Some biblical critics claim that Jesus merely fainted and was taken off the cross alive before He was buried. They say that He somehow escaped and then appeared to His disciples, who mistakenly believed that He was resurrected. However, there are sure signs that Jesus had died. First, the Roman soldiers traditionally broke the legs of the criminals to speed up their deaths. While they were doing this, they discovered that Jesus was already dead (John 19:33). To prove that He was dead, the soldiers pierced Jesus’s heart through His side (John 19:34), which would have killed Him even if He wasn’t already dead. In addition, the loss of blood through events such as a Roman flogging and the piercing of the hands and feet (which would have severed arteries and nerves) made death inevitable. And still the skeptic must explain just how Jesus was able to escape from a closed tomb and then sneak past the Roman guards in His weakened condition.