I have no competence to discuss the infinite psychic and spiritual suffering of the
Incarnate God atoning for the sins of fallen man. But
it seemed to me that as a physician I might pursue
the physiological and anatomical aspects of our
Lord’s passion in some detail.
What did the body of Jesus of Nazareth actually
endure during those hours of torture?
This led me first to a study of the practice of
crucifixion itself; that is, torture and execution by
fixation to a cross. I am indebted to many who have
studied this subject in the past, and especially to a
contemporary colleague, Dr. Pierre Barbet, a French
surgeon who has done exhaustive historical and
experimental research and has written extensively
on the subject.


Apparently, the first known practice of crucifixion
was by the Persians. Alexander and his generals
brought it back to the Mediterranean world — to
Egypt and to Carthage. The Romans apparently
learned the practice from the Carthaginians and (as
with almost everything the Romans did) rapidly
developed a very high degree of efficiency and skill
at it. A number of Roman authors (Livy, Cicer,
Tacitus) comment on crucifixion, and several
innovations, modifications, and variations are
described in the ancient literature. For instance, the
upright portion of the cross (or stipes) could have
the cross-arm (or patibulum) attached two or three
feet below its top in what we commonly think of as
the Latin cross. The most common form used in our
Lord’s day, however, was the Tau cross, shaped
like our T.

In this cross, the patibulum was placed in a notch at
the top of the stipes. There is archeological
evidence that it was on this type of cross that Jesus
was crucified. Without any historical or biblical
proof, Medieval and Renaissance painters have
given us our picture of Christ carrying the entire
cross. But the upright post, or stipes, was generally
fixed permanently in the ground at the site of
execution and the condemned man was forced to
carry the patibulum, weighing about 110 pounds,
from the prison to the place of execution.
Many of the painters and most of the sculptors of
crucifixion, also show the nails through the palms.
Historical Roman accounts and experimental work
have established that the nails were driven between
the small bones of the wrists (radial and ulna) and
not through the palms. Nails driven through the
palms will strip out between the fingers when made
to support the weight of the human body. The
misconception may have come about through a
misunderstanding of Jesus’ words to Thomas,
“Observe my hands.” Anatomists, both modern and
ancient, have always considered the wrist as part
of the hand.

A titulus, or small sign, stating the victim’s crime
was usually placed on a staff, carried at the front of
the procession from the prison, and later nailed to
the cross so that it extended above the head. This
sign with its staff nailed to the top of the cross
would have given it somewhat the characteristic
form of the Latin cross.
But, of course, the physical passion of the Christ
began in Gethsemane. Of the many aspects of this
initial suffering, the one of greatest physiological
interest is the bloody sweat. It is interesting that St.
Luke, the physician, is the only one to mention this.
He says, “And being in agony, He prayed the longer.
And His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling
down upon the ground.” Every ruse (trick)
imaginable has been used by modern scholars to
explain away this description, apparently under the
mistaken impression that this just doesn’t happen.
A great deal of effort could have been saved had
the doubters consulted the medical literature.
Though very rare, the phenomenon of Hematidrosis,
or bloody sweat, is well documented. Under great
emotional stress of the kind our Lord suffered, tiny
capillaries in the sweat glands can break, thus
mixing blood with sweat. This process might well
have produced marked weakness and possible
shock.
After the arrest in the middle of the night, Jesus
was next brought before the Sanhedrin and Caiphus,
the High Priest; it is here that the first physical
trauma was inflicted. A soldier struck Jesus across
the face for remaining silent when questioned by
Caiphus. The palace guards then blind-folded Him
and mockingly taunted Him to identify them as they
each passed by, spat upon Him, and struck Him in
the face.


In the early morning, battered and bruised,
dehydrated, and exhausted from a sleepless night,
Jesus is taken across the Praetorium of the
Fortress Antonia, the seat of government of the
Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. You are, of
course, familiar with Pilate’s action in attempting to
pass responsibility to Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of
Judea. Jesus apparently suffered no physical
mistreatment at the hands of Herod and was
returned to Pilate.


It was then, in response to the cries of the mob, that
Pilate ordered Bar-Abbas released and condemned
Jesus to scourging and crucifixion. There is much
disagreement among authorities about the unusual
scourging as a prelude to crucifixion. Most Roman
writers from this period do not associate the two.
Many scholars believe that Pilate originally ordered
Jesus scourged as his full punishment and that the
death sentence by crucifixion came only in
response to the taunt by the mob that the
Procurator was not properly defending Caesar
against this pretender who allegedly claimed to be
the King of the Jews. Preparations for the
scourging were carried out when the Prisoner was
stripped of His clothing and His hands tied to a post
above His head. It is doubtful the Romans would
have made any attempt to follow the Jewish law in
this matter, but the Jews had an ancient law
prohibiting more than forty lashes. The Roman
legionnaire steps forward with the flagrum (or
flagellum) in his hand. This is a short whip
consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two
small balls of lead attached near the ends of each.
The heavy whip is brought down with full force
again and again across Jesus’ shoulders, back, and
legs.

At first the thongs cut through the skin only. Then,
as the blows continue, they cut deeper into the
subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of
blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and
finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the
underlying muscles. The small balls of lead first
produce large, deep bruises which are broken open
by subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the back is
hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an
unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When
it is determined by the centurion in charge that the
prisoner is near death, the beating is finally
stopped. The half-fainting Jesus is then untied and
allowed to slump to the stone pavement, wet with
His own blood.


The Roman soldiers see a great joke in this
provincial Jew claiming to be king. They throw a
robe across His shoulders and place a stick in His
hand for a scepter. They still need a crown to make
their travesty complete. Flexible branches covered
with long thorns (commonly used in bundles for
firewood) are plaited into the shape of a crown and
this is pressed into His scalp. Again there is
copious bleeding, the scalp being one of the most
vascular areas of the body.


