John 19:35 And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knows that he says true, that you might believe (trust).
John is speaking of himself here. He is saying that he saw it with his very own eyes and it is the truth.
1 John 5:6 This is He that came by water (immersion) and blood (death), even Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ); not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit (Ruach) that bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.
He came in water and blood refutes dualism that is the idea that Yeshua spirit departed from the man before his death.
The Torah required the testimony of two or three witnesses. (Deut. 17:6; 19:15)
1 John 5:7-9 For there are three that bear record in HEAVEN, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in EARTH, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of G-d is greater: for this is the witness of G-d which he has testified of His Son.
John 19:36 For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him will not be broken.
Let Scripture interpret itself.
Ex 12:46 In one house will it be eaten; you will not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall you break a bone thereof.
Num. 9:12 They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the ordinances of the Pesach (Passover) they shall keep it.
These where types.
John 19:37 And again another scripture said, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
Zechariah 12:10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon ME whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourned for His only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for His firstborn.
The stricken rock that Moshe stuck and water came out at the secret level.
John 19:38-41 And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Yeshua (Jesus), but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Yeshua (Jesus): and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Yeshua (Jesus). And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Yeshua (Jesus) by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Yeshua (Jesus), and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new tomb, wherein was never man yet laid.
The mixture of spices weighed closer to 65 pounds. Myrrh was a very fragrant gummy resin, which the Jewish people turned into a powered form and mixed with aloes, and a power from the aromatic sandalwood. They did not embalm but did this procedure to stifle the smell of decay. The spices were most likely laid on the entire length of the strips of linen and then wound around the body. Mores spices were laid under the body and packed around the body. The sticky resin would help the cloth to adhere.
garden tomb. Near the skull rock formation in Jerusalem is a garden tomb. It bears much resemblance to what scripture says about the place.
What I find interesting is that Yeshua (our first fruit) at the simple level was taken physically from a garden like Adam (from the Mt. of Olives) to be later returned to a garden place then rising into a garden. Is there a secret level of understanding for us? He then returns to the Father above. (next chapter.)
Andrew Bonar described Yeshua’s tomb using the scripture, forty-years BEFORE General Gordon found the garden site tomb in 1883.
Anyone who has visited the Garden Tomb recognizes the validity of Bonar’s perceptions: the site of Golgotha is topologically identifiable as a the peak of the ridge system between the Kidron Valley and the Tyropean Valley; midway between the Mount of Olives and Mount Zion. It is also a very short walk to the tomb, and the tomb itself seems to fit a number of detailed specifications:
(Andrew Bonar, Leviticus, Banner of Truth, Edinburgh 1846, footnote, p. 116-117.)
It still however describes from Scripture the qualifications. It would also have been outside the city walls at the time.
It still is a beautiful garden.
Here is a picture of when we were there. You can see where the stone disk would have rolled and be locked into place. Notice the gutter near the knee of the lady in the picture.
John 19:42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
Isaiah 53:8-9 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
