How did jesus die?

Question

I dont understand how does hanging from a cross can kill a person...(If the cross did really kill jesus like christians claim then why do they wear them around their necks....isnt that a little depressing)

Answer 1

Probably from blood loss due to flogging and crucifixtion.

He was stabbed after he was dead completing the prophecy that no bones would be broken.

Answer 2

When the Romans used Crucifixion as a punishment process, it was more than simply hanging that caused death. It was beatings prior to the cross. Most were also starved and dehydrated from lack of water (usually for days on end). Once the person was hung, the solders would break the persons legs at the knees to cause the weight of the body to rest on the nails in the wrists or the hands. This in itself is such pain that a person could easily die from the shock.
In addition, Jesus was pierced in the side (which was also a common practice) with a spear to attack the lungs and other vital organs. It was a combination of all of these that led to his death. The human body simply gives out.
The fact that Jesus actually was put to death this way, can be debated. The fact that the practice of Crucifixion, can not. It was a horrible way to punish people.

Answer 3

Well Jesus died on the cross, because of his wounds sustained during the beatings the roman soldiers gave him. He did not die from the spear to his side. When he was stabbed with the spear blood and water came out of his side, which suggests that he suffered from heart failure due to the great stress his body had been put through. And we wear a cross on our necks to symbolize that Jesus took up a cross for our sins, and was willing to die by the cross for our sins. To remind us daily of what he went through so that we could have a choice between heaven and hell. Besides, he's not dead anymore, he rose again 3 days later, and he sits at the right hand of the father right now, waiting to return and rapture his people! :-)

Answer 4

There was several things that you have to take into consideration about this question and answering this question. First he was beaten beyond flesh being left on his body before he even had to walk to Calvary, he was also crowned with a crown of thorns that were stuck into his skull, he then was forced to walk to the place where he was to be crucified while rocks and other objects were being thrown at him. He was dehydrated and very weak already. He also had to carry an extremely heavy cross almost the full way. He then had a 9 inch spike drove through each of his wrist/hand that was not sterilized and had god knows on it. He also had a nine inch spike driven through both his feet. He was then set up and slammed into the ground. With the heat bearing down on him and his weight being the enemy of his pain he was already on the verge of death. He had to be in shock from the pain and right before his final breath he was pierced in his side by a spear. He then had just enough energy to cry out to his father and then he died.........the amazing thing is that he did this for us.....god bless you.

Answer 5

A lot of people died while being whipped (scourged) and didn't make it to the cross. The Roman whips were designed to cut flesh and draw blood. It weakened the person quite a bit.

Often the form of death on the cross was suffocation, since you eventually got too tired to hold your head up. When your head drops on your chest, your trachea closes and you cannot breathe.

One doctor (below) seems to think that Jesus died from heart failure.

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...With a knowledge of both anatomy and ancient crucifixion practices, one may reconstruct the probable medical aspects of this form of slow execution. Each wound apparently was intended to produce intense agony, and the contributing causes of death were numerous.

The scourging prior to crucifixion served to weaken the condemned man and, if blood loss was considerable, to produce orthostatie hypotension and even hypovolemie shock.8, 12 When the victim was thrown to the ground on his back, in preparation for transfixion of the hands, his scourging wounds most likely would become torn open again and contaminated with dirt.2, 16 Furthermore, with each respiration, the painful scourging wounds would be scraped against the rough wood of the stipes. 7 As a result, blood loss from the back probably would continue throughout the crucifixion ordeal....

...The actual cause of death by crucifixion was multifactorial and varied somewhat with each case, but the two most prominent causes probably were hypovolemie shock and exhaustion asphyxia.2, 3, 7, 10 Other possible contributing factors included dehydration, 7, 16 stress-induced arrhythmias,3 and congestive heart failure with the rapid accumulation of pericardial and perhaps pleural effusions. 2, 7, 11 Crucifracture (breaking the legs below the knees), if performed, led to an asphyxic death within minutes.11 Death by crucifixion was, in every sense of the word, excruciating (Latin, excruciatus, or "out of the cross")....

...Some of the skepticism in accepting John's description has arisen from the difficulty in explaining, with medical accuracy, the flow of both blood and water. Part of this difficulty has been based on the assumption that the blood appeared first, then the water. However, in the ancient Greek, the order of words generally denoted prominence and not necessarily a time sequence.37 Therefore, it seems likely that John was emphasizing the prominence of blood rather than its appearance preceding the water.

Therefore, the water probably represented serous pleural and pericardial fluid, 5-7, 11 and would have preceded the flow of blood and been smaller in volume than the blood. Perhaps in the setting of hypovolemia and impending acute heart failure, pleural and pericardial effusions may have developed and would have added to the volume of apparent water.5, 11 The blood, in contrast, may have originated from the right atrium or the right ventricle (Fig 7) or perhaps from a hemoperieardium....

...However, another explanation may be more likely. Jesus' death may have been hastened simply by his state of exhaustion and by the severity of the Scourging, with its resultant blood loss and preshock state.7 The fact that he could not carry his patibulum supports this interpretation. The actual cause of Jesus' death, like that of other crucified victims, may have been multifactorial and related primarily to hypovolemie shock, exhaustion asphyxia, and perhaps acute heart failure.2, 3, 5-7, 10, 11 A fatal cardiac arrhythmia may have accounted for the apparent catastrophic terminal event....

