Lent / Tarot / Overkill: The Ten of Swords

The ten of swords depicts a man, face down on the ground, with ten swords in his back. Tarot readers like to point out that one sword would have done the job. Ten is overkill.

Christophobes try to find various ways to discredit Christianity. One way is to claim that Jesus did not die on the cross. He fainted, or maybe he took drugs to simulate death. He revived in the tomb, and so that's why Christians believe in the resurrection.

The Passover Plot was a bestselling 1965 book by Hugh J. Schonfield. Schonfield alleged that Jesus was a wily conniver and cold blooded conspirator who purposely got himself crucified only to be revived later. That anyone could believe this, never mind enough people to make a bestseller for Schonfield, is a sign of how desperate Christophobes become.

More serious scholars emphasis how hard it would have been to survive a conventional crucifixion, and especially to survive what Jesus went through.

Victims of Roman "justice" were first handcuffed to a post. Then they were whipped with a flagrum, a three-stranded whip with weights attached. This whipping would reduce the skin to ribbons and expose the flesh, bones, and sometimes the organs underneath. Next, victims had to carry part of their cross to the execution site. The crucified might die by suffocation. The weight of their body, suspended by nails through the wrists, would make it hard for them to breathe. Roman soldiers in a hurry for their victims to die sometimes broke the crucifieds' legs to make it impossible for them to force their bodies upward for breath. This hastened suffocation.

Jesus' legs were not broken. Rather, a Roman soldier drove a lance through Jesus' side, under his heart.

It's not plausible to think that a man could survive all that and be convincingly healthy, recovered, and alive after three days without food, water, or medical attention. Actually, if he could, he'd have to be a god. Ooops.