Jesus’ Crucifixion From A Medical Point of View
Matthew 26:17-27:61, Mark 14:12-15:47, Luke 22:7-23:56, John 13:1-19:42
When I was in college, more than a few years ago, I was a pre-med student
studying biochemistry. This was around 1982 when I was also a fairly new youth
pastor and about to give one of my first sermons. Being also a Christian in a
secular university, I was inundated with callous remarks and pondering questions
about my faith. I sought for a different direction in the typical Lent teaching
(I was in an high Liturgical Episcopal church at this time), aspiring to teach
my youth what had happened to Jesus, physically, while He was on the cross. And,
because I was studying anatomy and physiology, I was also curious about what had
happened to Jesus.
After doing a lot of research, I found little or no information on this subject.
So, I decided to “kill two (or three) birds with one stone,” so to speak. I
wrote a paper for a physiology class, prepared a few Sunday school lessons for
Lent, and prepared a great sermon, or so I thought. I interviewed several
physiologists (people who have a Ph. D., do medical research, and/or teach in a
medical school about how the body works. They are far more educated in
biomechanics than most medical doctors are). I also sought advice from
many anatomy books and took a step-by-step approach on what happened, following
the account in the book of Luke.
After several weeks of high-speed and intense research, the paper was an A, the
sermon went off as my first bomb (Too gory for the old folks; I was not asked to
preach until several months later), and the youth really got into it.
I was amazed and fixated on one thing that kept going through my mind as I
researched, wrote, and taught on this subject. Jesus did this for me! He hung on
that cross, and went through all this heinous, physical agony of the worst and
most intense pain ever devised as torture that a human could conceive and be
subjected to. He did this all for me; He took my place; He endured, as an
innocent Person, what I deserved as a sinner. He accomplished, by Grace, what I
should have born myself. And even now, mere words cannot convey my thoughts, my
wonder at this fact. So, I recently rehashed my old paper, and added a lot of
new insights that have come onto the scene since. I even discovered a major
medical paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association,
which is one of the biggest and most prestigious medical publications in
existence. “Where were these when I needed them?” I thought.
I grew up in a church where I saw the crucified Lord hanging on a cross every
week. We reenacted His death and suffering in our Liturgy every Sunday. The
events leading up to the cross were played out every Lent, year after year. Most
of us just said the words without any thought, almost a form of rhetoric,
without any deep meaning. Even though those words were infused with beautiful
poetic words fully explaining why, and what our Lord did, I only knew that He
was crucified, but not what that entailed. In my research, I realized that I
took what Jesus did for granted. I never really thought it through what He went
through, what He did for me, either as a med student, or as a Christian. I did
not realize what that cross really meant. It was a device meant for punishment
and pain, used for redemption and salvation.
The people in Jesus’ time fully knew what that meant; there was no reason for
further explanation by Scripture. But, for us today, removed by nearly two
millennia, perhaps a deeper look on what happened is needed. You may wonder,
“Why this subject? Is this necessary?” as those church ladies did two
decades ago, and threw quite a “hissy-fit” with me. Maybe I was a little too
bold with them, as passion and excitement from my youth got away from me. But, I
believe they were offended because they did not want to know, lest it would
force them to examine themselves and their spiritual condition. We may
understand the theological ramifications, but as humans in physical bodies
ourselves, we can even further identify with our Lord and gain a deeper
appreciation for what He did for us by knowing what He went through in our
place.
First of all, when we look upon the cross as a symbol of our faith and the
crucifixion it represents, we have to realize it is an icon for what was, at one
time, the most brutal torture ever conceived. It was a symbol of absolute
terror. The Romans, who acquired the practice from the Arabians, Carthaginians,
and Persians, would set these crosses up within the city limits of pre-conquered
areas and randomly crucify some of their inhabitants, just to keep the rest in
line. This caused the rest of the people to be fearful, thus easily conquerable.
The Romans, under Alexander the Great, perceived this as a good idea, adopted
and even improved on it. Subsequently, they instituted the same practice and
used it as the primary penalty for non-Roman people accused of a crime. It was
most effective!
What the Crucifixion looked like
The picture of the Good Friday scene shows Jesus hanging on a cross between two
other men who were criminals. This cross that most people have in their minds is
the Roman type that hangs in most churches today. But, this is not the only type
of cross. There were many types and shapes for the cross. Here are a few with
their Latin titles: cross beam cross (patibulums), pikes (stipes), T’s (Tau),
X-shaped (decussata), tree (lnfelix lignum), and the Roman cross (sublimis and
topiin) that we use today as our symbol for faith. Most scholars say the cross
we have today is a fairly accurate description of the one used for Jesus;
however, others maintain it was a “T” type.
