Jesus- Part 3- Did Jesus Die?

About a year ago, BBC Four aired a documentary with this very title. It was extremely biased, arguing the negative. Not only did the director, Richard Denton, say some pretty weird things
(including that the disciples "just [made] a mistake", and that one explanation is "that he gets out and goes to the South of France with Mary Magdalene"). For the non-Christian, it may be
difficult to just get how absolutely ridiculous this stuff sounds. But let me promise you- this is about as feasible as Bobo the Clown taking a masters in advanced physics. In an interview, Denton states that "The real question doesn't hang over the resurrection, which I think is explicable. The real question hangs over him ascending into heaven". I'm sorry that's completely untrue. The 'real question' does hang over the ressurection, because it is naturally interwoven
with His death.

Denton isn't on his own; he is just one pawn in the whole chess set of revisionist historians and vocal sceptics who are beginning to use the claim that Christ didn't die. However, unless one wants to take issue with the Gospel accounts (which I have addressed on the main site and in previous issues), there is no room for such a claim. Logically speaking and historically, Christ died. This is backed up not only by what the Bible says, but also what Jewish and Roman historians said at the time. Not only that, but if we look at the Gospel accounts of the events leading up to the Crucifixion, we have enough evidence to show that He did indeed die.I will now attempt to show you that the so called 'swoon theory' (i.e. that Jesus just fainted or in some way survived the execution) is completely illogical; historically, medically and biblically speaking. As such, I will divide this into three parts seperated into the said categories.

1) From a Historical Perspective-

Easy this one. Josephus says that "Pilate...had condemned him [Jesus] to the cross... he appeared to them alive again the third day". Although this verse (and the larger text in which it is situated) is hotly debated as to whether or not it is a forgery, most agree that there is a central body of text that is genuine. No surprises that this is part of it, and there is no doubt in Josephus' mind that Jesus was killed. Another claim is that Jesus survived the execution because a) others have; and b) because the disciples gave Him medicine. however, not only does the Bible tell us that the tomb was sealed with wax and a stone, and then guarded (so He couldn't have been given medicine) Josephus only talks about ONE person who survived crucifixion. It was one of his friends, who (after a plea from Josephus himself) was took down along with two others. Even then, two of them died just after a few hours and they WERE given medicine. Not good news for the Swoon theorists.

Secondly, another historian, Tacitus states that Jesus "suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus". I think that we can say safely say that the 'extreme penalty' was not being forced to eat a marmalade and jam sandwich.

And finally, the Babylonian Talmud states that "On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged...forty days before the execution took place...". Perhaps this seems like an odd quote, so allow me to explain. 'Yeshu' is the proper name of Jesus, a form of the name 'Yeshua'. 'Jesus' is just a greek translation of this. Also, when it says He was 'hung' it means He was hung from the
cross. I also added the 'forty days before the execution' bit because it makes it clear that it was an execution, i.e. He died, as people at executions do. Or at least they have a tendency to. Strange that. So now we can see that Jesus, historically speaking, certainly did die. There are other historians apart from the ones given that give testimony to this, such as Lucian. Look on
www.freewebs.com/teenapologetics/objectionswithjesus.htm if you want to take a look.

2) From a Medical Perspective-

I won't cover this in detail because it is such a huge topic and being a 17 year old i'm not particularly qualified to talk about it that much. It is worth noting, however, that there are
certain things that modern science has told us which practically prove that Christ died.
A perfect example of this would be when He was dead, and the Roman soldiers inspected the bodies. The Gospel of John tells us what happened next-

"Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water" (John 19).

