How many wounds did jesus receive

The prophecy given to Ezekiel appears to apply not only to him in his day, but also of Jesus. In addition, Jesus received blows on his face on two different occasions.

This could have caused additional wounds or scars. This was a fulfillment to the Old Testament prophecy. The Romans used the brutal cat-of-nine tails whip to scourge prisoners. At the tips of the whip were nine strands of leather which had sharp bones or metal balls attached with nails.

As the whip was lashed on the back of the prisoners, it would tear out the flesh causing intense bleeding. According to the law, victims could be whipped up to 40 times. However, the punishment would frequently end at 39 lashes because the effects were often fatal.

This was a fulfillment of several Old Testament prophecies to the wounds or scars of Jesus. Jesus indeed endured suffering and pain for those whom He loves. Perhaps the most notable scars or wounds of Jesus are those on His hands from the crucifixion.

The New Testament records that Jesus was crucified by nailing His feet. What all this suggests—even to many Catholic writers on the subject—is, first, that this phenomenon is culturally based. There seem to be no parallels in any of the major non-Christian religions, and, with the exception of the odd 20th-century Anglican or Baptist stigmatic, sufferers are invariably members of the Roman Catholic church. Evidence for the reality of stigmata, moreover, is sketchy at best; Father Herbert Thurston, the great Jesuit authority on the physical phenomena of mysticism, contended that there had been no completely believable case since that of St.

Francis himself. Today, the Catholic church itself takes a cautious view of the phenomenon, accepting that miracles can indeed occur while declining to formally acknowledge even St. How, then to explain this phenomenon? Fraud certainly figures in some cases.

Magdalena de la Cruz, the famous Spanish stigmatic of the 16th century whose frequent self-mortification and spectacular wounds made her a favorite at court, eventually confessed to having inflicted her own injuries.

Similarly, Johann Jetzer, who claimed to have experienced not only recurrent poltergeist phenomena but also a series of religious visions, confessed in that his stigmata were fake. Aside from cases of outright fraud, which may well form the majority of all cases, the appearance of stigmata appears to be an essentially psychological condition whose manifestations are determined by the cultural expectations of the stigmatics themselves.

A large number of sufferers seem to have displayed abundant evidence of low self-esteem, health problems, or a tendency toward self-mutilation—a potent mix when combined with exposure to the pervasive iconography of centuries of Christian tradition. It has been shown beyond a reasonable doubt that many have inflicted the five wounds on themselves, sometimes unconsciously, perhaps while in an altered state of consciousness brought on by extensive fasting or intensive prayer.

An example: Teresa Musco, a stigmatic from Naples, endured a lifetime of bad health and a total of more than operations in the years leading to the early death she had predicted for herself. She died in at the age of 33—the same age as Christ. In at least some of these cases, investigators such as Harrison have argued, substantial evidence indicates the original wounds can recur spontaneously and apparently psychosomatically, generally on significant dates.

The alternative, proposed by skeptics such as Joe Nickell, is that all known cases, including St. Nearly eight centuries on from that day on Monte La Verna, the jury remains out; its final verdict ultimately depends on a fine judgement of human nature. Fraud or more than fraud? Hardened skeptics feel certain that they know the answer, but, for the more religiously inclined, even a close look at the record has not yet entirely deprived this phenomenon of its mystery.

Ted Harrison. Amhurst : Prometheus Books, ; Herbert Thurston. The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism. Bridget prayed for a long time sincerely wanting to know how many wounds Jesus had suffered during His terrible Passion. Rewarding her patience, one day while St. Bridget was praying in the Church of St. If you wish to honor them in some way, recite fifteen Our Fathers and fifteen Hail Marys' with the following Prayers, which I Myself shall teach you. Do this each day for an entire year.

When the year is finished, you will have honored each of My Wounds. Bridget of Sweden, to be prayed uninterruptedly each day for an entire year. These fifteen prayers focus on the Sacred Passion of Jesus, and offer an excellent way for mediation especially on Fridays and during the season of Lent.

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