Where Did Jesus Die? — Page 36
? 36 Heidelberg as Professor of Theology and remained there until his death. He writes in The Life of Jesus (1828): The resurrection of Jesus must be brought under the same category (premature burial) if we are to hold fast to the facts that the disciples saw him in his natural body with the print of the nails in his hands and that he took food in their presence. Death from crucifixion was in fact due to a condition of rigour, which extended gradually inwards. It was slowest of all deaths. Josephus mentioned in his Contra Apionem that it was granted to him as a favour by Titus, at Tekoa, that he might have three crucified men, whom he knew, taken down from the cross. Two of them died but one recovered. Jesus, however, ‘died’ surpris- ingly quickly. The loud cry which he uttered, immedi- ately before his head sank, shows that his strength was far from being exhausted, and that what supervened was only a death-like trance. In such trances the process of crying continues until corruption sets in. This alone proves that the process is complete and that death has actually taken place. In the case of Jesus, as in that of others, the vital spark would have been gradually extinguished had not Providence mysteriously effected on behalf of its favourite that which, in the cases of others was sometimes effected in more obvious ways by human skill and care. The lance thrust, which we are to think of rather as a mere surface wound served the purpose of a phlebotomy. The cool grave and the aromatic unguents continued the process of resurrection until finally the storm and the earthquake