After mocking Him and striking Him across the
face, the soldiers take the stick from His hand and
strike Him across the head, driving the thorns
deeper into His scalp. Finally, they tire of their
sadistic sport and the robe is torn from His back.
Already having adhered to the clots of blood and
serum in the wounds, its removal causes
excruciating pain just as in the careless removal of
a surgical bandage, and almost as though He were
again being whipped the wounds once more begin
to bleed. In deference to Jewish custom, the
Romans return His garments. The heavy patibulum
of the cross is tied across His shoulders, and the
procession of the condemned Christ, two thieves,
and the execution detail of Roman soldiers headed
by a centurion begins its slow journey along the Via
Dolorosa.


In spite of His efforts to walk erect, the weight of
the heavy wooden beam, together with the shock
produced by copious blood loss, is too much. He
stumbles and falls. The rough wood of the beam
gouges into the lacerated skin and muscles of the
shoulders. He tries to rise, but human muscles have
been pushed beyond their endurance. The
centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion,
selects a stalwart North African onlooker, Simon of
Cyrene, to carry the cross. Jesus follows, still
bleeding and sweating the cold, clammy sweat of
shock, until the 650 yard journey from the fortress
Antonia to Golgotha is finally completed. Jesus is
offered wine mixed with myrrh, a mild analgesic
mixture. He refuses to drink. Simon is ordered to
place the patibulum on the ground and Jesus
quickly thrown backward with His shoulders against
the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression
at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square,
wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into
the wood. Quickly, he moves to the other side and
repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms
to tightly, but to allow some flexion and movement.
The patibulum is then lifted in place at the top of the
stipes and the titulus reading, “Jesus of Nazareth,
King of the Jews,” is nailed in place.
The left foot is now pressed backward against the
right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a
nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the
knees moderately flexed. The Victim is now
crucified. As He slowly sags down with more weight
on the nails in the wrists, excruciating pain shoots
along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the
brain — the nails in the wrists are putting pressure
on the median nerves.


As He pushes Himself upward to avoid this
stretching torment, He places His full weight on the
nail through His feet. Again there is the searing
agony of the nail tearing through the nerves
between the metatarsal bones of the feet. At this
point, as the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps
sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep,
relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps
comes the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging
by his arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed
and the intercostal muscles are unable to act. Air
can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot be exhaled.
Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even
one short breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in
the lungs and in the blood stream and the cramps
partially subside. Spasmodically, he is able to push
Himself upward to exhale and bring in the life-giving
oxygen.


It was undoubtedly during these periods that He
uttered the seven short sentences recorded:
The first, looking down at the Roman soldiers
throwing dice for His seamless garment, “Father,
forgive them for they know not what they do.”
The second, to the penitent thief, “Today thou shalt
be with me in Paradise.”
The third, looking down at the terrified, grief-
stricken adolescent John — the beloved Apostle —
he said, “Behold thy mother.” Then, looking to His
mother Mary, “Woman behold thy son.”
The fourth cry is from the beginning of the 22nd
Psalm, “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken
me?”


Jesus experienced hours of limitless pain, cycles of
twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial
asphyxiation, searing pain where tissue is torn from
His lacerated back as He moves up and down
against the rough timber. Then another agony
begins -- a terrible crushing pain deep in the chest
as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and
begins to compress the heart. One remembers
again the 22nd Psalm, the 14th verse: “I am poured
out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my
heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my
bowels.”


It is now almost over. The loss of tissue fluids has
reached a critical level; the compressed heart is
struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into
the tissue; the tortured lungs are making a frantic
effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly
dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the
brain. Jesus gasps His fifth cry, “I thirst.” One
remembers another verse from the prophetic 22nd
Psalm: “My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and
my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou has
brought me into the dust of death.” A sponge
soaked in posca, the cheap, sour wine which is the
staple drink of the Roman legionaries, is lifted to His
lips. He apparently doesn’t take any of the liquid.
The body of Jesus is now in extremes, and He can
feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues.
This realization brings out His sixth words, possibly
little more than a tortured whisper, “It is finished.”
His mission of atonement has completed. Finally He
can allow his body to die.
With one last surge of strength, he once again
presses His torn feet against the nail, straightens
His legs, takes a deeper breath, and utters His
seventh and last cry, “Father! Into thy hands I
commit my spirit.”
The rest you know. In order that the Sabbath not be
profaned, the Jews asked that the condemned men
be dispatched and removed from the crosses. The
common method of ending a crucifixion was by
crurifracture, the breaking of the bones of the legs.
This prevented the victim from pushing himself
upward; thus the tension could not be relieved from
the muscles of the chest and rapid suffocation
occurred. The legs of the two thieves were broken,
but when the soldiers came to Jesus they saw that
this was unnecessary.
Apparently, to make doubly sure of death, the
legionnaire drove his lance through the fifth
interspace between the ribs, upward through the
pericardium and into the heart. The 34th verse of
the 19th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John
reports: “And immediately there came out blood and
water.” That is, there was an escape of water fluid
from the sac surrounding the heart, giving
postmortem evidence that Our Lord died not the
usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart
failure (a broken heart) due to shock and
constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.
Thus we have had our glimpse — including the
medical evidence — of that epitome of evil which
man has exhibited toward Man and toward God.


www.cbn.com/spirituallife/onlinediscipleship/easter/a_physician's_view_of_the_crucifixion_of_jesus_christ.aspx

Someone should pls read and give me a summary of the write up

Great writeup