One of the more common arguments to the Resurrection is that Jesus passed out or “swooned” on the cross.
Unless you broke the legs of the victims, it could take days for a person to die, but the Gospels report that Jesus died unusually quickly:
Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. And Pilate wondered if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the body to Joseph (Mark 15:43-45).
So maybe Jesus didn’t actually die. Maybe he just passed out from the trauma he had suffered. If he revived in the tomb, he and the disciples might think he was raised from the dead.
Here are some problems with this hypothesis:
1) There were good reasons why Jesus died quickly. He was subjected to severe stresses and traumas in the hours before the Crucifixion, including sleeplessness, emotional anguish, being taken to multiple locations for trial proceedings, and being physically beaten, scourged, and crowned with thorns. He was so traumatized that he could not physically carry his cross, so the Romans grabbed a passerby named Simon of Cyrene and forced him to carry it instead (Matt. 27:32; Mark 15:21, Luke 23:26).
In 1986, a group of doctors reviewed the medical evidence concerning Jesus’ crucifixion and concluded,
The severe scourging, with its intense pain and appreciable blood loss, most probably left Jesus in a pre-shock state. . . . The physical and mental abuse meted out by the Jews and the Romans, as well as the lack of food, water, and sleep, also contributed to his generally weakened state. Therefore, even before the actual Crucifixion, Jesus’ physical condition was at least serious and possibly critical.
Then Jesus underwent the trauma of crucifixion itself. He may indeed have died due to a sudden cardiac event from the stress, as could be suggested by the loud cry he made immediately before dying. Mark and Matthew report, “Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last” (Mark 15:37; cf. Matt. 27:50).
2) After he died, “one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water” (John 18:34). As we noted, this wound itself would have been fatal. Even if Jesus had swooned on the cross, this would have killed him.
3) If Jesus somehow managed to survive all this, he would not have been able to move the stone and escape his tomb. The stone was heavy on purpose, to keep people and animals out, and the women did not think they had the strength to move it (Mark 16:3). A weakened and traumatized man who had been stabbed with a spear would not be able to move it.
4) This hypothesis also does not explain how Jesus would have been able to ascend into heaven in front of the apostles (Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9-11). As before, nobody in the first century had the ability to fly.
The swoon hypothesis thus does not explain the data.
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