The Pre-Resurrection Scene
McDowell heavily quotes John
Mattingly from Crucifixion: Its Origin and Application to Christ who
provides us with a ghastly description of what pre-crucifixion torture
entailed, then says that in addition Christ had to endure the journey to
Golgotha, had his garments stripped off, then got nailed to the wooden cross
and every nerve in his body cried out in anguish.
Michael Green is quoted as
noting that Pilate was surprised that Jesus was already dead. But convinced by
the centurion’s assurance, gave Joseph of Arimathea permission to remove the
body from the cross.
James Thompson is quoted as saying:
“the death of Christ was not due to physical exhaustion, or to the
pains of crucifixion, but to agony of mind producing rupture of the heart”.
McDowell then states that an
article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 255,
No. 11, March 21, 1986) concluded from the Gospel accounts that Jesus certainly
had died before he was removed from the cross.
Then he quotes Samuel Houghton,
M.D., the great physiologist from the University of Houghton,who relates his
view on the physical cause of Christ’s death:
Describing what happened after
the soldier pierced Christ’s side with his spear, he says the way the blood and
water flowed in the manner they did indicated that Christ had died from heart
rupture.
McDowell then quotes Samuel
Chandler who says that all the evangelists agree that Christ died before being
taken down from the cross.
That basically sums up the
“evidence” in this section.
Essentially, we are being asked
to believe that someone who walked on water, went without food for 40 days,
healed lepers, made the blind see, and raised people from the dead, died from
exhaustion, which induced fatal heart rupture. The question is: why should we
believe that someone is immortal (try 40 days without food) and yet at the same
time believe that same person died? Isn’t it logically inconsistent to do so?
Why did “the cross” kill him? Isn’t
this similar to the ubiquitous legends of people who could not be killed by
spears except when the spears were directed at their shadows? Or vampire-like
stories that say guns can’t kill them but garlic juice can? Doesn’t this
similarity indicate some mythical underpinning of this story?
The apologists above are clearly
contriving “theories” about what killed Christ while in reality, it does not
make sense that merely carrying a cross and being nailed on it could kill him.
Secondly, there are many stories
of people who survived crucifixions in the first century but we have not been
given a reason why Jesus could not have survived YET, his legs were not even
broken (John 19:33). Death by crucifixion took days and breaking the legs
was a means of hastening death because the victim with broken legs had no means
of supporting the weight of his body.
Richard carrier in Why
I Don't Buy the Resurrection Story (2000) narrates from Life of
Flavius Josephus (pg. 420-21), that Flavius Josephus wrote that he
witnessed three crucified people taken down, with one surviving. However, the
passage says nothing about what wounds the victims received before being
crucified (they were war captives, after all, not peacefully arrested
criminals), nor does it say how long they were up, or how long they lived
before finally giving in, only that they died while under the care of a
physician. What is of relevance is that (1) Jesus was taken down the same day
and (2) His legs were not broken (3) He was of good health (i.e. he was not
taken from prison). These three factors make it very likely that Jesus could
have survived the crucifixion.
Thirdly, we are told that Pilate
doubted that Christ had died. This indicates that even someone familiar with
what resurrection entailed actually doubted that Jesus has died so soon. If
Pilate, a Roman (thus familiar with exactly what crucifixion entailed), was
present and yet he doubted, we must have very good reasons not to doubt too.
McDowell has provided none.
There has been no good argument
given to explain away Pilate’s doubting.
Fourthly, the centurions were
not medical doctors and were not competent to declare that Jesus was dead.
Their pronouncement that Jesus had died was thus not reliable.
Fifth, there is no clear medical
axiom that says exactly the manner in which the blood and water flow when
someone dies of heart rupture. It is baseless to claim that Jesus died of heart
rupture because of the said flow. The lack of support for this contrived
“theory” is clear even in McDowell’s book. Any medical doctor interested in
explaining how Jesus died, given there was no cadaver, just supposedly an empty
tomb and a story would not be worth their salt. Pathologists need more than a
story and an empty tomb to determine the cause of death! They might as well
explain the cause of death of Lot’s wife (who changed into a pillar of salt)!
The same journal also stipulated
that when Jesus was sweating blood, it was due to his ruptured facial blood
vessels. It adds that under extreme stress facial blood vessels can rupture
resulting in “sweating blood”. Is it human experience to see people under
extreme stress (firing squads, crucifixions etc) sweating blood? What amount of
pressure would break the skin (considering its tough elastic nature)? Even if
blood vessels were to burst, why facial blood vessels? Are they the weakest
blood vessels? Does stress manifest itself by exploding blood vessels? This
preposterous claim undermines any credibility the medical journal could
otherwise have.
Sixth, the agony of mind is said
to have caused the supposed heart rupture. Agony of mind? Why would mere nails
and a wooden cross cause agony of mind to someone who could spend 40 days
without food in the desert? Why would someone who predicted the way the scenes
would unfold many times suddenly get “agony of mind” when his prophecy comes
true? Is it the nature of people to suffer “agony of mind” when things happen
exactly as they expected? If Jesus was afraid of the pain, then he would suffer
“agony of mind” at the mere contemplation of what was impending, NOT when it
actually was taking place. Excruciating pain would be more convincing compared
to agony of mind. This “agony of mind” hypothesis is just contrived to suit the
“blood and water” flow and it simply does not fit.
Seventh, what were Jesus’ last
words? There is a huge conflict between the evangelists about what Jesus' last
words were. This conflict, demonstrates that their testimony is not
trustworthy. They cannot all be telling the truth at the same time yet be contradicting each other.
Mark 15:34,37 (Matthew 27:46,50)
And at the ninth hour Jesus
cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"- Which
means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"...with a loud cry
Jesus breathed his last.
Luke 23:46
Jesus called out with a loud
voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said
this, he breathed his last.
John 19:30
When he had received his drink,
Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave
up his life.
Of course they were not
original. Mark’s words were from
Psalms 22:2: “My god, My God why
have you forsaken me?”
Luke used Psalms 31:6
“Into your hands I commit my
spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. “
John, in the triumphant spirit
of his passion narrative, uses the words of a hero who has accomplished his
mission "it is finished" just as with his version, Jesus carried the
cross himself. Matthew and Luke, of course, plagiarized the words “… breathed his last” from Mark.
The apparent contradiction
erodes the credibility of their testimonies and the lack of originality
(copying from Psalms) and the apparent plagiarism renders their testimony questionable.
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