The type is irrelevant to its function, and what it did to our Lord. We do know
that Jesus did not carry the entire cross. It was too big and heavy. The post,
called the stipes, was already fixed permanently in the ground and would have
been used for previous executions. When we read that Jesus carried the cross, it
refers to the crossbeam called the patibulum, which weighed over one hundred
pounds. Image how much a full cross would have weighed! Thus, when our Lord was
forced to carry the cross, He actually carried the crossbeam.
Another image we have, in many paintings and frescos, shows the nails driven
through the palms of His hands. Historical Roman records (and they kept very
good records) tell us that the nails were driven between the radial and ulna
bones in the forearms, between the elbow and the wrist. The thought that the
nails were in His hands comes form the passage Luke 24:40, "he showed them
his hands and feet." The Jews and Romans considered the wrist to be part of
the hand; there was no separate word for it. If the nails were impaled in the
hands, the person would fall off the cross; there would be nothing strong
enough, such as bones and ligaments, to hold up the weight.
On top of the cross was a small sign, called a titulus, depicting the name of
the person and his alleged crime. This came from the prison where he had been
imprisoned, and was carried on a staff in front of the procession. This
procession had the floggers, soldiers, executioner, city officials, and the
victim/criminal, carrying the crossbeam. Beside the road, watching, would have
been the family, friends, and all the towns people, either enjoying or being
terrified by the show. This sign was later nailed to the top of cross above the
victim’s head so it was in plain sight. The Romans were very good at promoting
this and using it as a deterrent to future crimes and insurrections.
After the procession, the victim was nailed to the crossbeam. His arms may have
been tied down, also. Then the person, attached to the crossbeam, was lifted,
and the crossbeam was placed in the notched cutout toward the top of the pike
part of the cross, and then tied in. Now we have our quintessential Easter
scene, the end of the Passion of our Lord, and the beginning of His saving grace
in us.
The Events Of Suffering, Leading Up To the Words, “It is finished.”
The Passion, the phrase/word expressing the events leading up to the
crucifixion, starts in the garden of Gethsemane. Luke, a physician, writes in
the gospel of Luke more detail about Christ’s physical experience than do the
other three Gospel writers. The first account we have of Christ’s sufferings
is the sweat (Mark 14:32; Luke 22:39-45; John 18:1). Luke describes this as,
“His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down.” This phenomenon is
called “Hematidrosis,” or commonly referred to as “bloody sweat.” It is
a real, medical ailment, and is well documented. It is interesting that many
liberal scholars, who have no medical knowledge or research skills, say this
event could not have happened! Anyway, it does happen, although it is rare. When
someone is under great emotional stress, the minuscule capillaries that are in
and around the sweat glands (some as small as the width of the blood cells) will
break, and some blood mixes in with the sweat. The result is, sweating blood!
Our Lord was suffering in agony, not trying to escape His call and plan, but
asking if there were an alternative way, as well. He was going to face the
ultimate terror. He would experience not only the pain, but also the rejection
of the Father, and His divine anger for sin (Psalm 75:8; Isa. 51:17; 22; Jer.
25:15-16; Ezek. 23:33; Rom. 8:17; 1 Pet. 2:21). He knew the pain He, being fully
man, was going to experience and endure. Being fully God, He could have escaped
it. So resulted the traumatic struggle. He chose to go to the cross in our
behalf, and be obedient to the plan for our redemption--in the only way it could
have been done.
This “blood
sweat” of stress and intense prayer happened during the middle of the night.
While His disciples did not have the courtesy to wait up with Him, a mental
trauma of anguish and betrayal occurred (Matt. 26:36-45). The Roman soldiers and
government officials came, by means of Judas’ lead, to arrest our Lord by the
hour of darkness (Luke 22:52; Eph. 6:12; Col. 1:13). Further betrayal.
Jesus was then brought before the Jewish rulers, the Sanhedrin, at the home of
the High Priest, Caiphus. He was subjected to more physical trauma--this time by
the hands of others--people whom He created and loved! When Jesus remained
silent at the questioning of Caiphus, a soldier brutally struck Him across the
face. Then our Lord was subjected to more humiliation. He, being God incarnate,
was mocked by the extraordinarily inferior palace guards, who blindfolded Him,
contemptuously teasing and making sport of Him. Then, all took turns hitting and
spitting upon Him. This continued from the late hours of the night to the early
hours of the morning.
