Crucifixion

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The Crucifixion
"I Thirst"

A Physician Analyzes the Crucifixion

A medical explanation of what Jesus endured on the day He died.
by Dr. C. Truman Davis

Several years ago I became interested in the physical aspects of the passion,
or suffering, of Jesus Christ when I read an account of the crucifixion in Jim
Bishop's book, The Day Christ Died. I suddenly realized that I had taken the
crucifixion more or less for granted all these years - that I had grown callous to
its horror by a too-easy familiarity with the grim details. It finally occurred
to me that, as a physician, I did not even know the actual
immediate cause of Christ's death.

The gospel writers do not help much on this point. Since crucifixion and
scourging were so common during their lifetimes, they undoubtedly considered a
detailed description superfluous. For that reason we have only the concise words
of the evangelists: "Pilate, having scourged Jesus, delivered
Him to them to be crucified ... and they crucified Him."

Despite the gospel accounts' silence on the details of Christ's crucifixion,
many have looked into this subject in the past. In my personal study of the
event from a medical viewpoint, I am indebted especially to Dr. Pierre
Barbet, a French surgeon who did exhaustive historical and
experimental research and wrote extensively on the topic.

An attempt to examine the infinite psychic and spiritual suffering of the
Incarnate God in atonement for the sins of fallen man is beyond the scope of
this article. However, the physiological and anatomical aspects of our Lord's
passion we can examine in some detail. What did the body of Jesus of
Nazareth actually endure during those hours of torture?

Gethsemane

The physical passion of Christ began in Gethsemane. Of the many aspects of
His initial suffering, the one which is of particular physiological interest, is the
bloody sweat. Interestingly enough, the physician, St. Luke, is the only evangelist
to mention this occurrence. He says, "And being in an agony, he prayed the
longer. And his sweat became as drops of blood,trickling down upon the
ground" (Luke 22:44 KJV).

Every attempt imaginable has been used by modern scholars to explain away
the phenomenon of bloody sweat, apparently under the mistaken impression,
that it simply does not occur. A great deal of effort could be saved by consulting
the medical literature. Though very rare, the phenomenon of emotional stress, tiny
capillaries in the sweat glands can break, thus mixing blood with sweat. This
process alone could have produced marked weakness and possible shock.

Although Jesus' betrayal and arrest are important portions of the passion story,
the next event in the account , which is significant from a medical perspective is
His trial before the Sanhedrin and Caiaphas, the High Priest. Here the first physical
trauma was inflicted. A soldier struck Jesus across the face for remaining silent when
questioned by Caiaphas. 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.

Before Pilate

In the early morning, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and worn out from a
sleepless night, Jesus was taken across Jerusalem to the Praetorium of the
Fortress Antonia, the seat of government of the Procurator of Judea, Pontius
Pilate. We are familiar with Pilate's action in attempting to shift 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 outcry of the mob, that Pilate ordered Barabbas released, and
condemned Jesus to scourging and crucifixion.

Preparations for Jesus' scourging were carried out at Caesar's orders. The
prisoner was stripped of His clothing and His hands tied to a post above His
head. The Roman legionnaire stepped forward with the flagrum1, or flagellum2, in his
hand. This was a short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small
balls of lead attached near the ends of each. The heavy whip was brought down with full
force again and again across Jesus' shoulders, back, and legs. At first the weighted
thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continued, 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 produced large deep bruises that were broken open by
subsequent blows. Finally, the skin of the back was hanging in long ribbons, and the
entire area was an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When it was
determined by the centurion in charge, that the prisoner
was near death, the beating was finally stopped.

Mockery

The half-fainting Jesus was then untied and allowed to slump to the stone
pavement, wet with his own blood. The Roman soldiers saw a great joke in
this provincial Jew claiming to be a king. They threw a robe across His
shoulders and placed a stick in His hand for a scepter. They still needed
a crown to make their travesty complete. Small flexible branches covered
with long thorns, commonly used for kindling fires in the charcoal braziers
in the courtyard, were plaited into the shape of a crude crown.

The crown was pressed into his scalp and again there was copious bleeding as
the thorns pierced the very vascular tissue. After mocking Him and striking Him
across the face, the soldiers took the stick from His hand and struck Him across
the head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp. Finally, they tired of their
sadistic sport and tore the robe from His back.

The robe had already become adherent to the clots of blood and serum in the
wounds, and its removal, just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage,
caused excruciating pain. The wounds again began to bleed.

Golgotha

In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans apparently returned His garments. The
heavy patibulum3 of the cross was tied across His shoulders. The procession of the
condemned Christ, two thieves, and the execution detail of Roman soldiers headed
by a centurion began its slow journey along the route
which we know today as the Via Dolorosa.

In spite of Jesus' efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden beam,
together with the shock produced by copious loss of blood, was too much. He
stumbled and fell. The rough wood of the beam gouged into the lacerated skin
and muscles of the shoulders. He tried to rise, but human muscles
had been pushed beyond their endurance.

The centurion, anxious to proceed with the crucifixion, selected a stalwart North
African onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross. Jesus followed, still
bleeding and sweating the cold, clammy sweat of shock. The 650-yard journey
from the Fortress Antonia to Golgotha was finally completed. The prisoner was
again stripped of His clothing except for a loin-cloth which was allowed the Jews.

