Chapter 11 Discussion

Scroll down to the previous post to see the questions for chapter 11 before viewing my answers here. Here are some responses I would give.

1. Have you ever heard of the Swoon Theory? The Swoon Theory is the idea that Jesus did not really die on the cross. This basically comes from people who do not believe a resurrection is possible so they need a natural explanation for the resurrection story of Jesus. They believe he passed out and appeared dead and then regained consciousness while in the tomb. When he got out of the tomb and people saw him they thought a miracle had occurred.

2. Is it possible Jesus survived the crucifixion without dieing? It is just not plausible to believe that Jesus only swooned on the cross. Jesus was already in bad shape from the whipping with massive blood loss and then the soldiers saw he was dead and that it why they did not break his legs. The final piece of evidence is that one soldier thrust a sword into Jesus' side. The fact that blood and water flowed shows that the sword pierced the pericardial sac around Jesus' heart so that would have killed him even if he was still alive. To believe the Swoon Theory you have to believe that the Apostles took a pathetically beaten and injured man, nursed him back to health without any antibiotics or cosmetic surgery, paraded him around to show off his "resurrection body" and then they all died martyr's deaths for this even though they knew it was a hoax. That takes more faith than the resurrection itself.

3. What would the whipping have been like for Christ? Roman whippings were very cruel. The whips had metal and sharp objects embedded into it that would have lacerated Jesus' skin all the way from his shoulders down to his knees. A historian named Eusebius from the fourth century said that you could see the internal organs such as the intestines after a whipping.

4. Why was Jesus nailed to the cross when most crucifixion victims were only tied? Many skeptics have said that crucifixion did not involve nailing but that the victims were only tied to the cross. Archaeologists have found that some crucifixions did involve nailing, a heel bone with the nail still in it has been unearthed. It appears nailing was reserved for the worst of the worst of criminals. What does that tell us of how badly the Jewish leaders wanted rid of Him?

5. Why did Jesus die so quickly when many victims lasted for days on a cross? Victims that were only tied to a cross could last for several days before they died of exposure. The Bible says Jesus died in about six hours. This shows that he was in such bad shape from the whipping and then the tortuous nailing on top of that took its toll very quickly in comparison.

6. Where would water come from to cause the blood and water to flow after the Roman soldier thrust his spear into Jesus' side? The doctor interviewed in this chapter talks about how inflammation and the overworking of the heart pumping hard to try to adjust for Jesus' low blood pressure would have caused fluid to build up in the pericardial sac around Jesus' heart. This was pierced by the soldiers sword and indicated that cause of death (COD) was probably cardiac arrest.

I'll put up chapter 12 in a few days. We are nearing the end of the book and then I look forward to resuming my daily devotions of walking through the Bible and looking at it from a scientific perspective.