The tragedy of Calvary: or the minute details of Christ's life from Palm Sunday morning till the resurrection and ascension taken prophecy, history, revelations and ancient writings by Meagher, Jas. L. (James Luke), 1848-1920
When the first two Edumeans tired of using the terrible Roman scourges, two others took thorny sticks with knots and splinters and the blows of these tore his flesh still more, and his blood spurted out on their arms. Strangers mounted on camels passing by stopped to see what was going on, and they were moved at the sight. They had been baptized by John the Baptist, and had heard Jesus' sermons. They were half inclined to believe in him, and they protested at the punishment they were inflicting on him. But the tumult and the uproar was so great that they were hardly heard.
When the two had beaten him with the rods till they were exhausted, two others approached with scourges made of small chains with iron hooks, which penetrated to the bone, tearing out great chunks of flesh. At each new flagellation they untied him, turned him around and began again. One kept striking him in the face and his eyes were filled with blood. The sickening spectacle thus continued for about three quarters of an hour. No pen can describe it. No mind can conceive it. It seems in credible. But we are not drawing on the imagination. Prophecy, history and the revelations of the Saints have told us the details as we have given them.
Shouts of soldiers, cries of the mob, were heard. But Jesus said words of prayer, as he offered all his suffering to his Father for the world's sins. The chief priests and all the leaders of the Jewish people, stood around and fairly gloated at the sight. As they surged around the soldiers, fairly fascinated at the sight of blood and torture, they shouted to the men plying the lashes. " Put him to death." 'Kill him." "Crucify him."Of this the prophet foretold, saying in the person of the Victim : " I have been scourged all the day, and my chastisement hath been in the mornings." (Psalm lxxii. 14.)
When his back and all his limbs were like beef-steak, again they untied him and tied him up again with his back against the pillar, and scourged his face, breast and members till they also were all torn and lacerated. His whole body was now one mass of wounds, and his blood streamed down on the ground as foretold: " God hath not afflicted me with an equal judgment and compassed me with his scourges." (Job xix. 6.) The brutal Edumeans found great fun in their work, and while two plied the lashes till they were tired, the others mocked the Victim. " But they rejoiced against me, and came together, scourges were gathered together upon me . . . they were separated and repented not. They scoffed at me with scorn, they gnashed upon me with their teeth." (Psalm xxxiv. 15,16. Job xvii : xviii)
The prophets foretold Pilate's judgment, the drunken scourgers, the crowning with thorns, the scene we describe. " In that day the Lord of hosts shall be a crown of glory and a garland of joy to the residue of his people. And the spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment. But these also have been ignorant through wine, and through drunkenness have erred . . . We have entered into a league with death. We have made a coven ant with hell. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come upon us, for we have placed our hope in lies, and by falsehood we are protected." (Isaias xxvii. ; xxviii, 5, 6, 7,15.)
"I have given my body to the strikers, and my cheeks to them that pluck them. I have not turned away my face from them that rebuked me and spit upon me. The Lord is my helper, therefore I am not confounded therefore have I set my face as a most hard rock." (Isaias 1. 6, 7) Behold now patience greater than that of Job afflicted with his skin disease. Look now upon the Lamb of God skinned alive, foretold by the skinned lambs when sacrificed.
With blood of countless victims Moses led the Hebrews from Egypt, and established the Law, the Ceremonies, the Old Testament. Here is the Victim they foretold. The blood of victims saved them because it pointed to the Victim who was to come, who begins his Passion with his blood, and finishes with his death. For what power had the blood and death of animals to forgive sins unless they pointed to a Victim, whose blood and death fulfilled these types. " He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth, he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth. He was taken away from distress and from judgment, who shall declare his generation, and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all, he is cut off from the land of the living, for the wickedness of my people have I struck him." (Isaias liii, 6, 8) " Him the Gentiles shall beseech, and his sepulcher shall be glorious." (Isaias xi, 10,)
They would have killed him there, but he was not to die by scourging. In the Temple ceremonies, in prophetic words from the fall of Adam was revealed the cross. He was decreed to crucifixion.
How quickly we run for medicine and bandages to stop the pain when we are wounded or burned. But there was none for the Victim, as the prophet said: " From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no soundness therein, wounds and swelling sores, they are not bound up, nor dressed, nor fomented with oil." (Isaias i, 6)
The wounds imprinted on the winding-sheet of Turin show deep holes cut by the leaden balls or disks on the end of the scourges. The Roman flagrum went deep into the flesh tearing out chunks, some of them like little dumb bells. The marks on the back are in an upward direction while those on the calves are from above down. There is a great wound shown on the right shoulder caused by carrying the cross. The wounds in the hands show that the nails were driven through the metacarpus bones, that of the left hand being driven near the wrist between the bones giving rise to the index and longest finger. The nails of the feet were driven through the metatarsus and out through the heel.
