Key of Knowledge

SR No.: 006702
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1919
Total Pages: 1204
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 561

540
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
of Golgotha, and nailed to the cross, the inscription at its top showing that he was crucified for high treason. The story of the two malefactors being crucified with him seems to have been invented, so that the event
might come to pass' in fulfilment of the prophecy which said: 'and he was numbered with the transgressors' (Mark, XV. 28). Unfortunately for the fulfil. ment of this ancient saying, as an actual historical event, the facts point unmistakably in the opposite direction. Luke is the most garrulous of all the gospelwriters on this point. He makes one of his malefactors revile Jesus, but lets the other chide him for his impiety, at which Jesus is pleased to such an extent that he promises the God-fearing evil-doer a lift to the paradise that very day (Luke, XXIII. 39-43). Matthew and Mark both unhesitatingly declare that the thieves, also, who were crucified with Jesus, reviled him, and naturally omit all further details, since, as they had both reviled him, there was nothing to be said in the shape of a promise from Jesus to any one of them (Matthew, XXVII. 44; Mark, XV. 32). John, not knowing what to do with the contradictory and mutually quarrelsome malefactors of Luke, thought it quite enough to bring them on to the scene ; accordingly, be contented himself with merely recording the event of three persons being crucified together, one of whoin wae Jesus. Under such circumstances, the testimony of the disciples is quite insufficient to establish the fact, and is more than counterbalanced by a desire to show the fulfilment of as many of the prophetic utterances of the veteran Isaiah and other prophets as they found it