The Roman Soldier’s Testimony

ROMAN SOLDIER: I first saw Jesus when he was brought in for his trial. He had already been tried by the Jews, and they had beaten him and he was bruised from their blows. It was early in the morning, and Pontius Pilate was summoned to listen to the Jews make their accusations. He sent him on to Herod, but Herod did not want to make any decision on the matter, and sent him back to Pilot. The crowd that had gathered kept shouting that he should be crucified. He could not really find any crime to warrant a death sentence, but he finally gave in to their demands and handed him over to be flogged and crucified. To be able to handle such a physical torture, this man had to be in a good healthy state. But there were some signs of bleeding that some have said was actually sweat that turned to blood. He had been abandoned by his friends and was obviously under great emotional stress. That is where I came in. I did the scourging. I used a short whip, with several braided leather thongs of different lengths that had iron balls and sharp pieces of sheep bones tied into them. He was stripped of all his clothes, and tied to a post, and I flogged him repeatedly, leaving his back, buttocks and legs cut and bleeding. After one of my floggings, the prisoner was usually ready to collapse and probably close to death. Depending on how much blood was lost, that would determine how long he would last on the cross. The sharp bones and balls on the whip would cause deep contusions, cutting into the skin and also the tissues and skeletal muscles. We found it amusing that this weak and bleeding man had claimed to be a king. The other soldiers and I began to mock him and someone brought a robe to put on him, which quickly stuck to his body because of all the bleeding. Another soldier grabbed some thorns and weaved them into a crown and we put it on his head. The sharp thorns pierced his brow and more blood came. We spat on him and then struck him on the head with a wooden stick. When we pulled off the robe, it reopened his wounds. I would say that this man was already in a critical condition as we were getting ready to make him carry his cross…