SINCE 4 WERE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST, why doesn't anyone teach it?

John 19:32-33

 Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him.

33 But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:

KJV

To the student of the Bible these 2 verses should "stand out like a sore thumb" in contrast to what is traditionally taught. Here is what we have:

1.  Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, (the first among those who were crucified that day)
2. and of the other which was crucified with him. (One of the ones crucified WITH, at the same time as Jesus was)
3. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: (when they came to Jesus----think about this------if there were only 2 crucified with him the soldiers would have come to Jesus 2nd, if he was between the 2 or Jesus was at the end of the three).

John makes a distinction between the first crucified and the one crucified along with him showing that everyone was not crucified at the same time.

Luke 23:26, 32-33

 And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus. And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death. And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. KJV

Here we have:

1. Simon a Cyrenian carrying Jesus' "cross" behind him.
2. Cross is the Greek word, stauros, a stake, pole or post
3. 2 Malefactors, kakourgos, workers of evil
4. Led with him, sun, accompanying him

Contrary to tradition Scripture clearly teaches that Jesus did not carry a physical piece of wood, particularly not a 2 member piece of wood with one member perpendicular to the other. These 2 evildoers were led with him and crucified with him, at the same time as him.

Matt 27:35-37  And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down they watched him there; And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. KJV

After they crucified him they: (These things took a little bit of time to do).

1.  and parted his garments, casting lots: 
2. And sitting down they watched him there; 
3. And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. KJV

Matt 27:38 Then were there two thieves, leistes crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left. KJV

These 2 are a specific kind of malefactor who came up to be crucified after the other 2 who were led with Jesus. One could easily say that I am just splitting hairs here, if it were not for this verse 44:

 The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. 

But we know from Luke 23:39-40 that only one malefactor reviled Jesus while the other did not:

39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?

KJV

There can be no doubt in your mind what the Scriptures teach on this subject, that 4 were crucified with Christ, not just 2. Now John 19 makes sense. There were 5 people crucified in a line with Jesus in the midst of them

John 19:18

18 where they crucified him, and with him two others, on this side, and on that side, and Jesus in the midst.

YLT

Here's how the KJV reads:

18 Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.

One is not in the texts and was added by the translators. "on either side" are the Greek words enteuthen kai entheuthen.  Kai is usually translated as "and," and serves as a copulative, Here enteuthen is translated as on and side. When  enteuthen is repeated as it is here, it means both sides:

  enteuthen 

NT:1782  from the same as NT:1759; hence (literally or figuratively); (repeated) on both sides:

(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)

It is unbelievable to me how many versions and translations have missed this: 2 on both sides! 

This should cause you to wonder how much more they've misrepresented the God-breathed Word, but, unfortunately, it probably won't because hardly anyone really cares. After all, most Christians are more content with 2,000 years of Church Tradition than they are with the truth.

Does the truth matter to you?

MYTH #1 of THE CROSS CHRIST BORE FOR US

MYTH-- He carried a physical piece of wood

TRUTH-- He carried a spiritual Cross

     Much like my last post where we saw that 4 were crucified with Christ instead of 2, we will soon learn that Jesus was too abused to carry an 8-12' timber on his shoulder, so the Roman soldiers made someone else do it.
     Matt 27:31-32 tells us:
And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross. KJV

     Mark 15:20-21 tells the same story:
And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him. And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross.

     And Luke 23:26 says the same thing:
And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.

     Here we have three very clear accounts of who carried Jesus' cross, where he came from, who his sons were and the fact that he followed Jesus on the way to Golgotha. Whenever there are a majority of clear verse on a given subject, the seemingly ambiguous verse or verses must fit with the majority of clear ones, not vice versa. 

     John 19:16-18 gives us the seemingly contradictory verse:

 Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.

 And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.

     Most of the Commentaries say that they believe that Jesus initially carried his own cross but then they made Simon carry it for some unknown reason. Keep in mind that Jesus had just been through roughly 40 hours of torture and beatings and initially took him in the night. He probably had not had any sleep in over 2 days. It is my belief, because of the lack of any other evidence to the contrary, that he never carried his own cross. What he did carry was the figurative cross of our sins that were laid upon him

1 Peter 2:24

   Who his own self bare (carried) our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

Heb 9:28

 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Furthermore, the morning after they had taken him he was bound and led away to be delivered to Pontius Pilate: Matt 27:1-2

When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death: And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. The common way to bind someone believed to be a criminal is to tie up their hands or feet or both. Here they led him away so we must assume he was walking and probably being pulled along with a rope.

     All 4 gospel accounts show Jesus being led away just as livestock would be led to water:

Luke 13:15

 The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? These words in the Greek, apago, is the same 

word used in all the above passages. Jesus' hands were bound and he was being led about, keeping him from being able to carry anything upon his shoulders.

Regardless of any suppositions on my part, the 3 three clear verses above on the same exact event should be enough to convince anyone that the cross Christ bore was not a physical one.