DID JESUS REALLY DIE?
But
when we examine the facts, what such theories suggest is physically impossible.
The extent of Jesus’ tortures and wounds was such that no man could have
survived the crucifixion and three days and nights isolated in a dark,
cold tomb.
To
say that He was drugged ignores the record. He turned down the painkiller that
was usually given to crucifixion victims (Mark 15:23). Later He was offered a
sip of sour wine from a sponge, but there is no indication of a drugging effect
on Jesus from this because of His obvious agony and final death cry (verses 36-37).
Death
at the hands of Roman torturers and executioners was certain and could come
from several causes. Journalist Lee Strobel, in an interview with Dr. Alexander
Metherell, describes the death of Jesus from a medical point of view (The Case
for Christ, 1998, pp. 193-200).
Jesus
had been beaten repeatedly and lashed with a Roman scourge before His
crucifixion (Matthew 27:26). The leather scourge, a type of whip, was designed
to inflict maximum pain and damage on the victim. It was braided with pieces of
bone and metal woven into the ends that tore into the flesh with each stroke.
The scourge would rip into the underlying muscles and produce strips of
quivering, bleeding flesh.
Eusebius,
a third-century historian, reports that “the sufferer’s veins were laid bare,
and the very muscles, sinews, and bowels of the victim were open to exposure”
(quoted by Strobel, p. 193). Many victims would die from the scourging before
they could be crucified.
The
extreme pain, coupled with loss of blood, would often cause the victim to go
into shock—his blood pressure would drop and cause fainting, collapse and
intense thirst. The Gospels record that Jesus experienced these symptoms on His
way to Golgotha. Weakened to the point of collapse, He couldn’t bear the weight
of the beam He was carrying and a bystander, Simon of Cyrene, was forced to
carry it part of the way for Him (Mark 15:21). When He was crucified, He said,
“I thirst” (John 19:28).
He
had already suffered savage beatings before the scourging. At His trial before
the Sanhedrin, “they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with
the palms of their hands, saying, ‘Prophesy to us, Christ! Who is the one who
struck You?’” (Matthew 26:67-68). When they turned Him over to the Roman
soldiers, they further brutalized Him, beating Him with their fists, slapping
Him and shoving a crown of thorns on His head (Matthew 27:29-30; Mark
15:16-19; John 19:3).
In
a crucifixion, the Romans typically used iron nails, five to seven inches long
and about three eighths of an inch square, driven into the victim’s wrists and
feet to fasten him to the wooden members. The Bible says nails were driven
through Jesus’ hands, but in the language of the day the wrist was considered
part of the hand. Nails were driven into the wrists, between the arm bones,
because the hands themselves could not support the weight of the body.
What
was the cause of Jesus’ death?
Many
people assume that Jesus simply expired from the trauma or suffocated, which
were the common causes of death in crucifixion. Various medical doctors have
studied execution by crucifixion and come to similar conclusions. Some
theologians and churches have taught that Jesus died of a broken heart. Can we
know what actually killed Him?
Clearly
a central focus of Christ’s sacrifice was His blood, which He shed as a
sacrifice for the sins of all humanity. Regrettably, this is obscured somewhat
in John 19:30-34, which makes it appear that Jesus died and then later was
stabbed by one of the Roman soldiers, “bringing a sudden flow of blood and
water” (John 19:34, NIV).
However, there is a problem if this were the specific order of events, because
dead bodies, once the heart has stopped its pumping action, no longer bleed
like that.
This
problem is resolved when we consider many older manuscripts of Matthew’s
Gospel, which contain words that appear in a few Bible translations but were
left out of most modern versions. These missing words tell us the proper
sequence of events.
The
Twentieth Century New Testament, which includes these words, reads: “And about
three [o’clock in the afternoon] Jesus called out loudly: ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama
sabacthani’—that is to say, ‘O my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?’ Some
of those standing by heard this, and said [mistakenly]: ‘The man is calling
for Elijah!’
“One
of them immediately ran and took a sponge, and, filling it with common wine,
put it on the end of a rod, and offered it to him to drink. But the rest said:
‘Wait and let us see if Elijah is coming to save him.’ However another man
took a spear, and pierced his side; and water and blood flowed from it. But
Jesus, uttering another loud cry, gave up his spirit” (Matthew 27:46-50).
The
missing words, noted here in italics, show that Jesus was stabbed in the side
with a spear, uttered a loud cry and then died. Other versions that contain the
missing words include the Moffatt Translation and the Rotherham Emphasized
Bible, and various other Bible versions include a footnote or marginal
reference noting the omitted words.
