A medical doctor provides a physical description of crucifixion.The cross is placed on the ground and the exhausted man is quickly thrown backwards 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 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 flex and movement.The cross is then lifted into place. The left foot is 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 flexed. The victim is now crucified.
As he slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating fiery 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 the full weight on the nail through his feet. Again he feels the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the bones of his feet.
As the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through his muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps come the inability to push himself upward to breath. Air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled. He fights to raise himself in order to get even one small 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 life-giving oxygen. Hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint wrenching cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against rough timber.
Then another agony begins: a deep, crushing pain in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. 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 tissues and the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air.
He can feel the chill of death creeping through his tissues. . . Finally, he can allow his body to die. All the above, the Bible records, with the simple words.............
"and they crucified Him."(Mark 15:24)
Another Description Of Crucifixion.
One of the aims of crucifixion was to make the coming of death as long and as agonizing as possible.
An Arab crucified in Damascus in 1247 took two days to die.
There were variations to both the form of the cross and the manner of fixing the victim. The cross was formed of two parts; the upright (stipes) and the cross arm (patibulum).
The type usually referred to as the Latin cross had the patibulum fixed two or three feet from the top of the stipes, whilst the Tau cross in which the patibulum fitted into a notch on top of the stipes.
Thus the shape was a letter "T" (or Tau in the old Hebrew alphabet). It is more likely that Jesus died on a "T" cross, but the "cross" shape was formed once the titulus was in position above the victim's head.
The Titulus was the small sign which stated the victim's crime, which was fixed to a short staff and carried ahead of the execution procession. It was then nailed to the top of the cross above the victim's head.
The victim would have carried the patibulum which would have weighed around 110 pounds, not the whole cross as is often depicted.
It must be remembered that Jesus' suffering on the cross was preceded by his suffering in the garden and before he was condemned to death.
His emotional suffering in Gethsemane caused Hematidrosis (when tiny capillaries in the sweat glands break during great emotional stress giving blood mixed with sweat.)
After his arrest, Jesus was subjected to mocking and being struck about the face before Pilate had him scourged. Many believe that Pilate hoped the scourging, which could be fatal if prolonged enough, would have been sufficient to satisfy the mob.
Jewish law forbade more than forty lashes but there is no reason to assume the Romans felt bound by that. Jesus would have been stripped and had his hands tied to a post above his head.
The Roman soldier would then have started using his flagrum (or flagellum) which was a short whip of several heavy leather thongs which had two small lead balls near the end of each.
Eventually, when the back was in ribbons of torn and bleeding tissue and the victim was nearly dead the beating was stopped and the victim untied and dropped into a pool of his own blood.
Then there was the crown of thorns and the beating about the head which would drive the thorns in deeper, and then the putting on and removing the "regal robe" from his back, which would have reopened the wounds caused by the flagellation.
Thus it can be appreciated that Jesus was much closer to death at the start of his crucifixion than was normal.
Jesus refused the offered wine with myrrh, which was a mild analgesic, in order to die with an unclouded mind.
This enabled him to make his profoundly significant, seven last sayings.
The victim of crucifixion was usually nailed to the patibulum of his cross, although some were tied. The nails for the hands needed to go through the bones, just past the wrist joint, near the base of the thumb.
If they went into the palm they would tear the flesh, and the victim would not stay up on the cross. Also, the nails were first driven through discs of wood, to prevent any chance of the head pulling through.
There is space between the eight small bones of the hand close to the wrist, which will support the body's weight when nailed.
The nails were carefully placed to avoid any major blood vessels so the victim could not bleed to death, and to avoid the nerves to preserve sensation and muscle function. It is agreed by anatomists, ancient and modern, that the wrist is part of the hand (Jesus told Thomas to observe my hands, meaning his wrists; not his palms)
The patibulum was then lifted onto the stipes and the titulus affixed.
Then the left foot was pressed onto the right and a nail was driven through the arch of both feet, between the second and third long foot bones.
one archaeological find has a nail driven through the heel bone.
[see... www.centuryone.org/crucifixion2.html
Having the feet fixed enabled the victim to push down and take some weight off the hands. This only made things worse because it prolonged the execution.
The victim then began to die. He had a choice, either to support his weight with the feet or hands, or both. The hands were generally much more painful than the feet.
Every stage of crucifixion was a slow one. Victims took longer to die when their arms were outstretched than if they were above the head.
The cause of death was largely asphyxia.
(If you are suspended by the hands, it becomes very difficult to move the rib cage and to breathe)
Air can be drawn in but cannot be exhaled, oxygen gradually failed to arrive in the tissues and waste products (carbonic acid) began to build up in the muscles, making the blood more acid, producing a muscle spasm called tetany.
As death approached, the victim's head was held rigid by the spasm of the muscles of the neck. These cramps would spread to the arms and legs.
When the arm muscles went into spasm they pulled the body up the cross and made breathing slightly easier for a while. Later on there would be a terrible crushing pain in the chest as the pericardium slowly filled with serum which compressed the heart.
Eventually the victim found it more and more exhausting to support the body, causing breathing to become weaker and weaker, and the heart to begin to fail under the strain until death, mercifully, arrived.
This is why the soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus. Once their legs were broken they could no longer take the weight off their arms and breathing became impossible. Thus they would die in time to be removed before the holy day started at sunset.
Jesus survived on the cross a remarkably short time - only a few hours. Pilot marvelled if he were already dead.
Mark, 15, 44.
Although he had allowed men to take him and crucify him, he remained in control. He said, It is finished and gave up his spirit.
[Knowledge of Temple procedures and careful calculation of times recorded in the gospels reveals that Jesus uttered these words at the same time as the High Priest uttered the same words announcing the end of the sacrificing of Passover lambs]
Crucifixion would not have caused Jesus to lose very much blood, he certainly did not bleed to death. When Passover lambs or other animals were sacrificed, their throats were cut and their blood was poured out.
[In Torah it is said the life is in the blood, and that meat was to be drained so that the people did not eat the blood]
For some reason known to himself but not recorded, one of the soldiers sent to speed the deaths of the victims, seeing Jesus was already dead, thrust a spear into his side, causing blood and water to flow out.
He thus fulfilled the necessary shedding of blood, without which there is no remission of sins. The flow of blood and water is explained by the collection of serum mentioned above, which had caused his heart to fail.
Jesus died of a broken heart, caused by trauma and constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.
Copyright © 2003 - 2005 K2Lministry.com All Rights reserved
