Deliverance from the Cross — Page 56
him, crucify him. Pilate said to them: Shall I crucify your King? The chief priest replied: We have no King but Caesar. When Pilate perceived that his efforts were of no avail, but on the contrary a tumult was arising, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying: I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man; see ye to it. All the people replied: His blood be on us, and on our children. Their clamours, and those of the chief priests prevailed; for Pilate, desirous to satisfy the multitude, gave sentence that their demand should be executed. So he released to them Barabbas, imprisoned on account of sedition and murder, whom they had desired, and delivered Jesus to them to be crucified. ² 'Crucifixion was a much more lingering kind of death, and, in its earlier stages, much less excruciating than we are apt to imagine, or than otherwise it would have been. As there was but little loss of blood - the nails that pierced the extremities touching no large blood-vessel and closing the wounds they made the death which followed resulted from the processes of bodily exhaustion and irritation; and these were so slow that in no case, where the person crucified was in ordinary health and vigour, did they terminate within twelve hours. Almost invariably he survived the first twenty four hours, lived generally over the second, occassionally even into the fifth or sixth day. The 2 Stroud, William, On the Physical Cause of the Death of Christ, p. 39. 56