Medical Perspective of The Passion of the Christ

For Christian(and some non-christian), we have heard the words 'Jesus died for us' many times, but do we know how much suffer and pain that Jesus had gone through throughout the whole process from before he is being arrested, betrayed by His disciples, caught up by soldiers, mocked and flogged by soldiers, crucified, the moment on the cross and till his last breath?
As stated in the title, we will view the Passion of the Christ from a Medical Perspective, from a biological point of view, of a man that gone through all the pain and suffering for the sake of us.

First of all, let me summarize the whole process of the Passion of the Christ:

-After the last supper, Jesus went to Mount of Olives to pray for the whole night. ³⁹Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. ⁴⁰On reaching the place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation." ⁴¹He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, ⁴²"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." ⁴³An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. ⁴⁴And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.(Luke)
-After that, Judah and the soldiers came and arrested Jesus to the High Priest,Caiaphas.
-At there, Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him ⁶⁸and said, "Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?"(Matthew 26:67-68)
-Later ¹Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death. ²They bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.(Matthew 27:1) because they have no right to sentence Jesus to death. (This happened during the Roman Empire, the Roman governor will have the right to sentence a person death)
-But the governor said, ⁴Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, "I find no basis for a charge against this man."(Luke 23:4)
-And he sent Jesus to Herod. ⁶On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. ⁷When he learned that Jesus was under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. (Luke 23:6-7)
-Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate ¹¹Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. (Luke 23:11)
-Pilate decided to crucify Jesus ²³But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. ²⁴So Pilate decided to grant their demand.(Luke 23:23-24) & ²⁴When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. "I am innocent of this man's blood," he said. "It is your responsibility!"(Matthew 27:24)
-But Pilate had Jesus flogged(whipped) and the soldier crowned Jesus with a crown of thorns and mocked Jesus before He is handed to crucify. ¹Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. ²The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe ³and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face.(John 19:1-2)
-After Jesus had been flogged, he was forced to carry his cross to the Skull(the place where He is to be crucified) with a man called Simon from Cyrene. ³²As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. ³³They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull).(Matthew 27:32-33)
-And Jesus was being crucified!
-Jesus said 7 lines on the cross:
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
"Dear woman, here is your son," ²⁷and to the disciple, "Here is your mother."
"I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."
"I am thirsty."
"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."
"It is finished.
(I've collected them from all the book of Gospels and tried to arrange them in order, I am not sure whether this is the correct order or not)
-Jesus was alive on the cross from 9a.m-3p.m.
-The soldiers wanted to break Jesus legs to let him die faster at around 4p.m, but ³³But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. (John 19:33-24)

If you think that it is still to long to be read, I've further summarize for you here(note the red words):
-Last supper
-Mount of Olive(Pray whole night) (his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground)
-Arrested
-Sent to the High Priest (spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him)
-Sent to Pilate
-Sent to Herod
-Sent back to Pilate (had him flogged , crown of thorns and put it on his head)
-Walked to the Skull (carry the cross)
-Crucified (Said 7 lines on the cross)
-Died after 6 hours.(soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water)

Jesus knew He is going to be crucified. He ate the last supper with His disciples and went to Pray at the Mount of Olive for the whole night. During His prayer time, His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground, this condition is known as Hemathidrosis.

Hemathidrosis is a very rare medical phenomenon that's been reported about 12 to 14 times in world medical literature and is only seen in people who are under tremendous stress and agony. In hemathidrosis, a person actually exudes blood from every sweat gland in their body. Each sweat gland has a small capillary that surrounds it, and in hemathidrosis, that small capillary ruptures. As it bursts, a person actually bleeds into their sweat glands. Instead of perspiring sweat, they actually perspire blood.

Jesus actually experienced Hemathidrosis before He is crucified. Imagine that if you knew that you are going to go through all the pain and suffering where a normal Human is unable to bear, how bitter and painful will be your heart.

Next, at the high priest place where people spit His face and struck him with theirs fists, others slapped Him. Imagine after a person had been struck by fist, the person eyes will swell up, the nose will bleed, and the lips will break, even the teeth might be broken too. Somemore with the saliva and slapping from the others. This is how Jesus looks like before He is sent to Pilate.

Before I talked about Jesus being flogged. Let's us do some calculation. From the Last Supper(at night) till Jesus prayed for the whole night in the Mount of Olive till He is being sent to the High priest, Jesus had not sleep for at least a day(more than 24 hours). He must be very tired at that time and with the pressure and beating from other people, Jesus has become extremely tired.
He was being sent from the high priest place to Pilate (that's around 4km), from Pilate place to Herod Place, and from Herod Place to Pilate Place. He was walking all the way and had no time to rest at all.

After Pilate had decided to crucify Jesus, the soldier flogged Him. It is actually a type of punishment during the Romans time and it is called Scourging.

