The wine . . . mixed with gall (v. 34) may have been meant to dull Jesus' pain. Once he tasted the wine, he may have refused it in part because of his vow in 26:29; but Jesus probably refused it also because he had come to share our pain and had to experience it in full. He endured this pain alone, for a world that hated him and for disciples who had forsaken him and denied him.

It is difficult to communicate adequately the torture Jesus, like others who were crucified, endured. Although some features remained common, executioners could perform crucifixions in a variety of ways, limited only by the extent of their sadistic creativity (Hengel 1977:25). Executioners usually tied victims to the cross, but in some cases hastened their death by also nailing their wrists (see Artem. 2.56; m. Sabbat 6.10). Yet in a symbolic sense a song by musician Michael Card puts it well: had the soldiers not nailed Jesus to the cross, his love for us would have held him there.

Romans crucified their victims naked (Artem. 2.61; R. Brown 1994:870), and public nakedness could cause shame (as in Juv. Sat. 1.71; Plut. Roman Questions 40, Mor. 274A), especially for Palestinian Jews (for example, Jub. 3:21-22, 30-31; 7:8-10, 20; 1QS 7.12). Anyone so executed could not brush flies away from wounds, nor control bodily functions while hanging naked for hours and sometimes days (Klausner 1979:350).

The specific mention of divided clothing (27:35) may well recall Psalm 22:18 but can hardly be a mere accommodation to it without historical substance. Roman law allowed execution squads to seize the few possessions a condemned might have on his person (Justinian Digest 48.20.6; Sherwin-White 1978:46). The charge posted above Jesus' head reveals the irony of the situation: Jesus is executed for being king of Israel (v. 37). Romans crucified many self-proclaimed kings and their followers under the Lex Iulia de maiestate (Jos. Ant. 17.285, 295; R. Brown 1994:968), and both Jesus' royal triumphal entry and his temple "cleansing" marked him as a troublemaker. On other known occasions a member of the execution squad would carry in front of or beside the condemned a small tablet (tabula) declaring the charge (titulus), the cause of execution (causa poenae), which he might later post on the cross (Cullmann 1956b:42-43; R. Brown 1994:963).