If you survived the shock and blood loss from the beating, then were able to carry the patibulum to the place where you were to be crucified, then lived through your feet and your hands having spikes driven into them, your final misery was just beginning.
There are many theories as to what kills you as you hang on a cross.
From blood loss from the beating, to shock and dehydration, it could be any combination of the factors, scientists believe.
The Royal Society of Medicine in 2006 published an article that centered on Jesus’ crucifixion, chronicling nine possible causes of death. And while suffocation from the weight of one’s body dangling from a cross has long been believed to be the cause of death in crucifixion, others think the process is a more complicated chain reaction of events.
The researchers from the RSM study believed death came to those crucified by one or more of the body’s failing processes.
The study suggested that as the person suspended on a cross struggles to breathe, that lack of oxygen would trigger damage to tissue and veins, causing blood to leak into the lungs and the heart. The lungs would stiffen and the heart would become constricted from the pressure, making it difficult, then impossible to pump blood throughout the body. The lack of oxygenated blood would eventually cause each body system to fail and death would follow.
It could take hours, or, in some cases, days, but it was only a matter of time before death would come.
In the biblical accounts of Jesus’ death, the process took six hours, and, in the end, he cried out to God.