Physicians description of scourging  and crucifixion

I have noticed over the years that people tend to get comfortable with the fact that Jesus was scourged and crucified. I wonder how many know exactly what happens to the human body durring these events. So I did a search on them, buckle your seat belts and get ready to see these events in a new light. All we find in scripture is "Pilate, having scourged Jesus, delivered Him to be crucified-- and they crucified Him." I wanted to know more, like what did the body of Jesus endure durring those last hours of torture? This led me first to look at practice of crucifixion itself, that is torture and execution by fixation to a cross.Many have done studies on this in the past, I mainly used Dr. Pierre Barbet, a French surgeon who has done exhaustive historical and experimantal research and has written extensively on the subject. The first known practice of crucifiction was by the Persians. Alexander and his Generals brought it back to the Mediteranian world-- to Egypt and Carthage. The Romans learned it from the Carthaginians and rapidly developed a very high degree of efficiency at it. A number of Roman authors (Livy, Cicer, Tacticus) comment on crucifiction, and several innovations, modifications, and variations are described in the ancient literature.For instance the upright portion of the cross (stripes) could have the cross arm (patibulum) attached two or three feet below its top in what we think of as the Latin cross. The most common form used in Jesus day, however was the Tau cross, shaped like out T. In this cross the patibulum was placed in a notch at the top of the stripes. There is archeological evidence that it was on this type of cross that Jesus was crucified. It was common practice to have the condemned to carry the patibulum weighing about 110 pounds from the prison to the place of execution where the stripes was already in the ground. Most painters and sculptors show the nails through the palm of the hands. Historical Roman accounts and experimental work have established that the nails were driven between the small bones of the wrists (radial and ulna) and not the palms.Nails driven through the palms would strip out between the fingers when made to support the weight of the human body. This misconception may have come about through the misunderstanding of Jesus' words to Thomas, "Observe my hands." Anatomists. both ancient and modern have always considered the wrist as part of the hand. A titulus, or small sighn, stating the condemned's crime was usually placed on a pole and carried at the front of the procession from the prison and later nailed to the cross so it extended above the head. This sighn on the pole nailed to the top of the cross would make it look like a Latin cross. But the phyical passion of Jesus did not begin with the cross, but rather in Gethsemane. Of the many aspects of this initial suffering, the most interesting to me is the bloody sweat. It is interesting that Luke, the physician, is the only one to mention this. He says, "And being in agony, He prayed and the sweat became as drops of blood upon the ground." Every trick possible has been used to explain away this description, apparently under the mistaken impression that this just doesn't happen. A great deal of effort could have been saved had the doubters consulted the medical books. Though very rare, the phenomenon of Hematidrosis, or bloody sweat, is well documented. Under great emotional stress of the kind our Lord suffered, tiny capillaries in the sweat glands can break, mixing blood with the sweat. This process might well have produced marked weakness and possible shock.
After the arrest in the middle of the night, Jesus was next brought before the Sanhedrin and Caiphus, the High Priest. It is here that the first physical trauma was inflicted. A soldier struck Jesus across the face for remaining silent when questioned by Caiphus. The palace guards then blind folded Him and mockingly taunted Him to identify each one as they passed by, spitting on Him and stricking Him in the face. In the early morning, battered and bruised, dehydrated and exhausted from a sleepless night, Jesus was taken across the Praetorium of the fortress Antonia, the seat of government of the Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. You are of course, familiar with Pilate's action in attempting to pass responsibility to Harod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Judea. Jesus apparently suffered no physical mistreatment at the hans of Harod and was returned to Pilate. It was then, in response to the cries of the mob, that Pilate ordered Bar-Abbas released and condemned Jesus to scourging and crusifiction. There is much disagreement about the unusual scourging as a prelude to crusifixion. Most Roman writers from this period do not associate the two. Many scholars believe that Pilate origanlly ordered Jesus scourged as His full punishment and that the death sentence by crusifiction came only in response to the taunts by the mob that the Procurator was not properly defending Caesar against this pretender who allegedly claimed to be the King of the Jews. Preperations for the scourging were carried out when the prisoner was stripped of His clothing and His hands tied to a post above His head. It is doubtful the Romans would have made any attempt to follow Jewish law in this matter, but the Jews had an ancient law prohibiting more then forty lashes. The Roman legionnaire steps forward with the flagrum in his hand. This is a short whip cosisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near the ends of each. The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and again across Jesus' shoulders, back, and legs. At first the thongs cut through the skin only, then, as the blows continue, 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 produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and entire the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When it is determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped. The half fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump to the stone pavement, wet in His own blood. The Roman soldiers see a great joke in this provincial Jew claiming to be King. They throw a robe across His shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a scepter. They still need a crown to