What Is the Medical Account of the Crucifixion? The word “excruciating” is thought to come from Latin for “out of the cross.” There was no other word to describe the pain Jesus endured at the cross. His agony started with His ordeal in the garden the night before, praying so hard that He sweat blood. The extent of His suffering, before being nailed to the cross, is an important factor in Christ’s death.
Three events caused Jesus to be weaker on the day of His crucifixion than others hung on crosses before, after, or alongside Him. Historians note that Jesus died relatively quickly once nailed to the wood, but that was probably because of blood loss and, possibly, shock. Several factors exacerbated blood loss: fragile skin following His prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane; a particularly furious flogging; and certain props employed to mock Him.
A 21st-century forensic reconstruction starts with Jesus potentially suffering hematidrosis: “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44). Many readers believe this is either an exaggeration or a supernatural phenomenon, but hematidrosis is medically explained as an “excretion of blood or blood pigments in the sweat” as a result of “severe anxiety […] triggered by fear.”
Jesus was struck with a whip made of “braided leather thongs with metal balls woven into them” plus “pieces of sharp bone.” “The sufferer’s veins were laid bare and the very muscles, sinews and bowels of the victim were open to exposure.” While the objective was to bring a person as close to death as possible without actually killing him, “many people would die from this kind of beating even before they could be crucified.”
Jesus’ back was not marked with red welts; the skin was not merely bleeding. His flesh was torn. Sometimes, a victim’s back was “so shredded that part of the spine was […] exposed by the deep, deep cuts.” Since “the decision to scourge Jesus was made before it was determined that he would be crucified,” punishment might have been particularly furious. “After Jesus was scourged, Pilate attempted to release him.”
Another unique aspect of Christ’s experience — being mocked as King of the Jews — further added to the pain and blood loss He endured. He was made to wear a crown of thorns that cut into His now-fragile skin and caused still more bleeding around the scalp. Christ was struck several times in the head, driving the thorns further into this area, amplifying both bloodshed and pain. Emergency room doctors and nurses see a lot of bleeding from head wounds due to the “profuse vascularity” of the scalp” and “denseness of the connective tissue [which] tends to hold vessels open when the scalp is lacerated.
Having experienced an unthinkable amount of pain already, nails were driven into Jesus’ wrists and feet. The positioning of a person on the cross was devised to create the most discomfort possible, from the way one’s hands were raised to the side to the angle of knees and hips. One would have to continually push against the feet in order to breathe but doing so would send pain signals through every nerve. Shock was reducing His blood pressure, meaning oxygen was not getting to His organs and waste was not being removed.
Christ would have had trouble breathing, but inhalation was not as difficult as exhalation. “Adequate exhalation required lifting the body by pushing up on the feet and by flexing the elbows and pulling the shoulders inward. In order to accomplish this feat, all of Christ’s weight would have been focused in His feet, causing “searing pain,” not to mention the agony of His back rubbing against the rough wood as He struggled to exhale and inhale. A build-up of carbon dioxide from inadequate exhalation would have caused further cramping.
A spear was thrust from below through Christ’s organs, releasing fluid and blood. If He was still alive at that point (highly doubtful), the spear killed Him. The Messiah was barely alive before being hoisted up for a crowd to watch Him expire in agony and certainly dead when taken down from the cross. Theologians suggest that Christ’s 3-6 hours was a relatively short period of time because of the trauma that He suffered prior to being crucified. Inflammation and fluid buildup put his organs under pressure; they could not function properly without blood-waste removal. Eventually, Christ’s system shut down. The verdict: “cardiac and respiratory arrest, due to hypovolemic and traumatic shock, due to crucifixion.”
The resurrection means nothing unless Christ really died but refuting the evidence of His death and suggesting He was hidden somewhere and nursed back to health makes little sense. The gospels do not depict a weak, ailing Jesus displaying jagged, oozing wounds so that He could have recovered by the third day. “Common complications of hemorrhagic shock include kidney damage, other organ damage, death” plus potentially “gangrene due to decreased circulation to the limbs.”
The disciples saw Christ in good health, holes visible but healed (John 20:27), with energy to continue His ministry for some time. Those who believe that Christ died for their sins naturally feel a sense of guilt and pain when they realize what Jesus went through for their sake. But there is triumph here too, for God was able to rescue Christ from Sheol, and if He can do that, He is able to rescue us from our sin if we put our faith and trust in Him.