The Stoning of Jesus the Messiah

Was Jesus crucified then stoned?

Did Jesus not only get the same punishments of the Prophets but more. Did Paul suffer as Jesus did except for the crucifixion?

Mathew 23:37-39 – 24:1-2
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

Here you see Jesus weeping over Jerusalem because she had become the harlot. He then prophesied the end of the Temple with the mention of the stones. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee…There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”. Jesus was also prophesing his own death as He fulfilled the role and office of Prophet and He too was stoned. I’ll get to the stoning in a second.

Here is scriptural proof that He was a prophet speaking as God and the mouthpiece of God as did the Prophets in the Old Testament. “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me” (John 7:16). He also stated that He spoke “just what the Father has taught me” (John 8:28). In Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer, He says, “I gave them the words you gave me” (John 17:8). Jesus clearly fulfilled the role of a prophet, as He was a spokesman for God. Not only that, “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

Revelation 19:10
And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

I wonder if we can also see here a dual meaning of these “stones” being thrown down. We know what Jesus meant by His statement in Matthew. The Temple would be destroyed. At one point the Jews had a discussion with Jesus asking that the Temple would be built in 3 days but Jesus was referring to His resurrection.

John 2:19-21

Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.

They were getting mixed up about what the new Temple would be, the resurrected body of Jesus. He was an example for our bodies being a Temple for the Holy Ghost. In Matthew, Jesus made reference to killing the Prophets and them being stoned. Then turns around and tells the disciples that every stone will fall on the Temple. I wonder if there is a connection here to the death of Jesus by stoning and crucifixion to the stoning the Prophets and destruction of the Temple. He was now the Temple that too would be stoned. Let me just point out that we see Jerusalem, the divorced wife of the Father and adulterer committing two acts that deserved stoning. Blasphemy and adultery. And this stoning came to pass in 70ad with Jerusalem recurring a symbolic stoning at the hands of the Temple being destroyed.

So, was Jesus stoned by law? The penalty according to the Mosiac Law for blasphemy was stoning. Did Jesus claim to be equal to GOD the Father? Yes. Did the Samhedrin try to stone Him prior for this claim? Yes. Notice that these Scriptures are in order.

John 8:58-59
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

John 10:30-33
I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

John 11:7-8
Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again. His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?

Here is why the Jews took up stones against Jesus thinking that they were doing God a service. Little did they know He was God, that’s why He was making that claim.

Leviticus 24:15-16
And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin. And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death.

“Notice what Hasting’s Dictionary of the Apostolic Church says about the Old Testament legislation concerning stoning. “Stoning was the pelting of stones by a mob at a person who had merited their ill-will (Exo.8:26; 17:4; II Chron.24:20ff; cf. Heb.11 :37; Acts 5:26) or the infliction of the death penalty by stoning (Lev.20:2; Deut.13: 10). The method which an enraged crowd took of executing vengeance with the weapons lying readi-est to their hand came to be employed afterwards as a regular and legal method of inflicting the death sentence on a criminal. Stoning is the ONLY form of capital punishment recognized in the Mosaic Law” (vol.II, pp.528,529).”

So most people just think that Jesus was crucified and prior to that he was beaten according to Roman law. This is definitely true. But if you put two and two together then you see that Jesus was first taken to the San hedrin before the high priest where he was judged. Then they took him to Pilate.

Mark 14:53-64
And they led Jesus away to the high priest: and with him were assembled all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. And Peter followed him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest: and he sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the fire. And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found none. For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together. And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. But neither so did their witness agree together. And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death.

Mark 15:1-2
And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answering said unto him, Thou sayest it.

John 18:28-33
Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover. Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring ye against this man? They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee. Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death: That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die. Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?

As you can see the Jews lied to Pilot pilot when saying they found no wrong doing in Jesus. The Jews then turn around and say basically, you are our King and he should have the judgement of Rome, not from the Sanhedrin. And they already judged him prior to going to Pilot. That’s the ironic part.

I want to quote Ernest Martin’s book Secrets of Golgotha. This is from chapter 22.

The Terrible Judgment on the Suffering Servant

What type of judicial punishment could produce such an awful
description of the Suffering Servant?The scourging that Jesus was subjected to before his crucifixion cannot account for such man-
gling since Pilate intended to let him go after the soldiers had chas-
tised him, and from this it shows that Pilate fully believed he would
recover (Luke 23:22). No, it was not the beatings that Jesus endured
under the abuse of the soldiers. There is really only one type of exe-
cution that could fit the scriptural descriptions (which was a com-
mon one in Jerusalem at the time). Interestingly, it is the only kind
of punishment that the Mosaic legislation allowed for capital crimes. What we find in these prophecies is a classic portrayal of a person who was pelted with stones.