The
final fatal blow
Continuing
in John 19:37, John explains that the prophecy of Zechariah 12:10 that
Jesus’ body would be pierced was fulfilled. What was this final, fatal thrust
like that ended Jesus’ life?
John
Lyle Cameron, M.D., explains: “The soldier was a Roman: he would be well
trained, proficient, and would know his duty. He would know which part of the
body to pierce in order that he might obtain a speedily fatal result or ensure
that the victim was undeniably dead…
“The
soldier, standing below our crucified Lord as He hung on the cross, would
thrust upwards under the left ribs. The broad, clean cutting, two-edged
spearhead would enter the left side of the upper abdomen, would open
the…stomach, would pierce the diaphragm, would cut, wide open, the heart and
great blood vessels, arteries and veins…, and would lacerate the lung.
“The wound would be large enough to permit the open hand to be thrust into it
[compare John 20:24-27]. Blood…, together with water from the…stomach,
would flow forth in abundance. The whole event as described by St. John must,
indeed, have happened, for no writer could have presented in such coherent
detail so recognizable an event, unless he or someone had actually witnessed
its occurrence” (quoted by R.V.G. Tasker, Tyndale
New Testament Commentaries: John, 2000, pp. 212-213).
The
idea that Jesus didn’t really die, that He fainted or was drugged and was later
resuscitated, has no basis in fact when you consider the clear statements that
He died. The apostle John had been an eyewitness to that death, having been
right there with others as these events unfolded (John 19:25-35).
The
Roman soldiers, too, knew He was dead. They may not have been medical experts,
but they were used to seeing executions and knew when someone was dead. Before
releasing the body of Jesus to Joseph of Arimathea, Pilate confirmed with the
centurion overseeing the execution detail that Jesus was indeed dead (Mark
15:43-45).
Even
if we assume Jesus could have physically survived the crucifixion, how could He
then have lived for three days and nights in a tomb, sealed away from any kind
of medical care or treatment? There
is one other point we should make here. Assuming the seemingly impossible
notion that a man could somehow have lived through all this, the accounts of
Jesus appearing to His disciples after the ordeal would have been just that
much more impossible. And even if He had somehow managed it, He certainly
couldn’t have appeared as One who would inspire His disciples to proclaim that
He had been resurrected to a glorious and powerful state. He would’ve been a
severely broken, wounded man—psychologically traumatized, physically crippled
and maimed for life.
Any
theory to explain that Jesus really didn’t die cannot be taken seriously in
light of the clear evidence we have.
Jesus’ burial
Jesus
was buried by Joseph of Arimathea in a new tomb that Joseph had reserved
for himself. Because
Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the same Jewish high court that condemned
Jesus, he is unlikely to be a Christian invention. Mark’s Gospel tells us that
“Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent council member,… taking courage, went in to
Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus” (Mark 15:43).
Given
permission to take the body, Joseph “bought fine linen, took Him down, and
wrapped Him in linen. And he laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the
rock, and rolled a stone against the door of the tomb” (verse 46).
No
one trying to contrive and pawn off a fabrication would have invented a person
who did not exist and say he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council
of the Jewish nation. Members of the Sanhedrin were widely known. Because
Joseph was a respected public figure, many people would have known the location
of his tomb. If Jesus had not been buried in his tomb, the ruse would have been
all too easy to expose.
Notice
also the precautions taken to make sure nothing could happen to the body of
Jesus once it had been placed in the tomb: “The next day…the chief priests and
the Pharisees went to Pilate. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘we remember that while he was
still alive that deceiver said, “After three days I will rise again.”
“ ‘So
give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise,
his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been
raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.’ ‘Take
a guard,’ Pilate answered. ‘Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.’ So they
went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the
guard” (Matthew 27:62-66, NIV).
Roman
guards were placed around the tomb the day after Jesus’ burial. Surely they
would have noticed had Jesus awakened from a near-death state or His body been
stolen by His followers. Their orders were clear: They were to make sure
nothing happened to the body of Jesus. If they failed at this duty, they could
be put to death just as Jesus had been.
Both
the Jews and the disciples of Christ would have known the location of this
tomb. The women who would figure prominently in the discovery of the empty tomb
observed where the tomb was and that Jesus was in fact laid inside it (Luke
23:55). They also knew a massive stone had been rolled over the entrance of the
tomb (Mark 15:46-47) and knew it had to be rolled back when they returned to
the same location to apply the burial spices they had prepared (Mark 16:3).
There
was no question in the mind of the women and His other disciples that Jesus was
in that tomb.
What
was the reaction of Jesus’ enemies to the disciples’ stunning declaration that
Jesus was alive again after having been publicly executed?
