A Doctor's view of the Crucifixion.
Very few take the time to realize the great sacrifice made by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His death was so much more than simply giving His life, it was about a great suffering, a great suffering that had to occur for Him to atone for our sins. His dying was not enough, He had to suffer, He had to endure great physical and mental anguish, He had to pay for every sin that ever was, is and ever will be.
Since there is so little mentioned in the Holy Bible about this topic, the following is an overview of the many articles written about this subject. Their sources were Phoenician, Roman and Jewish records dating back to the very days following the Death and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Following the last supper, Jesus and His disciples retired across the Kidron Valley to the Garden of Gethsemane. He withdrew from His disciples to pray. This night was marked by an extreme spiritual struggle. Who could possibly measure the anguish that Jesus experienced as he submitted His will to that of the Father. He anticipated His separation from the Father when He would bear the sins of the world? And being in such agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground," Luke (22:44).
This bloody sweat is known medically as hematidrosis, and in the gospel narratives is mentioned only by Luke the physician. This phenomenon has been documented on other rare occasions among persons undergoing extreme psychological or physiological stress. It is caused by tiny capillaries under the skin surface distending and ultimately going into arterial spasm with necroses, and rupturing into the sweat glands. This results in a bloody secretion--blood mixed with sweat--exuding through the pores of the skin. The loss of this bloody, sweaty mixture creates profound dehydration and early stages of shock.
After the battle with His will, Jesus looked across the night sky toward Jerusalem and saw the torches illuminating the rolling hillside. He could clearly identify the soldiers, high priests, some members of the Sanhedrin (The supreme council and court of justice among the Jews), and his own disciple, Judas, leading the mob to arrest Him.
Jesus was arrested then taken to the high priest’s house at night and under clandestine circumstances, a violation of Jewish Law.
The first trial of Jesus occurred sometime after midnight and was concluded before 3:00 a.m. Jesus was led away with His hands bound, the hands that had healed the sick, opened the eyes of the blind, and raised the dead. But this was only the beginning of the indignities to which Jesus would be subjected. Before Annas who was the father-in-law of Ciaphas, Jesus was directly cross-examined again in contradiction to the Jewish law. During the interrogation, one of the officers of the high priest struck Jesus because of His silence. What was a guiltless man to confess?
The
palace guards then blindfolded Him, mockingly taunted Him to identify
them as each passed by, spat on Him, and struck Him in the face.
The trial was so prejudiced, it was beyond any consideration of justice. Jesus then was taken before Pilate early in the morning. As we see Jesus now, He’s exhausted from lack of sleep, the two preceding interrogations, abuse, dehydration and ridicule. Yet he stands tall before this Roman governor with supernatural power. He makes no self-defense at all.
Now Pilate, in an attempt to appease the mob, has Jesus scourged. The prisoner was beaten with 39 lashes, beaten to the verge of death as measured by a rapidly increasing, thready pulse and/or a shallow, irregular respiratory rate.
Wooden-handled leather whips with three strands were most frequently used. Each strand had a small piece of bone or metal attached to the end which would chip and gouge out pieces of bone and tissue with each lash as it was withdrawn sharply backwards to the readied position. The prisoner was tied across an object that would support his weight after he had lost consciousness. This position also provided easy access to areas of the legs, arms, thighs, and upper chest. Such an atrocity stripped the skin into long, ribbon-like segments, causing profuse arterial bleeding.
The crown of thorns, in the form of a circlet, now was pressed deeply into His scalp by the soldiers. This resulted in additional arterial bleeding which added to the extreme reduction and contraction of His total vascular space, thereby deepening His state of shock.
A purple robe was then thrown across Jesus’ shoulders and back. It perhaps acted as a temporary compressive dressing, helping to congeal some of the blood pouring from the gaping lesions across His thorax, abdomen and legs.
Jesus is spat upon, beaten with reeds, ridiculed, and hailed as the "King of the Jews."
Then Jesus was brought before the howling crowds , wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man," John (l9:5). As Jesus stood before the howling mob, no doubt He experienced the clammy, lifeless sensation of advanced shock. Medically, Jesus would demonstrate cold, pale sweaty skin. The mucous membranes would be bluish and cyanotic and His countenance would be haggard and drawn. His reflexes would be depressed, His pulse pounding, His respiration shallow and barely perceptible. His physical strength would be at the point of prostration at best.
Pilate now succumbs to the manipulation by Jewish leaders, and Jesus is condemned to death by crucifixion. The purple robe is stripped away and Jesus is given the cross to bear to the place of the skull, Golgotha. The rough removal of His garments would be similar to the careless removal of a surgical dressing, causing the wounds to bleed freely once more.
Blood atonement occurred as part of temple worship. And now in Jesus we have the profuse loss of blood as the atonement for our sins.
This act of crucifixion, was originally practiced by the Phoenicians, and was perfected and embellished by the Romans.