It was one of the worst punishments the Romans had to inflict on a human body. Typically, the victim was stripped completely naked and tied by his wrists to a post or wall with his back exposed. He was then whipped from the back of his arms, down his shoulders and back, across his bare buttocks, down the back of his legs and calves, all the way down to his heels by two Roman legionnaires, one on either side, alternating blows.
The historical accounts tell us that the traditional scourging consisted of thirty-nine lashes. If you can, imagine two large, strong, burly Roman legionnaires with a wooden handled whip about eighteen inches long that had nine leather thongs, something akin to what we would call a cat-o-nine tails. The nine leather thongs were about six to seven feet long, and at the end of each thong was some lead shod, like a sinker you'd use to go fishing. Attached to the lead shod were pieces of sheep and cattle bone. The idea of those small pieces of bone was that, as the Roman legionnaire would beat his victim, snapping his wrist would cause the weight of the metal shod to dig into the back, while the sheep/cattle bone cut the skin.
As the sheep/cattle bone lacerated the skin and actually dug in under the surface of the skin, the skilled and trained legionnaire could whip his wrist and literally lift small shards of skeletal muscle out through the skin, leaving small ribbons of muscle, about two inches long, hanging through the skin."

9 sharp piece of bone multiply by 39 lashes=351 wounds.
And let's multiply this 351 with 10, it will give a result of 3510!
What this 3510 means?
A cut from a sharp piece of bone will create a wound that will take around 10 stitches to close.
So, the wound of the body of Jesus after He had been scourged will need 3510 stitches to be closed up by the doctor today.
How Painful It Is !!

Here came a question, why Jesus didn't die of losing blood since He had so many wound in his body? According to bible, that day was near a festival called passover, which is around March according to the calendar now. At this time, the weather of Israel will be at 2 extremes: very Hot during day time and very Cold during night time. The time when Jesus was scourged was around 6-8am(Jesus was crucified at 9am), which is still in the early morning, the weather was very cold, this cause the blood vessels to be constrict and therefore Jesus didn't die of losing too much blood.

The Soldiers also made a crown of thorns and put it on his head. Imagine 100 of thorns piercing through Jesus head and into His skull. His face would be full of blood.

After scourging, Jesus became a man with His body full of wound. And this time, he was being forced to carry the cross. As we all know that the cross is made up of wood. And the wood would definitely not like the wood that used to make our furniture where they had been polished and had been smoothed . A typical cross weight around 60-70 kg. Imagine the coarse surface and the heavy weight of the cross came contact with the wound of the body of Jesus, the pain is rather unbearable. Jesus carried the cross and walked for around 500m and he can't go on anymore. Other people helped Him to carry to the Skull.

Next, is the crucifixion of Christ. The main purpose of 'nailing a person on a cross' during the Roman empire is not the kill you, but is to humiliate a person, to let a person to suffer.
The experienced Roman Soldiers will hammer the nail between your ulna and radius bone of your wrist, this will avoid the ulnar veins, you won't die of losing blood; and there is a tendon between your ulna and radius bone which is very strong that it can actually support your whole body weight. Furthermore, the nail will actually touch one of your nerve in your hand which give a feeling of electric shock.
For the legs, they will hammer the nail between your 1st toe and 2nd toe, this also avoid your plantar vein, and the nail will also touch one of your nerve that give electric shock to the legs.

Try hang yourself up with your hands by holding something where your legs can't touch the ground, you will find that you can inhale but you will find it difficult to exhale.
You need to carry your body up with your hands then only you can exhale.
When Jesus breath on the cross, he inhaled and when he wanted to exhale, he had to move his body up in order to do that.
And the coarse wood of the cross is contact with the back part of his body, which is highly wounded after He is being scourged. When he exhaled and moved His body up, the friction between His wound and the coarse surface of the wood, the Pain is rather great.
Imagine that the pain that Jesus feel when He talked on the cross.
Jesus spoken 7 lines when He is on the cross, and the 7 lines of words are very precious!
The green sentences above are the lines that Jesus spoken on the cross.

Jesus was alive on the cross from 9am-3pm, 6 hours of suffering. And at last He said:''It's finished!" and he died.
At around 4-5pm, a soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. When you leave some volume of blood in a container, after some time you will see the blood actually being separated to 2 layers, the 1st layer is the blood plasma,which 90% of it's content is water and the 2nd layer is the blood cells. There is Water and Blood flowed out from Jesus body, which means Jesus had died for some times and His body blood is not circulating.

How Jesus died from Medical Perspective?
Some people said that Jesus died from losing blood, some people said that Jesus died from Fetal Premature Ventricular Contractions. But from the record in the Book of Gospel, Jesus showed neither of the symptoms mentioned above, where both situation will cause a person to look pale and they will be blur, they don't know what's happening around them. But from the lines of words spoken from Jesus, we can see that Jesus was very conscious from the beginning till he is dead.
So, how actually did Jesus died?
Here is a verse to explain that :
¹⁷The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."(John 10:17-18)
Yea, Jesus have the authority to take His life away, and He did that on the cross. For the sake of us, for the sake of our sins, to save our life, to redeem us from our sin.

So people, after we know how much pain and suffer that Jesus had gone through for the sake of us, shouldn't we be more faithful, obedience and appreciate His words? Shouldn't we try to become a better Christian ?

p/s: I have a new Sunday School Teacher and He is a Doctor. He told us all about this last Sunday and I have try to arrange and integrate what I've learnt and post it here. I have actually used around 3-4 hours to type this post. So, please read it! Good thing should be share with everyone! ^^

p/s 2: As I writing this post, I went and search the information that I am not sure, and I came across this, a more detailed post of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ from medical perspective, and the content is almost the same as what I have written. Is a lengthy post, but with a better vocabulary and grammar, read it if you think that you can't understand what I am writing.

p/s 3: If you came across something that you can't understand, just double click the words in the post and an answer box will pop-up and you will get your explanation from Answers.com