Their
reaction is very revealing. Did they respond that the disciples were lying,
that Jesus’ body still lay in the rock-hewn tomb? No. Did they claim
that the disciples were hallucinating? No. Instead, they bribed
the Roman soldiers responsible for guarding the sealed tomb to spread what they
knew was a lie . They told them to spread a cover story, to claim that
Jesus’ disciples had come and stolen His body while they slept, and that they
would cover for the soldiers if they got in trouble with the
Roman governor.
Read
the account in Matthew 28:11-15. This was the best excuse the authorities
could come up with to explain why Jesus’ body was missing and could not
be found!
Here
we have evidence from the very enemies of Christ that His tomb was empty. The
best rationale they could come up with they knew to be a lie. There
is no other explanation for how the tomb became empty except that Jesus
was resurrected bodily and left the tomb.
Eyewitness
accounts of His appearances
On
multiple occasions and under various circumstances individuals and groups of
people saw Jesus alive after knowing He had died.
Notice
what the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church: “He was seen by Cephas
[Peter], then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred
brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have
fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then
last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time” (1
Corinthians 15:5-8).
How
did Paul receive this information? He was acquainted and had spoken with the
people involved. He had heard the account in their own words. Most who could
verify it were still alive. He is making this assertion knowing he could be
proven wrong if it were not true!
Such
eyewitness accounts cannot be dismissed as fantasy. They must refer to actual
events that were witnessed by many people alive at the time of Paul’s writing.
Paul even lists the names of the best known of the witnesses so others could
verify the facts of Jesus’ resurrection for themselves!
Appearances
in bodily form.
All
of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances in the Gospels are in bodily form. “Why
do doubts arise in your hearts?” He asked His apostles when He appeared to
them, as recorded in Luke 24:36-43.
He
invited them, “Behold [look at] My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself.
Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I
have.” When they still did not believe, perhaps because it was too good to be
true, He asked them for food, which He took and ate in front of them.
Then
there is the occasion when Jesus appeared to all His apostles, including
Thomas, who apparently was missing on the previous occasion. Thomas was adamant
that he would not believe unless he saw Jesus’ wounds with his own eyes and
felt the wounds with his own hands (John 20:24-29). Yet he was absolutely
convinced when Jesus appeared to them all and specifically invited Thomas to
verify that He was indeed the same Jesus whom Thomas and the rest had known for
so long.
On
yet another occasion Jesus appeared to the disciples on the shore of the Sea of
Galilee. On this occasion He performed a miracle, fixed and ate a breakfast of
bread and fish with them and gently rebuked Peter for returning to his life as
a fisherman rather than taking care of the far more important business of
tending to His Church (John 21:1-23).
It’s
been suggested that these appearances were merely hallucinations on the part of
the disciples. But this theory cannot account for the fact that the appearances
were in different places, at different times and in front of different groups
of people. Jesus appeared in ways that were convincing to all the apostles.
These appearances left no doubt in their minds—including that of Thomas, who
staked out his position that he wouldn’t believe unless he literally saw and
felt the Jesus whom he knew.
The
disciples’ astounding transformation.
One
of the major proofs of the resurrection of Jesus is the dramatic change in the
lives of His disciples.
The
Gospel accounts are not flattering to the apostles (which is further evidence
that they didn’t fabricate the story). At the time of Christ’s arrest and
trial, all His apostles forsook Him and fled (Matthew 26:56). Peter, who vowed
that he would always stand by Jesus, even cursed and swore in denying that he
knew Him (Matthew 26:69-75).
Jesus,
we remember, foretold Peter’s weakness and even forewarned His apostles that
they would also stumble because of their association with Him (Matthew
26:31-35).
Within
a short time, however, we see a dramatic change. We find the apostles speaking
to large crowds and openly declaring that Jesus had risen from the dead. Far
from running away and hiding, now they boldly confronted the civil and
religious authorities with the fact that Jesus had been killed and raised to
life again.
They
defied orders threatening them with imprisonment if they continued to speak
about this man Jesus (Acts 4:1-23). They courageously faced beatings and
endured death threats because they preached that Jesus was alive and was the
Messiah (Acts 5:17-42).
Whereas
only weeks before they had denied they even knew Him, now nothing could stop
them from openly publicizing what they obviously knew to be true. Only one
explanation for their new unshakable belief even in the face of imprisonment
and execution is plausible: They saw Jesus Christ alive after they knew He
was dead. They spoke with Him, ate with Him, received extensive
instructions from Him, spent time with Him and touched Him.
These
men gave the remaining years of their lives, and ultimately life itself, for
the One they knew had conquered death. Had they all been only participants in a
giant hoax, could we believe these men would give their lives for something
they knew to be a lie?
