The dehydration of Jesus

This is part 3 of a series I'm writing on the crucifixion from a medical perspective. Check out parts 1 and 2 first if you haven't seen them! Part 1, Part 2

For the purposes of this post, let's assume Jesus survived the crucifixion and the spear wound and was laid in the tomb unconscious. Would dehydration ensure death?

A common popular belief is that people can survive no more than three days without water. This belief is far too simplistic. The actual length of time a person can survive without water depends heavily on the ambient temperature and the activity level of the person. For example, someone would absolutely die if they tried to exercise in the desert for three days straight without water. On the other hand, a person lying in bed sleeping in a cool room would almost certainly survive (unless they had some sort of underlying condition, injury, or blood loss).

Jesus is an interesting case because he is a combination of both of the two examples listed above, and was something of an Olympic-level faster (Luke 4:1-13). Uninjured, Jesus definitely would have survived three days without food or water lying down in a cool tomb.

But Jesus was injured--he was close enough to death that Roman soldiers thought he was dead, and after that they stabbed him.

Let's break down Jesus' hydration status throughout the entire ordeal. (Green for hydration events, red for dehydration events)

The last supper: Jesus was at a healthy hydration level after eating a meal.
Psychogenic hematidrosis (sweating blood): this would have dehydrated him some, but we don't know how much.
Two beatings: these would have involved intense physical exertion and possibly blood loss (but we don't know how much).
Crown of thorns: may have caused bleeding, but it wouldn't have been much.
Carrying the cross: Jesus collapsed en route to the crucifixion site, which indicates that Jesus was probably close to exhaustion at this point--or that he had sustained an injury that made carrying a beam of wood particularly difficult (for example, if he had sprained an ankle). It's also possible that Jesus wasn't physically exhausted, but mentally exhausted at this point (remember, he was distressed enough to sweat blood). At any rate, we don't know how exhausted he was, but he definitely would have been getting dehydrated.
Nails: blood loss from these wounds would not have been substantial, because the nails stayed in the wounds. This would have prevented much blood loss (medical side note--if you ever get, say, stabbed, leave the weapon where it is until you are in the care of a medical professional).
Hanging from the cross: this would have been physically exhausting. I won't go into detail here on why hanging from a cross is exhausting, but we could equate it to running 1 or 2 marathons in a row without a break (depending on how long he was on the cross). This would have severely dehydrated him. Not only was he constantly exerting himself to breath, he was completely exposed to the sun. He would have been sweating like crazy.
Hydration: Jesus received hydration while hanging on the cross (we have one documented instance of this happening). This could have been seen as a merciful gesture, easing his thirst, but it could be seen as equally cruel, as hydration would have prolonged the suffering. Jesus refused to drink wine mixed with myrrh just before his crucifixion (Mark 15:23). However, he accepted sour wine just before passing out:

"²⁸After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, *said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. ³⁰ Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit." (John 19:28-30)

I speculate that over the course of the crucifixion Jesus received multiple drinks of sour wine, but we don't know. The jar of sour wine was present, the sponge was present, the branch of hyssop was present, and it's purpose was specifically to hydrate the victims.

We only know what is included in the text, which is unfortunate. Jesus could have actually been very hydrated if he received many drinks. Keep in mind--just because Jesus refused the drink before his crucifixion doesn't mean that he kept refusing drinks. According to William Lane:

"According to an old tradition, respected women of Jerusalem provided a narcotic drink to those condemned to death in order to decrease their sensitivity to the excruciating pain . . . . When Jesus arrived at Golgotha he was offered . . . wine mixed with myrrh, but he refused it, choosing to endure with full consciousness the sufferings appointed for him (The Gospel of Mark, p. 564)"

(https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-wine-jesus-drank)

So Jesus didn't want to drink the wine mixed with myrrh, but he was happy to drink the sour wine.
We have one documented instance of him stating his thirst and receiving a drink. Based on that I think it is likely that he received drinks whenever he asked for them, which would have actually kept him fairly well hydrated.
Passing out: The fact that Jesus passed out just after receiving a drink means that, most probably, he was very dehydrated. He may have been in hypovolemic shock. We don't know how long he was on the cross after passing out, which would have been an immensely helpful metric for us. If he passed out, and 10 minutes later he was taken down, the drink he had just before passing out wouldn't have been absorbed yet (so it's more likely that he would recover after some time). If he passed out and remained on the cross for several more hours, he was probably flat out dead and we don't even need to have this conversation.
Spear wound: The spear wound could have caused so much blood loss that he died instantly, or avoided all major blood vessels and caused minimal bleeding. It at least bled some (of course it did, it was a spear wound) as documented in the New Testament. This would have caused further dehydration on top of whatever dehydration state Jesus was already in. I discuss the spear wound in depth in this post: http://honestsearchfortruth.blogspot.com/2018/08/jesus-could-have-survived-spear-wound.html

Conclusion
If Jesus was alive after being taken down from the cross and being stabbed, we don't know whether or not he could have survived dehydration in the tomb, because we don't know his baseline level of hydration when he was taken down from the cross.

At best, Jesus received a substantial amount of sour wine, drank just before passing out, was taken down (and stabbed) soon after passing out, and recovered consciousness at some point while lying down in the cool tomb.

At worst, Jesus died of hypovolemic shock before they took him down from the cross.

And that's the problem with this entire endeavor, the more I search down this path. There is simply too much that we don't know. We don't know how bad Jesus' injuries were. We don't know exactly how long he was on the cross. We don't know how hot it was that day. We don't know how many pushups the soldiers could do. We don't know the exact nature and severity of the beatings. We don't know exactly where Jesus was stabbed. There is just so much essential information that we don't have.

But is it possible that Jesus survived (and specific to this post, didn't die of dehydration)? Yes.