The Crucifixion began. Jesus was offered wine mixed with myrrh, a mild analgesic,
pain-relieving mixture. He refused the drink. Simon was ordered to place the
patibulum on the ground, and Jesus was quickly thrown backward, with His
shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire felt for the depression at the front of the
wrist. He drove a heavy, square wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the
wood. Quickly, he moved to the other side and repeated the action, being careful not
to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flexion and movement. The patibulum
was then lifted into place at the top of the stipes4, and the titulus5 reading:
"Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" was nailed into place.

The left foot was pressed backward against the right foot. With both feet
extended, toes down, a nail was driven through the arch of each, leaving
the knees moderately flexed. The victim was now crucified.

On the Cross

As Jesus slowly sagged down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating,
fiery pain shot along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain. The nails in
the wrists were putting pressure on the median nerve, large nerve trunks which traverse
the mid-wrist and hand. As He pushed himself upward to avoid this stretching torment,
He placed His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there was searing
agony as the nail tore through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of this feet.

At this point, another phenomenon occurred. As the arms fatigued, great waves
of cramps swept over the muscles, knotting them in deep relentless, throbbing
pain. With these cramps came the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by
the arm, the pectoral muscles, the large muscles of the chest, were paralyzed
and the intercostal muscles, the small muscles between the ribs, were unable to
act. Air could be drawn into the lungs, but could not be exhaled. Jesus fought to
raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally, the carbon dioxide
level increased in the lungs and in the blood stream,
and the cramps partially subsided.

The Last Words

Spasmodically, He was able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in
life-giving oxygen. It was undoubtedly during these periods that He uttered
the seven short sentences that are recorded.

The first - looking down at the Roman soldiers throwing dice6 for His seamless
garment: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

The second - to the penitent thief7: "Today, thou shalt be
with me in Paradise."

The third - looking down at Mary His mother, He said: "Woman, behold thy
son." Then turning to the terrified, grief-stricken adolescent John, the beloved
apostle, He said: "Behold your mother."8

The fourth - A cry is from the beginning of Psalm 22:
"My God, My God, why has Thou forsaken Me?"

He suffered hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps,
intermittent partial asphyxiation, and searing pain as tissue was torn from His lacerated
back from His movement up and down against the rough timbers of the cross. Then
another agony began: A deep crushing pain in the chest as the pericardium, the sac
surrounding the heart, slowly filled with serum and began to compress the heart.

The prophecy in Psalm 22:14 was being fulfilled: "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."

The end was rapidly approaching. The loss of tissue fluids had reached a critical
level; the compressed heart was struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood to
the tissues, and the tortured lungs were making a frantic effort to inhale small
gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues sent their flood of stimuli to
the brain. Jesus gasped His fifth cry: "I thirst." Again we read in the prophetic
Psalm: "My strength is dried up like a potsherd; My tongue cleaveth
to My jaws; and thou has brought me into the dust of death" Psalm 22:15

A sponge soaked in posca, the cheap, sour wine that was the staple drink of
the Roman legionnaires, was lifted to Jesus' lips. His body was now in extremis,
and He could feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. This
realization brought forth His sixth word, possibly little more than a tortured
whisper: "It is finished." His mission of atonement9 had been completed. Finally,
He could allow His body to die. With one last surge of strength, He once again
pressed His torn feet against the nail, straightened His legs, took a deeper breath,
and uttered His seventh and last cry: "Father, into Thy hands I commit My Spirit."

Death

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.

Apparently, to make doubly sure of death, the legionnaire drove his lance between
the ribs, upward through the pericardium and into the heart. John 19:34 states,
"And immediately there came out blood and water." Thus there was an escape of
watery fluid from the sac surrounding the heart and the blood of the interior of
the heart. This is rather conclusive post-mortem evidence that Jesus died, not
the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart failure due to shock and
constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.

Resurrection

In these events, we have seen a glimpse of the epitome of evil that man can
exhibit toward his fellowman and toward God. This is an ugly sight and is
likely to leave us despondent and depressed.

But the crucifixion was not the end of the story. How grateful we can be that
we have a sequel: a glimpse of the infinite mercy of God toward man--the
gift of atonement, the miracle of the resurrection, and
the expectation of Easter morning.

1 Incarnate
2 Atonement
3 Horizontal portion of the cross
4 Vertical portion of the cross
5 Small sign stating the victim's crime
6 Gambling
7 The one who felt remorse for his sins and asked Jesus to help him.
8 As Jesus was dying, He gave his trusted friend responsibility
for the care of His mother.
9 Taking our place by suffering the death penalty
for our sin.

From New Wine Magazine, April 1982. Originally published in
Arizona Medicine, March 1965, Arizona Medical Association.

Dr. C. Truman Davis is a graduate of the University of Tennessee College
of Medicine. He is a practicing ophthalmologist, a pastor, and author
of a book about medicine and the Bible.

Editors' note:
If Jesus had remained dead, Christianity would be nothing but an empty promise.
But three days after His death, He rose again from the dead. This is the miracle
of resurrection, which is what Christians celebrate at Easter. To learn more
about the resurrection, read John Chapters 20 and 21.

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