Crucifixion was invented by the Persians between 300-400 B.C. It was “perfected” by the Romans in the first century B.C. Crucifixion is arguably the most painful death ever invented by man and is where we get the term, “excruciating.” It was reserved primarily for the most vicious of criminals.
After His beating, Jesus walked to Golgotha on a path now known as the Via Dolorosa, or the “way of suffering.” The total distance has been estimated at 650 yards. It is a narrow street of stone, probably surrounded by markets in Jesus’ time. He was led through the crowded street, carrying the cross His shoulders. The crossbar alone probably weighed between 80 to 110 pounds. Jesus was surrounded by Roman soldiers. One of them carried a titulus, a sign which announced His crime of being “the King of the Jews” in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. On the way, Jesus was unable to carry the cross. Some theorize that He may have fallen while going down the steps of the Antonio Fortress. His pain from the fall would be immeasurable because of the previous wounds He sustained from the scourging. Simon of Cyrene (North Africa), who was apparently affected by these events, was summoned to help.
Jesus followed Simon to Golgotha, the highest point in Jerusalem, where the crucifixion took place. Once there, as a gesture of “Roman kindness,” the prisoner was offered a mixture of vinegar (gall) and wine as a mild anesthetic. This anesthetic was refused by Jesus so He bore it all for us.
The procedure of crucifixion may be summarized as follows. The cross was put on the ground and the victim laid upon it. Now, I’m assuming that Jesus was not laid gently on the cross but thrown down on the cross. Nails about 7 inches long and with a diameter of 3/8” were driven into His wrists. The points would go into the vicinity of the median nerve, causing shocks of pain to radiate through the arms. It was possible to place the nails between the bones so that no fractures (or broken bones) occurred. Studies have shown that nails were probably driven through the small bones of the wrist, since nails in the palms of the hand would not support the weight of a body. In ancient terminology, the wrist was considered to be part of the hand.
The cross was then lifted into place and the nails were driven into His feet. The positioning of the feet is probably the most critical part of the mechanics of crucifixion. First the knees were flexed about 45 degrees and the feet were flexed bent downward an additional 45 degrees until they were parallel the vertical pole. An iron nail about 7-9 inches long was driven through the feet between the 2nd and 3rd metatarsal bones. In this position the nail would sever the dorsal pedal artery of the foot, but the resultant bleeding would be insufficient to cause death.
The resulting position on the cross sets up a horrific sequence of events which results in a slow, painful death. Having been pinned to the cross, the victim now has an impossible position to maintain. With His knees flexed at about 45 degrees, Jesus must bear his weight with the muscles of the thighs. However, this is an almost impossible task (try to stand with your knees flexed at 45 degrees for 5 minutes). As the strength of His legs gave out, the weight of His body was transferred to His arms and shoulders. The result is that within a few minutes of being placed on the cross, His shoulders became dislocated. Minutes later His elbows and wrists became dislocated. The result of these dislocations is that His arms were likely 6-9 inches longer than normal.
With His arms dislocated at all joints, considerable body weight is transferred to the chest, causing the rib cage to be pulled out and upward in a state of perpetual inhalation. In order to exhale, Jesus must push down on his feet to allow the rib muscles to relax. The problem was that He cannot push very long because His legs were cramping and He was in extreme pain. As time went on, Jesus was less and less able to bear weight on his legs, causing further dislocation of the arms and further raising of the chest wall, making breathing more and more difficult. As you can imagine, every time He pushed up His back scraped along the cross, causing further damage to His wounds from the scourging. This went on for hours.
The result of this process was a series of catastrophic events to Jesus’ body. Because He could not maintain adequate ventilation of the lungs, the blood oxygen level began to decline and the blood CO2 level began to rise. Rising CO2 levels stimulate the heart to beat faster in order to increase the delivery of oxygen.
However, due to the way He was attached to the cross and the physical things that it caused, Jesus could not physically deliver more oxygen and His rising heart rate only increased oxygen demand. This process causes a vicious cycle of increasing oxygen demand (which cannot be met) followed by an ever-increasing heart rate. After several hours, His heart began to fail and His lungs collapsed and filled up with fluid, which further decreased oxygen delivery to the tissues. The blood loss and hyperventilation combined to cause severe dehydration. That’s why Jesus said, “I thirst.”
Over a period of several hours the combination of collapsing lungs, a failing heart, dehydration, and the inability to get adequate oxygen supplies caused His death. Jesus couldn’t breathe properly and slowly suffocated to death. At three o’clock in the afternoon Jesus said, “It is finished.” And then He died…for us.
Philippians 2:5-11
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
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