DID JESUS REALLY DIE ON THE
CROSS? Or is it that his body had turned comatose when it was brought down? If the answer to
the second question is yes, it would more easily explain the phenomenon of the resurrection on Easter Sunday. Hugh Shonfield in his book The Passover Plot suggests that Jesus appears to have been dead before he was lowered, but had in fact been sedeated on the
cross.
He argues that a curious incident occurred as Jesus hung from the cross: he complained of thirst. So a sponge soaked in vinegar was held up to him. But instead of reviving Jesus, he apparently died. Yet another curious fact, the author notes, is from John's
gospel. A spear was thrust into the side of Jesus, and blood began to flow, which means that Jesus was not dead. But more importantly, the spear was not used to pierce Jesus's heart or brain to ensure his death.
After all this, Jesus was brought down from the cross apparently lifeless, but in reality in a coma, and taken to a private tomb where medicines would be used to revive him.This is reported in the gospels of Luke (23:53), Mark (15:46) and John(19:41-42). Luke (23:53) and Mark (15:46) assert the tomb was owned by the wealthy Joseph of Arimathaea, and his colleague Nicodemus visited the tomb that night with large amounts of myrrh and aloes (John 19:39). Myrrh has been known to stop bleeding and both spices posess medicinal values -- but not as embalming agents for dead bodies.
According to the author, two apostles Mark (16:1) and Luke (23:56) obliquely touch on this.
Shonfield aserts that in the gospel according to Mark, Joseph of Arimathaea visits Pilate and requests to take charge of the body. When he asks whether Jesus is dead, Pilate is surprised that Jesus has died so quickly.
Then there is one final twist. In the original Greek text of Mark's gospel (15:43-45), Shonfield says, Joseph asks Pilate permission to take down the body or soma, which denotes a living thing. But Pilate agrees that he may take down the ptoma, or corpse. The author wonders whether through this subtle inconsistency doubt is cast on whether Jesus died on the cross.