the death of Christ on the cross

INTRODUCTION

The death of Christ on the cross remains a vital element that constitutes the Christian theology; it is the crux of the salvation mission in which God began in the Hebrew Scriptures. The subjection of Christ’s death on the cross to scrutiny questions the basis of Christian theology. Many objections have been put forward to disprove the death of Christ on the cross. To this kind of objections did St. Thomas Aquinas respond to in Questiones Quodlibetales question two, article two and that is eventually the theme of this discourse.

With the aim of determining whether Christ was truly dead on the cross in the thought and teaching of Aquinas, I shall endeavour to give a brief notion of crucifixion. After that I will pay attention to the objections in which Aquinas responded to and then expose Aquinas answer to the objections. Having done that, I will then elaborate more on the death of Christ on the cross using the analysis of several physicians.

 CRUCIFIXION IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Crucifixion denotes a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden beam and left to hang for several days until eventual death from exhaustion, dehydration, congestive heart failure and asphyxiation.[1] It is intended to provide a death that is particularly slow, painful, gruesome, humiliating and public in order to dissuade others of committing the same crime the victim committed. Crucifixion in the Roman Empire is reserved for the worst criminals and according to the Jewish tradition; this kind of punishment depicts a cursed person as Deut. 21: 23 says “… anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse…” and St. Paul reiterates in Gal. 3: 13 “… cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”

However, the first acknowledged practice of crucifixion was by the Persians. Alexander the great and his generals brought it back to the Mediterranean world – to Egypt and Carthage during the Greek domination. Moreover, the Romans possibly learnt the practice from the Carthaginians and rapidly developed a very high degree of efficiency and skill at it as some Roman authors (like Livy, Tacitus and Cicero) commented on their innovations and modifications in crucifixion.[2]   

Furthermore, the cross which is a combination of an upright pole called ‘stipes’ and a crossbeam called ‘pantibulum[3]’ in Latin. More so, a whole cross would weigh over 135kg thus in some cases of crucifixion the victim is forced to carry the crossbeam which weighs 45kg to the place of execution[4].

OBJECTIONS TO THE DEATH OF CHRIST ON THE CROSS

In Aquinas Questiones Quodlibetales, two objections were raised to dispute the death of Christ on the cross. The first objection demonstrates that if Christ died on the cross, it is resulted from the fact that he either separated his soul from his body or it was because of his wounds. The objection further illustrates that he could not have died in the first place because that would imply he killed himself nor could it have been through his wounds because death in that manner occurs when one reaches the greatest weakness but it is testified Christ died crying out loudly. Thus, in lines with this, it seems Christ did not die on the cross.

The second objection poses the impossibility of any man dying quickly as a result of wounds from the hand and feet. Thus, Christ was not dead on the cross since there is no clear cause of his death.

AQUINAS ANSWER TO THE OBJECTIONS

Aquinas proceeds in his answer by firstly professing without doubt his belief on Christ’s death on the cross. He then affirms that there are two natures in Christ, thus he was fully human and fully divine. In respect to that, whatever pertains to his human nature is totally subject to his power and that is quite different as it is in other men. Thus Aquinas claims it to be the cause of his simultaneous suffering and rejoicing. More so, Aquinas demonstrated that by his will, death was affected in order to prohibit the overflowing from higher powers to the lower ones or the impediment of the higher powers as a result of the suffering of the lower ones.     

Furthermore, Aquinas ascertains the fact that violent death is a result of a nature yielding to the harm inflicted, and inasmuch as the nature resists the harm, so death is being delayed. Thus as Aquinas has already stated that whatever pertains to the human nature of Christ is subject to his powers, it follows that how long his human nature would resist the harm inflicted is also subjected to his powers. Therefore by his willing, he resisted the harm inflicted more than it could in other men so that in the end, after much effusion of blood and as though with his faculties still intact, he cried out with a loud voice and at once died so that he might show himself Lord of nature and of life.

As a result of that, Aquinas upholds that it is true that the Jews killed Christ by inflicting mortal harm and that he himself gave up the ghost because when he willed it, his nature yielded totally to the harm inflicted. More so, Aquinas demonstrates that Christ is not to be blamed as though killing himself by yielding to the harm inflicted because the body exist for the sake of the soul. So harm is done to the soul when it is being expelled from the soul against its will through the infliction of mortal harm to the body. 

PHYSICIANS’ ANALYSIS OF CHRIST’S DEATH ON THE CROSS

As a result of the succinctness of the gospel writers, the passion of Christ is being presented in a very brief explanation which has for quite a time made several medical practitioners indifferent from investigating the very cause of Christ’s death. As Dr C. Truman Davis says

“… Reading Jim Bishop’s The Day Christ Died, I realised that I had for years taken the crucifixion more or less for granted – that I had grown callous to its horror by a too easy familiarity with the grim details … it finally occurred to that though a physician, I didn’t even know the actual immediate cause of death.”[5]

In that respect, several physicians, historians and archaeologist have embarked on investigating the crucifixion and death of Christ.

