And
if you ask me again, “is that not sufficient; what is recorded in the Bible?” my
answer is “sufficient enough” but what we are going to discover in this writing
through the help of Medical Terminologies and Evidences will bring life to what
we already have seen in the Gospels.
Nevertheless,
at the same time, I strongly state “Bible is not a science textbook.” But just
we are trying to better understand particular facts and truths behind the most
important incidents of the Bible which make more sense. (Don’t make a laboratory
research)
Talking
about Jesus’s final movements is a topic of unimaginable brutality, you know
why I said like this: “beating so barbarous that it shocks the conscience, and
that it stood as wretched testimony to man’s inhumanity to man.”
Lets,
begin if we want to know What happened to Jesus? “paint a picture using your
imagination - what we about discuss now. (by the way, imagination is a wonderful
gift of God)
It
all began after the Last supper, Luke 22: 39- 44 (while I was doing exegetical
research on this particular passage at my college library, I discovered many variants,
criticisms, and theological interest of the evangelist (gospel writer). I dint
mention all those details- to be with our topic.
“Jesus
went with his disciples to the Mount of Olives- specifically, to the Garden of
Gethsemane. And there, if you remember, he prayed all night. Now, during that
process, he was anticipating the coming events of the next day. Since he knew
the amount of suffering, he was going to have to endure, he was quite naturally
experiencing a great deal of psychological stress.” And that’s the summary of
(Luke 22: 39- 44).
The
gospel tells us he began to sweat blood at this point- “this is a known medical
condition called hematidrosis. It's not very common, but it is associated with a
high degree of psychological stress.
Medical Evidence 1 – Hematidrosis.
“What
happens is that severe anxiety causes the release of chemicals that break down
the capillaries in the sweat glands. As a result, there’s a small amount of
bleeding into these glands, and the sweat comes out tinged with blood. Not a
lot of blood; it’s just a very, very, small amount.”
Hematidrosis
had other effects on Jesus Body, which set up the skin to be extremely fragile
so, when the Roman soldiers have fogged Jesus on the next day, his skin was
very, very sensitive.
We
might have seen many people in pathetic conditions at casualties, due to
accidents, fire, crime, and dead bodies too but here is something especially
unnerving in knowing Jesus being intentionally tortured/brutalized by Romans
who are purposefully set single-minded to extract maximum suffering.
Now
paint a picture of the flogging of Jesus while you continue to read- use your
imagination.
Here,
I should tell that across the globe; Roman flogging is known to be terribly
brutal. They consisted of thirty-nine lashes but right now its lot more than
that. But the lashes and flogging usually is depended on the mood of the solider.
(I took a pause here when I came to know
“depending on the mood of the solider?”)
Flogging-
Roman Soldiers would use a whip of braided leather thongs with the balls of
metal woven into them. So, this is what happens when the whip would hit the
body/flesh the woven metal balls to the braided leather whip would cause very
deep bruises which injury the tissues usually that makes a ragged wound. To
make it more exact, being flogged continuously, would break open and the whip
would come out having pieces of bones by cutting the flesh severely along with
the skin layer. (I don’t know about how you feel but I filled with tension my
heart is heavy.)
The
flogging would go all way from the shoulders down to the back, the buttocks,
and the back of the legs. Shredding the body to an intensive level that if we
are standing and watching Jesus being flogged I am confident we could see the
spine exposed by the deep, deep cuts. Must be careful that you may miss
understanding as I have “spine refers to the bony part but not the spinal cord
which is the nervous tissue that extends from the brain.” I had to take the help
of my sister, who is a medical tutor to understand this.
One
physician who dedicated his entire life in studying Roman beatings said, “As
the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal
muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh.” (I should tell that
knowing these details, this I feel I am in the Garden of Gethsemane with psychological
pressure on my brain and tension in the heart – I took many little, little
breaks to calm down and started again, I literally felt that a needle was
pierced and pressed into the elastic tissue- cartilage in the nose)
Eusebius-
a great historian from the third century described flogging by saying, “The
sufferer’s veins were laid bare, and the very muscles, sinews, and bowels of
the victim were open to exposure.”
Here
we have to understand that a person would die due to this kind of severe beating
even before he is crucified or that person would at least, experience tremendous
pain and go into Hypovolemic shock.
Medical Evidence 2 – Hypovolemic shock.
This
is another important Medical Terminology we have to understand; which means “Hypo
= ‘low,’ vol refers to volume, and emic
means “blood,’ so, hypovolemic
shock means a person
is suffering the effects of losing a large amount of blood.”
Doctors
would explain, this Hypovolemic shock does four things; first, the heart races to try to
pump blood that isn’t there; second, the blood pressure drops, causing fainting
or collapse; third, the kidneys stop producing urine to maintain what volume is
left; and the fourth, become thirsty as the body craves fluids to replace the
lost blood volume.
That’s
interesting right, Yes because we see all these evidence well supported by the
Gospels in the Bible; we see that Jesus was in hypovolemic shock and went up
the road to the execution spot at Calvary, carrying the heavy cross – which
made His heart to pump the blood that isn’t there; due to flogging.
And
finally, Jesus collapsed due to the drop in blood pressure so He fainted. And
then we know the Roman solider told Simon to carry the cross for Jesus. Later we
read Jesus said ‘I Thirst.’ And vinegar/cheap vine was offered to Him, He was
craving for water because His kidneys stopped producing urine to maintain the
volume left and replace the lost blood volume. Thus, he felt thirsty. (remember
there is always spiritual importance more.)
Jesus
was in serious to critical condition even before the nails were driven through
His hands and feet.
