CRIJCIFIXION
501
CRUCIFIXION
[y fallen into a trance from exhaustion, they have inifestly no right to judge from other cases, for in sm even this did not occur. The younger Gruner es minutely into all the smallest circumstances of 3 passion, examining them as objects of medical ju- prudence, and particularly takes cognizance of the -oke inflicted by the soldier's lance. He shows the eat probability of the wound having been in the left le, and f^m below transversely upward; he demon- rates that snch a stroke, inflicted by the robust arm a Roman soldier, with a short lance, for the cross was )t raised much from the ground, must, in any hypoth- is, have occasioned a deadly wound. Up to this oment he supposes our Saviour may have been still intly alive, because otherwise the blcod would not ive flowed, and because the loud cry which he uttered a symptom of a syncope from too great a congestion * blood about the heart. But this wound, which, from le flowing of blood and water, he supposes to have een in the cavity of the chest, must, according to him, ave been necessarily fatal. Tirinus and other com- lentators, as well as many ph3rsicians, Gruner, Bar- tiolinus, Triller, and Eschenbach, suppose this water > have been lymph from the pericardium. Yogler Ph^sioloffia HiUorics Pastioms^ Helmst. 1698, p. 44) apposes it to have been serum separated from the •lood. Bat from the manner in which the apostle John mentions this mystical flow, and from the concurrent entiment of all antiquity, we must admit something uore than a mere physical event. Richter observes hat the abundant gush of the blood and water, ** non it in mortuis fieri solet, lentum et grumosum, sed ca- entem adhuc et flexilem, tamquam ex calentissimo nisericordise fonte," must be considered preternatural, ind deeply symbolical. Christian Gruner goes over the same ground, and answers, step by step, the addi- tional objections of an anonymous impugner. He shows that the words used by John to express the wound inflicted by the lance are often used to denote a mortal one ; he proves that, even supposing the death of Christ to have been in the first instance apparent, the infliction of merely a slight wound would have been fatal, because, in syncope or trance arising frx)m loss of blood, any venesection would be considered such (^Vin- dicioi Mortis Jem Christi twrw, p. 67, 77, sq.); and that, in fine, so far from the spices or unguents used in em- balmlng, or the close chamber of the tomb, being fitting restoratives to a person in a trance, they would be the most secure instruments for converting apparent into real death, by sufibcation. To this we may add £s- chenbach's observation (Scripia Medi.-bib&ca, Rostock, 1779, p. 1*28) that there is no well-recorded instance of syncope lasting more than one day, whereas here it niust have lasted three ; and also that even this period would not have been sufiicient to restore to strength and health a frame which had undergone the shatter- ing tortures of crucifixion and the enfeebling influence of syncope ftom loss of blood. A consideration not noticed by any of these authors seems to decide the point of the depth of the wound, and place beyond doubt that it could not be superficial, but must have entered the cavity. Our Saviour distinguishes the wounds in his hands from that of his side by desiring Thomas to measure the former by his finger, and the latter by the insertion of hb hand (John xx, 27). This, therefore, must have been of the breadth of two or three fingers on the outside. But for a lance, which tapered very gently from the point, to leave a scar or incision on the flesh of such a breadth, at least four or five inches must have penetrated into the body, a supposition quite in- compatible with a superficial or flesh wound. Of coarse, this reasoning is with those who admit tBe en- "fe history of the passion and subsequent appearance of our Saviour, but deny his real death ; and such are the adversaries of the Gruners.
It is not inappropriate here to introduce a case which laay confirm some of the foregomg observations. It
is an account of a crucified Mameluke, or Turkish ser- vant, published by Kosegarten (Chrett, Arab. Lips. 1828, p. 68-65), from an Arabic manuscript entitled ** The Meadow of Flowert and the fraffrcmi OdourJ" The narrative, after quoting the authorities, as is usu- al in Arabic histories, proceeds as follows : " It is said that he had killed his master for some cause or other, and he was crucified on the banks of the river Barada [Bnrada], under the castle of Damascus, with his fince turned tovrards the east. His hands, arms, and feet were nailed, and he remained so from midday on Fri- day to the same hour on Sunday, when he died. He was remarkable for his strength and prowess ; he had been engaged with his master in sacred war at Askelon, where he slew great numbers of the Franks ; and when very young he had killed a lion. Several extraordina- ry things occurred at his beiqg nailed, as that he gave himself up without resistance to the cross, and without complaint stretched out his hands, wtiich were nailed, and after them his feet : he in the mean time looked on, and did not utter a groan, or change his counte- nance, or move his limbs." Thus we see a person, in the flower of his age, remarkable for his hardihood and strength, inured to military fatigue, nay, so strong that we are told, in another part of the narrative, that **he moved his foet about, though nailed, till he loosened the fi9i8tenings of the nails, so that, if they had not been well secured in the wood, ho woidd have drawn them out;" and yet he could not endure the suffering more than eight-and-forty hours. But the most interesting circumstance in thb narration, and the illustration of the scriptural narrative principally in view, is the fSact, not mentioned by any ancient describer of this punish- ment, that the principal torture endured by this ser- vant was that of thirst, precisely as is intimated in the Gospel history (John xix, 28). For the Arabic narra- tor thus proceeds : " I have heard this fh)m one who witnessed it — and he thus remained till he died, patient and silent, without wailing, but looking around him to the right and to the left, upon the people. But he beg- ged for water, and none was given him ; and the hearts of the people were melted with compassion for him, and with pity on one of God's creatures, who, yet aboj', was suffering under so grievous a trial. In the mean time, the water was flowing around him, and he gazed upon it, and longed for one drop of it . . . and he complain- ed of thirst all the first day, after which he was silent, for €rod gave him strength." — Bastow, s. v.