(2 of 3)
From these fragile bones, a Rumanian-born anatomist and anthropologist at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, Nicu Haas, was able to put together a surprisingly detailed picture of the young man: in his mid-20s at the time of his death, he was of average height for the period (5 ft. 5 in.), had delicate, pleasing features that seemed to approach the Hellenistic ideal, probably wore a beard, and apparently had never performed any really arduous labor—indicating his possible upper-class origins. Except for the injuries inflicted during his crucifixion, he seemed to have been in exceptionally fine health. His only deformities were a slight cleft palate and a barely perceptible asymmetry of the skull, possibly a sign of a difficult birth.
Crooked Nail. The single telltale nail was preserved by an odd quirk. Because of a tough knot in the olive wood of the cross, the nail was slightly bent to the side as it was hammered into place. Later, after the young man had been given the traditional coup de grace (a blow that broke both legs and would have hastened the victim's death by causing hemorrhage and shock), the crooked nail apparently proved to be stubbornly embedded in the cross and hindered efforts to take down the body. The only practical way that this could be done, writes Haas in the Israel Exploration Journal, was "to cut the feet off and then remove the entire complex —nail, plaque of wood [which helped keep the feet in position] and feet —from the cross." Then, these severed parts were apparently immediately buried along with the rest of the body in a temporary grave; Jewish custom forbids long exposure after death. Subsequently, Yehohanan's remains were disinterred by friends or relatives and removed to their permanent resting place outside the city, where they lay undisturbed until 1968.
The actual date of the execution was not so apparent. But from pottery and other artifacts in the cave, the Israeli scholars were able to make a rough estimate: it could have taken place as early as A.D. 7, when the Judeans rose up against the Romans to protest an official census, or as late as the final decade before the destruction of the Second Temple and the dispersion of the Jews in A.D. 70.
Jesus' Agony. The time and place of the young man's execution invited comparison to Jesus Christ's own Passion on the cross—which scholars believe took place about A.D. 30, when Jesus was in his mid-30s.*But Israel's director of antiquities, Avraham Biran, and a number of Christian biblical scholars were quick to warn against any attempt to identify the skeleton as that of Jesus. As Dr. Bruce Metzger of the Princeton Theological Seminary pointed out, "We have absolutely no knowledge of Jesus' physical stature." Moreover, the man was younger than Jesus, and the Gospels report that the Roman soldiers, in contrast to their regular practice, did not break the legs of Jesus before his death; they thrust a lance into his side. Both the archaeologists and biblical scholars were understandably concerned. Any suggestion, however farfetched, that the body was that of Jesus would challenge two of Christianity's central beliefs: the Resurrection, the doctrine that Christ rose from the dead three days after the Crucifixion; and the Ascension, which holds that Jesus ascended bodily into heaven 40 days later.