What
happened at the spot of crucifixion – Jesus would have been laid down and been
nailed in the outstretched position to the horizontal beam. And it's very hard
for me to visualize the five to seven inches long and sharp-pointed spikes
(nails). Driven into his wrists- an inch or below His palms. Yes, I said to
myself what on his wrist not on his palms, because that’s what we see in all
paintings and most of the movies in his palms not on the wrist. There is a
reason for it was just a standard symbol representing the crucifixion.
But,
the reason behind nailing on the wrist was; this is a solid position which will
lock and hold the hands; but if Jesus was nailed on His palms, His weight would
have caused the skin to tear and He would have fallen off the cross. But the
reason behind all paintings portraying on palms was considered part of the hand
in the language of the day.
Now,
it’s important that we need to understand the nails would go through the place
where the median nerve runs. Which is the largest nerve going out to the hand, so it would be crushed
by the nails that were driven- being pounded in. I had gone through studying
this deep to know what it really means since I have a rudimentary knowledge of
the human anatomy,
Let
me put it in this way, “Do you know the kind of pain you feel when you bang
your elbow and hit your funny bone? That’s actually another nerve, called the ulna
nerve. When you hit
it accidentally you feel like you almost dead (extremely painful)
In
other words, crushing the median nerve can be said as squeezing an orange with taking a
pair of pliers; that’s similar to what Jesus experienced. (unbearable; my
fingers are shivering)
This
had an effect on His body, imagine His arms been stretched, probably six inches
in length, and both shoulders have been dislocated as a result of it (my heart
is pumping faster). And this again interesting because we see in Psalm 22 as a
fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy foretold hundreds of years, “My bones
are out of joint.”
Climax – the reason for Jesus Death.
There
is a strong cause of writing this climax because I often heard people say,
Jesus was not dead but was like the dead; so, they mean is Jesus's death was
faked and the disciples/followers kept nursed him secretly and later He went to
some other nation. I strongly disagree and prove that a person tortured/flogged
to such maximum extreme and hanging in a vertical position, signifies crucifixion
is essentially an agonizingly slow death by Asphyxiation.
Medical Evidence 3 – Asphyxiation.
The
reason for asphyxiation is that the stress on the muscles and diaphragm puts
the chest into the inhaled position; so, basically, in order to exhale, He has
to push up on his feet so the tension on the muscles would be eased for a
movement. Trying to push up and exhale, the nail would tear down the foot,
eventually locking up against the tarsal bones.
After managing to exhale, He would then be
able to relax down and take another breath in. again He has to push himself up
to exhale, scraping his bloodied back against the coarse wood of the cross. Will
go on until the complete exhaustion and He would not be able to push up and
breathe anymore. This will lead to an effect on Him as He slows down his
breathing, He will be into Respiratory acidosis.
Medical Evidence 4 – Respiratory acidosis.
This
is what happens, the carbon dioxide in the blood is dissolved as carbonic acid,
causing the acidity of the blood to increase. Leading to an irregular heartbeat;
therefore, with his heart beating erratically, Jesus would have known that He
was at the movement of death, which is when He was able to say, “Lord, into
your hands I commit my spirit.” And then He died of cardiac arrest.
Here
we need to know an important thing even before He died; the hypovolemic shock
has caused a sustained rapid heart rate that would have contributed to heart
failure, resulting in the collection of fluid in the membrane around the heart,
called a Pericardial effusion, as well as around the lungs, which is called a Pleural effusion.
Medical Evidence 5 – Pericardial effusion/ Pleural effusion.
- That’s more interesting because this is what happened when the Roman soldier came around and, wanted to be sure that Jesus was dead, by thrusting a spear into his right side. (probably) between the ribs. The spear went through the right lung and into the heart, so when the spear was pulled out, some fluids Pericardial effusion and the Pleural effusion came out. Which would have the appearance of a clear fluid, like water, followed by a large volume of blood. (Passion of the Christ had shown greatly) but John would have no idea why he saw both blood and a clear fluid come out because he is not a trained or medical learner. (Like some of us)
But
according to John’s, best described as being an eye witness in his gospel 19:34
John says, he saw ‘blood and water’ came out I am sure he put these words
intentionally in that order. According to some great Ancient Greek scholars who
study the text in primary language says, since there was a lot more blood then
water, that would have made sense for John to mention the blood first.
At
this point “There was absolutely no doubt that Jesus was dead.”
Conclusion.
Many
don’t believe that Jesus rose again but I hope these words of the conclusion
will give you a free room for seeking the truth with some simple logic. Just
imagine a person in this kind of pathetic condition would never have inspired
his disciples to go out and proclaim that he’s the Lord of life who had
triumphed over the grave.
The
point I am trying to make is, after
suffering that horrible abuse, with all the catastrophic blood loss and trauma,
he would definitely look so pitiful that the disciples would never hail Him as a
victorious conqueror of death; as I said earlier they would have felt sorry for
Him and tried to nurse him back to health. If He had appeared to them in such an
awful state, his disciples would never start a worldwide based on the hope that
on a fine day they too will have a resurrection body like His.
I
must thank great minds of the University of Miami in Florida, the University of
Bristol in England, American Board of Radiology, National Heart, Lung, and
Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health of Bethesda, Mryland;
Along with The Physiologist and Biophysics Journal and The Harvard Theological
Review And Most importantly, Lee a famous journalist at Chicago, for making
this possible.
We
are really happy to see spending your time and patience for learning. In case
if you want to see the exegetical study of my research, go to the menu column
and click on Theological Discussion icon>> find Research papers>> and click on "Academic" and to view full click on the right side top button on the paper.
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