What happened to Jesus? – The Medical Evidence! (a topic of unimaginable brutality).

This writing was born out of curiosity, as a disciple or child of Jesus Christ, one must be aware of what happened to Him from the time of His arrest, torture, and on the cross; before He was dead. Indeed, you may say “we have passion narratives in the Gospel accounts – Right? Then I have to tell you 'yes absolutely we know how Jesus was arrested and crucified as in plain Bible language'.

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.

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