Was the crucifixion of Jesus just a fiction?

Answer 1

The crucifixion of Jesus was probably just a fiction, as is readily apparent from Mark's Gospel. In Mark's Gospel, the last 24 hours of the life of Jesus is broken up into eight segments, each of exactly three hours, with the opening set beginning on the evening of the Last Supper and ending with the trial before the Sanhedrin. The second set begins with the trial before Pontius Pilate and ends on the evening of the crucifixion.

• Mark begins the story "when it was evening" (14:17). In this ancient world without electricity, that would mean when the sun went down, or approximately 6 pm.
• Mark knew that the duration of the Passover meal was three hours and that it concluded with the singing of a hymn. So at the end of his segment he noted, "And when they had sung a hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives". It was obviously about 9 p.m.
• Mark then has Jesus and the disciples go to the Garden of Gethsemane, where his closest disciples, Peter, James and John, were not able to remain awake. "Could you not watch one hour?" Jesus asked. The process was repeated two more times. The disciples could not watch one, two or three hours. It was now midnight.
• The act of betrayal, the darkest deed in human history, came next, occurring at the stroke of midnight.
• Jesus was led away for a trial before the high priest and other senior priests and elders. This governing body then judged him, on the basis of his messianic claim, to be worthy of death. It was 3:00 a.m.
• The watch of the night between 3 am and 6 am was called cockcrow. Mark now inserted his account of Peter's threefold denial of Jesus, once each hour until the cock crowed, marking the end of that phase of the night. That makes it 6 am.
• "As soon as it was morning", which would be 6 am, Jesus was led by the chief priests, scribes and elders to Pontius Pilate for judgement.
• Mark told his readers once again that this drama has been shaped liturgically, saying, " It was the third hour," or 9 am "when they crucified him".
• When "the sixth hour had come" (12 noon), darkness covered the whole earth, reflecting the betrayal at 12 midnight.
• After three hours of darkness, Jesus said "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" At 3 pm, Jesus gave up the ghost. Jesus was buried in the final period from 3 to 6 pm, before the sun went down. That brings us to 6 pm on Friday evening, reflecting the beginning of the passion on 6 pm on Thursday evening.

This improbable sequence was fiction, not history. It may have been written in this form to be used in early church liturgy, but it certainly has no historical basis.

Mark's Gospel was written approximately 70 CE and is now known to have been the source relied on, directly or indirectly, by the authors of the other gospels for everything they knew about the mission of Jesus. The other gospels varied the structure of this account, making it less obviously artificial, but in the end they were derivative. The truth or falsity of the account must be determined from Mark's Gospel.

Answer 2

Historical and biblical accounts provide evidence that the crucifixion of Jesus was a real event that took place. There are multiple sources outside of The Bible that also mention Jesus's crucifixion. Additionally, early Christian writings and traditions consistently attest to the reality of this event.