make their travesty complete.Flexible branches with long thorns are twisted together into the shape of a crown and pressed into His scalp, again causing lots of bleeding, being on of the most vasular areas of the human body. After mocking Him and striking Him across the face, the soldiers take the stick and strike Him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp. Finally, they tire of this sadistic sportand tear the robe from His back.Already having adheared to the clots of blood in the wounds, its removal causes excruciating pain just like when you rip off a surgical bandage, and almost as though He were again whipped the wounds once more begin to bleed. In defiance of Jewish custom, the Romans return His garments. The heavy patibulum of the cross is tied across His shoulders, and the procession of the condemned Christ, the two thieves, and the execution detail of Roman soldiers headed by the centurion begins its slow journey along the Via Dolorosa. In spite of His efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by copious blood loss,is to much. He stumbles and falls. The rough wood of the beam gouges into the lacerated skin and muscles of the shoulders. He tries to rise, but His human muscles have been pushed beyond their endurance. The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifiction, selects a stalwart North African onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross. Jesus follows, still bleeding and sweating the cold, clammy sweat of shock, until the 650 yard journey from the fortress Antonia to Golgotha is finallycompleted. Jesus is offered wine mixed with myrrh, a mild analgesic mixture. He refuses to drink. Simon is ordered to place the patibulum on the ground and Jesus 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, wroght-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly, he moves to the other side and repeats the action being careful not to pull the arms to tightly, but to allow some flexion and movement. The petibulum is then lifted into place at the top of the stripes and the titulus reading "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" is nailed in place. The left foot is now 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 moderately flexed. The victum is now crucified. As He slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists excruciating pain shoots along the fingers and 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 His full weight on the nails in His feet. Again there is the searing agony of the nail tearing through nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet.
At this point, as the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep,relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by His arms, the pectoral muscles are paralized and the intercostal muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short 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 the life-giving oxygen. It was undoubtedly durring these times that He uttered the seven short sentences recorded. The first, looking down at the Roman soldiers throwing dice for His seamless garment, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."
Second to the peitent thief, "Today thou shalt be with me in paradise."
Third, looking down at the terrified, grief stricken adolescent John-- the beloved Apostle-- He said, "Behold thy mother.' then looking at His mother Mary, "Woman behold thy son." The fourth cry is the beginning of the 22nd Psalm, "My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?" Hours of limetless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial esphyxiation, searing pain where tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agaony begins.... A terrible crushing pain deep in the chest as pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. One remembers again the 22nd Psalm the 14 th verse, " I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax, it is in the midst of my bowels." 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 tissue, the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air.The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain. Jesus gasps His fifth cry, "I thirst." One remembers another verse from the prophetic 22nd Psalm; "My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou has brought me into the dust of death." A sponge soaked in posca, the cheap, sour wine which is the staple drink of the Roman Legionares, if lifted to His lips. He refuses to take any of the liquid. The body of Jesus is now in wxtremes, and He can feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. This realization brings out His sixth words, possibly little more then a tortured wisper, "It is dinished." His mission of attonement is complete. Finally He a can allow His body to die, With one last surge of strength, He once again presses His torn feet against the nail, straightens His legs, takes a deeper breath, and utters His seventh and final cry, "Father! into your hands I commit my spirit." The rest you know. In order not to profane the Sabbath, the Jews asked that the condemned men be dispatched and removed from the crosses. The common method of ending a crucifixion was to break both legs so the victim could no longer push himself up to exhale, and he rapidly suffocated. The legs of the two thieves were broken, but when the soldiers came to Jesus they saw He was already dead so this was not necessary. To make double sure of Juses' death, the legonnaire drove a lance through the fifth interspace between the ribs, upward through the pericardium and into the heart. The 34th verse of the 19th chapter of John reports, 'And immediately there came out blood and water." That is, there was an escape of water fluid from the sac surrounding the heart, giving postmortem evidence that our Lord died not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart failure (a broken heart) due to shock and constriction of the heart bu fluid in the pericardium. We have had our look- including medical evidence- at the epiitome of evil which man has exhibited toward God. It has been a terrible site, and more than enough to leave us despondent and depressed. How grateful we can be that we have the great ending in the infinate mercy of God toward man--at once the miracle of the atonement and the expectation of the triumphant ressurrection morning.

By Bill Sommer Felt