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The reason that we wear a cross around our necks is because Jesus commanded his followers to "take up our cross daily, and follow [Jesus]". It is a daily reminder that we are to "die to self".

Answer 6

Believe me Assad, if you were to hang on a cross, after being

whipped with a "cat-o-nine-tails" (a special type of whip with several strands, the end of each strand is tied a sharp object, such as jagged rocks or sharp clay pieces or metal shards) scripture says that Jesus wasn't even recognized as a man.

He was given 40 strokes with one of these whips was, in itself, considered a sentence worse than death. Jesus got 39 lashes. Each stroke dug into his skin and ripped it off of his body.

With His body ripped and bloody after being beaten by this whip, he was made to carry a heavy wooden beam up a dirt hill.

Then a crown of thorns between two and four inches long was pressed into his skull.

Then he was nailed to the cross in his wrists and his ankles at the hollow area between the bones before the joints, so the nails would hold him up instead of ripping his joints apart.

This is what Jesus went through for us.

There were others that simply hanging on a cross with no food or water in the hot Eastern sun would eventually kill anyone - don't you think?
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Now as for the second part of your question, 'why do Christians wear crosses around their necks?'

That's a very good question! I wonder if they knew where that "tradition" came from would they still think that it was something that God would want them to do?

Centuries before Christ was even born, the Pagans would wear the cross around their necks with cord or chains as the sign or symbol for their god . . . the sun!

Remember that the same pagan peoples that inserted Paganism into the true Christianity (the one that was taught by the Apostles) are the same ones that put Christ to death and then reinvented Christianity to fit into their pagan rituals and ways.

God Bless You

Answer 7

The physiological effect of crucifixion was that those sentenced to die that way slowly suffocated, while dehydration and exposure took their toll as well. They were placed up there in such a way that they could not breathe when resting on their feet, but would have to pull up with their arms to draw breath. This, with their arms fully extended would have been terribly painful even without the nails thru their arms and feet. They were in a semi-arid region, all but naked, exposed to extremes in temperature, without food or water.

However, they screwed up Jesus' crucifixion. When they raised the cross, they slammed it into the ground so hard they dislocated his shoulders. That is why he died in one day, instead of the usual 3-4.

Answer 8

Hanging on the cross did not kill Jesus. He died from a stab wound to his abdoman.

He was beaten and tortured badly. He had nails driven through his wrists and feet . He had a crown of thorns placed on his head. And the thing that killed him was a spear being driven through him.

Nice way to die, eh?

People wear a cross around their neck to be reminded of what he went through for us.

Cheers

Answer 9

To answer your initial question, He died from the combination of the physical beatings and flesh-ripping flogging He endured leading up to His crucifixion, combined with the trauma of having spikes driven through your flesh. Add to this the inability of your body to capture sufficient air as you are hanging from the cross beam and the subsequent fluid build-up in your lungs from all the trauma, and you have a slow, agonizing death.

When a Christian wears a cross around their neck, it serves as a reminder of what Jesus endured for us to have the opportunity to be in Heaven for all eternity. Rather than depressing, it is comforting to a Christian to be aware of this sacrifice and that, by accepting the truth of Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we avoid the eternal punishment that comes with being separated from God.

Answer 10

The bible story has Jesus being finished off by a Roman spear to the guts but crucifixion is enough to kill someone on its own. Bleeding from the head from thorns may have looked dramatic because cuts to the head often do bleed a lot but it is unlikely that any major blood vessels would have been damaged and the blood loss would not have been sufficient to contribute materially to his death other than inducing further pain and discomfort.

Being crucified stretches your diaphragm and constricts the ribs and lungs making it very difficult to breathe so that at the same time you are in extreme pain you are unable to get enough air into your lungs. As the victim became weaker and was unable to support at least part of his weight with his legs, his full weight would have been taken on his out-stretched arms, which would most likely become dislocated at the shoulder.

Most victims were tied rather than nailed to the cross so the ordeal lasted that bit longer. Death would take several days and would result from a combination of asphixiation, dehydration, shock and cardiac/circulatory collapse.

Incidentally the combination of asphixiation, dehydration, shock and cardiac/circulatory collapse would have produced death-like symptoms which might lead people to suppose the victim had died and cause him to be cut down (usually they were left at least until birds started to peck their eyes and flesh). But it might just be that someone cut down early because they "looked dead" would later recover... in a cool cave perhaps...

Answer 11

In crucifixion you are nailed through the wrists to a cross, then your feet are nailed to a stump. You can't pull yourself up, you're bleeding profusely, and all your weight is on your wrists. It's extremely excruciating, and there's no relief. You can't breath well in that position, because you're hunched, and you can't straighten up to get a good breath, except by causing more excruciating pain to your feet and legs (which are nailed to a stump, remember). You are not fed, and not given anything to drink (Christ was given vinegar while on the cross, which serves only in increasing one's thirst). You either suffocate under your own weight, bleed to death, starve to death, or die from lack of water. It is, without exception, the most inhumane means of execution ever devised. It is a slow, painful death, and you're pretty much conscious the whole time.

Many wear crosses as a reminder of the price paid for sin by Jesus. It's not depressing, it's inspiring.