The Bones That Were Never Broken

In 1968, construction workers in the Givat HaMivtar neighborhood of Jerusalem uncovered an ancient burial site. Among the limestone ossuaries, archaeologists found the remains of a young man named Yehohanan ben Hagkol — the only confirmed archaeological evidence of a Roman crucifixion victim. A seven-inch iron nail still pierced his heel bone. And his leg bones had been shattered, broken by soldiers to hasten death, exactly as John describes happening to the two criminals beside Jesus.…