Did Jesus really die on the cross?

The fact that a man called Jesus was crucified around 2000 years ago is mentioned in enough independent historical reports to satisfy all but the most hardened atheists. Some skeptics therefore say that Jesus must have survived the ordeal of crucifixion. To test this theory, we have to look a little more closely at this gruesome form of execution. 

Although essential to the plot of fiction such as The Da Vinci Code, the idea that Jesus did not die on the cross is much older. Written some 1400 years ago, the Koran states that Jesus fled to India, and there is a shrine in Kashmir that is supposed to mark his actual burial place. D.H. Lawrence had Jesus escaping to Egypt in his 1929 story, and many others have come up with theories as to how Jesus survived. These range from the taking of drugs to Pontius Pilate being bribed to have Jesus taken down from the cross just before his death.

The eyewitness accounts in the Bible obviously tell another story, and there is not a single piece of historical writing that documents or even suggests that Jesus survived execution. Unfortunately for the conspiracy theorists, a medical analysis of the well-documented horrors of torture and crucifixion shows how unlikely survival was. 

The Passion of the Christ film gives a graphic portrayal of the Roman flogging that preceded crucifixion. Awful as it is, this segment of the movie goes nowhere near as far as contemporary reports, which often tell of victims dying. The Bible description of Jesus’ condition as he carried his cross to the execution place makes clear he was suffering from hypovolemic shock – the medical term for losing large amounts of blood.

Jesus would have been in critical condition when nailed to the cross. And now the ‘real’ suffering began. Experts have compared a nail through the wrists to having your nerves squeezed with a pair of pliers. In fact, a new word was invented to describe this unbearable pain: Excruciating literally means ‘out of the cross’.

Once the cross was lifted both shoulders were dislocated as the arms extended by around six inches (as foretold in Psalm 22: My bones are out of joint). What happened next is too horrible to go into detail here. Suffice it to say that the actual cause of death was usually slow suffocation, although if it took too long soldiers broke the victim’s legs. This happened to the two criminals executed with Jesus but not Jesus himself, who had a spear thrust in his side. The Gospel of John notes with surprise that a clear fluid came out. Although we know today the medical reason for this, John certainly would not have known – which gives validity to the argument that he was an eyewitness reporting what he saw. 

The Journal of the American Medical Society writes: "The weight of historical and medical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead before the wound to his side was inflicted and the spear, thrust between his right rib, probably perforated not only the right lung but also the heart and therefore ensured his death. Interpretations based on the assumption that Jesus did not die are at odds with modern medical knowledge.”