called in the Hebrew, Golgotha),

Cross-references · other works
Leviticus 16:21–22 (CCE 6:5) · the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited↗Hebrews 13:12–13 (CCE 1:60) · he suffered without the gate; let us go forth therefore unto him↗Isaiah 50:6 (CCE 18:1) · I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair↗Psalm 69:21 (CCE 69:3) · they gave me also gall for my meat↗Hosea 10:8 (CCE 2:25) · they shall say to the mountains, Cover us↗Ezekiel 20:47 (CCE 9:10) · I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree and every dry tree↗
Margaret Barker · the goat that was led out

Spit On It, and Let It Be Driven Out

The mockery in the barracks is usually read as the gratuitous cruelty of bored soldiers. Barker’s reconstruction of the Day of Atonement supplies an older script that matches it in detail, and the earliest Christian commentary on that rite, the Epistle of Barnabas, had already made the connection: the goat that carried the sins away was spat on, goaded, its head wreathed, and driven out of the city.

Atonement: The Rite of HealingScottish Journal of Theology 49 (1996) ↗
There is additional information about the scapegoat in the Mishnah; people pulled out the goat’s hair as it was led away (m.Yoma 6.4). In the Epistle of Barnabas there is a quotation from an unknown source about the scapegoat: “Spit on it, all of you, thrust your goads into it, wreathe its head with scarlet wool and let it be driven into the desert” (Barn. 7). The goat suffered the fate of the Servant: “I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard. I hid not my face from shame and spitting” (Isa. 50.6 [Isa. 18:1]); and “He was pierced for our transgressions” (Isa. 53.5 [Isa. 19:2]).
Atonement: The Rite of HealingScottish Journal of Theology 49 (1996) ↗
Barnabas continues: “When they see him (Jesus) coming on the Day, they are going to be struck with terror at the manifest parallel between him and the goat.” The reference is to the future coming of the Lord to his people… Barnabas, too, associates the scapegoat with the Day of the Lord: “They shall see him on that Day, clad to the ankles in his red woollen robe, and will say, ‘Is this not he whom we once crucified and mocked and pierced and spat upon?’”
Parousia and Liturgy© Margaret Barker · on the vinegar and gall ↗
An exactly similar procedure was used for the sin offering on the Day of Atonement in the first century CE, according to the Letter of Barnabas which differs at this point from the Mishnah. According to the latter, the high priest cut open the goat of the sin offering and removed the sacrificial portions, (the fat over the entrails, the kidneys and a part of the liver Lev.4.8-10 [Lev. 1:11]) and then burned them on the altar before sending the rest of the carcase to be burned outside the temple (m. Yoma 6.7; the comparison in Heb.13.10-13 [Heb. 1:60] is confused). Barnabas, however, says that the goat was eaten: the people consumed the carcase, but the priests had the sacrificial portions, mixed with sour wine. “What does it say in the prophet? Let them eat of the goat which is offered for their sins at the fast and, note this carefully, let all the priests but nobody else, eat of its inwards parts, unwashed and with vinegar. Why was this? Because ‘When I am about to give my body for the sins of this new people of mine, you will be giving me gall and vinegar to drink…’” (Barn. 7). Barnabas, a Levite (Acts 4.36 [Acts 3:1]) interpreted the crucifixion as the sin offering and the vinegar which Jesus drank (John 19.29 [John 10:14]) as the vinegar of the sacrificial portion eaten by the priests.

Worth pausing over: the wool the scapegoat’s head was wreathed with was SCARLET, and the robe in Barnabas is red. Matthew is the only Gospel that says scarlet, and the Joseph Smith Translation changes it to purple, bringing Matthew into line with Mark and John. The revision buys harmony at the cost of the color that would have made the parallel unmistakable. Both readings are in the columns; the reader can weigh them.