0).Dr. Davis' comments:It is now almost over. The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level; the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissue; the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain.Jesus gasps His fifth cry, "I thirst."One remembers another verse from the prophetic 22nd Psalm: "My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou has brought me into the dust of death."A sponge soaked in posca, the cheap, sour wine which is the staple drink of the Roman legionnaires, is lifted to His lips. He apparently doesn't take any of the liquid. The body of Jesus is now in extremis, and He can feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. This realization brings out His sixth words, possibly little more than a tortured whisper, "It is finished."His mission of atonement has completed. Finally He can allow his body to die.With one last surge of strength, he once again presses His torn feet against the nail, straightens His legs, takes a deeper breath, and utters His seventh and last cry, "Father! Into thy hands I commit my spirit."The Moffatt translation of Matthew 27:48-50.I would like to add here some thing from James Moffatt's translation of Matthew 27:48-50, which shows that Jesus died after a spear or lance thrust into his side: "One of them ran off at once and took a sponge, which he soaked in vinegar and put on the end of a stick, to give him a drink. But the others said, Stop, let us see if Elijah does come to save him! (Seizing a lance, another pricked his side, and out came water and blood.) Jesus again uttered a loud scream, and gave up his spirit" (Matthew 27:48-50). The margin of Matthew 27:49 in both the Revised Standard Bible and the New Revised Standard Bible provide a description of the spear thrust.Dr. Davis describes the spear thrust,...
