Contending For The Faith---Part 55

 

In St. Jude 1:3, we read, "Dearly beloved, taking all care to write unto you concerning your common salvation, I was under a necessity to write unto you: to beseech you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." [Emphasis mine]. Contending For The Faith is a series of posts dedicated to apologetics (i.e.,  the intellectual defense of the truth of the Traditional Catholic Faith) to be published the first Monday of each month.  This is the next installment.

Sadly, in this time of Great Apostasy, the faith is under attack like never before, and many Traditionalists don't know their faith well enough to defend it. Remember the words of our first pope, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..." (1Peter 3:16). There are five (5) categories of attacks that will be dealt with in these posts. Attacks against:

• The existence and attributes of God
• The truth of the One True Church established by Christ for the salvation of all 
• The truth of a particular dogma or doctrine of the Church
• The truth of Catholic moral teaching
• The truth of the sedevacantist position as the only Catholic solution to what has happened since Vatican II 

In addition, controversial topics touching on the Faith will sometimes be featured, so that the problem and possible solutions may be better understood. If anyone had suggestions for topics that would fall into any of these categories, you may post them in the comments. I cannot guarantee a post on each one, but each will be carefully considered.

Proofs Of The Resurrection

There are numerous attempts by the enemies of Christ to deny His physical resurrection from the dead.

There are four (4) basic arguments to explain away Christ's resurrection: (1) it was a hallucination of the Apostles; (2) the Apostles created a myth-- they did not mean what they taught to be literal; (3) the Apostles conspired to deceive the world; and (4) Christ didn't really die, he "swooned" and later fully recovered. 

In this post, I will refute the so-called "Swoon Theory." (N.B. The information contained in this post comes from myriad sources, both in print and online. I take no credit other than condensing the material into a terse and readable post---Introibo). 

What is The Swoon Theory?

In 1965 Hugh Schonfield published a 287-page volume titled The Passover Plot. In this runaway bestseller, Schonfield contends that Jesus “deliberately plotted” His crucifixion and subsequent resurrection. According to The Passover Plot:

Jesus contrived to be arrested the night before the Passover, fully aware that he would be nailed to the cross the following day, but taken down before the onset of the Sabbath in accordance with Jewish law. He would survive the agony of but three hours on the cross.

To ensure his safe removal, he arranged to be given, while on the cross, not the traditional vinegar but a drug that would render him unconscious and make him appear dead. He would then be cut down from the cross in a deathlike trance, removed by accomplices to the tomb where he would be nursed back to health and then “resurrected.” (See The Passover Plot, inside front and back cover flaps). 

This new interpretation of the life and death of Jesus captured the imagination of the world. Magazines and ministers immediately lauded it as perhaps the most important book published in a decade. Time magazine contended, “Schonfield does not discredit Christ. Instead, he argues that Christ was indeed the Messiah — the Son of Man, as he thought of himself (sic), but not the Son of God — who had been foretold by Jewish prophets of old, and that this is glory enough.” (As cited in The Passover Plot, back cover). Protestant Bible scholar William Barclay called The Passover Plot “a book of enormous learning and erudition, meticulously documented.” (Ibid). 

While the critics of historic Christianity have passionately proclaimed the virtues of Schonfield and his scholarship, The Passover Plot is little more than a new regurgitation of swoon theories that were popular in the first half of the nineteenth century. 

Swoon theorists dismiss the Resurrection by contending that Jesus Christ never really died on the cross. Instead, He merely fainted and was later revived. A never-ending stream of imaginative stories has flowed from this basic thesis.

The Problems with The Swoon Theory: A Brief Summary

First, here are eight (8) problems that make the Swoon Theory untenable. After this summary, some will be fleshed out in more detail.

• Jesus could not have survived crucifixion. Roman procedures were very careful to eliminate that possibility. Roman law even laid the death penalty on any soldier who let a capital prisoner escape in any way, including bungling a crucifixion. It was never done. 

• The fact that the Roman soldier did not break Jesus’ legs, as he did to the other two crucified criminals (St. John 19:31-33), means that the soldier was sure Jesus was dead. Breaking the legs hastened the death so that the corpse could be taken down before the sabbath (verse 31). 

• St. John, an eyewitness, certified that he saw blood and water come from Jesus’ pierced heart (St.John 19:34-35). This shows that Jesus’ lungs had collapsed and he had died of asphyxiation. Any medical expert can vouch for this. 

• The body was totally encased in winding sheets and entombed (St. John 19:38-42). 

• The post-resurrection appearances convinced the disciples, even “doubting Thomas,” that Jesus was gloriously alive (St. John 20:19-29). It is psychologically impossible for the disciples to have been so transformed and confident if Jesus had merely struggled out of a swoon, badly in need of a doctor. A half-dead, staggering sick man who has just had a narrow escape is not worshiped fearlessly as divine lord and conqueror of death. 

• How were the Roman guards at the tomb overpowered by a swooning corpse? Or by unarmed disciples? 

