The Gospels don’t give us a lot of details about Jesus’ crucifixion. But thanks to the work of scientists and historians, we know what it was like.

The Romans didn’t invent crucifixion, but they certainly perfected it. This method of execution was meant to inflict slow, agonizing pain and suffering. Crucifixion was reserved for slaves, foreigners, rebels, and those accused of the worst crimes. It was meant to be humiliating and excruciating.

On the Shroud of Turin, we can see three distinct wounds from crucifixion: two pierced feet and a pierced left wrist. The left hand covers the place where the right hand was pierced, but blood from the right hand is visible.

Traditional paintings of Jesus on the cross show his hands nailed in the palms. But this is anatomically impossible. The weight of the body would have ripped the hands away from the cross.

However, there is a small spot in the human wrist where a nail can be driven without shattering the bones. Surrounded by bone, this nail could support the weight of a body on the cross. This is precisely what we find on the Shroud. The nail wounds go through the wrist instead of the palms.

Romans nailed a victim’s feet to the cross either individually or together with a nail through both. To secure the feet, the knees were bent and the legs turned sideways. The Shroud has a bloody footprint where the right foot was placed flat on the linen cloth, and the left foot, which was still bleeding, was placed over it.

Once nailed to the cross, victims struggled to breathe by alternating between two positions. The weight of the body hanging from the pierced wrists compressed the lungs. To exhale, the victim had to painfully push up on his nailed feet and flex his shoulders. Then he would slump back down to inhale. Each breath would be agonizing and exhausting.

For this reason, most crucifixion victims died by asphyxiation—they ran out of strength to keep breathing.

The image on the Shroud indicates the man moved between these two positions because the blood flows from his wrists in two alternating directions.

By the time Jesus hung this way the cross, he had been severely beaten and fallen multiple times with the heavy crossbeam on his back. This would have caused fluid to build up around his heart, making it harder to pump. Jesus most likely experienced a sudden, dramatic heart failure resulting in sudden death. In essence, Jesus died from a broken heart.

Sometimes the Romans sped up a victim’s death by breaking his legs with a mallet. This prevented the victim from pushing up to breathe, so he died after just a few minutes. But on the Shroud, there is no evidence of broken legs. The Gospel of John records that when the soldiers came to Jesus, they saw he was already dead, so they did not break his legs.

However, one soldier did something else – and we can see it on the Shroud. We’ll talk about that in the next station.