It was about three o'clock in the afternoon, according to our manner of reckoning,[1] when Jesus expired. A Jewish law[2] forbade a corpse suspended on the cross to be left beyond the evening of the day of the execution. It is not probable that in the executions performed by the Romans this rule was observed; but as the next day was the Sabbath, and a Sabbath of peculiar solemnity, the Jews expressed to the Roman authorities[3] their desire that this holy day should not be profaned by such a spectacle.[4] Their request was granted; orders were given to hasten the death of the three condemned ones, and to remove them from the cross. The soldiers executed this order by applying to the two thieves a second punishment much more speedy than that of the cross, the _crurifragium_, or breaking of the legs,[5] the usual punishment of slaves and of prisoners of war. As to Jesus, they found him dead, and did not think it necessary to break his legs. But one of them, to remove all doubt as to the real death of the third victim, and to complete it, if any breath remained in him, pierced his side with a spear. They thought they saw water and blood flow, which was regarded as a sign of the cessation of life. [Footnote 1: Matt. xxvii. 46; Mark xv. 37; Luke xxiii. 44. Comp. John xix. 14.] [Footnote 2: _Deut._ xxi. 22, 23; Josh. viii. 29, x. 26, and following. Cf. Jos., _B.J._, IV. v. 2; Mishnah, _Sanhedrim_, vi. 5.] [Footnote 3: John says, "To Pilate"; but that cannot be, for Mark (xv. 44, 45) states that at night Pilate was still ignorant of the death of Jesus.] [Footnote 4: Compare Philo, _In Flaccum_, Sec. 10.] [Footnote 5: There is no other example of the _crurifragium_ applied after crucifixion. But often, in order to shorten the tortures of the sufferer, a finishing stroke was given him. See the passage from Ibn-Hischam, translated in the _Zeitschrift fuer die Kunde des Morgenlandes_, i. p. 99, 100.]