Is God Dead? Series by Ty B. Kerley: Sour Wine

Last week we began to explore a common type of resurrection theory by looking at the offering of the atheist, David Mirsch. Picking up the story from last week, the plan, Mirsch explains, was to utilize common herbal drugs of the time (namely Shephard’s Purse, Mandrake, Myrrh, and possibly Opium) to aid in Jesus’ survivability during the crucifixion. This concoction was then slipped into the “sour wine” container at the crucifixion site. Mirsch argues that Jesus first refused the sour wine offered him on the cross because enough time had not passed (Matt 27:34). Had he taken the wine at that point, he would have lost consciousness and appeared dead within a few minutes of having been crucified. It was at the second offering of sour wine (Matt 27:48) that Jesus accepted the drink, the drink laced with the conspirator’s concoction that “produced a deep, almost comatose state that made Jesus appear dead.” Mirsch maintains that Jesus suffered from a genetic disorder, favism, which manifested itself as hemolytic anemia, (premature destruction of red blood cells) and can produce the blood/water mixture observed when the Roman soldiers pierced the side of Jesus. He states, “The Roman soldiers merely pierced the skin of Jesus’ side with the intention of ascertaining whether or not the victim died. This piercing of Jesus’ side, him being in the state of hemolytic anemia, would produce the flow of water and blood.” So, according to Mirsh, the spear thrust was not lethal. This scenario of a reversible, drug-induced coma, followed by a “mere piercing of the skin” of Jesus’ side was followed by premature removal of Jesus from the cross, displacement of his body to the tomb, and the subsequent resuscitation by Joseph and Nicodemus. This all sounds possible until the evidence is more closely evaluated. The notion of a skin piercing is first contradicted by Mirsch himself; he states that “it was due to the occasional recovery of crucified victims that the Roman soldiers were ordered to mutilate the bodies before they could be removed from the cross.” Since Jesus appeared dead to the soldiers, (and no need for breaking his legs), the carrying out of the order to mutilate the bodies was accomplished with a spear thrust through the skin, lungs, pericardial sac, and into the heart itself. Anything short of a lethal spear thrust is not only incompatible with standing Roman orders, it is in contrast with the Gospel accounts.