Diagnosis

It has been a long, silent period for my blog. Man, how life gets simple in its stresses when absolutely all you have time to do (in order to not fail) is study!

At any rate, I'm breaking my silence now, on a Good Friday that has been especially reflective for me, to post an eye-opening article. Written by Dr. C. Truman Davis, it's an essay of sorts describing his research into the practice of crucifixion, specifically that of Jesus, and his diagnosis of the actual, immediate cause of death. He takes the reader through the physiological events in Jesus' body from Gethsemane to the cross, in addition to giving a bit of a clarifying history lesson.

Dr. Davis writes, "Jesus experienced hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain where tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins -- a terrible crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. One remembers again the 22nd Psalm, the 14th verse: 'I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.'"

It's a tough read, to be sure. But a good one. I was just meditating on this yesterday, wondering what the actual cause of Jesus' death was, and assumed it was mainly attributable to blood loss. Dr. Davis consulted the medical texts and gives his diagnosis. I was partly right...