(a) Possibly two of the soldiers broke the legs of one male- factor, and the other two the legs of the other. Reason and common sense point out that it does not require four men to do this horrid work on a helpless, unresisting, crucified person. Thus, having finished their work at the two outward crosses, they would come last to the centre one.
(6) Possibly the two outward crosses may have been rather forwarder in position than the central one, so that the sufferers might see each others' faces. In that case the soldiers would naturally begin with the crosses they came to first. This, per- haps, would account for the penitent thief having read the word " King " over our Lord's head on the cross.
(c) Possibly the soldiers saw that our Lord was dead, even before they came up to Him. At any rate they probably saw that He was still and motionless, and thus suspecting that He was dead, they did not trouble themselves with His body, but began with the two who evidently were yet alive.
It is noteworthy that the penitent thief, even after his con- version, had more suffering to go through before he entered paradise. The grace of God and the pardon of sin did not de- liver him from the agony of having his legs broken. When Christ undertakes to save our souls. He does not undertake to deliver us from bodily pains and a conflict with the last enemy. Penitents, as well as impenitents, must taste death and all its accompaniments. Conversion is not heaven, though it leads to it.
Scott remarks that those who broke the legs of the penitent thief, and hastened his end, were unconscious instruments of fulfilling our Lord's promise, " To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise."
How the legs of crucified criminals were broken we do not know ; but it was probably done in the roughest manner. With such tools at hand as the haminers used for driving in the nails, and the mattocks and spades used for putting the cross in the ground, the soldiers could hardly want instru- ments. It must be remembered that a simple fracture would not cause death. The Greek word which we render " break," means, literally, " shiver to pieces." May it not be feared that this is the true meaning here ?
33. — \^But when they came to Jems, etc.] This verse contains the first proof of the mighty fact that our Lord really died. We are told that the soldiers did not break His legs, because they " saw that He was dead already." Accustomed as Roman sol- diers necessarily were to see death in every form, wounds of every kind, and dead bodies of every description, and trained, to take away human life by their profession, they were of all men least likely to make a mistake about such a matter. Thua we have it most expressly recorded, that the soldiers " saw