~M~

Last I heard, Zugibe refuted the asphyxiation hypothesis and the evidence pointed towards hypovolemic and traumatic shock. Can someone update me on any pertinent scholarship?

Gnomelord

So much as I regret to say it... attempting to find scholarly texts based on anything other than sheer conjecture regarding the cause of death of an individual who, while sparsely documented, died approximately 2,000 years ago would be a nigh-impossible task. I would point to elements in the bible indicating that a spear was thrust into his chest, which is an almost invariably fatal wound.
If you consult the gospel of St. John 19 : 33,34
"But when they came to Jesus,
and saw that he was dead already,
they brake not his legs:
But one of the soldiers with a
spear pierced his side, and forthwith
came there out blood and water."
you can clearly see that, while they believed him dead, he bled, which corpses don't usually do. Additionally the "water" they refer to is most likely the serous fluid that exists between the layers of the pericardium. This would, therefore, make it seem as though the cause of death was a holy lance to the heart.

~M~

I'm pretty sure the water thing has been discredited because the bodies that initially gave such results had been dead for 24hrs or longer.

ClassicsFiend

I'm not sure why this argument is important. What's the big deal?

~M~

I don't think it is important or some pressing issue; I just find it interesting. Would you like to take issue to that?

wallflower1996

They probably didn't manage to kill him completely, hence the resurrection story. The spear in the chest detail was thrown in as an afterthought to meet that objection. Then about 40 days later he died of gangrene of the wrists and feet, or maybe tetanus. That's my hypothesis.

ClassicsFiend

Testy, testy. Nah, it was a sincere question. I just don't know how into a discussion about it you can get when all you really have for "evidence" is the Gospels.

Now that I think about it, the only time I've ever come across a "serious" discussion of this was in Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ. I assumed it was an extended strawman to make Christians feel better about atheists' "tough questions."

~M~

you think this is a better explanation than the stolen body or relocation hypothesis?

~M~

There is serious discussion about it in Raymond Brown's book entitled 'Death of the messiah'., vol 2.. there are also many other references i could refer to but nothing recent.

wallflower1996

Yes, as those hypotheses don't account for the pretty detailed account of his physically appearing to his apostles.

Even the Romans must've botched an execution once in a while.