From the very start of his passion, in the garden of Gethsemane an explicit physiological distress is being illustrated. This distress may have been resulted from his fore knowledge of his passion thus he prayed in Luke 22: 42 ‘Father… if you are willing take this cup away from me’. More so, it is no coincidence that it was only the evangelist Luke who pointed out the sweat which came out of his body as resembling drops of blood where he says ‘his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood’ (Luke 22: 44). Thus, according to medical discoveries, bloody sweat was is known as ‘Hematidrosis’ is quite possible and is occurs as a result of great emotional stress which causes tiny capillaries in the sweat gland to break thus missing blood with sweat.[6]

After the Jews has finished their beating, mockery and judgement, on Christ in the Sanhedrin, thus early in the morning, having been bruised, dehydrated and exhausted from sleepless night, he was now handed over to the Romans. Nevertheless, the Romans soldiers who are quite renowned for their bloody torture, thus they have a whip design to lacerate the flesh of their victims. With this whip he was administered not more than forty lashes which was traditional for the Jewish tradition. This whipping caused extreme pain and severe injuries in the body, thus at first it cuts through the skin only, then as the blow continues it cuts deeper into the subcutaneous tissues which produces firstly an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles. The whipping was so severe that the centurion in charge ordered the stop of the whipping after he observed that the victim is near death. More so, a crown of thorn was putted in his head and driven deep into his scalp which was capable of severely irritating major nerves in his head, causing increasing and excruciating pain. Finally, they tire of their sadistic sport and the robe is torn from His back. Already having adhered to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, its removal causes excruciating pain just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage, and almost as though He were again being whipped the wounds once more begin to bleed.

After the torture, he was then forced to carry the cross beam to the place of crucifixion, having been exhausted, dehydrated and weakened from the torture. In spite of His efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by copious blood loss, is too much. He stumbles and falls. The rough wood of the beam gouges into the lacerated skin and muscles of the shoulders. He tries to rise, but human muscles have been pushed beyond their endurance.  The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, selects an onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross. Jesus follows, still bleeding, until the 650 yard journey from the fortress Antonia to Golgotha is finally completed.

Having completed the journey, it was now time to be nailed on the cross. Two nails were driven deep through his hands and one through his feet to the tree. As He slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain — the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves.

As He pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He places His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there is the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet. At this point, as the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward. . Air can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, he is able to push Himself upward to inhale and bring in the life-giving oxygen which uses to utter his last words. To this kind of agony and death a physician termed ‘a symphony of pain’ produced by every movement, with every breath; even a slight breeze on his skin could bring screaming pain at this point[7]

The common method of ending a crucifixion was by crurifracture, the breaking of the bones of the legs. This prevented the victim from pushing himself upward; thus the tension could not be relieved from the muscles of the chest and rapid suffocation occurred. The legs of the two thieves were broken, but when the soldiers came to Jesus they saw that this was unnecessary. Apparently, to make doubly sure of death, the legionnaire drove his lance through the fifth interspace between the ribs, upward through the pericardium and into the heart. The 34th verse of the 19th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John reports: “And immediately there came out blood and water.” That is, there was an escape of water fluid from the sac surrounding the heart, giving post-mortem evidence that Our Lord died not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart failure (a broken heart) due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.

ANALYSIS

In line with all the medical explanations of Christ’s death, it is most agreeable that physicians’ details were subtly in line with Aquinas belief and teaching. Aquinas asserts that Christ’s passion and death was so gruesome yet he endured with his faculties still intact until he gave up the ghost. This very endurance and consciousness of his faculties is quite impossible to achieve in other men. He furthers claims that Christ at the appointed time willed his death when he yielded to the mortal harms inflicted on him, thus proving himself Lord over nature and live.

This very proof of being Lord over life and nature is the crux of the medical explanation of the death of Christ on the cross. Physicians mostly agree that it is quite impossible for any other man endure such suffering to the end while keeping his faculties still intact. 

CONCLUSION

The essential goal of this discourse which is to ascertain in the thought of Aquinas the cause of Christ’s death on the cross has been in a great achieved. Firstly, he objects which brought the doubt was put forward, then Aquinas response follows suite. Aquinas upholds that it is quite true that the Jews killed Christ by inflicting mortal pain on the body but he himself willed his own death because at the appointed time he yielded to all the mortal harm. In same spirit, physician admits that Christ’s endurance of the mortal harm to the end with faculties intact is quite unusual for any other man.  

           

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[1] William Edward, M.D., ‘On the physical death of Jesus Christ’ (Journal of the American Medical Association, March 26, 1986) pp. 1455-1463

[2] www1.cbn.com/medical-view-of-the-crucifixion-of-Jesus-Christ

[3] Seneca the Younger, Dialogue “To Marcia on Consolation” 6.20.3

[4] Ball, D.A. The Crucifixion and death of a man called Jesus (journal of the Mississippi state medical association) pp. 70-83

[5] www1.cbn.com/medical-view-of-the-crucifixion-of-Jesus-Christ

[6] www1.cbn.com/medical-view-of-the-crucifixion-of-Jesus-Christ

[7] Christiananswers.net/q-eden/jesusdeath.htm