Cover image via Gospel Media Library.
This article is adapted from a detailed essay available at the Interpreter Foundation website.[1]
In reviewing the scriptures and apocryphal writings pertaining to the Crucifixion, I am much impressed that early Christians apparently saw in the setting of the Crucifixion a remarkable symbolism which foreshadows Christ’s judgment of mankind. In its action, setting, and arrangement, the Crucifixion may be viewed as a stark mockery of the Final Judgment scene. The Book of Mormon provides additional insight by teaching how the crucifixion provided essential preparation, “that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of men.”[2] The stage is thus set for a two-way judgment, where Christ voluntarily submits himself to be lifted up and judged of mankind so that mankind should be lifted up by the Father to be judged of him.[3]
Those on the Right and Left Hand
In the New Testament description of the Crucifixion, Jesus is seen crucified together with two thieves or malefactors, “the one on his right hand, and the other on his left.”[4] It is very significant that the gospel writers expressed the arrangement in this manner, for although the scene is perverse and grotesque, the description is in the language and imagery of the Judgment—the right/left concept found many places in the scriptures.[5]
One thief railed against the Lord’s authority in words reminiscent of Lucifer in the Temptation:[6] “If thou be Christ, save thyself and us” (Luke 23:39). The penitent thief, presumably on the Lord’s right hand (in apocryphal sources the penitent thief is distinctly on the right)[7] acknowledges both the innocence of Jesus and his own transgressions while recognizing Christ’s kingship and thus the right to preside at the Judgment: “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom” (Luke 23:42).
In Matthew’s gospel, the Lord first gives the parable of the sheep and the goats with its judgment setting where the Son of Man sits on His throne in the judgment of all nations as “the King” and “separates one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left” (See Matthew 25:31-34, 41). Soon after this parable, the Lord is seen at the trial in which he was found guilty of death for blasphemy when he claimed He was the Christ and declared “Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”[8]
Matthew unfolds a remarkable contrast here, showing the Lord’s humility in submitting Himself for judgment, but also His subsequent power and authority to preside in judgment. The description of the Crucifixion soon follows and also draws this contrast, even more impressively, simultaneously affording a strong reminder of both the Lord’s humility, and his power and authority to be exercised later at the Judgment. After the mockery of the Crucifixion, in a post-resurrection setting, the Lord declared: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18).
Mockery of the Judgment Seat
The narratives of the Crucifixion abound with overtones of judgment. Thus, the purple robe of royalty, the flimsy reed or scepter with the “reed in his right hand,”[9] the mock title of kingship placed over His head, the crown of thorns, and the bended knee as they “mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!”[10] It is His Kingship that is being derided, with its right to judge.
In 1968 an ancient tomb dated from New Testament times was discovered in the area of Jerusalem, having the remains of a crucifixion. While extended on the cross, the person crucified nevertheless appears to have been in a sitting posture.[11] This, the first archaeological example of crucifixion, tends to verify the statements of some prominent early Christian writers that there was in crucifixions a protrusion or crude seat extended from the cross. As Richard Lloyd Anderson has noted:
Justin Martyr speaks of a protrusion on the cross at its center, which carried the weight of the crucified. (Dialogue 91:2.). On this rough ‘seat,’ the contemporary Irenaeus says, ‘the person rests who is fixed by the nails.’ (Against Heresies 2.23.4.). In other words, the nails did not basically support the body: the makeshift saddle at the crotch did. Tertullian called this feature a ‘projecting seat.’ (Ad Nationes 1:12.) . . . these early scholars knew the normal ancient practices, which were designed to prolong death in punitive torture.[12]
This accords with an apocryphal description of the mockery, as in the Gospel of Peter, which says that “they put on him a purple robe, and made him sit upon the seat of judgement, saying: Give righteous judgement, thou King of Israel.”[13]
Two-Way Judgment
In the Book of Mormon, the Crucifixion is closely related to the Judgment and is explained as essential preparation for it, “that all might stand before him at the great and judgment day.”[14] The Crucifixion was “done that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of men.”[15]
The Judgment is viewed as a reciprocal or two-way action between Christ and mankind, for “it behooveth the great Creator that he suffereth himself to become subject unto man in the flesh, and die for all men, that all men might become subject unto him.”[16] Jesus voluntarily submitted to the judgment of men in the Crucifixion – not only to the judgment of His immediate generation, but also to those in every age as they learn of Him. Nephi saw that “the Son of the everlasting God was judged of the world” and “lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world.”[17] All will need to respond to a basic question raised in the gospel: “What think ye of Christ?” (Matthew 22:42). Eventually, all men must judge Jesus and, according to their response to Him and His teachings, they will later be judged by Him, for “with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”[18]
The Crucifixion then is a crucial or pivotal thing, and may be seen as symbolic of the Two-Way Judgment. A prominent feature of the post-resurrection narratives is their mention of the Lord’s display of the tokens of the Crucifixion, such as the marks in His hands.[19] In the Judgment, men are to be reminded of the Crucifixion, for “they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn.”[20]
Repentance, Judgment and Figurative Crucifixion
If through the Crucifixion Jesus submitted to the judgment of the world, it is also Jesus “by whom the world is crucified” (Galatians 6:14).[21] In every person there is a direct counterpart to the Crucifixion, whether in repentance or in the coming Judgment. This is found in a saying of the Lord to the Nephites after His resurrection:
… my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil – And for this cause have I been lifted up; therefore . . . I will draw all men unto me, that they may be judged according to their works” (3 Nephi 27:14-15, emphasis added).
