Stephen Jones has posted part 3 of his 3 part series, “Why I prefer Barbet’s hypotheses over Zugibe’s” This final part argues that “Crucifixion victims died primarily of asphyxiation.”
In reading it, I think we can all appreciate the amount of work that went into this.
Writes Stephen:
Zugibe maintains that crucifixion victims, including Jesus, died primarily not of asphyxiation but of traumatic (injury) and hypovolemic (low blood volume) shock:
"During suspension on the cross, Jesus would have experienced a progressive loss of plasma to the pleural spaces (spaces around the lungs) and to the tissue spaces such as the ankles; pooling of blood to the lower parts of the body; and continued sweating caused by the direct rays of the hot midday sun, the heat produced by the increased muscular activity, and the hypotensive (low blood pressure) responses of the body to pain and hypovolemia (low fluid volume). Because there was no attempt to replace the lost fluids or to stop the pain, the compensatory mechanisms would have reached their saturation point. … If I were to certify the cause of Jesus’ death in my official capacity as Medical Examiner, the death certificate would read as follows:
Cause of Death: Cardiac and respiratory arrest, due to hypovolemic and traumatic shock, due to crucifixion."
(Zugibe, F.T., "The Crucifixion of Jesus: A Forensic Inquiry,"2005, pp.134-135. My emphasis).
But as can be seen above, even on Dr. Zugibe’s own "death certificate" the actual (or what Barbet called the "determining" cause of Christ’s death was "Cardiac and respiratory arrest"! So Zugibe seems to be just splitting hairs.
And what have I concluded? Nothing yet. But this will be helpful.
We’ve already exchanged quite a lot of commentary on the relative merits of Barbet vs Zugibe. My recollection is that the fundamental difference is that Barbet is saying that the weight of the body is mainly suspended by the very high tension in the arms, which must in some way be taken by wrist bones to avoid tearng through the palms; whereas Zugibe claims that the bulk of the weight, maybe some 75%, can be taken by nail(s) through the feet. I don’t recall that Zugibe envisages the feet standing on a pedestal.
Barbet’s version leads him to conclude that in order to maintain breathing, the crucifarius must therefore exercise some kind of see-saw motion constantly transferring his weight from his arms to his legs and back again. He cannot maintain this action indefintely so that death is by asphyxiation.
Zugibe does not see breathng as such a problem, as he claims that the weight being taken by the feet allows the crucifarius to breathe well enough. So Zugibe is attributing death to shock. I don’t think it can be claimed that this is hair-splitting.
I personally don’t find Zugibe’s scenario so plausible. Binding a volunteer’s feet to the upright with a strap, is hardly the same as nailing the feet of a condemned man with all the pain that must have resulted. However I’m not a forensic pathologist, and the bottom line has to be that only one so qualified can arbitrate between the two hypotheses as to which is more credible. At present I’m not aware what other professional corroboration Zugibe was able to muster for his version.
My personal opinion as a medical doctor is that both conditions (asphyxia and hypovolemic schock) can be the cause death of a crucified man,
Having read Dr, Barbet«s book I was aware that nailing the feet of the condemned to the «stipes» provides no weight distribution to them, Dr. Barbet concluded that with experiencies he did with cadavers he crucified at the morgue of St. Joseph«s Hospital.
So being it is not unreasonable to state that death of the crucified would occur when accessory respiratory muscles (mainly pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi and even serratus anterior) activity, working in inverted chain will be exhausted.
As I’ve pointed out in my book I’ve done an experience at my Gym with some volunteer fellows (about 10 as I can recall) which was as follows:
I asked them ro suspend on a arm weight lift bar with arms spread doing about 65º with the horizontal plane, having no feet contact with the ground.
After some time elapsed ALL of them experienced shoulder pain and progressive (unbearable ?) dispnea and had to lift their body to relieve respiratory distress,,,,
Can we conclude that Dr, Barbet was right?
Wish all of you a Merry Christmas
Antero de Frias Moreira
Just to clarify some points of disturbed respiratory cycle in a crucified victim,
In normal respiratory cycle inhaling iresults from active contraction of the diaphragm muscle, while exhaling is usually passive, resulting from elastic properties of the thoracic wall and negative intrapleural pressure.
In a crucified victim thie cycle inhaling/exhaling is greatly disturbed ,air being trapped in pulmonary alveoli and bronchi in exhaling phase ,so the great difficulty the crucified experiences is in exhaling
This is of course a theorethical logical assumption, because as far as I know thank God nobody did such experiences in living persons, the only descriptions of evident respiratory failure and death of crucified-like people were descriibed by Dr. Pierre Barbet quoting Docteur Le Bec- he made a description of an ancient torture done by German Army officers suspending prisioners by their arms with hands tied to a transverse beam, their feet not touching the ground…
Those victims experienced cyanosis, suffocation and ultimately death.
To overcome this abnormal condition of exhaling impairment in crucified victims, ,accessory respiratory muscles that only work in a forced expiration I mean the Latissimus Dorsi and Pectoralis Major must work in «reverse chain».
How?
In normal conditiions these muscles contract and their action is to approach the arms towards the thoracic wall, but in the crucified victim in an attempt to exhale, he uses them as accessory expirators, and at the same time lifting the trunk, because superior limbs nailed at the wrists cannot move.
Wheight is supported by the nailed feet, and the trunk approaches the arms while at the same time extending the partially flexed knees, so the angle of superior limbs with vertical diminishes and finally air can get out of the lungs and a new respiratory cycle begins.
Unfortunately, the crucified victim has to pay a «high price» to achieve this.
Experiencing the excruciating pain of neuropathic origin from injury of plantar nerves of the feet increased by weigh bearing, and median nerves in the wrists, this horrible cycle comes to an end whem the victim is overwhelmed by muscle failure due to depletion of oxygen and energy storage leading to death by asphyxia.
Surely hypovolemic schock may play an important role depriving muscles from oxygen and disturbing general metabolism and muscle metabolism, and theoretically can be the only cause of death, before respiratory failure occurs,
Antero de Frias Moreira
(Centro Português de Sindonologia)