From Hematohidrosis to Collapse: Recreate How Jesus Died

This Friday, April 6, Good Friday is celebrated in the main countries of Latin America and Spain, where they remember the passion and death of Christ. After studying the opinions of doctors, historians and archaeologists, theologian Paul S. Taylor recreated how Jesus died and what conditions he imposed before the crucifixion. Recognized by Christians as the son of God, “he endured one of the most severe and painful forms of capital punishment imaginable,” the expert said.

During the “agony” described by his disciples the night before, the Nazareth-born preacher was bleeding, so he may have had hematohidrosis. According to the Cuban Journal of Hematology, Immunology and Hemotherapy, it is “a rare and mysterious disease with episodes of self-limiting skin bleeding.”

According to a study by Cesar Valdes Soho, it is characterized by “the presence of blood in sweat, although tears may also contain it.” Its occurrence is associated with the plethora of vessels of the basement membrane of the skin around the sweat glands.

The same paper states that it is “a physiological response to situations of maximum stress”. Cases appeared preferably “at moments of certainty of inevitable and painful death.”

Subsequently, Jesus Christ was punished by Roman soldiers with whips designed to cut the flesh of the victims. The blows could have caused fluid to build up around his lungs, Taylor added in Christian Answers.

According to him, the crown of thorns could “greatly irritate the most important nerves in his head, causing more and more intense and very sharp pain.” The chief may also have had profuse bleeding and severe dehydration. “This cruel torture would certainly lead to what doctors call collapse (shock),” the theologian said.

In an article titled “How Jesus Died: The Last 18 Hours,” medical expert Frederick Zugibe referred to the crucifixion. He postulated that drilling through the median nerve of the hands with a nail would have caused “great, burning, and terrible pain.” Something similar would happen with the plantar nerve of the foot.

However, being on the cross would have made it nearly impossible for him to breathe. IN life of ChristBritish clergyman Frederick Farrar claimed that the crucifixion included “vertigo, convulsions, thirst, hunger, insomnia, fever, tetanus, shame”.

Quoted by Taylor, Zugibe explained that Jesus died from loss of blood and fluid, trauma from wounds, and cardiogenic shock. Meanwhile, physiologist Samuel Houghton theorized that his heart collapsed, causing a rush of blood when a soldier plunged his spear into it.