With restrained objectivity, and without sentimentality, sensationalism, or appealing to readers’ emotions, Mark recounts the crucifixion in order to show what Jesus’s death accomplished. Cicero described the hideous brutality of crucifixion as the “most cruel and horrifying punishment.” Reserved for non-Roman citizens, crucifixion unleashed excessive and prolonged cruelty on the classes for which it was intended: slaves, violent criminals, and prisoners of war. As a rule, victims were crucified naked and in public in order to add shame and degradation to extreme suffering. The Jewish messiah was expected as a victorious conqueror; there is no certain evidence in any layer of Jewish tradition outside the New Testament of a messiah who would suffer. The concept of a messiah suffering on a …