Here, lifted up clearly has a double meaning and is used as a technical term to refer at once to contrasting concepts, both to His humility in submitting to the judgment of men, and to His subsequent exaltation and judgeship. He is lifted up or held up for evaluation and judgment, only to be lifted up and exalted to the Judgment Seat. Similarly, the term draw all men can convey two meanings, where men may be drawn to the Lord through love,[22] or forced to Him in the Judgment.
This relationship is strongly reflected in rites and ordinances which at once symbolize the Crucifixion and anticipate the Judgment,[23] and is most apparent in the scriptures regarding baptism. Baptism relates each initiate to crucifixion, death, judgment and resurrection. The repentant are baptized “after the manner of his burial,”[24] the baptismal font being “instituted as a similitude of the grave.”[25] The Apostle Paul taught that the Christian is “baptized into his death … buried with him by baptism into death,” and that “our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed … for the wages of sin is death ….” (Romans 6:3-4, 6, 23, emphasis added).
In his Lectures on the Ordinances, Cyril of Jerusalem (d. A.D. 386) has this insightful description of the imitative quality of the ordinances:
O strange and paradoxical thing! We did not die in reality, nor were we really buried, nor did we rise up after having been actually crucified. Rather, it was imitation (mimesis) by a token (eikoni), while the salvation part is the real thing. Christ was really crucified, really was buried, and really rose again, and all that for our benefit, so that by sharing his sufferings in imitation we might attain to a real salvation. O love of men overflowing! Christ really received the nails in his blameless hands and feet and suffered pain; while I, without any pain or struggle, by his sharing of suffering the pain, enjoy the fruits of salvation![26]
But if the righteous are figuratively “crucified” through repentance, so are the unrepentant “crucified” in the Judgment. The Lord has said that the suffering of “those who are found on my left hand” may be likened to the Crucifixion in the following remarkable passage (D&C 19:5, 15-19):
Therefore I command you to repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not.
For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—
Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.
The Arms of Mercy and Judgment
Both the submission of God and the judgment of men are tersely expressed in the apocryphal Gospel of Philip, where Christ appears as “the spread out” or stretched-out One who “came crucifying the world.”[27] Similarly, in the early Christian Sibyllines we read of the “tree … on which God was stretched out” in the Crucifixion, “when he stretches out his hands and measures all things, And wears the crown of thorns,” or when “He shall stretch out his hands and measure the whole world.”[28] This imagery is representative, for the stretching out or extension of the hands and arms is very often interpreted as a sign of the Crucifixion in early Christian literature.[29]
The figure of the outstretched arms is rich with varied connotations representing God’s agency, dominion, power, protection, blessing, designation or instruction.[30] It touches on many aspects of His relationship to mankind. Among mankind it shows supplication, or the sharing of God’s power, as when “Moses … spread abroad his hands unto the Lord; and the thunders and hail ceased.”[31] However, the imagery of the extended arms and hands is used prominently to represent God’s judgment, or conversely, to show His mercy, forbearance, and redemption. Consequently, it may be seen as a symbol of the contrasting and two-way aspects of the Crucifixion.
Usage in the Book of Mormon strongly suggests the same concept. Emphasis there is given to God’s “arm of mercy,”[32] and in a context which treats both repentance and judgment, with a reminder of reciprocal relationships: “cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you,” for “how merciful is our God unto us, for he remembereth the house of Israel … and he stretches forth his hands unto them all the day long … And while his arm of mercy is extended … harden not your hearts” (Jacob 6:4-5).
An Enduring Image and Witness
The faithful find no need to fear the Judgment. Rather, the reminders of His suffering engender their love: “Because thou didst receive a crown of thorns for our sakes, let us who have loved thee put on a crown that does not fade away.… Because thou didst rise and come to life again, let us come to life again and live and stand before thee in righteous judgment!”[33] The righteous welcome the “pleasing bar” of God when they “may not shrink with awful fear” on that “glorious day when justice shall be administered” unto them.[34] The reminder of the Cross is not necessarily one of fear, but of a two-way responsibility. The Judgment “will become a day of covenant for the elect and inquisition for the sinners” (1 Enoch 60:6).[35]
In the Crucifixion we see Jesus extended and suffering on the Cross, showing His great humility and mercy while portraying the Judgment scene. Viewed in this perspective, the Crucifixion becomes a deeply impressive witness of the Judgment, albeit a stark mockery of the same. His submission and love are evident as He allows Himself to be lifted up for judgment, praying the Father to forgive His persecutors. His restraint symbolizes man’s probationary state and freedom of choice to accept or reject the Lord and His teachings. Conversely, the Crucifixion is a standing reminder of man’s future accountability, and relationship to Christ as Lord and Judge.
