Prophecies of the Crucifixion

There are many scriptures from before the time of Christ that foretold or foreshadowed the manner of His death by crucifixion.  In the Old Testament, the Psalmist wrote, “The assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet,” likely alluding to the nails that were driven through His hands and feet as part of His crucifixion.  This was also referenced by Zechariah in a prophecy of those who would see the resurrected Lord and notice the marks of crucifixion: “And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends” (Zechariah 13:6).  The experience of the children of men with the brazen serpent also appears to have been a type of the death of Christ: “And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived” (Numbers 21:9).  Nephi, the son of Helaman, explained how this indeed pointed to the crucifixion of Christ: “Did [Moses] not bear record that the Son of God should come? And as he lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness, even so shall he be lifted up who should come” (Helaman 8:14).  Just as Christ would be lifted up upon the cross so was the serpent lifted up by Moses before the people, and looking unto both with faith brought healing. 

               The testimony of the prophets who came before Christ in the scriptures of the restoration are much clearer about their knowledge of the Savior’s manner of death than what we have in the Old Testament.  In the Pearl of Great Price, Enoch learned of the crucifixion: “And the Lord said unto Enoch: Look, and he looked and beheld the Son of Man lifted up on the cross, after the manner of men; And he heard a loud voice; and the heavens were veiled; and all the creations of God mourned; and the earth groaned” (Moses 7:55).  That Christ would suffer death in this exact manner was known to prophets thousands of years before the coming of the Savior.  Nephi wrote that he “saw that he was lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world” (1 Nephi 11:33).  He also prophesied that “the God of Jacob, yieldeth himself, according to the words of the angel, as a man, into the hands of wicked men, to be lifted up, according to the words of Zenock, and to be crucified, according to the words of Neum….  They crucify the God of Israel” (1 Nephi 19:10, 13).  Clearly the prophets of the brass plates wrote about and predicting death upon the cross for the Savior.  Nephi wrote again towards the end of his record: “Behold, they will crucify him; and after he is laid in a sepulchre for the space of three days he shall rise from the dead” (2 Nephi 25:13). 

Other Book of Mormon prophets also stressed the specific manner of death of the Savior.  Nephi’s brother Jacob wrote, “And he also has shown unto me that the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, should manifest himself unto them in the flesh; and after he should manifest himself they should scourge him and crucify him, according to the words of the angel who spake it unto me” (2 Nephi 6:9).  Jacob also testified that the people of Jerusalem “shall crucify him—for thus it behooveth our God, and there is none other nation on earth that would crucify their God” (2 Nephi 10:3).  Later King Benjamin declared these words of the angel to him about the Savior’s life: “Even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge him, and shall crucify him” (Mosiah 3:9).  And Abinadi, after reading the words of Isaiah about the Savior’s death, explained, “Yea, even so he shall be led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death” (Mosiah 15:7).  That the Savior would suffer death in this most terrible manner was known by prophets throughout the ages and clearly was a part of the Father’s plan for the redemption of the world.  Perhaps Jacob’s words summarize best what this should mean for us now: “We would to God that we could persuade all men not to rebel against God, to provoke him to anger, but that all men would believe in Christ, and view his death, and suffer his cross and bear the shame of the world” (Jacob 1:8).  In some small way, we must in the similitude of the Savior bear our own symbolic crosses and persevere in faithful discipleship of the Savior.