Christs Crucifixion

[Free Christian]

Hello all. Whilst looking up other things lately I stumbled across some things that made me think in regards to Christs crucifixion.
In the Bible I read of Jesus being nailed through the hands and Thomas asking to see the wounds in Jesus hands.
I read how the soldiers were going to break Christs legs to speed the death up but how He was already dead when they went to do so, that Jesus cried out and at the last freely laid down His life.
But I found many, even some very well known, say the Jesus was nailed through His wrists and that the Bible rendering of "hands" actually can mean either hands or wrists and that in that time they were considered the same. I admit that in places in the Bible I have seen where the word hand is probably what we may now say or refer to as wrist. Such as Jeremiah 40 v 4
Also with this I saw them say that Jesus died from Asphyxiation. I have always held that Jesus in that last moment lay down His life for us, willingly. That had it gone on they would have broken Christs legs and then, yes, it would have been asphyxiation.
I have never thought about these things before.
What is the Reformed view?

 

[Contra_Mundum]

"Wrist" refers (in English) to the jointed area, filled with small bones, connecting the palm (which is really just a fleshy pad) and fingers (bones which go all the way to the wrist) to the ulna and radius, the two major bones of the lower arm.

There is no verse (in numerous Bible translations) that uses the word "wrist" anywhere in the Bible. Whether this means there is no parallel term in ancient Hebrew or Greek, I don't know. But if linguist scholars say that the wrist-joint area was properly thought of and referred to as belonging to the hand, moreso than the arm, this makes perfect sense, and we don't need greater precision. Perhaps even some of us modern folk accurately think of the wrist as a part of the whole hand.

The bones and cartilage at the joint are capable of holding the weight of the body pulled down by gravity; whereas the palm is merely flesh across four separated long bones of the fingers which would not support the body's hanging weight without tearing. Thus, empirical and linguistic evidence point to the truth of what Scripture teaches.

With regard to "what Jesus died of"--
Jesus died "by crucifixion." Death by crucifixion was a complex act. Simple enough in the execution, the act of nailing a body to the wood and hoisting it in the air produced a full-spectrum attack on the human body's systems. The circulation was attacked. The pulmonary system. The nervous system. Trying to pinpoint which element of this abuse (like asphyxiation) specifically stopped Jesus' heart or brainwave activity (modern, clinical measurements of death) is impossible.

Jesus lost a lot of blood. He lost a lot when he was scourged before he ever got to Golgotha. By the time he crucified, he was exhausted from a waking psychological and physical ordeal that had begun at the end of the previous day filled with activity, and people have died merely of exhaustion. Being nailed to a cross meant further loss of blood. The pain of crucifixion was excruciating (hence, the term); it is torture. People have had heart attacks from pain; blackout from pain or other causes has prevented them from breathing properly (like being facedown in an inch of water), leading to death, etc.

Breathing while crucified was painful. Full breaths were impossible (for long) while suspended, so the bent legs must push up (against the lower nail) and the arms pull producing shooting pain throughout the body, in order to fill the lungs. Shallow breathing, combined with an overworked cardio-pulmonary system produces fluid in the lungs. This creates a cycle in which even agonizing strain to fill the lungs cannot provide sufficient oxygen. Perhaps this is what someone was thinking of when he indicated Jesus suffocated.

In point of fact, Scripture still says that after his last effort--crying out with a loud voice--Jesus "gave up the ghost," in effect he chose his own moment to expire, and his spirit departed. So, precisely asphyxiation seems like the wrong "cause of death" to me.

Finally, there is the spear thrust by the soldier. In order to make sure Jesus was really dead (and these professional killers already had enough reason to believe he was), a spear was jammed upward into the hanging body. The 8"x2" (a guess) blade entered the torso laterally under the ribcage (which would have been prominent in the hanging, breathless corpse). It crossed upward across the cardio-pulmonary sac, ripping both lungs and the heart muscle going one direction, and then re-ripping them on extraction. This produced the copious blood-and-water flow that John reported gushed out of the wound. The blood had pooled in the heart, veins, and arteries. The watery fluid came from the lungs, that had partially filled.

Jesus died on the cross. His body was destroyed (but none of his bones were broken). When they took him down, he could not have pumped any blood, he could not have breathed a whisper--the tissue of his heart and lungs had also been shredded.

I don't think this is specially "Reformed," as much as it just what the witnesses reported.

 

[Free Christian]

Thanks Bruce for taking the time to answer.
I do see that so many of the references to hands in the Bible would also be for the wrists as we call them today. Such as Genesis 24 v 22. So understand that Christ could well have been nailed through the wrists. Had never thought on it before.
But I do believe the interpretation of Jesus dying from asphyxiation to be incorrect and have long understood the horror of crucifixion, though will never fully grasp it, like trying to understand what a soldier went through in war, though I hear and listen to what he went through I will never truly grasp that either.
But I too believe He gave up His life willingly.

in effect he chose his own moment to expire

I agree.
Thanks again.

 

[clark thompson]

They claim He was nailed through the wrists because His body could not be held up by His hands but they may have used rope to support his body and only put nails through His hand because of the pain it causes and not to support the body. An expert said due to fact that He was talking He would not die asphyxiation but may have had his heart bust due to the burse that may have been on it after falling from the wait of the cross.