04/06/2026
Check this out. Here is a report from the Mayo Clinic from over 40 years ago, talking about the death of Jesus.
Pathologist analyzes Jesus’ death based on Bible
CHICAGO (UPI) — Scriptures say Jesus Christ called out in a loud voice from his cross at the moment he died and an “autopsy” almost 2,000 years later reports a heart attack may have ended his agony.
A Mayo Clinic pathologist says the official cause of death may have been heart failure.
The heart failure, the pathologist said, was linked to asphyxia and other factors caused by the diaphragm-crushing suffocation of hanging on a cross and was hastened by the gashings and floggings and beatings he suffered before being crucified.
Dr. William Edwards said his report is based on analyses of the Shroud of Turin, Jesus’ alleged burial cloth, as well as both Christian and non-Christian historical documents.
“Death by crucifixion was, in every sense of the word, excruciating,” said Edwards, of the Rochester, Minn., medical center.
Roman crucifixions were designed to cause maximum pain to victims left to exposure and slow death for up to four days, but Jesus did not live out the afternoon. He probably was in critical condition even before he was nailed to the cross, Edwards said.
Jesus’ death after only three to six hours on the cross surprised even Pontius Pilate. The fact that Jesus cried out in a loud voice and then bowed his head suggests the possibility of a catastrophic terminal event, Edwards said.
One popular explanation has been that Jesus died of cardiac rupture, Edwards wrote in a detailed medical reconstruction appearing today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Before Jesus was executed, Roman soldiers flailed him with a short whip made of leather thongs studded with pieces of sheep bone and small iron balls, Edwards said. The flogging would have shredded Jesus’ flesh, leaving him near death in a pre-shock state from blood loss.
His flesh torn by savage scourging and whipping and his body weak from possibly days without food, water or sleep, Jesus was too weak to carry his own cross to the site of his crucifixion.
Once there, the dehydrated and exhausted man was nailed to the wooden planks by the wrists and feet with iron spikes 5 to 7 inches long that tapered from a square head shaft 3/8-inch across.
The report, including the gruesome portrayal of the cruel flailing inflicted by Roman soldiers and the specifications of the spikes, has important theological and scientific implications, Edwards said.
“There has been a tendency, by artists and others, to almost romanticize the crucifixion, to really try to disguise the horror of what Christ went through,” Edwards said.
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When I truly stop and take in what Jesus endured, and think about the suffering, the weight, the sacrifice, I am left in awe. That He would take my place, carry what I deserved, and willingly walk through that kind of pain changes everything. It’s more than a story, it’s love in its deepest, most undeniable form.
God didn’t just say He loves us, He proved it. He gave His one and only Son. When I really understand that, when I really let that sink in, it fills my heart with gratitude, humility, and reverence.
That kind of love calls for a response. Today, I simply stand in awe; and say, thank you Lord.
God’s Grace and Peace cover you today.
-Pastor Steve
