Passion of Jesus


The Passion is the short final period before the death of Jesus, described in the four canonical gospels. It is commemorated in Christianity every year during Holy Week.
The Passion may include, among other events, Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, his cleansing of the Temple, his anointing, the Last Supper, his agony, his arrest, his trial before the Sanhedrin and his trial before Pontius Pilate, his crucifixion and death, and his burial. Those parts of the four canonical Gospels that describe these events are known as the Passion narratives. In some Christian communities, commemoration of the Passion also includes remembrance of the sorrow of Mary, the mother of Jesus, on the Friday of Sorrows.
The word passion has taken on a more general application and now may also apply to accounts of the suffering and death of Christian martyrs, sometimes using the Latin form passio.

Narratives according to the four canonical gospels

Accounts of the Passion are found in the four canonical gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Three of these, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, known as the Synoptic Gospels, give similar accounts. The Gospel of John account varies significantly.
Scholars do not agree on which events surrounding the death of Jesus should be considered part of the Passion narrative, and which ones merely precede and succeed the actual Passion narrative itself. For example, Puskas and Robbins commence the Passion after Jesus's arrest and before his resurrection, thus only including the trials, crucifixion and death of Jesus. In Pope Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, the term Passion completely coincides with the crucifixion and death of Jesus; it does not include earlier events and specifically excludes the burial and resurrection. Others such as Matson and Richardson take a broader approach and consider the triumphal entry, the last supper, the trial before Pilate, the crucifixion, the burial, and the resurrection collectively as constituting the so-called "Passion Week".

Comprehensive narrative

Taking an inclusive approach, the "Passion" may include:
  • Triumphal entry into Jerusalem: some people welcome Jesus when he enters Jerusalem.
  • The Cleansing of the Temple: Jesus expels livestock merchants and money-changers from the Temple of Jerusalem.
  • The Anointing of Jesus by a woman during a meal a few days before Passover. Jesus says that for this she will always be remembered.
  • The Last Supper shared by Jesus and his disciples in Jerusalem. Jesus gives final instructions, predicts his betrayal, and tells them all to remember him.
  • Jesus predicts the Denial of Peter: on the path to Gethsemane after the meal, Jesus tells the disciples they will all fall away that night. After Peter protests he will not, Jesus says Peter will deny him thrice before the cock crows.
  • The Agony in the Garden: later that night at Gethsemane, Jesus prays while the disciples rest. Luke 22:43–44 adds that Jesus was terrified, and sweating blood. However, the oldest manuscripts of the Gospel of Luke do not contain these two verses, the other three canonical gospels do not mention this event either, and various manuscripts contain these verses elsewhere, even in the Gospel of Matthew ; thus, most modern scholars consider this tradition a later Christian interpolation, probably to counter docetism.
  • The Arrest of Jesus: then Judas Iscariot leads in either "a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees", or a "large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and elders of the people," which arrests Jesus; all his disciples run away. During the arrest in Gethsemane, someone takes a sword and cuts off the ear of the high priest's servant, Malchus.
  • The Sanhedrin trial of Jesus at the high priest's palace, later that night. The arresting party brings Jesus to the Sanhedrin ; according to Luke's Gospel, Jesus is beaten by his Jewish guards prior to his examination; the court examines him, in the course of which, according to John's Gospel, Jesus is struck in the face by one of the Jewish officials; the court determine he deserves to die. According to Matthew's Gospel, the court then "spat in his face and struck him with their fists." They then send him to Pontius Pilate. According to the synoptic gospels, the high priest who examines Jesus is Caiaphas; in John, Jesus is also interrogated by Annas, Caiaphas' father-in-law.
  • The Denial of Peter in the courtyard outside the high priest's palace, the same time. Peter has followed Jesus and joined the crowd awaiting Jesus' fate; they suspect he is a sympathizer, so Peter repeatedly denies he knows Jesus. Suddenly, the cock crows and Peter remembers what Jesus had said.
  • Pilate's trial of Jesus, early morning. Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, questions Jesus, but does not find any fault with him The Jewish leaders and the crowd demand Jesus' death; Pilate gives them the choice of saving Barabbas, a criminal, or saving Jesus. In response to the crowd Pilate sends Jesus out to be crucified.
  • The Way of the Cross: Jesus and two other convicts are forced to walk to their place of execution. According to the Synoptics, Simon of Cyrene is forced to carry Jesus's cross, while John writes that Jesus carried his cross himself.
  • The Crucifixion of Jesus: Jesus and the two other convicts are nailed to crosses at Golgotha, a hill outside Jerusalem, later morning through mid afternoon. Various sayings of Jesus on the cross are recorded in the gospels before he dies.
  • The Burial of Jesus: the body of Jesus is taken down from the cross and put in a tomb by Joseph of Arimathea.
  • The Resurrection of Jesus: Jesus rises from the dead, leaving behind an empty tomb and reportedly appearing to several of his followers.