Then, Jesus was taken to His first Jewish Trial across the “Praetorium,” the
Fortress Antonia, where Pontius Pilate resided. Undoubtedly, Jesus was very
dehydrated, exhausted, and bruised from His battering and the lack of sleep. He
was also suffering because of the betrayal of His trusted disciples, who acted
in harshness, and then ran from Him (Luke 2251- 71). Then, He was taken to the
Roman trials. Now we have a passing game, between the local government and
religious leaders to the Procurator of Judea, Antipas, the Tetrarch of Judea, as
well as from Pilate to Herod. It was a back-and-forth game among people who
refused to take responsibility. Both Pilate and Herod faced insurmountable
pressure from the Romans to keep the insurrections and the religious
fundamentalism down, lest they be removed from office, or even lose their life.
They knew of Jesus’ popularity and did not want to incite the religious
leaders or the people, so they passed Him off to one other, hopeful that someone
else would take the possible fall. Jesus was finally returned to Pilate, who was
forced to execute Him. Pilate knew Jesus was innocent, and publicly offered His
release, but the religious officials and Romans in the audience were inciting
the mob to cry for the release of Barabbas instead. So, Pilate washed his hands
of the matter, still refusing to take responsibility, and condemned our Lord to
scourging followed by crucifixion. Jesus suffered further humiliation and one of
the worst stresses a person can go through--political bickering! Here, Jesus is
suffering from all possible forms of sufferings from all three categories--that
of emotional, physical, and spiritual, and all that each of these entails. He
was just coming from a suffering, currently experiencing a suffering, and going
into more suffering! There was no suffering that our Lord was not experiencing
at this time-- and all at the same time!
Because it was unusual for criminals to be both scourged and crucified, some
scholars attest that other events must also have taken place. Some scholars feel
that Pilate was a victim of the political machine of his time. They think he had
Jesus charged, even though he was "not guilty," then had Him illegally
flogged by one or two soldiers in order to satisfy the chief priests. This
flogging would have caused deep contusions. Some say this scourge was to be a
full payment so He would not have to be killed. However, the mob incited a riot,
so he had no choice but to have Jesus crucified. The Bible does not say this,
nor do the Early Church Fathers, who point to Pilate in their writings and
creeds as the one responsible. We can never forsake our actions by blaming
others or the situation! But, remember; Jesus claimed, as did His followers,
that He was King of the Jews (Luke 23:1-5). According to Roman law, and in
defense of Caesar, the Procurator Pilate would have had to dish out all the
punishment at his disposal, and in the slowest way, leading to death of the
pretender who made such a claim. Pilate did just that. He was in a position to
either let Jesus go or to follow the edict.
Scourging was a long process of whipping, where the victim’s clothes were torn
off (cloth was the most expensive possession in those times--equal to a car for
us--showing an economic loss, too), then His hands were tied to a pike above His
head (1 Peter 2:24). Most commentators insert that the Jews had a law
prohibiting more than forty lashes. However, it was the Romans who inflicted the
punishment and they had no regard for Jewish law; they did as they saw fit. Our
Lord Jesus Christ, Savior of our souls, was brutally whipped with a flagellum, a
“cattail” which was a short whip of several heavy tentacles where the ends
were tied with small balls of lead, rocks or bone fragments. At first, the
whipping action would pound the shoulders, back, and legs, as a butcher would
tenderize a piece of meat. It produced deep, large, painful bruises, intense
pain, and appreciable blood loss from another form of hematidrosis, and most
probably would have left Jesus in a pre-shock state. As the whipping action
continued, it would cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissues, thus producing a
discharge of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin and then causing
stripe-like lacerations, finally spurting arterial bleeding from larger vessels
in the underlying muscles. This action literally tears the flesh off His back,
exposing the muscles, and maybe a rib or two. The flesh from the back would hang
in long ribbons and would look like a mass of torn, bleeding muscle. The
person(s) doing this torture was a trained centurion, and when the victim was
near death, the beating would be stopped. They were also careful not to puncture
a lung, as that would have killed the victim and ended the intended, prolonged
agony.
