Jesus died before his captors could break his legs
EDITOR: As business consultants, we survive by asking why people do what they do. We recently wondered why the Jews thought they could kill Jesus on the cross by breaking his legs yet there were many people with broken legs and were not dead.
EDITOR: As business consultants, we survive by asking why people do what they do. We recently wondered why the Jews thought they could kill Jesus on the cross by breaking his legs yet there were many people with broken legs and were not dead.
We established that the cross was a sophisticated and scientifically thought-out instrument of punishment.
Its design was such that it would kill by suffocation not by bleeding, although many Christians say “he bled to deathâ€. Hanging on the cross, according to Josephus, inflicted pain from every possible angle and through every part of the body.
One of its most serious elements was the roughness on the vertical beam against which the back of the victim would have to constantly scratch as the victim attempted to push his body up to allow air into the lungs to breathe.
Pushing the entire body weight up also enlarged the wounds in the hands and legs where the nails wound have been driven.
The executioners could hurry death by shattering the legs to disable the victims to push themselves up in order to fill their lungs with air. They would thus die of suffocation. But if no one broke the legs, death could last for several days.
It is for this reason that they thought if they broke Jesus' legs he would die faster and put off the cross to let Sabbath go on undisrupted.
However, Jesus had already volunteered and died and that is what his captors wanted.
Charles Baguma
tharaconsult@elitemail.org
EDITOR: Contrary to what people usually think, Jesus did not bleed to death but suffocated.
That is what happened to people crucified on the cross if their legs were not broken. However, I wonder why in the case of Jesus, he died within a few hours!
Melisa Wilson
London
We established that the cross was a sophisticated and scientifically thought-out instrument of punishment.
Its design was such that it would kill by suffocation not by bleeding, although many Christians say “he bled to deathâ€. Hanging on the cross, according to Josephus, inflicted pain from every possible angle and through every part of the body.
One of its most serious elements was the roughness on the vertical beam against which the back of the victim would have to constantly scratch as the victim attempted to push his body up to allow air into the lungs to breathe.
Pushing the entire body weight up also enlarged the wounds in the hands and legs where the nails wound have been driven.
The executioners could hurry death by shattering the legs to disable the victims to push themselves up in order to fill their lungs with air. They would thus die of suffocation. But if no one broke the legs, death could last for several days.
It is for this reason that they thought if they broke Jesus' legs he would die faster and put off the cross to let Sabbath go on undisrupted.
However, Jesus had already volunteered and died and that is what his captors wanted.
Charles Baguma
tharaconsult@elitemail.org
EDITOR: Contrary to what people usually think, Jesus did not bleed to death but suffocated.
That is what happened to people crucified on the cross if their legs were not broken. However, I wonder why in the case of Jesus, he died within a few hours!
Melisa Wilson
London