A Physician's View of the Crucifixion
of Jesus Christ
By Dr. C. Truman Davis
WARNING: MATERIAL IN THIS ARTICLE MAY BE UNSUITABLE
FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN. PARENTAL DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
About a decade ago, reading Jim Bishop’s The Day Christ Died,
I realized that I had for years taken the Crucifixion more or less for
granted — that I had grown callous to its horror by a too easy
familiarity with the grim details and a too distant friendship with
our Lord. It finally occurred to me that, though a physician, I didn’t
even know the actual immediate cause of death. The Gospel writers don’t
help us much on this point, because crucifixion and scourging were so
common during their lifetime that they apparently considered a detailed
So we have only the concise words of the Evangelists:
“Pilate, having scourged Jesus, delivered Him to them to be crucified
— and they crucified Him.” I have no competence
to discuss the infinite psychic and spiritual suffering of the Incarnate
God atoning for the sins of fallen man. But it seemed to me that as
a physician I might pursue the physiological and anatomical aspects
of our Lord’s passion in some detail.
What did the body of Jesus of Nazareth actually endure
during those hours of torture?
This led me first to a study of the practice of crucifixion
itself; that is, torture and execution by fixation to a cross. I am
indebted to many who have studied this subject in the past, and especially
to a contemporary colleague, Dr. Pierre Barbet, a French surgeon who
has done exhaustive historical and experimental research and has written
extensively on the subject.
Apparently, the first known practice of crucifixion
was by the Persians. Alexander and his generals brought it back to the
Mediterranean world — to Egypt and to Carthage. The Romans apparently
learned the practice from the Carthaginians and (as with almost everything
the Romans did) rapidly developed a very high degree of efficiency and
skill at it. A number of Roman authors (Livy, Cicer, Tacitus) comment
on crucifixion, and several innovations, modifications, and variations
are described in the ancient literature. For instance, the upright portion of the cross (or stipes) could
have the cross-arm (or patibulum) attached two or three feet below its
top in what we commonly think of as the Latin cross. The most common
form used in our Lord’s day, however, was the Tau cross, shaped
like our T.
In this cross, the patibulum was placed in a notch
at the top of the stipes. There is archeological evidence that it was
on this type of cross that Jesus was crucified. Without any historical or biblical proof, Medieval and Renaissance
painters have given us our picture of Christ carrying the entire cross.
But the upright post, or stipes, was generally fixed permanently in
the ground at the site of execution and the condemned man was forced
to carry the patibulum, weighing about 110 pounds, from the prison to
the place of execution.
Many of the painters and most of the sculptors of
crucifixion, also show the nails through the palms. 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. The misconception
may have come about through a misunderstanding of Jesus’ words
to Thomas, “Observe my hands.” Anatomists, both modern and
ancient, have always considered the wrist as part of the hand.
A titulus, or small sign, stating the victim’s
crime was usually placed on a staff, carried at the front of the procession
from the prison, and later nailed to the cross so that it extended above
the head. This sign with its staff nailed to the top of the cross would
have given it somewhat the characteristic form of the Latin cross.
But, of course, the physical passion of the Christ
began in Gethsemane. Of the many aspects of this initial suffering,
the one of greatest physiological interest is the bloody sweat. It is
interesting that St. Luke, the physician, is the only one to mention
this. He says, “And being in agony, He prayed the longer. And
His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground.” Every ruse (trick) imaginable
has been used by modern scholars 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 literature. 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, thus mixing blood with 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 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 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 Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch
of Judea. Jesus apparently suffered no physical mistreatment at the
hands of Herod 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 crucifixion. There is much disagreement
among authorities about the unusual scourging as a prelude to crucifixion.
Most Roman writers from this period do not associate the two. Many scholars
believe that Pilate originally ordered Jesus scourged as his full punishment
and that the death sentence by crucifixion came only in response to
the taunt by the mob that the Procurator was not properly defending
Caesar against this pretender who allegedly claimed to be the King of
the Jews. Preparations 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 the Jewish law in this matter,
but the Jews had an ancient law prohibiting more than forty lashes. The Roman legionnaire
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.
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 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.
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 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 areas of the body.
After mocking Him and striking Him across the face,
the soldiers take the stick from His hand and strike Him across the
head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp. 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. In deference to 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,
two thieves, and the execution detail of Roman soldiers headed by a
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 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 and
sweating the cold, clammy sweat of shock, until the 650 yard journey
from the fortress Antonia to Golgotha is finally completed. 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 quickly thrown
backward 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 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 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.
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 — 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 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 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 paralyzed 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 during these periods 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.”
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
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, cycles
of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation,
searing pain where tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves
up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins -- a
terrible crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills
with serum and begins to compress the heart. 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.”
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 legionaries, is lifted to His lips. He apparently doesn’t
take any of the liquid.
The body of Jesus is now in extremes, and He can
feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. 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.”
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.
Apparently, to make doubly sure of death, the legionnaire
drove his lance through the fifth interspace between the ribs, upward
through the pericardium and into the heart. 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 crucifixion death by suffocation,
but of heart failure (a broken heart) due to shock and constriction
of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.
Thus we have had our glimpse — including the
medical evidence — of that epitome of evil which man has exhibited
toward Man and toward God. It has been a terrible sight, and more than
enough to leave us despondent and depressed. How grateful we can be
that we have the great sequel in the infinite mercy of God toward man
— at once the miracle of the atonement (at one ment) and the expectation
of the triumphant Easter morning.
Are you moved by what Jesus did for you on the cross? Do you want to receive the salvation Jesus purchased for you at Calvary with His own blood? Pray this prayer with me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I know that I am a sinner and need your forgiveness. I believe
that You died on the cross for my sins and rose from the grave
to give me life. I know You are the only way to God so now
I want to quit disobeying You and start living for You. Please
forgive me, change my life and show me how to know You. In
Jesus' name. Amen.
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How you can know you are forgiven:
The Bible, God's Word says: You were saved by faith in
God, who treats us much better that we deserve. This is God's
gift to you, and you have done nothing on your own (Ephesians
For those who put their faith in Jesus: He gave them
the right to be the children of God... God Himself was the
one who made them His children (John 1:12-13).
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© Dr. C. Truman Davis. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
Dr. C. Truman Davis was a nationally respected opthalmologist,
vice president of the American Association of Ophthalmology, and an active
figure in the Christian schools movement. He was founder and president
of Trinity Christian School in Mesa, Arizona, and a trustee of Grove City
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