Question 240: Why did Yeshua after His resurrection say “touch Me not”?

Answer:

It was not a time for the old familiar greeting or hand-clasping. He had not come to renew the former human associations with His followers. A great change had taken place. The crown of His life-work was not yet complete. He must show Himself in His resurrected body to His disciples before He ascends to the Father. Mary evidently comprehended the significance of the change and went and told the disciples.

Question 239: Why did they cast lot for Moshiach’s garments?

Answer:

When the soldiers cast lot for the Saviour’s garment (John 19:24) they had no design to fulfil a prediction of the Old Testament. They had probably never heard of the prophecy. They simply perceived that if they tore the garment into four pieces, they would spoil it and it would be of no value. It was the most natural course for such men to cast lots for it. The evangelist, in writing that it was done "that the Scripture might be fulfilled" meant that in YHVH's providence the fulfilment took place. The soldiers were unconsciously doing the thing that it was predicted they would do. John was anxious to show that Moshiach was the predicted Messiah and he mentions this incident to show that the details of the prophetic writings were fulfilled in Him.

Question 238: Did Yeshua die of a broken heart as some say?

Answer:

That is the opinion of many who have written on the subject, physicians included. It is certain that the Crucifixion did not kill Him, as that was a death by exhaustion. Yeshua was not exhausted, for we are told (Matthew 27:50) that He "cried with a loud voice" when He yielded up the Spirit. The fact that when the soldier pierced His side blood and water came out (John 19:34) indicates, according to eminent surgeons, that the heart was ruptured. The most probable way of accounting for the blood and water flowing from a wound in the side of a dead body is that the spear pierced the pericardium - or sac which contains the heart - which would contain blood and water if the heart were ruptured. The severe strain in the Garden the night before, the intensity of which was indicated by a sweat of blood, probably prepared the physical nature of Yeshua for the sudden collapse, which caused Pilate to "marvel that He was dead already." (Mark 15:44.)

Question 237: How long was Yeshua in the grave?

Answer:

In Matthew 12:40 He said that He would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The passage has long perplexed Biblical students. The most probable explanation is that Moshiach adopted a mode of expression common among the Jews and said that He should be in the grave three "evening-mornings," which the translators rendered three days and nights. The Jews also had a rule, of which there are several examples in other parts of the Bible, that any part of the onah or period, counted as the whole. Thus, the interval between the crucifixion and the burial on the Friday would be part of Friday, and would count as one "evening-morning"; from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday would count as the second; and from Saturday sunset to the resurrection on Sunday morning as the third. The disciples evidently regarded the Sunday as the third day, as is seen by the conversation on the way to Emmaus, when Cleopas said: "This is the third day since these things were done." (Luke 24:21.) Professor Wescott, a great New Testament scholar and one of the editors of the most widely used text of the Greek New Testament, held the view that crucifixion and burial occurred on Thursday; but practically every other authority disagrees with him. The celebration of Friday as the day of our Saviour's death and burial dates back to extremely early times in Church history. It is true that the expression "three days and three nights" in the passage you mention sounds very emphatic to our Western ears, accustomed to the sharp distinction conveyed by the words in our time and speech. But, as Dr Whedon comments here, "the Jews reckoned the entire twenty-four hours in an unbroken piece as a night-and-day. They counted the odd fragment of a day, in computation, as an entire night-and-day. Our Saviour therefore, was dead during three night-and-days." It is however later proved that the Shabbat which they talked about was the Passover Shabbat and He was therefore laid in the grave before the Passover Shabbat which makes it that He was in the grave for a whole three days and a whole three nights as He said.

Frequently asked questions and answers:

Question 236: In what body did Yeshua appear after the resurrection?

