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Exposition of the Apostles Creed by James Dodds
page 57 of 136 (41%)
Spirit, "I am he that liveth, and was dead."[109]


SECTION 4.--AND BURIED


Isaiah thus prophesied regarding the burial of the Messiah: "He was cut
off out of the land of the living ... and he made his grave with the
wicked, and with the rich in his death."[110] In ordinary circumstances,
the body of a crucified person would not have received burial. It was
the Roman custom to leave the bodies of slaves and criminals, who alone
were subjected to this punishment, suspended on the cross, a prey to
beasts and birds, and when these and the elements had done their work
upon the flesh, the remains were ignominiously cast out. The Jews, who
inflicted capital punishment not by crucifixion but by stoning, did not
thus deal with the bodies of malefactors; but, as the law directed, gave
them burial on the night of execution.[111] The presence of dead bodies
in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem during the Passover festival was
regarded as a defilement, and steps were taken to have those of Jesus
and the malefactors removed. The Jews could not themselves dispose of
the bodies, because they would have sustained pollution by contact with
them, and also because they had made over to the Romans the execution of
the death-sentence. "The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation,
that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day,
(for that Sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs
might be broken, and that they might be taken away."[112] This request
was granted, but, through the interposition of Joseph, a rich man of
Arimathaea--to whom, as a member of the supreme council, the resolution
for the removal of the bodies would be known--that of Jesus escaped the
ignominious treatment to which the others were subjected. He came and
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