Most people have heard of the Seven Wonders of the World, but how many have heard about the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World noted below? There are other Wonders of the World also, which we will get to in the Book of Acts.
In Christianity, the crown of thorns was woven of thorn branches and placed on Jesus Christ during the events leading up to the his crucifixion.
It was one of the instruments of the Passion, employed by Jesus’ captors both to cause him pain and to mock his claim of authority. It is mentioned in the Canonical gospels of Matt (27:29), Mk (15:17), and Jn (19:2, 5) and is often alluded to by the early Church Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and others.
In later centuries, relics believed by many to be all or part of the Crown of Thorns have been venerated.
Tomorrow we are going review…
John 19
Jesus Crowned with Thorns
1 Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.
2 And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,
3 And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands.
4 Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.
5 Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!
6 When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him.
“Take ye him, and crucify him” – the petulant utterance of an exasperated man, for the Jews couldn’t carry out this form of execution, they needed Governor Pilate to order it.
7 The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
8 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid;
“The more afraid” – Pilate was evidently superstition and this charge frightened him. Besides, his wife warned him not to crucify Jesus because she had been troubled over a dream she had (Matt 27:19).
9 And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.
10 Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?
11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
“The greater sin” – that of Caiaphas (not Judas, who was only a means). But “greater” implies that there was a lesser sin, so Pilate’s sin was also real.
12 And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.
13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.
14 And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!
15 But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
16 Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.
17 And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:
18 Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
19 And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.
20 This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.
21 Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews.
22 Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.
23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.
24 They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.
25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
26 When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!
27 Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.
28 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.
29 Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.
“Vinegar” – equivalent cheap wine, the drink of ordinary people.
30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
“It is finished” – apparently the loud cry of Matt 27:50; Mk 15:37. Jesus died as a victor and had completed what He came to do.
“Gave up the ghost” – it usually takes a couple days to die by crucifixion, it took Jesus three hours because He decided when to die. No person can do that.
31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
Christian literature and legends have amplified the brief anecdote about Pilate’s wife in the New Testament.
“Legs might be broken” – to hasten death, because the victim then could not put any weight on his legs and breathing would be difficult.
32 Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him.
33 But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:
34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
“Pierced his side” – probably to make doubly sure that Jesus was dead, but perhaps simply an act of brutality (see v. 37; Is 53:5; Zech 12:10; cf. Ps 22:16).
35 And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.
36 For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
19:36-37 – “Scripture” – John observes God’s overruling in the fulfillment of Scripture. It was extraordinary that Jesus was the only one of the three whose legs weren’t broken and that He suffered an unusual spear thrust that didn’t break a bone. God controls all actions.
37 And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
38 And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
“Joseph” – a rich disciples (Matt 27:57), and a member of the San Hedrin who had not agreed to Jesus’ condemnation (Lk 23:51).
39 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
“A hundred pound weight” – a very large amount, such as was used in royal burials.
40 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulcher, wherein was never man yet laid.
42 There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the sepulcher was nigh at hand.
The Seven wonders of the Ancient World
There are many listed Wonders of the World, most of them are forgotten, and some new discovered wonders of the world.
Most of this Wonders of the World, are strange and weird to other countries, that made them so curious to see and experience the beautiful natural nature or man-made scenery. Here are some lists of the Wonders of the world. Today we will start wwith the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Of the six vanished Wonders, the Lighthouse of Alexandria was the last to disappear, although the Lighthouse of Alexandria did not survive to the present day, it left its influence in various respects.
The earliest lists had the Ishtar Gates the seventh wonder of the world instead of the Lighthouse of Alexandria. In the Middle Ages, the list known today was compiled in the by which time many of the sites were no longer in existence.
Today, the only ancient world wonder that still exists is the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. Other Seven Ancient Wonders that do not exist are, Hanging Garden of Babylon, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and Colossus of Rhodes.
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus or Tomb of Mausolus
The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus or Tomb of Mausolus was a tomb built between 353 and 350 B.C. at Halicarnassus (present Bodrum, Turkey) for Mausolus, a satrap in the Persian Empire, and Artemisia II of Caria, who was both his wife and his sister.
The structure was designed by the Greek architects Satyros and Pythius of Priene.
The Mausoleum was approximately 148 feet in height, and the four sides were adorned with sculptural reliefs, each created by one of four Greek sculptors — Leochares, Bryaxis, Scopas of Paros and Timotheus.
The finished structure of the mausoleum was considered to be such an aesthetic triumph that Antipater of Sidon identified it as one of his Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The word mausoleum has now come to be used generically for an above-ground tomb.
Ishtar Gate
The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 B.C. by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city.
Dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the gate was constructed using glazed brick with alternating rows of bas-relief mušḫuššu (dragons) andaurochs.
The roof and doors of the gate were of cedar, according to the dedication plaque. Through the gate ran the Processional Way, which was lined with walls covered in lions on glazed bricks (about 120 of them).
Ishtar Gate depicts only gods and goddesses which include Ishtar Adad and Marduk. Statues of the deities were paraded through the gate and down the Processional Way each year during the New Year’s celebration.
Originally the gate, being part of the Walls of Babylon, was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the world until it was replaced by the Lighthouse of Alexandria; in the 3rd century B.C.
Temple of Artemis
The Temple of Artemis, also known less precisely as the Temple of Diana, was a Greek temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis and was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
It was located in Ephesus (near the modern town of Selçuk in present-day Turkey), and was completely rebuilt three times before its eventual destruction in 401. Only foundations and sculptural fragments of the latest of the temples at the site remain.
The first sanctuary (temenos) antedated the Ionic immigration by many years, and dates to the Bronze Age. Callimachus, in his Hymn to Artemis, attributed it to the Amazons. In the 7th century B.C., the old temple was destroyed by a flood.
Its reconstruction began around 550 BC, under the Cretan architect Chersiphron and his son Metagenes, at the expense of Croesus of Lydia: the project took 10 years to complete, only to be destroyed in an act of arson by Herostratus. It was later rebuilt.
…the Resurrection of Jesus.
