Question 238: Did Yeshua die of a broken heart as some say?

Answer:

That is the opinion of many who have written on the subject, physicians included. It is certain that the Crucifixion did not kill Him, as that was a death by exhaustion. Yeshua was not exhausted, for we are told (Matthew 27:50) that He "cried with a loud voice" when He yielded up the Spirit. The fact that when the soldier pierced His side blood and water came out (John 19:34) indicates, according to eminent surgeons, that the heart was ruptured. The most probable way of accounting for the blood and water flowing from a wound in the side of a dead body is that the spear pierced the pericardium - or sac which contains the heart - which would contain blood and water if the heart were ruptured. The severe strain in the Garden the night before, the intensity of which was indicated by a sweat of blood, probably prepared the physical nature of Yeshua for the sudden collapse, which caused Pilate to "marvel that He was dead already." (Mark 15:44.)