Suffocation, loss of body fluids and multiple organ failure. It wasn't pleasant, but for those with a strong constitution take a deep breath and read on.
Crucifixion leads to death by suffocation and exhaustion. The shoulders have to support the weight of the body and it gets progressively harder to take a breath. For a considerable time, a person can survive by conserving energy and allowing air to diffuse into the lungs with the minimum of effort.
Being sentenced to die on the cross was the most brutal form of punishment ever devised. Based on its agonizing effects to the victim, crucifixion was much more painful and longer lasting than hanging, electrocution, gas chamber, firing squad, and lethal injection.
Frequently, the legs of the person executed were broken or shattered with an iron club, an act called crurifragium, which was also frequently applied without crucifixion to slaves. This act hastened the death of the person but was also meant to deter those who observed the crucifixion from committing offenses.
Apparently there is only one extant account (in Josephus) of one person surviving crucifixion out of the hundreds reported in ancient literature. (And that case was only when excellent medical care was immediately provided by the Romans, and even so, only one out of three who were so rescued actually survived!)
Death, usually after 6 hours--4 days, was due to multifactorial pathology: after-effects of compulsory scourging and maiming, haemorrhage and dehydration causing hypovolaemic shock and pain, but the most important factor was progressive asphyxia caused by impairment of respiratory movement.
Someone nailed to a crucifix with their arms stretched out on either side could expect to live for no more than 24 hours. Seven-inch nails would be driven through the wrists so that the bones there could support the body's weight.
In Christian tradition, nailing the limbs to the wood of the cross is assumed, with debate centring on whether nails would pierce hands or the more structurally sound wrists. But Romans did not always nail crucifixion victims to their crosses, and instead sometimes tied them in place with rope.
A care- ful analysis of the literature, the historical context, and the archeo- logical evidence demonstrates that the use of nails in crucifixion is sufficiently attested at the time of Christ to validate the supposition that he was indeed nailed to the cross.
Biblical references
Just before they did so, they noticed that Jesus was already dead and that there was no reason to break his legs ("and no bone will be broken"). To make sure that he was dead, a Roman soldier (named in extra-Biblical tradition as Longinus) stabbed him in the side.
Greco-Roman texts show that in certain cases the bodies of the crucified were left to decompose in place. In other cases, the crucified bodies were buried.
Luke's gospel also records that Jesus wept as he entered Jerusalem before his trial and death, anticipating the destruction of the Temple.
For many scholars, Revelation 1:14-15 offers a clue that Jesus's skin was a darker hue and that his hair was woolly in texture. The hairs of his head, it says, "were white as white wool, white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace.”
This results in a build-up of fluid around the heart (pericardial effusion) and lungs (pleural effusion). The collapsing lungs, failing heart, dehydration, and the inability to get sufficient oxygen to the tissues essentially suffocate the victim.
The Romans did not lack for ways to kill their enemies, but crucifixion allowed for two things — humiliation and a slow, painful death. The punishment was a method of intimidation that the Romans raised to an art form.
Triclavianism is the belief that three nails were used to crucify Jesus Christ. The exact number of the Holy Nails has been a matter of theological debate for centuries.
This also relates to the height of the cross, where estimates vary from 8 feet (2.4 m) to 15 feet (4.6 m) in height.
The nails were reportedly discovered in Jerusalem in 1990, in a cave tomb belonging to Caiaphas, the Jewish high priest who, according to the Gospels, led Jesus to his death .
When nails were involved, they were long and square (about 15cm long and 1cm thick) and were driven into the victim's wrists or forearms to fix him to the crossbar. Once the crossbar was in place, the feet may be nailed to either side of the upright or crossed.
Eastern Christianity
According to the sacred tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church the True Cross was made from three different types of wood: cedar, pine and cypress.
However, Bond makes the case Jesus died around Passover, between A.D. 29 and 34. Considering Jesus' varying chronology, he was 33 to 40 years old at his time of death.
One story tells of a husband and wife in AD 213 who were said to have endured crucifixion for an incredible ten days before snuffing it.
After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body.