There is no doubt that Jesus experienced the torment of volleys
of small, sharp stones thrown at thefront parts of his naked body
while he was nailed to the tree of crucifixion. The stones were
hurled at his face, at his mid-section and his legs. These must have
been like sharp flintstones (many of which are on the Mount of Olives) that would break the skin and dislodge the flesh but without the force to break his bones. Such volleys of stones hitting his body persistently for almost six hours could produce the description of Isaiah: “As many were astonished at thee: his visage [his outward appearance] was so marred more than any man, and his
form [so marred] more than the sons of man.” (page 311-312)

The Hanging Took Place First and Then the Stoning

The Syriac manuscript says: “He is hanged on a tree AND is put to death” (p.207). This plainly show that the criminal was first hanged on the tree in order to be put to death. He was certainly not tied (or nailed) to the tree to die a lingering death some days later. The criminal was suspended on a tree in order to be put to death. And what kind of death did the person experience? It was the only one sanctioned in the Mosaic Law and also in the Temple Scroll for
ultra-criminals. Again, the death was by stoning.

And note this point. Not only does the Syriac translation of Deuteronomy 21 :22 state that the blasphemer was to be hanged on a tree AND put to death but even in the Christian portion of the Ascension of Isaiah the text states that Jesus was crucified on a tree (3:13; 9:15; 11:21) and in some manuscripts it shows that Jesus
was killed after he was hanged on the tree. The text states: “he will
hang him upon a tree AND kill him.” This shows that Jesus was
actually killed after having been hanged on the tree of crucifixion.
The Slavic Version of the same states: “and they will hang … AND he [the executioner] will kill” (Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol.II, p, 170 emphases mine). Again, these references show that Jesus was at first hanged on the tree and then, after he was hanged, he was killed. He was killed by stoning.” (Page 317)

“The first act of persecution against
the apostle Paul which the New Testament records is his enduring
the punishment of stoning (Acts 14: 19,20). This occurred to Paul
while he was in the area of Galatia about the year A.D.45. Let us
now notice an important fact which Paul records about himself
when he wrote to the Galatian Christians about four years later.
Paul said that he, at that time, bore in his body the marks (really, the
SCARS) which Jesus also had. Notice how he worded it:

“From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks [the scars] of the Lord Jesus” (Galatians 6:17).
Paul was saying that he had the scars of Jesus in his body and he
was not speaking allegorically. Now, those scars were not piercings
in his hands, feet and side as a result of being crucified like Jesus. No, Paul had never been crucified. But he had been stoned and left for dead (Acts 14: 19 ,20). Though the type of stoning Paul endured was an illegal act, it was so severe that the people who stoned him (and then they dragged his body on the ground beyond the city lim-
its) thought he was certainly dead. By a miracle, however, the apostle Paul got up and walked away. And though Paul was not pelted for almost six hours, as was Jesus, he was still greatly tormented by this stoning. It resulted in many scars being on his body. And, as Jesus said, the part of the anatomy that persecutors normally injured in stoning was the face or the eyes (Mark 12:4). Is it not remarkable that the apostle Paul
about four years after he was stoned told the Galatian Christians that he had at first been teaching them under great physical pain and he indicates that his principal affliction had something to do with his eyes?” (Page 321)

You can download each chapter her: http://www.askelm.com/golgotha/index.asp

“While it seems apparent that the Messiah was inflicted with a milder form of scourging, “we might also remember that Pilate seemed shocked when he was told that Jesus had already died. He knew that crucifixion sometimes took days, yet it had only been six hours since Jesus had been ‘hanged’ on the tree. Pilate ‘wondered whether already he was dead,’ and even ‘calling near the centurion, questioned him — whether he had already died’ (Mark 15:43-44). The reason, perhaps, for Pilate’s surprise is because he hadn’t expected the Sanhedrin to stone Jesus” (A Book of Evidence: The Trials and Execution of Jesus, p. 198).

“How, then, did the Messiah die? HOW did he shed his precious blood for humankind?

The most important theological argument surrounding the execution of the Messiah is the “blood” that he shed — yet crucifixion alone does not account for the amount of blood Christian traditions imply he would have shed. During the Passover Seder the shed blood of the Messiah is emphasized time and time again. Did the blood our Savior lost while being SCOURGED by the Romans qualify for our atonement? True, he probably lost quite a bit of blood during this ordeal; but the Old Testament shows that his blood had to be shed at the PLACE OF HIS DEATH!

The sacrifice of the RED HEIFER clearly points to this. During this ceremony the Red Heifer, which PREFIGURED THE MESSIAH, was taken EAST from the Temple in Jerusalem, across the arched bridge over the Kidron Valley, to the MIPHKAD ALTAR located on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. (For further details read our article Just Where in Jerusalem Did Our Savior Die?). Here it was killed and the BLOOD SPRINKLED SEVEN TIMES ON THE GROUND before the east entrance of the Temple. Obviously, the scourging the Messiah received did NOT fulfill this, because it occurred within the city — WITHIN THE CAMP.” (http://www.hope-of-israel.org/stonejes.htm)