Jesus falls 3 times

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael_s_Sword
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

Michael_s_Sword

Guest
In the stations of the cross we are all familiar with Jesus falling 3 times while carrying the cross. These events, however, are not in scripture.

Can anyone help me (actually my wife) as to where the knowledge of these events comes from?

Thanks.
 
Michael's Sword:
In the stations of the cross we are all familiar with Jesus falling 3 times while carrying the cross. These events, however, are not in scripture.

Can anyone help me (actually my wife) as to where the knowledge of these events comes from?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
The 3 synoptic Gospels all tell us that “as they led [Jesus] out [to be crucified] they compelled Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross…”. John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus carried his own cross and says nothing about Simon of Cyrene. The tradition is (note it is a small “t” tradition or legend) that Jesus began to carry his cross, but couldn’t go on because of his weakened condition after his brutal flogging. The Romans would see he needed someone else to carry it, but probably only after he had fallen with it. After all, they wouldn’t care if he was having trouble but only that he was holding things up. Someone else might have a quote from an early Church document for this tradition. In any case, it does not violate Scripture to believe he fell 3 times. The fact is, he probably fell more times than that, but 3 is a number that stands for “more than 2 times” in biblical understanding. If the tradition does not violate Scripture then there is no reason why we cannot suppose Jesus fell at least 3 times carrying his cross.
 
Perhaps prophetically, Proverbs 24:16 says:
for a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again; but the wicked are overthrown by calamity.
 
40.png
Della:
The 3 synoptic Gospels all tell us that “as they led [Jesus] out [to be crucified] they compelled Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross…”. John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus carried his own cross and says nothing about Simon of Cyrene. The tradition is (note it is a small “t” tradition or legend) that Jesus began to carry his cross, but couldn’t go on because of his weakened condition after his brutal flogging. The Romans would see he needed someone else to carry it, but probably only after he had fallen with it. After all, they wouldn’t care if he was having trouble but only that he was holding things up. Someone else might have a quote from an early Church document for this tradition. In any case, it does not violate Scripture to believe he fell 3 times. The fact is, he probably fell more times than that, but 3 is a number that stands for “more than 2 times” in biblical understanding. If the tradition does not violate Scripture then there is no reason why we cannot suppose Jesus fell at least 3 times carrying his cross.
Click to expand...
The story is supposedly a lower-case-T tradition, which became included in the stations.

However, the verse may not be totally without Biblical precedent.

The Bible is crowded with “pictures” of Christ’s passion and death. So that, for instance, as another participant in this site observed, Isaac carrying the wood of his sacrifice is a picture of Jesus carrying His Own cross. When God tells the Satan serpent in Genesis that “He will strike at your head, while you strike at His heel,” this is a picture of the cross piercing the ground at SKULL place – get it? – while the nail piecres Christ’s feet!

Well, at 1 Samuel 20:35-41, Jonathan fires an arrow, apparently into a large mound behind which David is hiding, and David then falls three times on his face before Jonathan.

Did an insightful reader of Scripture in the Early Church see in this story a picture of Christ falling three times as He walked toward the cross on the hill – the arrow in the mound?
 
I believe Jesus fell under the weight of the cross more than three times. His physical condition was severe,He was savagely beaten,scourged,crowned with thorns,forced to carry the Cross,and he never ate after the Last Supper,and He never had any sleep.Traditionally we count only three.🤓 For further details on the physical condition of Christ I recommend the book "The crucifixion of Jesus,a forensic inquiry"by Fredrick T. Zugibe.👍
 
Michael's Sword:
Can anyone help me (actually my wife) as to where the knowledge of these events comes from?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
A couple of years ago when Mel Gibson’s The Passion of The Christ came out, my wife and I got into a playful argument as to how many times Christ fell in the movie. In my typical stubborness, I was adament that Mel kept to the story and that Christ fell three times. After experiencing the film a second time I think we counted five or six falls. My wife was charitable enough not to give me the “See I told you so.” Her wry little smile spoke volumes. 🙂
 
I hate to open up a can of worms here, but the sign of the cross isn’t in scripture either.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top