Many of the crosses of Jesus’ day were shaped like the Greek letter Tau. The upright post, the stipes, was permanently fixed in the ground at the execution site, and the transverse beam, carried by the condemned, would be joined to the stipes by a mortise joint which locked into a self-retaining position. This expedited the work of the executioner. The transverse beam weighed as much as l00 pounds.
As Jesus attempted to carry the weight of the cross, his legs failed, He stumbled and fell unable to get up. A man named Simon of Cyrene, was coming in from the fields, he was pressed into service by the Roman solders to carry the Cross.
As Jesus arrived at the execution site, the beam or cross was taken from Simon and thrown upon the ground and Jesus was roughly thrown backwards onto it. His arms were extended to a pre-selected position. The executioners would be careful not to draw his arms to a fully extended position, for that would hasten His death.
Large triangular construction-grade nails then would be used to secure Jesus to the cross. The Bible states that these were driven through His hands. Many authorities believe that they were driven through the lower portion of his forearm near the wrist. There they would compress the median nerve trunks to the hand. These nerve trunks then would impinge on the tendons of the palm causing the thumbs to bend toward the palm.
It is interesting to note the Latin word for hand, manus, also is used by such early writers as Virgil and Josephus to designate the part of the wrist which joins the hand. If, indeed, the nails were driven through His hands, as the Bible says, it is not clear how this kept Him suspended, for a nail through the center palm would tear through it.
Next, with the nails in place, Jesus would be literally hoisted upright. His feet would be secured with a single nail--the left foot extended slightly over the right with the knees flexed, and the nail driven through the arches of the feet.
The Romans had perfected this brutal art to where the length of time required for the condemned person to die could be computed by how much flexion was left in the knees to expedite breathing. His position on the cross forced a condemned person into a horribly cruel exercise. In order to breathe and to relieve the pain in the arms as the body sagged downward, he would have to push up on the nail in the feet forcing an up and down slithering motion upon the cross until he expired.
Dangling by the arms in this position would result in severe muscular pain in the upper extremities. It also would cause a progressive pain from joint separation. Continual hanging by the arms would gradually result in paralyzation of the intercostal muscles of the thoracic wall. As a result, air could be drawn into the lungs easily but could not be exhaled. As carbon dioxide accumulated, progressive degrees of asphyxiation would occur. Accumulated carbon dioxide and lactic acid would create an intense muscular hyperexcitability and violent tetanic muscle spasm throughout the body.
As the suffering sensation became overwhelming, the condemned man would be compelled to push up on the nail in his feet to gasp for breath. It is undoubtedly in this position that Jesus uttered His famous seven last words. It is indeed amazing, as Jesus’ physical body was ravaged by shock, exhaustion, incredible thirst, central nervous system pain, stimulation beyond our comprehension, and gradual asphyxiation, that no reviling or words of condemnation were uttered by Him. Rather, He expressed concern for those about Him.
As the crucifixion continued, the chest wall would further elongate and become grossly distorted. The stomach area would sink. The altered hemodynamics of the thoracic cavity would result in a progressive effusion of fluid into the pericardial sack, creating a searing, sharp, pleuritic type pain with each heartbeat and each attempted movement on the cross.
These events are accurately depicted in Psalm 22, which was written hundreds of years before crucifixion was ever practiced: "All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head... water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potshard; and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me; the assemble of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell (count) all my bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture."
Jesus was placed upon the cross at about the sixth hour. The crucifixion lasted at least through the ninth hour when the darkness fell upon the land. Therefore, by inference, it was approximately six hours before Jesus released his spirit.
Because it was the eve of the preparation for the Passover, the Jews had asked that the bodies be removed from the crosses.
The common
method of ending a crucifixion was by crurifracture, the breaking of the
bones of the leg. This prevented the victim from pushing himself upward;
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 approached Jesus, they saw that this was unnecessary.
So the soldiers came to break the legs of the prisoners, to hasten their death. But when they came to Jesus, they found that he already was dead, so as John says (l9:33), " they brake not his legs...for these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of him shall not be broken" (Psalm 34:20).
So Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, whose lives had been touched by Jesus, tenderly removed Him from the cross and provided for the funeral arrangements in a near-by tomb.
One of the most moving experiences during a trip to the Holy Land occurs as you walk into the empty inner chamber of the tomb of Jesus. What a dramatic testimony to the power of our risen Lord Jesus Christ.
We need to keep considering Calvary, and the blood that was spilled as payment in full for our sins. We need also to remember the empty tomb and the testimony of hundreds of witnesses who saw Jesus physically following His resurrection. We now must continue to ponder the haunting question all mankind must answer, do we believe? I DO!
We would like to give credit to the following sources.
Article in Arizona Medicine, March 1965, Arizona Medical Association
Article in New Wine Magazine, April 1982.
Article by
Observations Dr. Tara Solomon.
Books and Articles by Dr. Pierre Barbet, a French surgeon who did exhaustive historical and experimental research and wrote extensively on the topic.
Humbly edited by: Rev. James Saylor
