In the fourth Gospel, instead of showing his hands and feet, Jesus is represented as exhibiting "his hands and his side," and that this is not accidental is most clearly demonstrated by the fact that Thomas, who is not present, refuses to believe (v. 25) unless he see and put his finger into the print of the nails in his hands and put his hand into his side; and Jesus, when he appears again, allows him (v. 27) to put his finger into his hands and his hand into his side. In the Synoptic, the wound made by that mythical lance is ignored and, in the fourth Gospel, the wounds in the feet. The omission of the whole episode of the leg-breaking and lance-thrust by the three Synoptics thus gains fresh significance. On the other hand, it may be a question whether, in the opinion of the fourth Evangelist, the feet of Jesus were nailed to the cross at all, or whether, indeed, they were so in fact. It was at least as common, not to say more, that the hands alone of those who were crucified were nailed to the cross, the legs being simply bound to it by cords. Opinion is divided as to whether Jesus was so bound or whether the feet were likewise nailed, but the point is not important to our examination and need not be discussed, although it has considerable interest in connection with the theory that death did not actually ensue on the cross, but that, having fainted through weakness, Jesus, being taken down after so unusually short a time on the cross, subsequently recovered. There is no final evidence upon the point. None of the explanations offered by apologists remove the contradiction between the statement that Jesus bestowed the Holy Spirit upon this occasion and that of the {465}