Truth About The Crucifixion — Page 135
off the Jewish priesthood. It appears that a soldier who was not aware of Pilate's plan pierced the side of Jesus with a spear and blood and water poured out from his side. This is proof that he was alive at the time. A corpse does not bleed. In the phrase: at once there came out blood and water, the expression at once is significant. It shows that the body of Jesus bled immediately on its being pierced. If blood drips 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 127