Peter’s
remarkable change
The
apostle Peter is the best known of the disciples whose lives were so remarkably
changed. His boldness on the Feast of Pentecost was amazing. At the temple he
addressed a huge crowd of people, from which 3,000 became disciples of Jesus
the Messiah.
Peter
spoke to people who lived in Jerusalem and all of Judea as well as many other
parts of the Roman world. They were in Jerusalem to observe the Feast of
Pentecost, also called the Feast of Weeks, as God had commanded in Deuteronomy
16:16. Peter reminded them that they all knew who Jesus was and what had
happened to Him seven weeks earlier at the Passover feast (Acts 2:22-24).
Peter,
who had denied his acquaintance with Jesus before He died, now fearlessly
proclaimed to the people that they were the ones who had crucified the promised
Messiah— but that God had raised Him up.
The
reaction of the people is quite telling. There is no denial, no outcry, no
attempt to stone Peter for this apparently outrageous charge. Many of them knew
of the events surrounding the arrest, trial and crucifixion of Jesus. They knew
that many—perhaps even some of those standing there listening to Peter—had
shouted for Christ’s blood. They knew of the strange disappearance of the body
from the tomb, a mystery no one had been able to solve.
They
knew or had heard of other strange events that took place at the time: the
mysterious darkness that descended on the land as Jesus was being crucified,
people being resurrected from the grave and walking the streets of Jerusalem,
and the massive veil in the magnificent temple tearing from top to bottom with
no apparent cause.
How
were these events to be explained? What did they mean? Peter was giving them
the amazing explanation—an explanation that would require them to make a
decision that would affect the rest of their lives.
Peter
contrasted the empty tomb of Jesus with the nearby tomb of Israel’s greatest
king, David. “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch
David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day” (Acts
2:29). His point was unmistakable: Everybody knew where David’s tomb was and
that this was where the king’s body was buried. But Jesus, unlike David, was no
longer bound by the grave!
Jesus
of Nazareth, Peter declared, had been raised up by God, and many witnesses
could testify to that fact. Once again there was no argument from the crowd. On
the contrary, the people asked what they should do now that they, too, were
convinced that Peter was right. Peter replied that they should repent and be
baptized and that they also would receive the Holy Spirit, as the disciples had
on that very day (Acts 2:37-38).
The
only way to explain the dramatic transformation of the disciples from a
frightened band ready to throw everything away and flee back to Galilee is that
Jesus left behind dramatic and powerful evidence: an empty tomb and then
multiple bodily appearances. Ordinary men from ordinary walks of life, who had
denied their Master and failed Him miserably, suddenly changed almost overnight
into dynamic leaders of a Church that was to defy and challenge the ancient
pagan world.
James,
half brother of Jesus, becomes a believer
Perhaps
an even more remarkable transformation took place in the life of James, the
half brother of Jesus (James was the natural son of Mary and Joseph while Jesus
was the son of Mary and God the Father). Notice how J.P.Moreland
describes events in James’ life as recorded in the Bible and
contemporary history:
“Why
did these men change? Why did they undergo hardship, persecution, pressure, and
martyrdom? Consider James the brother of Jesus. Josephus, the first-century
Jewish historian, tells us that he died a martyr’s death for his faith in his
brother. Yet the Gospels tell us that during Jesus’ life, he was an unbeliever
and opposed Jesus.
“Why
did he change? What could cause a Jew to believe that his own brother was the
very Son of God and to be willing to die for such a belief? It certainly was
not a set of lovely teachings from a carpenter from Nazareth. Only the
appearance of Jesus to James (1 Corinthians 15:7) can explain
his transformation.
“As
with James, so it is with the other disciples. One who denies the resurrection
owes us an explanation of this transformation which does justice to the
historical facts” ( Scaling the Secular City, 1987,
pp. 178-179).
Paul
the persecutor is transformed
The
apostle Paul is another remarkable example. As a devout Jewish rabbi and strict
Pharisee, he was resolutely convinced that Jesus’ resurrection had not taken
place. Paul persecuted members of the early Church for believing in such
nonsense. He staked his whole mission in life on his conviction that the
resurrection was a fabrication and the movement was a threat to every tradition
he held sacred.
This
new movement, he was convinced, deserved to be stamped out by any means,
including imprisonment and execution (Acts 22:4)—and this would be his personal
crusade. Then something happened. Jesus Christ appeared to Paul and spoke
to him.
Paul
was not a man given to the vivid imaginations of superstitious people. He was a
levelheaded intellectual. Yet he later was prepared to defend his zeal for
Christ before hostile mobs as well as governors, kings and other rulers. In the
end Paul was prepared to die for what he knew was true: Jesus was indeed the
Messiah and was alive and well at the right hand of God.
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