Well, in
1 Corinthians 15:3, we read, "...Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures."
Jesus
Christ died.
Why would
anyone question this? One reason is, of course, that on the third day after
Christ's death and burial, his body was absent from the tomb in which he was
buried. Skeptics who resist the notion that a dead man came back to life
have worked to create some other theory in an effort to explain what may have
actually happened to the body of Jesus Christ.
One theory regarding the death of
Jesus is the "Swoon Theory," also referred to as the "Apparent
Death Theory." Honestly, I don't see how this theory was able to
gain traction.
The Swoon Theory asserts that Jesus
never really died on the cross, but fainted, or became comatose and was placed
in a tomb. He later got up and presented himself alive before his
disciples and others, thus convincing them that he had risen from the dead.
Is it logical to believe that Jesus
didn't die by crucifixion, but only swooned on the cross?
Listen, the Swoon Theory overlooks the fact that the Roman soldiers who were involved putting people to death were not a bunch of guys randomly called to do this job whenever the need occurred. Rather, they were trained killers who crucified people according to the laws of Rome, and carried out their morbid task to completion. We know from other passages of scripture, Acts 12:3-9 and Acts 16:27, that the penalty a Roman soldier faced for losing a body that was kept in his charge, was death. Thus, it would have behooved every soldier to ensure the decease of a crucifixion victim.
The Swoon Theory overlooks the exquisite tortures that took place prior to Jesus being nailed to a cross. The tortures that Jesus underwent, are historically provable and they highlight the kind of cruel professionals the Roman soldiers were. Prior to reaching the cross, Jesus was taken to be scourged. Matthew 27:26: Mark 15:15; John 19:1.
Scourging, according to John Mattingly, author of Crucifixion: Its Origin and Application to Christ, required that “The adjudged criminal was usually first forcefully stripped of his clothes and then tied to a post or pillar in the tribunal. Then the awful and cruel scourging was administered by the lictors or scourgers. Although the Hebrews limited by their law the number of strokes in a scourging to forty, the Romans set no such limitation; and the victim was at the mercy of his scourgers. The brutal instrument used to scourge the victim was called a flagrum…it can readily be seen that the long, lashing pieces of bone and metal would greatly lacerate human flesh.” Further, it has been stated by Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, a third century church historian, that the victim of a Roman scourging would have been ripped up so severely that, “veins were laid bare, and the very muscles, sinews, and bowels of the victim were open to exposure” (McDowell, 269).
Author of, Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead, Surgeon-Scientist, Thomas A. Miller, MD says that the unfortunate victim of a scourging, “Was stripped of any clothing and secured to a post or frame with the hands tied around it, allowing the exposed back, buttocks, and legs to be repeatedly beaten. The instrument of torture was a rod or whip, the thongs (straps) of which were weighted with pieces of bone or metal fragments to make the resultant blow as excruciatingly painful as possible. The severity of the flogging and the number of blows administered was generally left to the whim of the soldier (called lictor) performing the torture. Often two lictors would alternate the flogging. The intention of this type of torture was to weaken the victim to the point of fainting, just short of actual death…Appreciating the method and purpose of flogging, it should come as no surprise that the resultant lacerations and deep contusions induced by the bone and metal fragments would have a ripping effect that would cut deeply into the skin and subcutaneous (internal) tissues. Not infrequently, the torn tissues would extend to the level of the muscles. The net effect of this severe wounding would be horrendous pain and considerable blood loss involving substantial areas of the back, buttocks, and legs” (69-70).
After the scourging, Jesus is further mocked. A robe is placed on him, a crown of thorns is placed on his head, and he smacked over the head with a reed.
Jesus is then assigned to carry his cross to Golgotha, where he is nailed to the cross by spikes measuring 5 to 7 inches in length. According to physicians who have investigated the crucifixion, after being elevated on the cross, Jesus would have, found it difficult to breathe. According to Gary Habermas and Michael Licona, “Once on the cross, the victim would want to take pressure off his nailed feet. To do this, he would allow the weight of his body to be held up by his nailed hands. However, in this “down” position, certain muscles would be in the inhalation position, making it difficult to exhale. Thus, the victim would have to push up on his pierced feet in order to exhale. However, the first several times he did this would cause intense pain, since it would cause the nail to tear through the flesh in the feet until it enlodged itself against one of the bones. Thus, the crucifixion victim would be seen pushing up quite often and returning to the down position.”
Often, the victim of a crucifixion would hang on the cross, struggling for breath, for three or four days. However, if the Romans wanted to hurry death along, they would break the legs of the condemned person.
By the time of we get to the crucifixion of Christ, the Romans had been engaged in the practice of crucifixion for two hundred years. This is plenty of time to perfect this method of killing. It is obvious that the Romans made sure that there would be no doubt that Jesus was dead. There would be no swooning.
Further, a man in the condition that Jesus would have been in after the scourging, and being hammered to a cross, would have been in no condition to, after three days of being wrapped in nearly one hundred pounds of cloth and spices, and placed in a tomb sealed by a massive stone, disengage himself from his burial wrappings, roll the stone away, and slip past the Roman guards who were posted outside of the tomb.
