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A Physicians View of the Crucifixion


JoeCanada

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A Physician's View of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ

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WARNING: MATERIAL IN THIS ARTICLE MAY BE UNSUITABLE FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN. PARENTAL DISCRETION IS ADVISED

About a decade ago, reading Jim Bishop’s The Day Christ Died, I realized that I had for years taken the Crucifixion more or less for granted — that I had grown callous to its horror by a too easy familiarity with the grim details and a too distant friendship with our Lord. It finally occurred to me that, though a physician, I didn’t even know the actual immediate cause of death. The Gospel writers don’t help us much on this point, because crucifixion and scourging were so common during their lifetime that they apparently considered a detailed description unnecessary.

So we have only the concise words of the Evangelists: “Pilate, having scourged Jesus, delivered Him to them to be crucified — and they crucified Him.”  I have no competence to discuss the infinite psychic and spiritual suffering of the Incarnate God atoning for the sins of fallen man. But it seemed to me that as a physician I might pursue the physiological and anatomical aspects of our Lord’s passion in some detail.

What did the body of Jesus of Nazareth actually endure during those hours of torture? 

This led me first to a study of the practice of crucifixion itself; that is, torture and execution by fixation to a cross. I am indebted to many who have studied this subject in the past, and especially to a contemporary colleague, Dr. Pierre Barbet, a French surgeon who has done exhaustive historical and experimental research and has written extensively on the subject. 

Apparently, the first known practice of crucifixion was by the Persians. Alexander and his generals brought it back to the Mediterranean world — to Egypt and to Carthage. The Romans apparently learned the practice from the Carthaginians and (as with almost everything the Romans did) rapidly developed a very high degree of efficiency and skill at it. A number of Roman authors (Livy, Cicer, Tacitus) comment on crucifixion, and several innovations, modifications, and variations are described in the ancient literature.  For instance, the upright portion of the cross (or stipes) could have the cross-arm (or patibulum) attached two or three feet below its top in what we commonly think of as the Latin cross. The most common form used in our Lord’s day, however, was the Tau cross, shaped like our T.

In this cross, the patibulum was placed in a notch at the top of the stipes. There is archeological evidence that it was on this type of cross that Jesus was crucified.  Without any historical or biblical proof, Medieval and Renaissance painters have given us our picture of Christ carrying the entire cross. But the upright post, or stipes, was generally fixed permanently in the ground at the site of execution and the condemned man was forced to carry the patibulum, weighing about 110 pounds, from the prison to the place of execution. 

Many of the painters and most of the sculptors of crucifixion, also show the nails through the palms. Historical Roman accounts and experimental work have established that the nails were driven between the small bones of the wrists (radial and ulna) and not through the palms. Nails driven through the palms will strip out between the fingers when made to support the weight of the human body. The misconception may have come about through a misunderstanding of Jesus’ words to Thomas, “Observe my hands.” Anatomists, both modern and ancient, have always considered the wrist as part of the hand. 

A titulus, or small sign, stating the victim’s crime was usually placed on a staff, carried at the front of the procession from the prison, and later nailed to the cross so that it extended above the head. This sign with its staff nailed to the top of the cross would have given it somewhat the characteristic form of the Latin cross. 

But, of course, the physical passion of the Christ began in Gethsemane. Of the many aspects of this initial suffering, the one of greatest physiological interest is the bloody sweat. It is interesting that St. Luke, the physician, is the only one to mention this. He says, “And being in agony, He prayed the longer. And His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground.”  Every ruse (trick) imaginable has been used by modern scholars to explain away this description, apparently under the mistaken impression that this just doesn’t happen. A great deal of effort could have been saved had the doubters consulted the medical literature. Though very rare, the phenomenon of Hematidrosis, or bloody sweat, is well documented. Under great emotional stress of the kind our Lord suffered, tiny capillaries in the sweat glands can break, thus mixing blood with sweat. This process might well have produced marked weakness and possible shock. 

After the arrest in the middle of the night, Jesus was next brought before the Sanhedrin and Caiphus, the High Priest; it is here that the first physical trauma was inflicted. A soldier struck Jesus across the face for remaining silent when questioned by Caiphus. The palace guards then blind-folded Him and mockingly taunted Him to identify them as they each passed by, spat upon Him, and struck Him in the face. 

