“Not one of his bones will be broken”
But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs… Now these things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: 'Not one of His bones will be broken.' (John 19:31–36 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A merciful skip of one brutality, given a proof-text.
The cultural key
Breaking the legs (crurifragium) hastened death by ending the crucified man's ability to push up and breathe; Passover's approach made the Romans cooperative about speed. The quotation is the Passover lamb regulation: 'you shall not break any of its bones' (Exodus 12:46). John has built this frame from his first chapter ('Behold, the Lamb of God,' 1:29) and by his chronology Jesus dies on the day of Preparation, while the Passover lambs were being slaughtered in the temple; even the hyssop that lifted the sour wine to his lips (19:29) echoes the hyssop that painted lamb's blood on the doorposts.
Recovered meaning
Rome's execution schedule, a soldier's shrug, and a festival deadline conspire to qualify Jesus, technically and precisely, as a Passover lamb: unbroken, dying as the lambs die, blood on the wood at the door of history's larger exodus.