❤️A Physician's View of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ
Dr. C. Truman Davis
❤️What did the body of Jesus of Nazareth actually endure during those hours of torture?
Base sa mga gi crucify nga mga victims. Scientists can determine how someone died 2,000 years ago using forensic archaeology (remains) and paleopathology (scientific study of ancient diseases and injuries in humans, animals, and plants. By analyzing skeletal remains, mummies, and fossils.
By applying modern medical and imaging techniques, experts can uncover fatal injuries, diseases, and the exact circumstances surrounding a person's death.
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 through the palms. Nails driven through the palms will strip out between the fingers when made to support the weight of the human body.
Anatomists, both modern and ancient, have always considered the wrist as part of the hand.
The BLOODY SWEAT in GETHSEMANE: The Initial Suffering
St. Luke, the physician.. Very rare 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, thus mixing blood with sweat. Profound fear, severe anxiety, or panic attacks this causes capillaries to break leading to rupture.
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 them as they each passed by, spat upon Him, and struck Him in the face.
In the early morning, BATTERED and BRUISED, DEHYDRATED, and EXHAUSTED from a sleepless night, Jesus is taken to Pontius Pilate followed by a 40x scourging.
THE FLAGRUM WHIPPER:
The Roman soldier steps forward with the flagrum (or flagellum) in his hand. This is a short whip consisting 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.
PHILIPPIANS 4:13
At first the thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continue, they cut deeper into the hypodermis (subcutaneous tissues), (dermis, epidermis, hypodermis) producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries (gagmayng ugat) and veins (dagku) of the skin, Capillaries primary transfer stations for oxygen, nutrients, and waste between the blood and tissues. Veins return this deoxygenated, waste-rich blood back to the heart. And finally spurting arterial bleeding that leads to hemorrhagic shock and death.
THE SMALL BALLS:
The small balls of lead first produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows.
BACK SKIN:
Finally...is hanging in long ribbons and 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 with His own blood.
R.S. JOKES
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.
THE CROWN:
Flexible branches covered with long thorns (commonly used in bundles for firewood) are plaited into the shape of a crown and this is PRESSED into His scalp. Again there is copious bleeding, the scalp being one of the most vascular (rich network of blood vessels) areas of the body.
Human siya bugalbugali gilapdosan pajud siya sa kahoy sa iyang ulo, nisamot ug kalubong sa sclap ang tunok. Finally, they tire of their sadistic sport and the robe is torn from His back. Already having adhered to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, its removal causes excruciating pain just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage, and almost as though He were again being whipped the wounds once more begin to bleed.
THE CROSS
In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans return His garments. The heavy (BAR) patibulum of the cross is tied across His shoulders, and the procession of the condemned Christ, two thieves, and the execution detail of Roman soldiers headed by a centurion begins its SLOW JOURNEY along the Via Dolorosa. (Ang Daan Ng Krus- Sa Landas ng Pagdurusa)
HE STUMBLES AND FALLS:
In spite of His efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden beam (Overall 136 kg. Horizontal crossbar (the patibulum), 34-75 kg.), together with the shock produced by copious blood loss, is too 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 human muscles have been pushed beyond their endurance. The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, selects a stalwart North African onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross.
Jesus follows, still bleeding until nahuman gyud Niya ang 2000 feet from fortress of Antonia to Golgotha.Mga anaa ras 15 minute walk. But for Jesus slow pilgrimage to calvary it takes 1-2 hours of journey.
Simon is ordered to place the patibulum on the ground
(pop culture - entire cross, but Records in Roman accounts and discussed in contemporary historical texts)
and Jesus quickly thrown backward with His shoulders against the wood.
THE 5-7 INCH- NAIL
According to historical and archaeological records, Roman crucifixion spikes were a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail. So the legionnaire drives it through the wrist and deep into the wood.
RADIUS and ULNA .....HAND (palm and wrist)
The patibulum is then lifted in place at the top of the stipes and the titulus reading, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” is nailed in place.
(T)
This damages the dense network of nerves, blood vessels, and the interosseous membrane connecting the bones. Depending on the angle and depth, it can cause severe pain, heavy bleeding, nerve loss, and restricted wrist or forearm rotation.
THE FOOT: except agonizing pain... suffocation
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 Victim is now crucified. As He slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain
As He pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He places His full weight (mejo motindak) on the nail through His feet. Again there is the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet.
At this point, as the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps (bikog) sweep over the muscles, walay hunong nga kasakit.
With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by his arms, muscles are paralyzed.
AIR:
Air can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot be exhaled. (amg tawo ani maningkamot)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.
7 SHORT SENTENCES:
The first, looking down at the Roman soldiers throwing dice for His seamless garment,
❤️ “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
❤️The second, to the penitent thief, “Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”
The third, looking down at the terrified, grief-stricken adolescent John — the beloved Apostle — he said,
❤️“Behold thy mother.” Then, looking to His mother Mary, “Woman behold thy son.”
❤️The fourth cry is from the beginning of the 22nd Psalm, “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?”
Jesus experienced hours of limitless pain,(kasakit, kahapdos, kangulngol, banhud, bikog) cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial ASPHYXIATION is a life-threatening condition where the body is deprived of oxygen, leading to unconsciousness and potentially death.
It, searing pain (BURNING HEAT OR HOT IRON against your skin) where tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up and down against the rough timber.
CHEST
Then another agony begins -- a terrible crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium (P-effusion)slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. (LESS BLOOD is pumped to the body with each beat.)
One remembers again the 22nd Psalm, the 14th verse: “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.”
VERY CRITICAL STATE
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.”
SOUR WINE and MYRRH or GALL: PAIN RELIEVER
❤️This realization brings out His sixth words, possibly little more than a tortured whisper, “It is finished.” His mission of atonement has completed. Finally He 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 last cry, ❤️“Father! Into thy hands I commit my spirit.”
CRURIFRACTURE:
The rest you know. In order that the Sabbath not be profaned, the Jews asked that the condemned men be dispatched and removed from the crosses. The common method of ending a crucifixion was by CRURIFRACTURE, the breaking of the bones of the legs. This prevented the victim from pushing himself upward; thus 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 came to Jesus they saw that this was unnecessary.
BLOOD AND WATER
Apparently, to make doubly sure of death, the legionnaire drove his lance through the fifth intercostal (rib) space on Jesus' right side. This angle would have punctured the pericardium and heart, releasing accumulated fluids, as famously recorded in John 19:34. )
🥺
The 34th verse of the 19th chapter of the Gospel according to St. 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 or ordinary crucifixion death by suffocation, but of HEART FAILURE (a broken heart) due to shock and constriction (can't pump enough blood) of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.