In the early morning, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and exhausted from a sleepless night, Jesus is taken across the Praetorium of the Fortress Antonia, the seat of government of the Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. You are, of course, familiar with Pilate’s action in attempting to pass responsibility to Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Judea. Jesus apparently suffered no physical mistreatment at the hands of Herod and was returned to Pilate.

It was then, in response to the cries of the mob, that Pilate ordered Bar-Abbas released and condemned Jesus to scourging and crucifixion.  There is much disagreement among authorities about the unusual scourging as a prelude to crucifixion. Most Roman writers from this period do not associate the two. Many scholars believe that Pilate originally ordered Jesus scourged as his full punishment and that the death sentence by crucifixion came only in response to the taunt by the mob that the Procurator was not properly defending Caesar against this pretender who allegedly claimed to be the King of the Jews.  Preparations for the scourging were carried out when the Prisoner was stripped of His clothing and His hands tied to a post above His head. It is doubtful the Romans would have made any attempt to follow the Jewish law in this matter, but the Jews had an ancient law prohibiting more than forty lashes.  The Roman legionnaire steps forward with the flagrum (or flagellum) in his hand. This is a short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near the ends of each. The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and again across Jesus’ shoulders, back, and legs.

At first the thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continue, they cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles.  The small balls of lead first produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When it is determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped.  The half-fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump to the stone pavement, wet with His own blood.

The Roman soldiers see a great joke in this provincial Jew claiming to be king. They throw a robe across His shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a scepter. They still need a crown to make their travesty complete. Flexible branches covered with long thorns (commonly used in bundles for firewood) are plaited into the shape of a crown and this is pressed into His scalp. Again there is copious bleeding, the scalp being one of the most vascular areas of the body. 

After mocking Him and striking Him across the face, the soldiers take the stick from His hand and strike Him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp. Finally, they tire of their sadistic sport and the robe is torn from His back. Already having adhered to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, its removal causes excruciating pain just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage, and almost as though He were again being whipped the wounds once more begin to bleed.  In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans return His garments. The heavy patibulum of the cross is tied across His shoulders, and the procession of the condemned Christ, two thieves, and the execution detail of Roman soldiers headed by a centurion begins its slow journey along the Via Dolorosa.

In spite of His efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by copious blood loss, is too much. He stumbles and falls. The rough wood of the beam gouges into the lacerated skin and muscles of the shoulders. He tries to rise, but human muscles have been pushed beyond their endurance.  The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, selects a stalwart North African onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross. Jesus follows, still bleeding and sweating the cold, clammy sweat of shock, until the 650 yard journey from the fortress Antonia to Golgotha is finally completed.  Jesus is offered wine mixed with myrrh, a mild analgesic mixture. He refuses to drink. Simon is ordered to place the patibulum on the ground and Jesus quickly thrown backward with His shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly, he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flexion and movement. The patibulum is then lifted in place at the top of the stipes and the titulus reading, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” is nailed in place. 

The left foot is now pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees moderately flexed. The Victim is now crucified. As He slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain — the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves.

As He pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He places His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there is the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet.  At this point, as the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by his arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed and the intercostal muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, he is able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in the life-giving oxygen.

It was undoubtedly during these periods that He uttered the seven short sentences recorded: 

The first, looking down at the Roman soldiers throwing dice for His seamless garment, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” 

The second, to the penitent thief, “Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” 

The third, looking down at the terrified, grief-stricken adolescent John — the beloved Apostle — he said, “Behold thy mother.” Then, looking to His mother Mary, “Woman behold thy son.” 

The fourth cry is from the beginning of the 22nd Psalm, “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?” 

Jesus experienced hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain where tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins -- a terrible crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart.  One remembers again the 22nd Psalm, the 14th verse: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.” 

It is now almost over. The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level; the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissue; the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain. Jesus gasps His fifth cry, “I thirst.”  One remembers another verse from the prophetic 22nd Psalm: “My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou has brought me into the dust of death.” A sponge soaked in posca, the cheap, sour wine which is the staple drink of the Roman legionaries, is lifted to His lips. He apparently doesn’t take any of the liquid.

The body of Jesus is now in extremes, and He can feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. This realization brings out His sixth words, possibly little more than a tortured whisper, “It is finished.”  His mission of atonement has completed. Finally He can allow his body to die. 

With one last surge of strength, he once again presses His torn feet against the nail, straightens His legs, takes a deeper breath, and utters His seventh and last cry, “Father! Into thy hands I commit my spirit.” 

