Was Jesus' Death a Sham and His Ressurection a Hoax?

The following is a rather long but meaningful essay that deals with the death of Jesus Christ. His resurrection would be covered in a later posting. I used an interview that Lee Strobel, interviewed Alexander Metherell in the book The Case for Christ (Authored by Strobel).
Metherell has a medical degree from the University of Miami in Florida, doctorate in engineering from the University of Bristol in England. He is board certified in diagnosis by the American Board of Radiology and has been a consultant to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health of Bethesda, Maryland.

The swoon theory, that says Jesus' reappearance was not a miraculous resurrection but merely a fortuitous resuscitation, and his tomb was empty because he continued to live.

Maybe Pontius Pilate was bribed to allow Jesus to be taken down from the cross before he was dead. Maybe he survived the entire ordeal, or entered a trance-like fake death. Or perhaps he was drugged to appear dead, and then revived by the cool damp air of the tomb. Could the Roman guards have been incompetent in ensuring his death and took him down accidentally alive?

Before Jesus could be resurrected, he must be dead first, that's common sense. So what exactly happened when he was crucified and could he have survived some way or another, only to rise up from the grave and make everyone think he was resurrected?

Lee Strobel's(M.D.) interview with Alexander Metherell(M.D., PH.D.), as adapted from The Case for Christ.

Jesus went with his disciples after the Last Supper to the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane. There, he prayed all night. Anticipating the coming events of the next day, he knew the amount of suffering he had to endure, and would naturally be experiencing a great deal of psychological stress. (As written in Luke 22:42-44, he prayed "'Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.' And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.")

There is a medical condition known as hematidrosis(Can be found in wikipedia). It is a very rare condition that is associated with a high degree of psychological stress. Severe anxiety causes the release of chemicals that break down the capillaries in the sweat glands. Thus, there's a small amount of bleeding into the glands, and the sweat comes out tinged with blood. We're not talking about a lot of blood; it's just a very, very small amount. What it also does is to cause the skin to be extremely fragile so that when Jesus was flogged by the Roman soldier the next day, his skin would be very, very sensitive.

Roman floggings were known to be terribly fatal. They usually consisted of thirty-nine lashes but frequently were a lot more than that, depending on the mood of the soldier applying the blows.

The soldier would use a whip of braided leather thongs with metal balls woven into them. When the whip would strike the flesh, these balls would cause deep bruises or contusions, which would break open with further blows. And the whip had pieces of sharp bone as well, which would cut the flesh severely.

The back would be so shredded that part of the spine was sometimes exposed by deep, deep cuts. The whipping would have gone all the way from the shoulders down to the back, the buttocks, and the back of the legs.

One physician who has studied Roman beatings said, "As the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh." A third-century historian by the name of Eusebius described flogging by saying, "The sufferer's veins were laid bare, and the muscles, sinews, and bowels of the victim were open to exposure."

The victim would experience tremendous pain and go into hypovolemic shock(Also in wikipedia). 'Hypo' means low, 'vol' refers to volume, and 'emic' means blood. This does four things. First, the heart races to try to pump blood that is not there; second, the blood pressure drops, causing fainting or collapse; third, the kidneys stop producing urine to maintain what volume is left; and fourth, the person becomes very thirsty as the body craves fluids to replace the lost blood volume.

Jesus was in hypovolemic shock as he staggered up the rode to the execution site at Calvary, carrying the horizontal beam of the cross. Finally Jesus collapsed, and the Roman soldier ordered Simon to carry the cross for him. (Mark 15:21 "And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.") Later we read the Jesus said, 'I thirst', at which point a sip of vinegar was offered to him. (Mark 15:36)

Jesus survived the beating that day and went on to the cross-which is where the real issue lies.

He would have been laid down, and his hands would have been nailed in the outstretched position to the horizontal beam. This crossbar was called the patibulum, and at this stage it was separate from the vertical beam, which was permanently set in the ground.