• How could a swooning half-dead man have moved the great stone at the door of the tomb? Who moved the stone if not an angel? No one has ever answered that question. Neither the Jews nor the Romans would move it, for it was in both their interests to keep the tomb sealed; the Jews had the stone put there in the first place, and the Roman guards would be killed if they let the body “escape.” The story the Jewish authorities spread, that the guards fell asleep and the disciples stole the body (Mt 28:11-15), is unbelievable. Roman guards would not fall asleep on a job like that; if they did, they would lose their lives. And even if they did fall asleep, the crowd and the effort and the noise it would have taken to move an enormous boulder would have wakened them.

• If Jesus awoke from a swoon, where did he go? Think this through: you have a living body to deal with now, not a dead one. Why did it disappear? There is absolutely no data, not even any false, fantastic, imagined data, about Jesus’ life after his crucifixion, in any sources, friend or foe, at any time, early or late. A Man like that, with a past like that, would have left traces.

The Swoon Theory Problems: A Closer Examination

The Romans were expert executioners

From St. John 19:31-34:

Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.

The Jews wanted to hurry this execution along because the next day was the Sabbath and they wanted to have everything wrapped up before then. Remember, when you were crucified, you died of asphyxiation. Your body became too exhausted to keep pushing up on your nailed feet when you wanted to take a breath. Eventually, you would no longer be able to push yourself up, you would suffocate and then die. If you were taking too long to die, the Romans would break your legs so you could no longer push up at all. But, when the soldiers came to Jesus, they didn’t break his legs. Why? They examined him and determined that He was already dead.

Appearance of death wasn’t enough to declare Jesus dead, though. If the Roman soldiers made a mistake, and pulled a live body off of the cross, it was they who would be next in line for execution. So, they stuck a spear in His side to be sure. When they did this “at once there came out blood and water”. 

This “water” is actually fluid that builds up around the heart and/or lungs when the body goes into shock. This condition is called pleural effusion when the fluid buildup is around the lungs and pericardial effusion when the fluid is surrounding the heart. Jesus had been beaten nearly to death before he was hung on the cross, He had suffered much blood loss, and He had hung there laboring to breathe. The water that St. John records is a sign of the amount of shock Jesus’ body had gone through, and a sign of His death. (See A Doctor At Calvary by French Catholic surgeon Pierre Barbet, [1953]). 

Joseph of Arimethea and Nicodemus Knew if Someone was Dead

After Jesus was declared dead, Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish high council, and Nicodemus, a Pharisee, took Jesus’ body down from the cross and made it ready for burial. They wrapped it in linen cloth and prepared the body with spices. Once this was done, they placed it in a tomb owned by Joseph that had never been used before. This process would have taken a few hours to complete.

As soon as someone dies, their body begins changing. Immediately after the heart stops pumping blood throughout the body, it immediately starts to experience temperature loss. This process is known as algor mortis. When you touch a dead body, it no longer has that warmth you are familiar with when you shake someone's hand. They are cold to the touch.

Also at this time, the body begins to stiffen and lose its flexibility, until it finally becomes locked into position a few hours later (rigor mortis). Since the heart is no longer pumping blood around the body, the blood goes where gravity pulls it. So, if a body is found lying on its back, there will be discoloration on the back from the pooling of blood. All of these things are signs that are easily recognizable indicators to someone that a body has no life in it. You don’t need instruments, tests, or a medical degree to see them.

In modern society, we usually have an ambulance pick up the deceased, a coroner determine cause of death, a mortician prepare the body for burial and a funeral home to place the body in the casket and prepare it for viewing. Details vary based on culture, but it usually isn’t the family who does any of that anymore.

In first century Jewish society, it was family and friends who prepared a body for burial. They handled all aspects. So, they knew the signs of death. They knew what a dead body felt like and how it looked. Dead bodies look and feel differently than live ones do.

Based on these details, it’s safe to say that Joseph and Nicodemus would have known if Jesus was still alive or not when they were preparing the body for burial.

How could a near-dead Man get out of a sealed tomb?

Let’s imagine, ad arguendo, that Jesus was still alive when He was placed in the tomb. Somehow, He was able to regain consciousness. Let’s remember the condition He would have been in; severely beaten, holes all the way through His wrists and feet, and a large wound in his side where the spear had pierced Him, likely damaging some major organs on the way through.

In this condition, His first obstacle would have been the stone covering the tomb’s entrance. The stone would have weighed over a ton. Tomb entrances were typically 2-3 feet wide, and the stones that covered them were a one foot thick. For a single healthy man to move this stone would have been almost impossible, let alone for a Man beaten and crucified to near death.

The Witness of the Apostles 

The Apostles saw Jesus after the Crucifixion. Think of all Jesus had just been through. He would have shown up looking near dead. However, the first thing that the apostles would have said wouldn’t have been “He is risen!"---it would have been “get Him a doctor!” He would have looked like He had survived all the things He had just been through. He wouldn’t have looked like he brushed them all off and returned triumphantly from the dead.

Conclusion

Always be prepared to defend the Resurrection of Our Lord. Unlike all others, Mohammed, Buddha, Joseph Smith, etc., Jesus Christ's bones are not on this Earth. He rose by His own Divine power from the dead proving He is God. His enemies know this and come up with various theories to try and prove the Resurrection to be false. It is Christ's rising from the dead that gives our lives meaning. “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a Man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:20-22).