Transcription: Death actually 'deep sleep?'
(UPI) - The theory that Jesus didn't really die on the cross, but merely lapsed into a deep coma from which He later revived, has perennial appeal to those seeking a "natural" explanation for the New Testament story of the Resurrection. It got into the newspapers again this week. A University of California anthropologist, Dr. Michael J. Harner, suggested at Jesus may have been fed a drug made from the mandrake plant, which put Him into a "deathlike" trance and fooled His Roman executioners into lowering Him from the cross. The bit about the mandrake plant is a new wrinkle. Other wise, this is the same old "swoon theory" that has been around for centuries. Its most eloquent advocate was a 19th century German theologian, Heinrich Paulus, who sought to provide scientific explanations for miracles reported in the Bible. Paulus argued that Jess must have fainted -or in modern medical parlance, went into a state of deep shock -as result of His agony on the cross. The Roman soldiers, thinking Him dead, allowed His disciples to take him down from the cross and bury Him in a tomb hewn out of rock.