The Romans used spikes that were five to seven inches long and tapered to a sharp point. They were driven through the wrists, an inch or so below his left palm.
(All the paintings show the nails pierced his palms, a standard symbol representing the Crucifixion, but it really was through the wrist, as Metherell goes on to explain)
Through the wrists. This was a solid position that would lock the hand; if the nails had been driven through the palms, his weight would have caused the skin to tear and he would have fallen off the cross. So the nails went through the wrists, although this was considered part of the hand in the language of the day.

It's important to understand that the nail would go through the place where the median nerve runs. (From wiki, Injury of median nerve at different levels cause different syndromes. Injury of this nerve at a level above elbow joint results in loss of pronation and a decrease in flexion of the hand at the wrist joint. In the hand, thenar muscles are paralysed and atrophy in time. Opposition and flexion movements of thumb are lost, and thumb and index finger are arrested in adduction and hyperextension position. This appearance of the hand is collectively referred as ape hand deformity. In addition, in palmar side of the hand sensation of lateral part of hand, first three fingers and lateral half of the fourth finger and in dorsal side sensation of distal ⅓ portions of first three fingers and lateral half of distal ⅓ portion of fourth finger is lost.)

The pain was absolutely unbearable. In fact, it was literally beyond words to describe; they had to invent a new word: 'excruciating'. Literally, 'excruciating' means 'out of the cross.' They needed to create a new word, because there was nothing in the language that could describe the intense anguish caused during the crucifixion.

At this point Jesus was hoisted as the crossbar was attached to the vertical stake, and then nails were driven through Jesus' feet. Again, the nerves in his feet would have been crushed, and there would have been a similar type of pain.

The effect that hanging from the cross would have had on Jesus; first of all, his arms would have immediately been stretched, probably about six inches in length, and both shoulders would have become dislocated. This fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy in Psalm 22, which foretold the Crucifixion hundreds of years before it took place and says, 'My bones are out of joint.'

Once a person is hanging in the vertical position, crucifixion is essentially an agonizingly slow death by asphyxiation(wikipedia again). The reason is that the stresses on the muscles and diaphragm put the chest into the inhaled position; basically, in order to exhale, the individual must push up on his feet so the tension on the muscles would be eased for moment. In doing so, the nail would tear through the foot, eventually locking up against the tarsal bones.

After managing to exhale, the person would then be able to relax down and take another breath in. Again, he would have to push himself up to exhale, scraping his bloodied back against the coarse wood of the cross. This would go on and on until complete exhaustion would take over, and the person would not be able to push up and breathe anymore.

As the person slows down his breathing, he goes into what is called respiratory acidosis(wikipedia)-the carbon dioxide in the blood is dissolved as carbonic acid, causing the acidity of the blood to increase. This eventually leads to an irregular heartbeat. In fact, with his heart beating erratically, Jesus would have known that he was at the moment of death, which is when he was able to say, "Lord, into your hands I commit my spirit."(Luke 23:46) And then he died of cardiac arrest.

Before he died, the hypovolemic shock would have caused a sustained rapid heart rate that would have contributed to heart failure, resulting in the collection of fluid in the membrane around the heart, called a pericardial effusion, as well as around the lungs, which is called pleural effusion.

When the Roman soldier came around and, being fairly certain that Jesus was dead, confirmed it by thrusting a spear into his right side. It was probably his right side; that's not certain, but from the description it was probably the right side, between the ribs.

The spear apparently went through the right lung and into the heart, so when the spear was pulled out, some fluid-the pericardial effusion and the pleural effusion-came out. This would have been the appearance of a clear fluid, like water, followed by a large volume of blood, as the eyewitness John described in his gospel.

(True, John was untrained and could not identify the clear fluid that came out, and thus wrote it as water. However, in John 19:34, it is said that 'blood and water' came out; and John intentionally put the words in that order. But according to Metherell, the clear fluid would have come out first. A significant discrepancy here, explained in the following excerpt)

I'm not a Greek scholar, but according to people who are, the order if words in ancient Greek was determined not necessarily by sequence but by prominence. This means that since there was a lot more blood than water, it would have made sense for John to mention the blood first.

