From Roman or Jewish perspectives, the crucifixion of Jesus was so ignominious a culmination of Jesus’ life that its interpretation among his earliest followers was crucial. Representing such difficulties, Paul writes that proclamation of “Christ crucified” is “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Cor 1:23). According to the Gospels, Jesus himself was remembered not only to have anticipated his heinous death but already to have begun the
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