dence that He was not crucified until dead but

that he merely swooned.

Nor is that all. Jesus claimed he was to rise from the dead (Matt. 16, 2), and after the crucifixion He appeared before His disciples and claimed that He had risen from the dead. (Luke 24, 46) If He did not rise from the dead, he was guilty of falsehood, fraud and gross imposture, and to convict Him of these charges requires, not only a preponderance of the evidence but proof of it "beyond a reasonable doubt." Evidently those who propose that theory assume a grave responsibility. The only way they could avoid making such a charge against Him would be to propose another theory that Jesus became unconscious and that He mistook such a condition, when He recovered, for His resurrection. But the burden of proof, again, rests upon them to show, by a preponderance of the evidence, that He was so misled, in order to exonerate Him from the charge of gross fraud and imposition. Could Jesus have been so misled? Let us examine the record for the facts of the case.

THE CRUCIFIXION

If Jesus were crucified until dead, then there could have been no "swoon." Was he dead?

Let us see what the witnesses have said about

it.

Matthew was one of the chosen twelve and therefore a friend of Jesus. Luke says (Luke 23, 49) of Jesus at the crucifixion, "And all his acquaintance, and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things." Now, since Matthew was one of Jesus' closest acquaintances, he must have been, according to Luke, an eye witness of the great tragedy. This being true, Matthew becomes a competent witness in every respect. He testifies to what he saw as follows:

"And when they were come to the place, which is called calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left." (Mat. 23, 33.)

"And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, unto thy hands I commend my spirit and having said thus, he gave up the ghost." (Mat. 23, 44-46.)

There can be no mistake about this testimony. Matthew, who stood where he could see, states clearly that Jesus died from the effect of His crucifixion.

John, another of the intimate acquaintances of Jesus, testifies as follows:

"And they took Jesus, and led him away. And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, Jesus in the midst." (John 19, 16-18.)

"When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hysop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished; and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." (John 19, 26-30.)

It is not clearly stated in this testimony who the "disciple standing by" was, but witnesses who are qualified to testify as experts state that it was John, himself, who was too modest to speak of himself, a characteristic manifested on other occasions (John 13, 23). It would be quite natural for the mother of Jesus to get as

near to Him as she could at such a time as that and John and the mother, who at first had stood "afar off," as Luke puts it, had drawn nearer to the scene as the climax approached. John was therefore a close observer of the crucifixion, and he testifies that Jesus died (gave up the ghost).

Nor is this all of John's testimony on the point. He goes on to state:

"Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water." (John 19, 32-34.)

This observation came later, and for the second time John called Jesus dead. He states that by a providential act the soldiers did not break Jesus' legs (19, 35-37) but that to make sure of their job of killing, they thrust a spear into His side. Now the Roman spear was no tiny weapon. The shaft was from six to ten feet in length and the spear-head was about two inches across at its widest part. It was that cruel, destructive weapon which was thrust into His side about three hours after He had had spikes driven through both hands

and feet, the weight of His body hanging upon them to torture Him and cause a loss of blood. In this weakened condition, the spear was thrust into His side deeply enough to penetrate either the abdominal cavity or thorax. The exact point of penetration is not given. Nor is the quantity of blood and water which came out stated. If the spear entered the abdominal cavity it must have penetrated the bladder from whence came the water. It must have been a ghastly wound to do that and one well calculated to cause death if it had not occurred before. There is no evidence that Jesus had medical care and attention after the crucifixion. We will discuss this point later. If the spear penetrated the thorax, then from whence came water? The answer to this question is given by medical experts who explain that great agony or grief would produce such a condition in a human being; that in the case of Jesus, the agony He suffered from seeing His mother weeping, with his dearest friends, at the foot of the cross, the terrible vision of the destruction of Jerusalem, was sufficient to cause the chemical changes in His body, internally, which produced water; that the blood came from a ruptured blood vessel, which blood had accumulated in the thorax with the