[Aquinasfan]

If one was to have an engineer's mind about it, that would average to about one hit every 8 seconds over a 12 hour final ordeal.

The impossibly high number of lashes can be accounted for by the fact that the Romans were using a flagrum, the equivalent of a "cat o' nine tails." Additionally, The Shroud of Turin shows not only the horrific number of strokes inflicted on Christ's body, but also marks left by the small, dumbell-shaped pieces of iron tied to the end of each flagrum whip which were designed to tear out pieces of flesh.

Interestingly, this specific characteristic of the flagrum was unknown to medieval society.

[Mr. Thorne]

Just one of those myriad coincidences, I am sure.

= )

[HiTech RedNeck]

I didn't know the number was restricted to the whipping. I thought everything was supposed to have counted, including the thorn pricks, the whacks with the staffs, the abrasions from the cross, etc. 5400 whip wounds would leave no intact skin at all; they'd be putting a piece of hamburger on the cross if it was even living.