How Can I be Sure Jesus really died?
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How Can I be Sure Jesus really died?
Firstly, Jesus suffered injuries far more extreme than normal through the crucifiction process. See the section on crucifiction. Not only did He hang on a cross struggling for breath for several hours. He also suffered beatings, a Roman scourging (few people lived through this alone), a crown of thorns, nails through His wrists and feet, dehydration and a spear through His side. Even without the crucifiction He would have been very unlikely to have survived this torture.
Secondly, it was exceptional for anyone to live after being put to the cross. Flavious Jospehus, an early Jewish historian and writer, wrote about finding out that 3 of his friends were being crucified. He immediately required the Roman governor to take them down from their crosses. They were quickly brought down and given medical attention - but two of them died anyway. There is no suggestion that any of the 3 underwent the torture that Jesus endured. Josephus, Life of 75.420-421
Thirdly, Jesus was crucified by experts, not amateurs. Dr. Paul Maier writes, "Romans were grimly efficient about crucifictions. Victims did not escape with their lives." Jesus was examined by 4 soliders on Pilots request before His body was handed over to Joseph of Aramethia for burial. Professor EH Day states, "The Roman Soliders were not unfamiliar with the evidences of death, or with the sight of death following upon crucifiction." None of the soliders examining his body, nor the centurion, had any suspicion that any life remained in Him.
Fourthly, his friends also knew He was dead. His body was taken down and seen by His supporters; Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. If they had any suspicion that He was still alive then clearly they would not have gone on to bury Him - but would have sought immediate medical attention. Instead they bound Him - including His face - with grave clothes, and then went on to cover Him with 70 pounds of spices. These are not the actions of men who suspected He may still be alive. Therefore, neither Jesus' enemies - nor His friends - had any suspicion He was still alive.Fifthly, if by some `miracle` Jesus had survived the beating, scourging, nails, crucifiction, blood loss and having His side pierced by a spear...and if He then managed to convince 4 Roman soliders that He was dead .... then when His body was wrapped up and He was covered with spices and placed in a tomb for 3 days then any flicker of life left must surely have been extinguished.
Bishop E LeCamus of La Rochelle, France stated, "....if Jesus had been taken down from the cross whilst still alive, He must have died in the tomb, as the contact of the body with the cold stone of the sepulcher would have been enough to bring on a syncope through the congelation of the blood, owing to the fact that the regular circulation was checked. Besides, a man in a swoon is not revived ordinarily by being shut up in a cave, but by being brought out into the open air. The strong odour of aromatics in a place hermetically sealed would have killed a sick person whose brain was already seized with the most unyielding swoon. In our days, rationalists of every stripe reject this hypothesis which is as absurd as it is odious, and all agree that the Crucified Jesus really died on Friday."
Sixthly, what about the gush of blood and water from Jesus' side? We have already discussed the most likely medical reason for this - damage to the pericardium (a sack of clear liquid surrounding the heart) - this would be a sure sign of death. But what other possible cause could there be for the sudden rush of blood and water from Jesus' side? The other explanation is that Jesus' blood had separated into plasma (which is 90% water) and the red, sticky remainder, which demonstrates that Jesus' heart had stopped pumping for some time.