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90 The Messiah’s Crucifixion Tree

self “accursed.” To keep the land from being polluted, Yeshua had to be destroyed before sundown
of the Preparation Day and the “accursed” stauros had to be burnt up so that no person could ever
touch it again.

The Jewish authorities of the day wanted to take the dead body of the Messiah and the “ac-
cursed” (shameful) tree and burn them up together just like the example of Achan in the Old Testa-
ment. It was for this reason that Joseph of Arimathea went before Pontius Pilate to ask for the
Messiah’s body so that he could arrange for its burial before the authorities committed it to the
flames (Mark 15:43). If Pilate had refused to release the body of the Messiah to Joseph, it would in-
deed have been consumed by fire along with the tree he died on.

In fact, there was a prophecy which many people at the time believed referred to the Mes-
siah and his death. Martin explains –

It [the prophecy] showed that the tree and the person on the tree would be destroyed to-
gether. Though the original teaching of this Old Testament prophecy seemed to refer to the
prophet Jeremiah, later Christians came to feel that it was a direct prophecy of what hap-
pened to Christ at his crucifixion. The prophecy is found in Jeremiah 11:19.

For I was like a docile lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that it was against
me they fashioned their plots: “Let us destroy the TREE WITH ITS FRUIT [or
“sap”], let us cut him off from the land of the living. That his name be remembered
no more!” (Italics mine -- the subsidiary word “ox” in the King James Version is not
in the original Hebrew). -- Secrets of Golgotha, p. 181.

The Anglican Commentary (London: 1875) provides an interesting quote from Jerome in
the 4th century regarding this very verse:

Jerome well says on this verse; “all the churches agree in understanding that under the per-
son of Jeremiah these things are said of Christ. For he is the lamb brought to the slaughter
that opened not its mouth. The TREE is his cross, and the bread [fruit] his body: for he says
himself, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven. And of him they purposed to cut him
off from the land of the living that his name should no more be remembered’” (vol. V, p.
395).

Even though later Christians interpreted Jeremiah 11:19 in a number of ways, it is a fact that
the Hebrew makes one think that the tree, along WITH the fruit (the body) were prophesied to be
destroyed together! While this prophecy -- acknowledged by Christians as referring to the Messiah
-- has the crucifixion tree destroyed along WITH the Messiah, we know that Joseph of Arimathea
was able, at the last moment, to rescue Yeshua’s body from such a fate. However, this Old Testa-
ment passage still clearly shows that the tree itself was destroyed. And typically, in the judgment
rendered by the Sanhedrin against the Messiah, it could be reckoned that Yeshua was “destroyed”
along with the tree (at least he should have been destroyed with the tree) had not Joseph of
Arimathea rescued his body from being committed to the flames. The prophecy of Jeremiah 11:19,
as understood in the original Hebrew and correctly referring to the Messiah and the tree he died on,
is further proof that early Christians knew the crucifixion tree itself was not spared from destruction.

The Berean Voice March-April 2003