Did Jesus Suffer During His Crucifixion? (Depends Which Gospel You Read!) (VIDEO)

Did Jesus Suffer During His Crucifixion? (Depends Which Gospel You Read!) (vIDEO)

Welcome to the home of Episode 191 of the Misquoting Jesus Podcast with Bart Ehrman. Below, you can watch the entire episode, read its description, and see links to related resources.

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episode description

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This episode explores a deceptively simple question: did Jesus actually want to suffer? Bart Ehrman examines how the Gospels portray Jesus’ suffering and whether those portrayals can be traced back to the historical Jesus.

The discussion begins by comparing the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ final days. Ehrman notes that the Gospels generally downplay the physical horrors of crucifixion. While modern depictions such as The Passion of the Christ emphasize graphic suffering, the Gospel writers often describe events with remarkable brevity. The major differences emerge in Jesus’ emotional state. In Matthew and Mark, Jesus experiences profound anguish in Gethsemane, praying repeatedly that God might spare him from his fate. Luke, by contrast, presents a far calmer Jesus, removing much of the agony and depicting him as composed even on the cross.

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Did Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John Actually Write the Gospels?

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The conversation then broadens to Jesus’ wider teachings on suffering. According to Ehrman, Jesus’ message was fundamentally apocalyptic: the present world is controlled by evil powers, but God’s kingdom is about to arrive and eliminate suffering forever. Jesus taught that his followers would likely endure hardship, service, and sacrifice in the present age, but these trials would be rewarded when God’s kingdom arrived.

The episode concludes with Ehrman’s distinction between the Jesus of the Gospels and the historical Jesus. While the Gospel writers portray Jesus as knowingly embracing a salvific death, Ehrman argues that the historical Jesus probably expected God’s kingdom to arrive soon and did not anticipate crucifixion as part of the divine plan.