The rest you know. In order that the Sabbath not be profaned, the Jews asked that the condemned men be dispatched and removed from the crosses. The common method of ending a crucifixion was by crurifracture, the breaking of the bones of the legs. This prevented the victim from pushing himself upward; thus the tension could not be relieved from the muscles of the chest and rapid suffocation occurred. The legs of the two thieves were broken, but when the soldiers came to Jesus they saw that this was unnecessary. 

Apparently, to make doubly sure of death, the legionnaire drove his lance through the fifth interspace between the ribs, upward through the pericardium and into the heart. The 34th verse of the 19th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John reports: “And immediately there came out blood and water.” That is, there was an escape of water fluid from the sac surrounding the heart, giving postmortem evidence that Our Lord died not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart failure (a broken heart) due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium. 

Thus we have had our glimpse — including the medical evidence — of that epitome of evil which man has exhibited toward Man and toward God. It has been a terrible sight, and more than enough to leave us despondent and depressed. How grateful we can be that we have the great sequel in the infinite mercy of God toward man — at once the miracle of the atonement (at one ment) and the expectation of the triumphant Easter morning.

Are you moved by what Jesus did for you on the cross?

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18 minutes ago, JoeCanada said:

Are you moved by what Jesus did for you on the cross?

Yes, indeed I most certainly am. This detailed description, was heard at least twice from the pulpit of two different ministers. Thoughts remind me of the film, The Passion. Thank the good Lord for His love and sacrifice. 

Shalom, 

David/BeauJangles

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I am thankful Jesus shed His blood, suffered and died on the cross for my salvation. I don't need graphic detail.

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What Jesus went through was vile, horrid, and ugly.

I don't desire to read these thing, but I read them on occasion when it's presented to remind myself of how serious the spiritual battle is - the spiritual battle culminating on the body of Christ beginning in the Garden of Gethsemane [according to Jesus, he almost died there] through he death on the cross.

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1 hour ago, JoeCanada said:

A Physician's View of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ

 

 

The Roman soldiers see a great joke in this provincial Jew claiming to be king. They throw a robe across His shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a scepter. They still need a crown to make their travesty complete. Flexible branches covered with long thorns (commonly used in bundles for firewood) are plaited into the shape of a crown and this is pressed into His scalp. Again there is copious bleeding, the scalp being one of the most vascular areas of the body. 

After mocking Him and striking Him across the face, the soldiers take the stick from His hand and strike Him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp. Finally, they tire of their sadistic sport and the robe is torn from His back. Already having adhered to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, its removal causes excruciating pain just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage, and almost as though He were again being whipped the wounds once more begin to bleed.  In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans return His garments.

Are you moved by what Jesus did for you on the cross?

The only thing you didn't expand on was that it was the whole company of the guard. This was either a centuriae or a sub unit vexilation.

Imagine a platoon of professional soldiers allowed to 'play' with a prisoner already condemned to death and add in the ritual of humiliating thatprisoner and Isaiah report of him having no lovelyness starts to make sense. A detachment of roman solders amused themselfs punching their victem, of beating him on the head. He would not have been recognisable as human once they finished.

 

Despite all he suffered physicaly the worse was the pollution of our sin and the Father turning his face away.

We will never know how much this cost Jesus.

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Thank you Dr. Davis for your insight into the physiological and physical aspects of the last few hours of the life of Jesus Christ.  Although the scriptural reasons behind the necessary death of Jesus Christ are of far more importance, it is also valuable to understand how Jesus’ human body suffered and how that anguish no doubt impacted his mental state during those last excruciating hours and how his faithfulness, despite one of the worst ways to perish, was maintained forcefully down to the end of his physical life. 

 

Although not a medical doctor as yourself, I would like to contribute a few more items of discernment:

 

A)    There is no doubt that the Persians practiced impalement on a stake: Darius the Great forbade interference with the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple, and any violator of that decree was to be impaled on a timber pulled out of his own house. (Ezrah 6:11) During the reign of Darius’ son, Ahasuerus (Xerxes I), two of the palace doorkeepers were hanged, or impaled, on a stake, the usual punishment meted out to traitors by the Persians. (Esther 2:21-23).  But impalement on a stake preceded this practice by the Persians by another nation:  the Assyrians.  Noted for their savage warfare, the Assyrians impaled captives by hanging their nude bodies atop pointed stakes that were run up through the abdomens into the chest cavities of the victims. Several reliefs have been found on monuments (now in the British Museum) such depicting the Assyrian assault and conquest of Lachish, on which this method of impalement is shown (2 Kings 19:8).

