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“When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining.” The gospel of John (John 19:23) mentions the Roman troops dividing Jesus’ clothing. After divvying up the clothes the underwear remains and John actually describes Jesus’ underwear for us: “this garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.” What happens next is even weirder. The soldiers don’t want to rip Jesus’ underpants and they agree to draw lots to see who would gain possession. Now, if we imagine Jesus as a humble man rural provinces of the Galilee then his clothes couldn’t be worth much. And after his previous beating the clothes would have been covered in blood and sweat so why do the Roman soldiers want the holy underpants? Like most of the tales in the gospels, the slightest details are inspired by prophecies from the Jewish scriptures (what Christians call the Old Testament). In the gospels every detail of Jesus’ last moments are given deeper meaning by finding parallels in the prophecies. Even Jesus’ underwear is prophesied. John makes it clear that the soldiers want Jesus’ clothes to fulfill prophecy from psalm twenty two, “They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” (Psalm 22:18) The psalms are a collection of one hundred and fifty sacred poems that express the tenets of Judaism. Psalm twenty two bears a striking resemblance to the death of Jesus, beginning with the line “My god, my god why have you forsaken me?” This is the very same line Jesus is said to have uttered on the cross. But are these similarities evidence that Jesus fulfilled the prophecies as Christians assume? Or are they evidence that the gospel writers borrowed aspects of Jesus life from earlier texts? In this case, it seems, John has found inspiration from a psalm and applied it to the final moments of Jesus’ life - he weaves the story of the soldiers wanting Jesus’ clothing in order to ‘fulfill’ this psalm. We must therefore be wary of the historicity of this incident; would Roman soldiers really want blood-soaked underwear, and for what purpose? This story is so absurd it is best explained as an invention. If we accept the truth of the matter then we have to be even more careful about what the rest of the gospels are telling us of the death of Jesus. The events leading to his death are literally packed with theological interpretations which make finding the historical truth behind why he died even more difficult. Anyway, if you liked this article you might like to read my book “The Christ Conundrum: The Skeptic’s Guide to Jesus,” published by Dangerous Little Books. Or why not head over to my blog.
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