Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus as Savior coming into the world. However, almost as intriguing as the virgin birth is his crucifixion.
Skeptics have argued throughout time, opposing the biblical story of the crucifixion. Did Jesus merely faint from exhaustion on the cross?
What was a Roman flogging like? A soldier would use a whip braided with leather thongs with metal balls and sharp bones woven into them. The whip would cut the flesh and bruise it at the same time. The back would become so shredded that part of the spine was sometimes exposed along with the ribs. The victim would commonly receive 39 lashes. The entire back, buttocks and back of legs would be torn to shreds. Muscles, sinews and bowels were open to exposure. Many people would die from this kind of brutal beating before making it to the crucifixion.
Crucifixion is a slow, agonizing death by asphyxiation. The stresses on the muscles and diaphragm put the chest into the inhaled position. For the victim to exhale, he would have to push up on his feet so the tension on the muscles would be eased. Doing this would cause the nail in the feet to tear through against the tarsal bones. Continuation of this procedure was requisite in order to breathe. Exhaustion would eventually come, and then death.
The birth of Jesus is cause for celebration, and rightly so, but the reason that Jesus came was so that he could die for mankind.