Basically, breaking the legs of a person being crucified quickens death as it makes it incredibly difficult to breathe. When they came to Jesus, the Roman Soldiers saw that He was dead and as the Gospel author tells us they peirced Him, probably in his right side, which resulted in a flow of blood and water. So what was this all about? Another Bible myth? Absolutely not. Just as medical science has told us that Christ's sweating of blood is physically possible, it has also told us that this is possible. When we die, our blood and plasma begin to seperate, and as the plasma is around 90% water the Bible seems to have got it right. The Christian Medical Fellowship tells us that-

"Post mortem clotting of the blood can be delayed by the presence of circulating fibrinolysins, especially if death is associated with severe pain. The effect is that the red cells can separate from the plasma within thirty minutes. ‘Blood and water’ would then emerge in sequence by gravity from a body cavity pierced by a sharp object. The only real possibilities for the source of the blood and the water are the pleural and pericardial cavities, because the heart itself contains too little. Haemothorax could well have resulted if ribs had been fractured during the flogging Jesus received in Pilate’s palace (Jn 19:1). Haemopericardium could have resulted from either cardiac rupture or, more probably, rupture at the junction of aorta and left ventricle."

For more information on the medical aspects of Jesus' death, I suggest you look at http://www.frugalsites.net/jesus/ , and http://www.cmf.org.uk/index.htm?nucleus/nucjan00/diff.htm .

3) From a Biblical Perspective-

This is an interesting method. One has to take as a given that the Bible is mostly or fully accurate before one can adopt this, but I've already covered that issue elsewhere. So with this pre-supposition in mind, let's get down to the matter in hand.

Basically, this approach demands that we look at the sequence of events and then ask ourselves 'is it physically possible that Christ survived?' I'll run through these now.

- He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, probably after 11.30pm (Matthew 26:36-56; Mark 14:32-51; Luke 22:39-46;John 18:1-11).

- He was presented infront of the Sanhedrin (the Jewish High Council). His clothes were ripped, they spat in His face and they struck Him with their fists (Matthew 26:57-68; Mark 14:53-65; Luke 22:63-65; John 18:12-14 + 19-24).

- He was taken before Pilate and Herod. Pilate gave the crowd an option between Jesus and Barabbus the murderer. The crowd chose Jesus to die, and Jesus was flogged (Matthew 27:11-26; Mark 15:1-15; Luke 22:66-71 + Luke 23:1-25; John 18:28-40 + 19:1-16). Note that the flogging was done with a 'flaugrum', and instrument similar to a Cat and Nine Tails. Each of the tails had a leather tip on and when it struck the flesh it would rip up tissue and cause massive bleeding. Sometimes people died from this alone.

- The Roman Soldiers then took Jesus away. They mocked Him, they spat on him, they put a scarlet robe and a crown of thorns on Him. Note that these thorns were not little like English ones, they often were six inches. They would dig into the skin and cause bleeding. Later they took this off, which would re-open the flogged wounds and cause even more bleeding, and
they took a staff and beat Him over the head "again and again" (Matthew 27:27-31; Mark 15:16-20; John 19:1).

- They got someone called Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross, as Jesus could not, and they led Him to Golgotha where He was to be crucified, and they put nailed Him to the cross. (Matthew
27:32-44; Mark 15:21-32; Luke 24:39; John 19:17-27 + 20:25).

- After receiving a drink of wine vinegar, Jesus gave up His spirit after crying out in a loud voice. This is compatable with Him going into shock. They then pierced His right side, and the spear would have most likely gone into His lung and heart. (Matthew 27:45-56; Mark 15:32-41; Luke 23:44-49; John 28-37).

- He was then put into a tomb by Joseph of Arimathea and several soldiers were put on guard (Matthew 27:57-66; Mark 15:42:47; Luke 23:50-56; John 19:38-42).

I can't tell you how long it took to get that together, my bible in hand and daytime TV on in the background heh heh .

Aaanyway, is anyone seriously going to tell me that after all that happened to Him Jesus just survived and 'woke up' 3 days later? Are you going to say that He then just got up and walked, even though He had wounds on His hands, feet and side, and serious flogging wounds and major blood loss? even more bizarre is that for the Swoon theorists to be correct He would have had to push the incredibly heavy stone aside with all His injuries, sneak past the guards unnoticed, and then appear to the disciples and walk for miles whilst appearing perfectly fine. I'm sorry this is both medically and logically impossible. Jesus died, pure and simple. And it is here that I am going to finish. I hope that for those who have read this that it has helped or informed you in some way. It took a while to write, but I feel it was worth it.