The cross was the most painful torture ever invented by man. In fact by Roman law a Roman citizen could not be crucified. It was only for slaves and other horrible crimes by foreigners. The pain is so intense and unbearable that a new word was invented to describe it - "excruciating" - which literally means "out of the cross."?

The whipping was with leather strips that usually had pieces of bone and metal embedded in them. Some men died from the loss of blood. They had a limit of how many could be administered and Jesus was given the limit. In the book "The Case for Christ"?- a Journalist's and Lawyera's personal investigation of the Evidence for Jesus- Lee Stroblel interviewed a top research scientist and medical doctor and said, The soldier would use a whip of braided leather tongs 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 whip ends would have gone all the way from the shoulders down to the back, the buttocks, and the back of the legs. It was just terrible...."

One physician who studied Roman beatings said, "as a flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeleton muscles and produced quiver and ribbons of bleeding flesh." A third century historian by the name of Eusbius describes the flogging by saying, "the sufferera's veins were laid bare, and very muscles, sinews, and bowels of the victims were open to exposure."

What was the crucifixion like? "He would've been laid down, and his hands would have been nailed in the outstretched position to the horizontal beam.... The Romans use spikes that were five to seven inches long and tapered to sharp point. They were driven through the wrist [considered part of the hand],... This was a solid position that would lock the hand; if the nails had been driven through the palms, his weight would've caused skin to tear and he would have fallen off the cross....

"It's important understand that the nail would go through the place where the median nerve runs. This is the largest nerve going out of the hand, and it would be crushed by the nail that was being pounded in...."

He noted the kind of pain you feel when you bang your funny bone. Picture taking a pair of pliers and squeezing, so that you crush that nerve. That would be similar to what Jesus experienced in each arm.

Another nail was driven through the feet of Jesus. The nerves in his feet would have been crushed, and again it's hard to imagine the pain. When they raised the cross it dropped into a receptacle in the ground. The jarring thud tore his flesh where the nails went in.

The medical doctor went on to say, "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 the Psalms 22, which foretold the crucifixion hundreds of years before it was invented, saying "my bones are out of joint."'

"Once a person is hung in the vertical position, crucifixion is essentially an agonizing slow death by asphyxiation [suffocation].

"The reason is that the stresses on the muscle and diaphragm put the chest into the inhale position; basically, in order to exhale, the individual must push up on his feet so the tension on the muscles would be eased for a moment. In doing so, the nail would tear to 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'd have to push himself up to exhale, scraping the bloody back against the coarse wood of the cross. This would go on and on until complete exhaustion would take over, and a person would not be able to push up and breathe anymore."

The medical doctor went on to describe how Jesus died of cardiac arrest, and how the bloody water flowed out when the soldier pierced Jesus side with his spear. From a medical standpoint, it was certain death when water and blood flowed from his side.

The soldiers were experts on death because they put to death so many people. They made sure the prisoner was dead, because if they were wrong and a prisoner escaped, the responsible soldiers were put to death themselves.

Dr. Wayne D. Edwards in 1986 wrote an article published in the Journal of American Medical Association which concluded, "clearly, the weight of historical and medical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead before the wound to this side was inflicted... Accordingly, interpretations based on the assumption that Jesus did not die on the cross appear to be at odds with modern medical knowledge."