– (Tom Belly/Strange World)
The death of Jesus – remembered by the Church on Passion Friday – began well before he was nailed to the cross. First, Jesus was subjected to a scourging, just one of several punishments that would mortally weaken him. Attached to a column, Jesus would have been hit in the back with the flagrum, a whip with several leather strips and with metal balls or bone chips at the ends. These spikes penetrated and scraped the skin, causing massive bleeding and even reaching muscles and bones. Quoted in Biblea crown of thorns placed on Jesus – a provocation by Roman soldiers to the “King of the Jews” – would increase the bleeding.
To make it firmer, it could have been fixed with a stick, penetrating veins, arteries and nerves throughout the head. Historians who study the death of Jesus believe that, when carrying the cross, he took “only” the patibulum – the horizontal part, weighing up to 27 kg. Most likely he dragged the piece. If he was tied to it, he would fall flat on his face in a tumble.
According to the crucifixions of the time, the most common would be for Jesus to have been nailed to the patibulum by three soldiers. One sat on the condemned man’s chest to immobilize him; another held the legs and the third was responsible for nailing the hands. Some historians argue that Jesus was nailed by the wrists, contrary to what the Bible. But the American coroner Frederick Zugibe did tests proving that it would be possible to support the weight of the body with nails fixed in the palm of the hands.
The cross of the Romans was a T, with no “point” at the top crossing the horizontal part. Its base was already buried in the ground. the fit of patibulum it was done with two soldiers lifting their points, while the third held the body of the crucified person. The way Jesus’ feet were nailed is also controversial. Zugibe argues that they were fastened side by side, with the nails driven between the metatarsal bones and the soles resting on the cross. This would have been much more practical for Roman soldiers. In several paintings, Jesus has his feet nailed to a wooden support. But such pictures only appeared in the 9th century.
There are no historical records of the use of this support. Jesus also died too quickly to have a cross with a seat – which prolonged the victim’s suffering. There are several theories about a punctured heart as the ultimate cause of death. According to Zugibe, who has been researching the subject for more than 30 years, Jesus would have suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest, due to shocks caused by bleeding, agonizing pain and dehydration. A Bible it says that a soldier thrust a spear into Jesus’ chest to confirm his death. Water and blood would have flowed from the cut. The water may have come out of the pleura, the membrane around the lung, which would have accumulated fluid during the flogging. The blood would come from the punctured heart.
The classic image of the cross – with it not in the shape of a T – would have arisen because of a plate nailed to the top of the horizontal stake. On it was written, in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” – or INRI, in Latin abbreviation.