[Wetdog]

bholder hit upon the suffocation thing which was one tortuous way to get the job done. Jesus was, according to legend, nailed to the cross, as opposed to being tied up like the other dudes, which pretty much precluded him being able to bear any weight on any limb to breathe. The nails being put thru the wrists had the same effect as slicing them while giving skeletal and ligament support to the victim. Loss of blood was evidenced by the spear to the side where water gushed out with blood. This was most likely the cause of death, evidenced by the shout Jesus made shortly before death of "Eloi, Eloi lama sabacthani?" Lack of oxygen to the brain due to loss of blood made an otherwise very disciplined mind call out in an impassioned plea. The lack of blood in the now unconscious corpus was evidence enough that he was dead enough to be declared dead by the officer of the cohort (a cohort was 6 soldiers in the Cesarean Roman army, equivalent to a buck sergeant or corporal). There was no need to break his legs to hasten death.

The Romans did not wish to piss off the Jews by making them break Sabbath or laws relating to swift burial of the dead. Better to let them keep their "superstitions" than have them rise up in a holy war. No governor wanted to get a black eye politically by requesting more troops to put down an uprising. So execution and burial was expedited to keep the populace satisfied that religious protocols were kept.