43. Did Jesus die of a broken heart?

That is the opinion of many who have written on the subject, physi­cians included. It is certain that the crucifixion did not kill him, as that was a death by exhaustion.

Jesus was not exhausted, for we are told (Matt. 27:50) that he "cried with a loud voice" when he yielded up the ghost. The fact that when the soldier pierced his side there came there­out blood and water (John 19:34) indicates, according to eminent sur­geons, that the heart was ruptured.

The most probable way of account­ing for the blood and water flowing from a wound in the side of a dead body is that the spear pierced the pericardium---or sac which contains the heart---which would contain blood and water if the heart were rup­tured.

The severe strain in the Garden the night before, the intensity of which was indicated by a sweat of blood, probably prepared the physi­cal nature of Jesus for the sudden collapse, which caused Pilate to "marvel that he was dead already." (Mark 15:44.)