This article is my medical perspective on what happened at Good Friday. Details of that day’s events could give us a greater appreciation of Christ’s suffering.
This is a repost from April 14, 2019. The story of Good Friday
My medical perspective about what happened on that Good Friday.
I. The Agony in the Garden
And his sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground.
Hematohidrosis, or sweating blood, has been described in the medical literature. It is secondary to extreme stress causing the capillaries supplying the sweat glands to burst to cause blood to come out of the sweat glands.
II. The Scourging at the Pillar
Then, therefore, Pilate took Jesus and scourged him.
While the gospels do not say how often the scourging was done, Rabbinical Law forbids more than 40 lashes.[3]
But that law did not bind the Romans; therefore, they could flog as many times as they wanted.
Yet so, that they exceed not the number of forty: lest thy brother possesses a shamefully torn before thy eyes.
Lictors, the bodyguards of the Roman magistrates, did the scourging. They are well-fed, healthy, and strong, as they are chosen to guard essential people.
The flagellum, made out of leather strips with iron nails, sharp bones, and metal balls, was used for the scourging.
Romans are colonialists who know how to intimidate or psychologically terrorize the population to keep them in line all the time.
Lictors understand symbology. They know that a horrifying scourging of a high profile individual, especially during the Passover period when there are many people, sends a powerful message comparable to, “Don’t mess with Rome, or else you get this!”
Scourging is done with full force and can be tiring, so two or more lictors are needed to alternate between the blows.
Proper biomechanics are used to deliver each blow. The body parts scourged are done from the shoulders down to the feet. The face must be avoided, but since there are no referees, there are no penalties if they sometimes make a mistake and hit the face.
Scourging was done like this: With the flagellum chambered on the dominant hand, the scourger stepped forward and rotated his body from the hips, torso, and shoulders to transmit the energy to the hand to deliver the lash.
The flagellum digs deep into the body, and the bones and spikes embed. A step back is needed to pull the embedded spikes together with skin and muscle fibers.
Each strike does not produce a mere gash or a minor laceration but an avulsion.
Avulsion injuries cause more bleeding and pain. Looking back at the image of the flagellum, we can see three leather strips with four metal spikes on each.
There are twelve barbs for each flagellum. Multiply with 39 lashes, and you get 468 avulsion wounds.
If the flagellum contains metal balls, the muscles will get blunt injuries and cause muscle fiber destruction, rhabdomyolysis, and ruptured blood vessels.
The Passion of the Christ has a realistic depiction of the scourging.
III. Crowning with Thorns
Ziziphus Spina-Christi or Christ’s thorn jujube grows around Jerusalem. Historians say this is what was used to make the Crown of Thorns.
The scalp has many blood vessels.
Arteries, nerves, and veins travel together. The thorns will pierce and cut the blood vessels and nerves, producing unbearable pain and bleeding.
When the crown of thorns was plunged into the head of Jesus, it produced multiple blood vessel lacerations. Not just puncture wounds.
If the scalp muscles are cut, they contract, pull apart, and open up the bleeding blood vessels.
If someone with a scalp laceration is in the emergency room, that patient should be seen immediately because they can quietly lose a lot of blood and die.
IV. The Carrying of the Cross
The whole Cross weighs around 300 lbs, and it is impossible to drag 300 pounds of wood for 2,000 feet after losing blood from the scourging.
The Romans wanted the convict to die while crucified on the Cross to optimize the “shock value” to showcase power.
The Romans do not want the convict to die too early while scourging but not too long on the Cross that they must wait for a long time. They want the convicts to die “at the right time on the cross” so everyone can see.
That is why only the crossbar is carried. The crossbar or patibulum weighs around 75 to 125 lb. (34 to 57 kg). It is balanced on the shoulders and tied to the arms.
The Via Dolorosa’s distance is about 600 meters (2,000 feet) and starts from Pontius Pilate’s praetorium, now known as the Antonia Fortress, to the crucifixion site in Golgotha.
Crucifixions are done on elevated grounds, and on that Good Friday, it was a rounded hill shaped like a skull or calvarium.
Golgotha is the word for the skull in Aramaic. In Latin, calvarium is the word for the skull.
Imagine 125 lbs of rough wood on Jesus’ back with multiple open wounds deep into the muscles causing unbearable pain.
Jesus has lost a massive amount of blood, has had no water since the last supper, and has been sweating. By this time, He is dehydrated and getting weak.
That is why they must force Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross member. They want Jesus to live until He is crucified on the Cross.
V. The Crucifixion and Death
The nails are 5 to 7 inches long and 10 mm in diameter. They are driven thru the palms and the feet. As they penetrate, they cut nerves and arteries to cause more bleeding and pain.
As Jesus got hoisted up the Cross, breathing became more arduous. The crown of thorns made Jesus bend his head forward, or the thorns would dig deeper into the scalp.
As the hours go by, blood loss and dehydration take their toll, and the cells cannot get enough oxygen and become acidic.
The myoglobins released from the injured muscle fibers go into the bloodstream and end up in the kidneys, aggravating kidney failure.
Each inhalation requires that Jesus raise his chest upwards by pulling on the nailed hands and pushing from the pierced feet. Each inspiration rubs the avulsion wounds at the back, causing more pain.
The damaged muscle fibers also release potassium into the bloodstream, and the kidneys cannot remove them because of failure. High potassium causes the heart to beat slowly when needed to beat faster to compensate for blood loss.
Organs fail when the environment becomes acidic and lacks oxygen.
Cause of Death
Cardiogenic shock was secondary to many conditions happening all at once. Acidic blood, high potassium, respiratory failure, severe blood loss and dehydration, muscle destruction, kidney failure, and lack of oxygen in the brain.
Jesus died a long, slow, painful death.
You know the real cause of death. Why He died? For you.
Please don’t waste it.
References:
- Jewish Encyclopedia.com. CRUCIFIXION: By Kaufmann Kohler, Emil G. Hirsch
Image Credits:
Scalp Blood Supply Henry Gray (1827–1861
Thorny branches Photo by Andrey Grinkevich on Unsplash
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