By Cosmas Odoemena
READERS may find this article on crucifixion disturbing. It is not meant to be pleasant. But it will help Christians to know what Jesus Christ passed through for our sake.
Whenever the story of the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ is relived, like other Christians, I feel sorrowful. But it has never occurred to me to look at what Jesus experienced from a medical point of view.
Dr. C. Truman Davis was one who was inspired by this thought. He looked at documented papers on death by crucifixion, and from there inferred from it what Jesus must have experienced. There is also Dr. Pierre Barbet, a French surgeon who did a lot of historical and experimental research on this subject. It was Barbet that said from his experience the image on the Shroud of Turin was anatomically correct and consistent with crucifixion, and was authentic. There is also Mayo Clinic’s contribution published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1989.
Not long ago, an Israeli Professor, Benjamin Brenner challenged the known belief that Jesus died of hemorrhage. He thinks Jesus might have died from a blood clot or pulmonary embolism brought about by his immobilization, multiple trauma and dehydration. He supported his argument by saying thrombophilia, a rare disease where blood has an increased tendency to clot, is common to people from Galilee where Jesus was from.
Crucifixion probably started first with the Persians (modern day Iran). Then, the victim was suspended so that their feet his touch the ground. The Phoenicians, acquired it and spread it to other cultures, including the Greeks. Alexander the Great (a Greek) was the one who introduced the practice to Carthage, where the Romans picked it up. The Romans started using it around the time that Jesus was born.
The Romans were the ones who perfected crucifixion as a form of punishment “designed to maximize pain and suffering. It wasn’t about killing somebody — it was about killing somebody in a really horrible way. Someone who was crucified suffered the maximum amount of pain. Crucifixion was usually reserved for slaves, foreigners, revolutionaries, and vile criminals.” Crucifixion was also the most shameful form of execution. The victim was usually stark naked. The cloth used around the waist of Jesus was for decency.
A crucified victim would live for a period ranging from just a few hours to a few days. If no one came for the body, it would be left on the cross to be consumed by animals. The upright portion of the cross is called the stipes, while the cross-arm is called the patibulum.
We are made to believe Jesus carried the entire cross to the crucifixion ground, but the upright post was normally fixed on permanent basis to the ground, while the victim was made to carry the patibulum which weighed between 50 to 70kg to the place of crucifixion. Indeed, that was how Jesus carried it. The cross is now a symbol.
History and research have shown that the nails passed between the small bones of the wrists (radial and ulna), and not via the palms. When nails are passed through the palms they will strip out between the fingers if they were to carry the weight of the body. Perhaps Jesus’ words to Thomas “See my hands,” may have brought about the misconception. But anatomists take the wrist as part of the hand.
It was at Gethsemane that Jesus started experiencing the physical suffering. It was said that He sweated blood. It is worthy of note that it was only Luke the physician that documented it. He put it this way, “And being in agony, He prayed the longer. And His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground.”
Many people believe this could never happen. Though it is very rare, Hematidrosis, or bloody sweat, is in medical literature. Great emotional stress, the type Jesus suffered, can cause tiny capillaries in the sweat glands to break, and mix blood with sweat. This phenomenon could well cause profound weakness and possibly lead to shock.
It followed that Jesus was brought before the Sanhedrin and Caiphus, the High Priest. This was where he was first physically traumatized. Jesus was struck across the face when he remained silent after Caiphus questioned him. After that the palace guards blind-folded Him and mockingly taunted Him to identify who struck Him. They spat upon Him, and delt blows on His face.
Early the following morning, a bruised, battered, dehydrated, and exhausted Jesus is taken across the Praetorium of the Fortress Antonia, to meet Pontius Pilate. Then the mob started crying that Jesus be crucified, and Barabbas the murderer be released. A lot of scholars believe that Pilate originally ordered Jesus scourged as his ultimate punishment, the crucifixion being only in response to the cry of the Jews.
Scourging involves stripping the prisoner of his clothes and his hands tied above his head on a post. The Jewish law said no more than forty lashes. But I am not sure if the Romans followed this. A flagrum (or flagellum) is used. This is a short whip that has several heavy, leather thongs and two small balls of lead attached towards the ends of each. The whip had iron balls tied a few inches from the end of each leather thong on the whip.
Occasionally, sharp sheep bones are tied near the ends. The whip is brought down with a great force by a soldier repeatedly across the back, shoulders and legs. The thongs cut through the skin. Then, they cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissues, then blood oozes out from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and later tearing arteries after muscles are reached.
To be concluded tomorrow
.Dr Odoemena writes from Lagos
The crucifixion of Jesus Christ (1)