[1] https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/the-crucifixion-as-a-mockery-witness-and-warning-of-the-judgment/
[2] Mosiah 3:10; cf. Helaman 14:15-29.
[3] 3 Nephi 27:14-15.
[4] Mark 15:27, emphasis added. Parallels in Matthew 27:38 and Luke 23:33. Cf. Gospel of Philip 115:25 where the apostles refer to the Cross as “the right” and “the left” in R. McL. Wilson, The Gospel of Philip (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), 128.
[5] As examples: Psalms 80:17, 110:1-6; Matthew 22:44, 25:31-34; 27:29; Acts 2:33-35, 7:55-56; Hebrews 1:3, 10:12, 12:2; 1 Peter 3:22; Mosiah 5:9-12; 26:23-28; Alma 5:58; Moroni 9:26; D&C 29:12, 27; Moses 7:56-57.
[6] Cf. Luke 4:3 on the Temptation.
[7] Cf. M. R. James, Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), 104, 116, 163.
[8] Matthew 26:64, emphasis added. Christ is “set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (Hebrews 8:1).
[9] Matthew 27:29.
[10] Ibid., emphasis added. Cf. Matthew 20:19, where Christ was delivered to the Gentiles to “mock” Him.
[11] N. Haas, “Anthropological Observations on the Skeletal Remains from Giv’at-Mivtar,” Israel Exploration Journal 20, nos. 1-2 (1970): 38-59.
[12] Richard Lloyd Anderson, “The Ancient Practice of Crucifixion,” Ensign 5, no. 7 (July 1975): 32-33.
[13] Gospel of Peter 3:7-8, in James, Apocryphal New Testament, 91.
[14] 2 Nephi 9:22.
[15] Mosiah 3:10; cf. Helaman 14:15-29.
[16] 2 Nephi 9:5. The term “two-way judgment” was suggested to me by Hugh Nibley when I corresponded with him on the principle of reciprocity in the Judgment. Letter of Hugh Nibley to George L. Mitton, 8 Jan. 1966.
[17] 1 Nephi 11:32-33, emphasis added. Cf. Christ as “the measured” in Gospel of Philip 110:10-16.
[18] Matthew 7:2.
[19] John 20:25-28; Luke 24:38-40; 1 John 1:1; 3 Nephi 11:14.
[20] Zechariah 12:10, emphasis added. Cf. Revelation 1:17; D&C 45:49-53.
[21] Cf. “For Jesus came crucifying the world,” in Gospel of Philip 111:24.
[22] 2 Nephi 26:24.
[23] On the judgment aspects see C. F. D. Moule, “The Judgment Theme in the Sacraments,” in The Background of the New Testament and its Eschatology, ed. W. D. Davies and D. Daube (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1964), 464-81.
[24] D&C 76:51.
[25] D&C 128:13.
[26] As quoted by Hugh Nibley, The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment. 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and Provo, UT: FARMS, 2005), 515, 520. Cf. Romans 8:17.
[27] Gospel of Philip, 111:23. Compare Christ as the “Word stretched out” in Acts of Peter, 38, in Edgar Hennecke, New Testament Apocrypha, ed. W. Schneemelcher, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1965), 2: 320.
[28] Christian Sibyllines 6:26, 1:372, 8:302, in Hennecke, New Testament Apocrypha, 2: 720, 711, 735. Conversely, consider Christ as “the measured” in Gospel of Philip 110:13.
[29] “I extended my hands and approached my Lord, because the stretching out of my hands is his sign. And my extension is the common cross, that was lifted up on the way of the Righteous One.” Odes of Solomon 42:1-2 in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. James H. Charlesworth, 2 vols. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983), 2: 770.
[30] See, e.g., Jeremiah 15:6; Ezekiel 20:33; Mosiah 1:14; 3 Nephi 12:1; Book of Abraham 2:7, 3:12.
[31] Exodus 9:29, 33. Cf. 1 Kings 8:22; Psalms 88:9, 143:6; Mosiah 12:2; Alma 14:10. Conversely, the opposition will “stretch forth his hand against the Son … and crucify him on a tree.” Ascension of Isaiah 9:14, in Hennecke, 2: 657.
[32] 3 Nephi 9:14.
[33] Acts of Thomas, 158, in Hennecke, 2: 526. Cf. Gospel of Bartholomew 4:62: “You who wore a crown of thorns, in order to prepare for us repentant sinners the precious heavenly crown,” in Hennecke, 1:501.
[34] Jacob 6:13; Moroni 10:34; 2 Nephi 9:46.
[35] Charlesworth, 1: 40.
