A Crucifixion Examined

Crucifixion was a horrendous method of execution. In truth, the method is sadistic. There was nothing humane about it at all. The intent was to cause the death of the victim slowly while inflicting the most amount of pain possible for the longest period of time possible.  The shame of the event, the victim stripped and publicly displayed, was bad enough, but the agony was horrific.  In fact, the word excruciate derives from the Latin words ex (intense) and cruciare (crucify), which is itself based on the root word crux (cross). 

The way that crucifixion worked is that the victim was secured to a wooden cross with nails that were approximately 6 inches long and 1/2 inch thick.  A nail would be driven through each arm holding them in place and another nail would be driven through the victim's feet to fasten them in place. The entire weight of the victim's hanging body was focused on where his limbs were pinned to the cross by those nails. The victim would be suspended in such a way that as he hung he was unable to breathe.  He would have to push up with his legs, using the nails in his feet as his leverage, in order to take a breath. This would simultaneously increase the pain where his feet were nailed, and relieve the pressure of his weight where the nails were driven through his hands. After taking a breath or two, or when he could no longer hold himself with his legs due to weariness or the pain, he would sag back down putting the weight of his body back on the points at the nails in his hands and he would again be unable to breathe.

This torture would typically last for several days before death would come.  The victim would eventually die, not from blood loss or the unimaginable pain, but slowly from suffocation.

It has been generally thought that the nails in the arms were driven through the palms of the victim's hands.  Almost every painting you see of Christ on the cross or of Him resurrected and displaying the holes where the nails had been driven is depicted this way.  While physically nails could be driven through the palm, that location would not do very well at holding the person's weight for very long before tearing away. Rope would have had to be used to tie the victim's arms to the cross.  This would lessen the pain potential that could be inflicted on the victim with the rope suspending him rather than being suspended simply by the nails.  Roman soldiers, however, were not interested in easing the amount of pain the victim would have to endure.  

The wrist area is often considered part of the hand and in some cultures is automatically accepted as such.  Driving the nail through the wrist between the ulna and radius (the two bones in your forearm) would better support the person's weight as well as offer one other despicable aspect: the median nerve runs through the wrist.  This is the same nerve that you trigger when you hit your "funny bone".  You know how painful even a minor strike to your funny bone is; imagine a 6 inch nail driven into it and then having to cycle hanging all of your weight from it and that being a constant and intense pain.

A scriptural basis for why I believe that the nails were driven through Jesus' wrists is from a messianic prophecy in the Psalms.  Jesus and the two thieves had only been on their crosses for about 6 hours.  Because of the onset of the coming Sabbath, the Pharisees begged for the bodies to be taken down from the crosses. Because a victim's crucifixion could last days before death would come, and crucifixion was a death sentence, the Roman soldiers proceeded to break the legs of the two thieves to hasten their death. They would be unable to lift themselves in order to breathe and would quickly suffocate. So not only did it hasten death, it did it with even more pain from their broken bones and the terror of immediate suffocation. It was truly inhuman.  

When the soldiers came to Jesus, He was already dead so they did not break His legs.  Instead, one soldier pierced His side with a spear.  John in recording this incident references this psalm as the fulfillment of this moment.  

For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.”
     -  John 19:36

He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.
     - Psalm 34:20

If Jesus' leg bones could not have been broken as a fulfillment of this, then neither could any of the bones in His hands.  If the nails had been driven through His palms, the small metacarpal bones in the hand would have been broken.

So if crucifixion could last for days, and they had only hung on the crosses for roughly six hours, how was Jesus already dead?  Because His torment had actually begun hours before he was nailed to the cross.  

First, He was beaten.  We don't know how badly He might have been beaten, but the Roman soldiers certainly wouldn't be kind to a Jewish man - a man of a conquered people - and one brought to them as a criminal to face a death penalty.

Then thorns woven into a crown and put on His head. While many believe that the thorns were rather long, the length is really not significant but rather the significance is the damage done.  The scalp has one of the largest blood vessel concentrations and has very little protection.  Anyone who has had a even a rather small head wound knows how freely blood flows from the scalp.  Once the crown of thorns was placed on Him, the soldiers hit His head with reeds which would drive the thorns into His scalp. Any puncturing would cause the blood to flow, and this would result in quite a bit of blood loss.

Afterward, He was scourged. Jews were limited by Mosaic law to administering no more than 40 lashes, so they would only give 39 to ensure they wouldn't break the law even accidentally.  Romans were not under any such constraint. Roman soldiers used what was called a flagrum which is a multi-strapped whip.  Along each leather strap were fastened pieces of metal and shards of stone or bone.  The metal would break the blood vessels of the body causing bruising of the flesh while the stone or bone shards would grab the flesh and slice it. Often the shards would sink deeply enough into the muscle tissue that it would have to be forcibly yanked free tearing flesh and muscle away.  The victim's back and legs would not only be lacerated, the tearing of the flesh would expose even bone and tendon.  The blood loss from this trauma would be extensive.

Significant blood loss causes the body to go into circulatory shock. Further, blunt force trauma such as He received in the scourging (and possibly the beating) can cause pericardial effusion (in which a watery substance fills the sac around the heart), or pleural effusion (in which a watery substance fills the sac around the lungs), or even both.  Either one of these conditions would account for the "water" mixed with the blood that flowed from His body after the soldier pierced it with the spear. 

Now go back a little in time prior to Jesus' death.  He was so physically stressed from circulatory shock and blunt force trauma, that He was physically unable to carry the weight of the cross, or probably more accurately the patibulum (crossbeam).  The Roman soldiers then forced Simon of Cyrene to carry the weight instead.  As Jesus hung on the cross, He would lift himself on his pinioned feet in order to take a breath. His back, which had been laid open and bare by the scourging, would press against that unfinished wood.  Each time He would raise Himself or lower Himself, bare muscle and vessels already inflamed with agony would scrape unprotected against the cross.

Scripture said that the Messiah would suffer (Isaiah 53:5). Jesus knew He would be crucified (John 3:14). Knowing what was waiting for Him just mere hours later, is it any wonder that He sweated blood in the garden of Gethsemane?  That too, by the way, is a known medical condition.  It is called hematohidrosis. It is a condition in which the blood vessels for the sweat glands rupture and results in the secretion of the blood through the pores.  This occurs under times of extreme physical or emotional stress.  Certainly extreme emotional stress is conveyed by Jesus' words, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death" (Matthew 26:38).

The sheer strength of His will, physically and mentally, is astounding.  I have on several occasions experienced a trauma of an object causing a deep cut or puncturing my flesh striking against bone. I once recently had an injection in an area that had me quite apprehensive and caused me to greatly stress out about for over an hour before the actual procedure.  In each of those events, even though there was not very much pain at all and I was not under stress (with the exception of the injection), my body shut down and I lost consciousness for a brief time.

But Jesus stood up under all of that horrific trauma with determination and single-mindedness.  Through it all, He remained totally clear of thought and endured through physical stress right up until:  "It is finished,” and he bowed His head and gave up His spirit. (John 19:30)


For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.
     -  John 10:17-18



[Originally written: January 30, 2017]