During this incredible agony, the pain would be overwhelming, causing Jesus to
slip in and out of consciousness. After this whipping, they would untie Him,
causing Him to slump to the ground, lying in Hs own blood. The soldiers, acting
with a mindset of sadistic sport and contempt towards Jesus, propped Him up and
placed a robe across His shoulders that was made of mohair, a very harsh,
prickly fabric from camels, that would have adhered to the clots of blood and
serum in the wounds, further tearing into the flesh as they put it on and
took/tore it off, causing further bleeding and pain. This pain could have been
the most excruciating of all! Imagine tearing off a piece of tape on a wound or
scab—and multiply it hundreds of times!
The soldiers then placed a scepter in His hands, hands that were aching from the
leather straps holding him to the pike as they whipped Him, and then they
pressed a crown of sharp thorns into His scalp. These thorns were nasty, and of
no use commercially, except for firewood. The head is one of the most vascular
areas of the body, and a single thorn--let alone several--would have caused a
lot of copious bleeding. The solders continued to mock our Lord and hit Him
across His face. They even took the scepter and used it as a hitting devise,
driving the thorns deeper into His scalp, pressing into the skull, causing
extreme bruising and swelling all over the face and head. By this time, Jesus
would have been unrecognizable.
The Roman soldiers placed Jesus’ torn clothes back on Him, picked up the
crossbeam, and tied it to His arms, across His shoulders. He was in excruciating
pain and perhaps still drifting in and out of consciousness, as He not only had
received no sleep for over twenty-four hours, but also had been subject to
constant torment and torture, along with mental and spiritual exhaustion. He was
led into the procession carrying the heavy patibulum of the cross, perhaps
alongside the two thieves. This is called “The Journey along the Via Dolorosa,”
meaning "The Way of Suffering." Jesus would have continued to bleed
because of the pressure from the weight of the rough wood of the heavy crossbeam
gouging into what remained of His skin, causing lacerations in the skin and
muscles of the shoulders, and more copious blood loss. Thus, His muscles were
pushed beyond their endurance into hypovolemic shock. He then stumbled and fell
under this agony, in spite of His efforts to walk straight. The centurion, who
was perhaps anxious to get on with the crucifixion, enlisted some help. As the
Scriptures tell us, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from
the country, and put the cross on him (Luke 23:26). Jesus was unable to carry
the load. His body would at this time, if not before, have been going into a
state of severe trauma and shock. Keep in mind--He was a “man’s man,” very
fit as a carpenter in a time of no power tools, and was always walking. He would
have been in top-notch physical condition. He was no weakling, as some have
suggested!
Jesus continued His 650 yard journey from the fortress Antonia to Golgotha,
where the cross lay. He literally went to the cross by following the cross. He
was still in a state of shock, bleeding, sweating, and experiencing chills from
the trauma. He was then nailed onto the crossbeam, through His wrists, with
large, heavy, square, wrought iron nails approximately five to seven inches (13
to 18 cm) long with a square shaft 3/8 inch (1 cm) across--the size of railroad
spikes. These spikes are what were driven through the body and deep into the
wood of the cross. Several soldiers, using large wooden forks, ladders, or
ropes, lifted him up. The sensation and pain of these spikes being driven though
would have been indescribable. The soldiers would have been careful not to pull
the arms tightly, but allow them some movement. This would have caused even more
trauma, while His shoulders were quickly thrown backward against the hard,
wooden cross as He was being lifted. The crossbeam was placed in the notch, and
tied. Then His left foot was pressed backward against a block (suppedaneum) used
as a sadistic foot transfixion rest, a Roman improvement to prolong the
crucifixion. Then, with feet on top of each another, His knees extended, and His
toes facing down, they were nailed through the arches of His feet into the
bottom block with one nail-spike. The knees were left bent so they could flex.
Jesus was then offered gall, wine vinegar mixture with myrrh. This was an act of
compassion by a soldier, as it offered a mild analgesic. Or, it could have been
due to further sadistic prowess so as to increase the length of His stay on the
cross. Jesus refused to drink it, not accepting any short cuts or yielding to
their vicious intentions. Lastly, the mocking sign, "Jesus of Nazareth,
King of the Jews," was nailed above His head on top of the stipes and the
titulus of the cross. Jesus was now crucified!
As our Lord hung on the cross, He would have struggled to lift His body as it
tore from the spikes driven in His wrists and feet. He would have had to do this
for each breath, pulling Himself up and down. Without doing this, air could not
get into the lungs nor could it be exhaled. This would have caused periosteal
injury on the ligaments while placing pressure on the median nerves, causing
extreme, searing, excruciating pain shooting along the fingers and up the arms
to the brain and back. This was in addition to the deep, relentless, throbbing
pain and agony of the nails, tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal
bones of the feet and the between the radius and ulna and the carpals in the
forearms and wrists. The death of crucifixion is not by the trauma or blood
loss, it is by the suffocation due to the body, in shock, unable to move to prop
itself up to breathe. Jesus would have been pushing Himself upward to avoid the
pain and lowering Himself to take a breath.