There was absolutely no doubt that Jesus was dead.

as aas (In the past, if the Roman guard somehow let any prisoner escape or allowed any convict sentenced to death to live due to carelessness or other reason, the sentence would be carried out on the Roman guard. That was quite a big incentive to ensure that the prisoner, or in this case, Jesus, was thoroughly dead. But as a final argument, Metherell depicts what would happen if somehow, Jesus survived the ordeal and lived to appear to the disciples. Here, he reasons that the wounds he suffered would not recover fully permanently, much less within a period of three days. Hypothesizing that Jesus would still be alive without means of resurrection, his body would be in a total mess.)

Listen, a person in that kind of pathetic condition would never have inspired his disciples to go out and proclaim that he's the Lord of life who had triumphed over the grave.

Do you see what I'm saying? After suffering that horrible abuse, with all the catastrophic blood loss and trauma, he would have looked so pitiful that the disciples would never have hailed him as a victorious conqueror of death; they would have felt sorry for him and tried to nurse him back to health.

So, it's preposterous to think that if he had appeared to them in that awful state, his followers would have been prompted to start a worldwide movement based on the hope that someday they too would have a resurrection body like his. There's just no way.

New Year 2008

Is this a new year
Or just another night
Abundance in this world
But nothing worth saving

Everyone sees the outside
Neglecting the soul within
Attempting to break away
Just another desperation

Sentenced ourselves to prison
Life, we've thrown away the key
18 reasons to admit my wrong
But all my excuses all 18 strong

We toil and give ourselves the albatross
Silence sealed the bridge between us
Goodwills exchanged through methods man-made
Though man-made never let our lives converge

What greater joy there be
Than to share with you life eternal
Treasures we store in His kingdom
Loved ones with us with our Father amaranthine

I'm so sorry I've been so down
Been staring at the ceiling
Making friends with shadows in the twilight
Begin to believe that who we are is material

In this life
I'm stubborn to the core
In this life
I'm my worse enemy

That's nonsensical
Stay awhile and maybe then you'll see
The flip side of me
For I'm not out of my mind

I'm just a little flabbergasted
How He is experiencing your pains
Listening to your silent cries
Shed His own blood for you to leech

Is this a new year
Or just another desperation
Small acts of random kindness
Or a cacophony of negligence

29th December 2007

I'm the failure
I'm everyone's fool
And I'm losing my cool at the end

I'm the loser
My numbers come up
I've been hung up with thoughts of Revenge
Revenge
Revenge

Oh!

I've been watching you with my terminal view
As you struggle to rise to your end
I laughed hard at the insults we through
As the weight of the world found revenge
Revenge
Revenge

Oh!

Have hatred and Gravity won?

Oh!
Oh!

The world hung upside down
I drew first blood
With my hateful vengeance
I drew first blood
Revenge

I watched heaven dying today
And I'm gonna die here tonight
I'm the villain and I deserve to be dead
I've been hung up for wrecking my life
Revenge

Oh!

So I stopped for a moment
To look at the sun
Dying today
That's when the irony hit me
That this was revenge
That love had descended and stolen our pain
Away.

We consumed heaven's Son
And I drew first blood
And my hate was undone
And I drew first blood
Revenge

Here's a story
How thief had been robed
How murder had stolen my rage
Think of me Lord
I'm a few breaths away
As my lungs finally rip from the cage

But your love is strong and I don't care what goes down
But your love is strong enough to enter through the thundercloud
Fury and thunder clap like stealing the fire from your eyes
All of my world hanging on your love

All of my world resting on your love

29th December 2007

Awakening

Face down with the LA curbside endings
With the ones and zeros.
Downtown was the perfect place to hide.
The first star that I saw last night was a headlight
Of a man-made sky, but man- made never made our dreams collide,
Collide.