Answer:

The language of Luke 24:39 are clear and explicit. The resurrection body proved that Yeshua was "the Son of YHVH with power" in taking to Himself the same identical body which had been crucified and laid in the grave and yet which had been glorified "by some such inscrutable change as took place at the transfiguration." The very fact attests Him as the Master of life and death and as divine. He continued forty days on earth after the resurrection, taking again to Himself that life which He had laid down, in order that His followers and the whole world might be convinced of the completeness of His triumph over the grave and that He had not "seen corruption." He ascended to heaven a spiritual body. (Philippians 3:21, Colossians 3:4.)

Question 235: Moshiach’s garments – where did He get those which He wore when He appeared to Mary on the resurrection morning?

Answer:

It is one of the most asked questions, but never satisfactorily answered. We must conclude, in the absence of any Scriptural statement about the garments that they belonged to that strange mysterious life on which Moshiach entered when He rose from the dead. That they were not of the ordinary materials seems clear from the Gospel narratives, which represent Moshiach as "vanishing out of their sight" (Luke 24:31), appearing among His disciples in a room the doors of which were shut (John 20:19) and being seen now at Jerusalem, now at Emmaus and in Galilee, at least forty miles distant. Whatever the garments were and wherever they came from, they were clearly not of the substantial kind, which would have prevented these disappearances.

Question 234: How many appearances are recorded of Moshiach after His resurrection?

Answer: Ten: They are in ---

(1) Mark 16:9-11; John 20:11-18;
(2) Matthew 28:8-10; Mark 16:8; Luke 24:9-11;
(3) Luke 24:34;
(4) Mark 16:12, 13; Luke 24:13-35;
(5) Mark 16:14; Luke 24:36-49; John 20:19-23;
(6) John 20:24-29;
(7) Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:15-18;
(8) John 21:1-24;
(9) Matthew 28:16;
(10) Acts 1:3-8.

Question 233: Could Moshiach have come down from the cross?

Answer:

Moshiach had done many miracles, as when He healed the blind, stilled the storm and raised the dead. His remark to Peter (Matthew 26:53) that His Father would give Him twelve legions of angels if He asked for deliverance, showed that He believed He could be delivered if He wished. The only reason why He had no desire to come down from the cross was that love of the human race held Him there. He knew that His voluntary sacrifice was essential to the great atonement for the sins of the world. He had foreseen His own death on the cross and on several occasions had spoken of it.

Question 232: Could Pilate have done other than condemn Yeshua to death?

Answer:

Yes, as Pilate told Yeshua (John 19:10), he had power to release Him. His difficulty lay in his own bad record. If he refused to oblige the Jews in this matter, they might go to Rome and accuse him before the emperor of many acts of misgovernment. It would have done him no harm for them to complain of his letting Yeshua go. In that matter, his defence that the prisoner was innocent would have been sufficient. But they would probably say nothing about Yeshua; they would bring charges against him for which he had no defence and he would lose his office. He concluded that he could not afford to set them at defiance, although he ought to have done so.

Frequently asked questions and answers:

Question 231: What became of Pilate after he judged Yeshua?

Answer:

There are various legends and traditions concerning Pilate's further history. The Acta Pilai, an apocryphal work still extant, contains some of these. One tradition is to the effect that the Emperor Tiberius, alarmed at the universal darkness which had suddenly fallen on his empire upon the day of the crucifixion, summoned Pilate to Rome to answer for having caused it. Pilate was condemned to death, but pleaded ignorance as his excuse. His wife died at the moment of his execution. Another tradition is that Tiberius, having heard of Moshiach's miracles, wrote to Pilate bidding him send Yeshua to Rome. Pilate was compelled to confess that he had crucified him and was thrown into prison and committed suicide. Earth and sea refused to receive his body and it was repeatedly cast up, finally being sunk in a pool at Lucerne, under the shadow of Mount Pilatus. Josephus, the Jewish historian (in Antiquities, 18 chapter 4:1), states authoritatively that Pilate met with political disaster. The Samaritans complained against him to Vitellius, president of Syria, who sent Pilate to Rome to answer to Caligula, the successor of Tiberius and he soon afterward killed himself. The scene of this act is uncertain.