His pectoral muscles would have been paralyzed and the intercostal muscles
unable to act, virtually every muscle in His body would have begun to cramp and
fatigue until He was unable to push Himself upward, and hypercarbia would
result. Towards the end, He would only be able to get one, short breath at a
time. Carbon dioxide would build up in the lungs, forcing His body to convulse
to try to get more oxygen. During this period, our Lord had sympathy for the
soldiers who were casting lots (as in throwing dice) for His garment, and He
said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are
doing." Then, as the two thieves were arguing, one acknowledged who He was,
and Jesus told him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in
paradise." He saw His mother and the beloved disciple, John, and asked John
to take care of His mother (John 19:25-27). Even while in extreme agony,
Jesus’ concern was for others: a criminal, and His mother!
Jesus speaks for a recorded fourth time, a cry from Psalm 22, "My God, my
God, why has thou forsaken me?" This was His greatest agony, as He had to
be separated from the Father for the first and only time in eternity. God cannot
look upon nor be touched by sin, and Jesus bore it all--every sin that had been
committed, was being committed, and would ever be committed. Jesus had been
hanging on that cross for hours with a lacerated, bruised, and beaten body that
was twisting, cramping, convulsing, and in partial asphyxiation while struggling
to take every breath. Some insects burrowed themselves into the open wounds;
others would go into the eyes, ears, and nose.
Now it is almost over, and a dreadful, crushing pain, deep in His chest, emerges
as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. As
it struggles against being compressed, it tries to pump the thick and sluggish
coagulated blood into His tissues. His distressed lungs are making a frantic
effort to gasp any oxygen it can. His body is very dehydrated, as it has lost
most of its vital fluids. Jesus is code blue--critical beyond critical. Then
Jesus gasps His fifth cry, "I thirst." He realized that a final cry
would proclaim His triumph, yet He needed fluids to arouse His body to do so. A
soldier gave Jesus a sponge soaked in posca, an old, bad, sour wine that the
solders drank; in contrast to the marvelous wine He made for His first public
miracle, the wedding feast (John 2:1-12; 19:28-30).
Jesus is now at death’s door! Jesus summoned the remainder of His energy to
once again press His torn feet against the spike, straighten His legs to take a
deep breath, and uttered His last and final cry, possibly no more than an
agonized whisper, "It is finished," and "Father! Into thy hands I
commit my spirit." And so it was, His mission to redeem our souls was
accomplished, and later proven when He rose from the grave to proclaim our call
to tell the world (Matt. 28: 18-20).
Because it was nearing Passover, the soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves
to expedite their deaths. But, when the soldiers came to Jesus, they saw that He
was already dead. Jesus was on the cross for only three to six hours, and His
quick death surprised even Pilate. Perhaps Pilate did not take into
consideration all the wounds and trauma Jesus endured on the way to the cross.
The fact that Jesus cried out in a loud voice and then bowed his head and died
suggests the possibility of a catastrophic terminal event.
The general method of ending a crucifixion was by crurifracture, which is to
break the persons leg bones. That way, they can no longer lift themselves up and
they die from asphyxiation. The soldiers discovered, as they were about to break
His legs, that He was already dead. However, to make darn sure, one of the
soldiers, out of rage or sport, thrust a lance–a spear--into His side. The
probable path of the spear would have been the right cross-section of the
thorax, at level of plane (logical direction of impact from physics) piercing
His heart through the fifth interspace between the ribs, upward through the
pericardium, and into the heart, where blood and water flowed out (John 19: 34).
This proves Jesus was not in a coma, but dead. Some scholars debate over whether
Jesus died from the spear, from a heart attack, or of suffocation. To put to
rest this controversy--the wound was far away from the abdominal midline, even
though some suggest that the spear killed Jesus, and the water was urine. The
Greek word for water and urine are not the same! But, the important aspect is
not how Jesus died, but that He died for you and me.
According to those physiologists I interviewed, Jesus did not die from
suffocation as most victims of crucifixion did. Rather, He had cardiac rupture
or cardio respiratory failure, associated hypovolemia, hyperemia, and an altered
coagulable state. Also, friable (brittle), non-infective, thrombotic vegetations
could have formed on the aortic or mitral valve, aggravated by His state of
exhaustion and the severity of the scourging. Jesus died of heart failure! This
is evidenced by the presence of water, which is caused by the shock and
constriction of the cardiac tissues being filled by fluid from the pericardium.