Here we are now with the falling sky and the rain,
We're awakening
Here we are now with our desperate youth and the pain,
We're awakening
Maybe it's called ambition, you've been talking in your sleep
About a dream, we're awakening

Last week found me living for nothing but deadlines,
With my dead beat sky but, this town doesn't look the same tonight
These dreams started singing to me out of nowhere
And in all my life I don't know if I've ever felt so alive,
Alive

I want to wake up kicking and screaming
I want to wake up kicking and screaming
I want a heart that I know is beating,
It's beating,
I'm bleeding
I want to wake up kicking and screaming
I want to live like I know what I'm leaving
I want a heart that I know is beating,
It's beating... it's beating...
I'm bleeding

29th December 2007

Unfinished

Entered fellowship with a veil
Am still carrying it clear
How it does me pain
To see their lives so vain

My heart torn asunder from within
A strange man stepped inside
The way he tracked me home
The way he knocked at the door
The way he knew my name
My desires, my iniquities and my genome

Oh how many times have I heard it here
人生就是这样的
All this while I've been searching
But there is nothing that is pure
Thinking too hard to accept
Neither adjective nor noun
Why can't love be a verb

He touched the rain
And suddenly there's waterfalls
Now everyday
There's something else worth fighting for

29th December 2007

Twenty-four

Twenty-four oceans
Twenty-four skies
Twenty-four failures
Twenty-four tries

Twenty-four finds me
In twenty-fourth place
With twenty-four drop outs
At the end of the day

I'm not who I thought I was
Twenty-four hours ago
Still I'm singing 'Spirit
Take me up in arms with you'

There's twenty-four reasons
To admit that I'm wrong
With all my excuses
Still twenty-four strong

Twenty-four voices
With twenty-four hearts
All of my symphonies
In twenty-four parts

But I want to be one today
Centered and true
I'm singing 'Spirit
Take me up in arms with you'
You're raising the dead in me

I wanna see miracles
To see the world change
Wrestled the angel
For more than a name

For more than a feeling
For more than a cause
I'm singing 'Spirit
Take me up in arms with you'
And you're raising the dead in me

Twenty-four oceans
With twenty-hearts
All of my symphonies
With twenty-four parts

Life is not what I thought it was
Twenty-four hours ago
Still I'm singing 'Spirit
Take me up in arms with you'
And you're raising the dead in me

See, I'm not copping out
Not copping out
Not copping out
When you're raising the dead in me

Oh, oh, I am the second man
Oh, oh, I am the second man now
Oh, I am the second man now
And you're raising the dead in me

I'm not copping out
Not copping out

October 2007

Real

Look at me I'm twenty three
Beautiful a sight to see
Tonight

A little dress to draw the press
And I'll be leaving
All the rest behind

Well be pleased girl
If this is what you wanted
The whole world is watching you take the stage
What will you say

Aren't I lovely
And do you want me cause
I am hungry for something that will make me real
Can you see me and
Do you love me cause
I am desperately searching for something
Real

I close my eyes imagine time
Will not forget
My sacrifice

I numb the ache and decorate
My emptiness
Stand naked in the light

Well be pleased world
If this is what you wanted
This young girl is everything that you made
What will she say

Aren't I lovely
And do you want me cause
I am hungry for something that will make me real
Can you see me and
Do you love me cause
I am desperately searching for something
Real

The world goes home
The lights go down
My lipstick fades
Away

And do you want me cause
I am hungry for something that will make me real
Can you see me and
Do you love me cause
I am desperately searching for something
Real
(repeats)

Last day of August, 2007

Never been better! Came back from a camp organized by SP! Tired but exuberant.

Five-star resort at Batam! Food's super! Hiking and trekking through the jungle's really fun! River rafting's also just as great! High rope was damn scary, but super enjoyable!

The leadership workshop, alas, wasn't as interesting. Still, I came back, not just better, but a blacker man.

Anyways, many things happened that are noteworthy, among the really humorous guys from EEE, the electrical and electronics engineering school; there was this Chinese guy who speaks extremely fluent English, even though at first impression he looks nowhere near a linguistic man. He easily alters between various accents, ranging from German (Deutsch), to Indian (Tamil). He is really a gifted comedian, Mr Brown style!

