In an even remotely sane world, this column could stand to be a mere two sentences long. In the first, I could write, “Christianity Today claims that the Bible doesn’t say Jesus was nailed to a cross.” In the second, I could write, “It does, though; it’s right there in John 20:25-27.”
But then again, if this were a remotely sane world, I would not have to be saying that at all to a publication named Christianity Today and about a column they published the week before Easter.
The author opens with the statement, “Telling the story of Christ’s death, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John simply say that the Roman soldiers crucified him. They don’t say how. Each of the Gospels includes specific detail about the soldiers’ method of dividing Jesus’ clothes — a lottery — but none describe the way the soldiers put him on the cross. There are no nails mentioned in any of the four accounts.”
Ahem. John 20:25-27: “The other disciples therefore said unto him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said unto them, ‘Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.’ And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, ‘Peace be unto you.’ Then saith he to Thomas, ‘Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.'”
Thomas, dear Doubting Thomas, as he has come to be known, could also apparently have been aptly nicknamed Redundant Thomas; not once, but twice in the very same sentence, he used the phrase “the print of the nails” in reference to the hands of Jesus. And that doubled usage of the phrase, as well as Jesus then offering to let Thomas examine those hands in which he expected to find those nail prints serve as ample proof of those nails — unless, of course, one simply goes on to wave the entire Gospel of John itself away with the words “Many think the Gospel of John was written later — perhaps after crucifixion with nails had become more common.”