 

B)    Indeed, the precise locations of the nails would likely have been inserted into what we call the wrists, as this would be consistent with the Bible’s own use of the word “hand” to include the wrist in such texts as Genesis 24:47, where bracelets are said to be worn on the “hands,” and in Judges 15:14, where reference is made to fetters that were on Samson’s “hands.”

 

C)    In addition to hematidrosis, which is the excretion of perspiration tinged with blood pigment or blood, a condition called diapedesis (when blood or elements thereof seep through unruptured walls of blood vessels) is also a physiological explanation for Luke 22:44.  Still, the possibility exists that Luke may have been speaking illustratively, as in the sweat resembled blood dripping from a wound, when that verse (Luke 22:44) says Jesus’s sweat “became as drops of blood.”

 

D)    The custom of releasing a prisoner (Barabbas in this case) at the Passover every year finds no basis or precedent in the Hebrew Scriptures, and there is no extrabiblical evidence of it as a Roman practice. It evidently was of Jewish origin, because Pilate said to the Jews: “You have a custom that I should release a man to you at the Passover.”—Joh 18:39.

 

E)    Simon of Cyrene could have been a resident of Jerusalem, or he could have been among the other foreigners who crowded into Jerusalem at Passover time. In a similar manner, 51 days later, a large number of “reverent men, from every nation,” including some from “the parts of Libya, which is toward Cyrene,” were in attendance at the Jewish Festival of Pentecost. (Acts 2:5, 10, 41) Some of these latter ones were likely among the “about three thousand souls” that were baptized after the outpouring of the holy spirit and Peter’s subsequent discourse, and they may have thereafter carried the message of Christianity back to their homeland.

 

F)    In Mark 15:34, when Jesus states “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” one might believe that Jesus indicates here a lack of faith.  But this would be an inaccurate belief as Jesus’ words may indicate that Jesus recognized that God had taken His protection away from Jesus at that moment so that His Son’s integrity could be fully tested.  Additionally, these words fulfill what Psalm 22:1 foretold regarding Jesus: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Why are you far from saving me, Far from my cries of anguish?”

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A good friend of mine and a nurse watched her dad sweat blood due to high blood pressure.  It cause his capillaries to burst and blood to ooze out of his skin.  It was horrifying for her to watch someone she loved experiencing this.  Can you imagine what it would have been like for Mary and John to watch it?

Just knowing that Jesus suffered and died for us makes it all very sterile.  Sometimes we need to know exactly what that meant.  His anguish was very messy, bloody, and beyond what we can imagine.  Yes, He endure all that for me and you.  Thank you Jesus for enduring all that you suffered and for the blood that you gave for us.

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Thank you doctor for your excellent account of the suffering of our precious Lord in our place.

I have heard this before, and I have a question you can probably answer, ...how much time would it take for the heart beating at, let's say an average of 65 bpm, to pump out of the wounds on His Body sufficient blood for Him to have died from loss of blood, ...1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours 6 hours, 9 hours?

Thanks for your time.

Lord bless  

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2 hours ago, JustPassingThru said:

Thank you doctor for your excellent account of the suffering of our precious Lord in our place.

I have heard this before, and I have a question you can probably answer, ...how much time would it take for the heart beating at, let's say an average of 65 bpm, to pump out of the wounds on His Body sufficient blood for Him to have died from loss of blood, ...1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours 6 hours, 9 hours?

Thanks for your time.

Lord bless  

Hi JPT,

I can't answer that question for you. I posted this for all to read and to remember the suffering and death that Jesus went thru for our /your sins. The article was from  Dr. C. Truman Davis. I thought it was a very good article to share.

There are many who come to this site who are not saved. Perhaps some might read this and repent, knowing, for the first time maybe, the price that Jesus of Nazareth paid for our ransom. 

Perhaps there is someone on this site who could answer that medical question for you. 

Let us never forget His suffering.

Happy Easter all. 

 

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2 minutes ago, JoeCanada said:

I can't answer that question for you. I posted this for all to read and to remember the suffering and death that Jesus went thru for our /your sins. The article was from  Dr. C. Truman Davis. I thought it was a very good article to share.

My bad, sorry about that, ...thank for posting the article.

Lord bless

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