At the shopping mall trip the last day, most of us had quite a lot of spare change of Rupiah in our hands. One guy was flipping a 100 and 200 Rupiah coin up and down, basically fiddling with it and saying that he was rich, with 300 bucks to spare. Another guy took out 10 cents, in Singapore currency, a solitary coin so much smaller than the Indonesian coin, and declared, and rightly so, that his was worth twice as much. All who were in a 1 meter radius about the vicinity burst into laughter.



Fun aside, I learnt that Poly life is so much more different and unique. Through this camp, I look into the lives of all my seniors and other "polymates" with a totally different viewpoint. Every seemingly differing person has a totally diverse life story. I feel so much more attached to the Poly and its students and lecturers now.


One student, who prefers to be called Rain, really has a strong and touching story to tell. She had a little bit too much alcohol during the night parties, and said quite a bit, fogged both in frustration and sorrow. She is also in DMAT, 1 year my senior, and also plays the piano. She sure has composed many songs. Apparently, she joined the camp to escape from home. Her father, a Malaysian, is a pastor and missionary. Her mother is just as fervent a Christian. Not surprisingly, she is under strict curfew and her life devoid of freedom. Complaining of being unable to have unchained access to the computer for her parents do not want her to be at risk, denied leave to a chalet for fear of being raped, and the list goes on. Even though she does exceptionally well in study (GPA 3.94, 0.06 points less from a perfect score for her Poly studies), helps out in church, but her life has yet to be really touched by God. I wonder what will be the future of her poor soul. She still has not really experienced God's great and unconditional love for her, as well as for everyone. Maybe because of her confined and shackled upbringing, or maybe for other reasons I do not know, she is completely wrecked and empty. She would dread going back home to an home with devastated family ties and try to fill her emptiness using boyfriends, anime and the like. She also voices out her grief and hurls vulgarities and obscenities at ease. She broke up and to date, has a new boyfriend.

I know for sure that a life truly committed to God will not have ended up like this, and that I must help her to see God's wondrous ways. I pray that I know how. One thing's for sure; her story will be continued.

24th August 2007

One of the most important but underrated qualities that we should have is humility.
Many a times, the things preventing many youths from humility is their pride and ambition. When supposed to have a change in our character, like being more forgiving, having a faith, we find excuse in lavishing it to be very hard to put down their freedom or authority.

Think of it as a child standing on a trunk at the back of a car, then extending his arm to the lid, planning to lift up the trunk and his own weight at the same time. Vanity. The question is whether or not he can lift the lid; it is whether he be willing enough to get down from yore trunk and simply lift up the lid.











Get my drift? We are always reluctant to get down the lid, straining ourselves to lift our own burden when it could easily be let go... How hard is it to convince my fellow friends the same theory... I pray, that God would give me the wisdom and courage, not for mine, but for their own good... How hard it is to be understood by them and let them not see my efforts as chauvinist but as an unconditional love for them... I pray.

21/08/07

LOLx, been writing on another medium until now...

So much to say, so much to hear, so much to see...

D'oh.

Wow, there are fantastic pianists out there! First, Igudesman, then, Maksim Mrvica, then, Bruce Greer! Wow... I really gotta train. Bruce Greer's concert at the 19th of August really was a whopper. All these complex chords... I mean, the other time, I heard from this Chill CD, they also played a lot of groove chords, and after buying it and listening to it, I started playing said groove chords at ease from around May onwards... U know, like minor 2nds inside a chord, which by right, sound awful when playing alone, but in the said groove chords, bring a powerful effect...

But this Bruce, he plays the chords one whole tone higher! It's like, playing a D when a C chord should work.. And that he plays the chord for an entirely different tonality! Then, he uses a lot of flourishes, that is, the MANY little notes at the high end... At least I can copy that... BUT it will be years before I can go like machine gunning entire suspended scales, dorian scales, phrygians, and mixolydian modes up and down the piano at surprising speed. WOW. Enough said. In short, that guy is awesome. More so that he uses his talent for God's ministry. He arranged so many songs... Composer, blah, blah blah, u name it. Wow.

Take less than 5 minutes off your time, u must look at this video. Igudesman at work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xui7x_KF7bY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifKKlhYF53w