Our Lord died from a broken heart caused by our sin.
Next time you look upon a crucifix, even if you are a Protestant as I am,
perhaps you can see what our Lord did for you!
22nd Psalm
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so
far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not
answer, by night, and am not silent. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you
are the praise of Israel. In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and
you delivered them. They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and
were not disappointed. But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and
despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their
heads: "He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver
him, since he delights in him." Yet you brought me out of the womb; you
made me trust in you even at my mother's breast. From birth I was cast upon you;
from my mother's womb you have been my God. Do not be far from me, for trouble
is near and there is no one to help. Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of
Bashan encircle me. Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths wide
against me. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My
heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up
like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me
in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled
me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people
stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my
clothing. But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help
me. Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs.
Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you.
You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! For he has not despised or disdained
the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has
listened to his cry for help. From you comes the theme of my praise in the great
assembly; before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows. The poor will eat
and be satisfied; they who seek the LORD will praise him-- may your hearts live
forever! All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all
the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to
the LORD and he rules over the nations. All the rich of the earth will feast and
worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him-- those who cannot
keep themselves alive. Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told
about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn--for
he has done it. (NIV)
References
Original Research
Interviews with Physiologists in a university and medical school 1982.
Consulted medical anatomy and physiology textbooks.
The Resurrection Factor, San Bernardino, McDowell J: Ca, Here's Life Publishers,
1981.
Historical Evidences for the Christian Faith & Evidence That Demands a
Verdict, McDowell J. San Bernardino, Ca, Here's Life Publishers, 1979.
On death by crucifixion, American Heart Journal, Tenney S. M: 1964; 68:286-287.
A doctor looks at crucifixion, Christian Herald, Bloomquist E. R. March 1964.
Researched into ancient Christian, Jewish, and Roman texts that provide
additional, firsthand insights concerning first century Jewish and Roman legal
systems and the details of scourging and crucifixion:
· Seneca, Livy, Plutarch refer to
crucifixion practices
· Roman historians Cornelius Tacitus,
Pliny the Younger, and Suetonius
· Non-Roman historians Thallus and
Phlegon
· The satirist Lucian of Samosata
· The Jewish Talmud
· Jewish historian Flavius Josephus
· The Shroud of Turin although not
proven authentic gives considerable insights
Revised Research
Articles:
“A Physician Testifies About the Crucifixion” by Dr. Pierre Barbet, a French
surgeon Doubleday Image Books Garden City, NY, 1953, pp 12-18 37-147,159-175,
187-208.
· “Medical Account of
Crucifixion” Dr. C. Truman Davis “an American Ophthalmologist Ariz Med 1965;
22:183-187
· “On the Physical Death of Jesus
Christ” William D. Edwards, MD; Wesley J. Gabel, M Div; Floyd E. Hosmer, MS,
AMI 1986
Journals:
“Death by Crucifixion” De Pasquale NP, Burch GE American Heart Journal 1963;
66: 434-435
JAMA Journal of the American Medical Association and the Mayo Clinic, Rochester,
MN 55905 (Dr. Edwards) March 211986
Additional research sources:
“A case of haematidrosis” Scott CT: Br Med. J 1918;1:532-533.
“The chest wound in the crucified Christ” Mikulicz-Radeeki FV:Med News1966;
14:30-40.
The physical suffering of Christ, Lumpkin R: J Med. Assoc Ala 1978,47:8-10,47.
Medical and cardiological aspects of the passion and crucifixion of Jesus, the
Christ, Johnson CD: Bol Assoc. Med. PR 1978;70:97-102.
Did Jesus die of a broken heart? Calvin Forum, Bergsma S: 1948; 14:163-167.
Word Studies From the Greek New Testament, K. S. Wuest, Eerdmans Publisher 1973.
Richard Joseph Krejcir is the Director of ‘Into Thy Word Ministries, ’a
discipling ministry. He is the author of the book, Into Thy Word and is also a
pastor, teacher, speaker and a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary in
Pasadena California. He has amounted over 20 years of pastoral ministry
experience, mostly in youth ministry, including serving as a church growth
consultant.
Next month we will close the series of Stewardship with part III a look at if,
and what we are called to give today, and some of the common objections to
tithing.
© 1982, revised 2003 R. J. Krejcir, www.intothyword.org