Truth About The Crucifixion — Page 98
from a corpse it does not flow but emerges slowly in the form of clots. In a dead body the action of the heart ceases altogether and the circulation of blood stops and it is not possible that blood should flow out. Therefore, the pouring out of blood of Jesus is clear proof that he was not dead at the time. 5. Crucifixion was a process entirely distinct from hanging. For the purpose of crucifixion, a wooden cross was prepared and the condemned person was nailed to the cross by his hands and feet. Death was the end of a slow process which was achieved in the course of three or four days, and sometimes took even longer. Even then when a condemned person was taken down from the cross his legs were broken in order to make sure that he had died. Sometimes the relatives of such a person contrived to obtain possession of his body while he was still alive and nursed him back to consciousness and thus rescued him from the jaws of death. The well-known author,. B. F. Strauss, has written in this context:. Crucifixion, they maintain, even if the feet as well as the hands are supposed to have been nailed, occasions but very little loss of blood. It kills, therefore, only very slowly by convulsions produced by the straining of the limbs or by gradual starvation. So, if Jesus, supposed indeed to be dead, had been taken down from the cross after about six hours, there is every probability of his supposed death having been only a death-like swoon, from which after the descent from the cross Jesus recovered again in the cool cavern, covered as he was with healing ointments and strongly scented spices. On this head, it is usual to appeal to an account in Josephus who says that on one occasion, when he was returning from a military recognisance on which he had been sent, he found several Jewish prisoners who had been crucified. He saw among them three acquaintances whom he begged Titus to give to him. They were immediately taken down and carefully attended to. One was really saved but the two others could not be recovered. (A New Life of Jesus by D. F. Strauss, Vol. I, page 410). . When Jesus was nailed to the cross, he was in good health and was a young man of 33 years. He remained upon the 101