    Differences between the canonical gospels

The Gospel of Luke states that Pilate sends Jesus to be judged by Herod Antipas because as a Galilean he is under his jurisdiction. Herod is excited at first to see Jesus and hopes Jesus will perform a miracle for him; he asks Jesus several questions but Jesus does not answer. Herod then mocks him and sends him back to Pilate after giving him an "elegant" robe to wear.
All the Gospels relate that a man named Barabbas was released by Pilate instead of Jesus. Bar-abbas means "son of the father". Some manuscripts of Matthew call him "Jesus Barabbas", suggesting that an early version of the story contrasted the fate of two men both named Jesus. Matthew, Mark and John have Pilate offer a choice between Jesus and Barabbas to the crowd; Luke lists no choice offered by Pilate, but represents the crowd demanding his release.
File:Jesus in Golgotha by Theophanes the Cretan.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|left|Icon of the Passion, detail showing the Flagellation and Ascent to Golgotha.
In all the Gospels, Pilate asks Jesus if he is King of the Jews and Jesus replies "So you say". Once condemned by Pilate, he was flogged before execution. The canonical gospels, except Luke, record that Jesus is then taken by the soldiers to the Praetorium where, according to Matthew and Mark, the whole contingent of soldiers has been called together. They place a purple robe on him, put a crown of thorns on his head, and according to Matthew, put a rod in his hand. They mock him by hailing him as "King of the Jews", paying a mocking homage and hitting him on the head with the rod.
According to the Gospel of John, Pilate has Jesus brought out a second time, wearing the purple robe and the crown of thorns, in order to appeal his innocence before the crowd, saying Ecce homo,. In the Gospel of John, the priests urge the crowd to demand Jesus's death. Pilate resigns himself to the decision, washing his hands before the people as a sign that Jesus's blood will not be upon him. In the Gospel of Matthew they replied, "His blood be on us and on our children"
Mark and Matthew record that Jesus is returned his own clothes, prior to being led out for execution. According to the Gospel accounts he is forced, like other victims of crucifixion, to drag his own cross to Golgotha, meaning "place of a skull", which was the location of the execution. The three Synoptic Gospels refer to a man called Simon of Cyrene, who is made to carry the cross, while in the Gospel of John, Jesus is made to carry his own cross. The Gospel of Mark gives the names of Simon's children, Alexander and Rufus. The Gospel of Luke refers to Simon carrying the cross after Jesus, in that it states: "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". Luke adds that Jesus's female followers follow, mourning his fate, but that he responds by quoting Hosea 10:8.
The Synoptic Gospels state that on arrival at Golgotha, Jesus is offered wine laced with myrrh to lessen the pain, but he refuses it. Jesus is then crucified, according to Mark, at "the third hour" the morning after the Passover meal, but according to John he is handed over to be crucified at "the sixth hour" the day before the Passover meal. Many resolve this by saying that the Synoptics use Jewish time, and that John uses Roman time. Pilate has a plaque fixed to Jesus's cross inscribed, in Hebrew, Greek and Latin – INRI, meaning Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. The original Greek of the Gospels reads Ἰησοῦς ὁ Ναζωραῖος ὁ Bασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων, "Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews". Mark has the plaque say, King of the Jews. The Gospels then state that the soldiers divide Jesus's clothes among themselves, except for one garment for which they cast lots. The Gospel of John claims that this fulfills a prophecy from. Some of the crowd who have been following taunt Jesus by saying, "He trusts in God; let God deliver him now!" The statement suggests that Jesus might perform a miracle to release himself from the cross.
According to the Gospels, two thieves are also crucified, one on each side of him. According to Luke, one of the thieves reviles Jesus, while the other, known as the penitent thief, declares Jesus innocent and begs that he might be remembered when Jesus comes to his kingdom.
John records that Mary, his mother, and two other women stand by the cross as does a disciple, described as the one whom Jesus loved. Jesus commits his mother to this disciple's care. According to the synoptics, the sky becomes dark at midday and the darkness lasts for three hours, until the ninth hour when Jesus cries out "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?". Mark reports Jesus says "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" in Aramaic; Matthew reports "Eli, Eli..." The centurion standing guard, who has seen how Jesus has died, declares Jesus innocent or the "Son of God".
John says that, as was the custom, the soldiers come and break the legs of the thieves, so that they will die faster, but that on coming to Jesus they find him already dead. A soldier pierces his side with a spear.
According to the Gospel of Matthew, Judas, the betrayer, is filled with remorse and tries to return the money he was paid for betraying Jesus. When the high priests say that that is his affair, Judas throws the money into the temple, goes off, and hangs himself. According to the Book of Acts, Judas was not remorseful, took the money and bought a field from it, whereupon he suddenly fell and died.