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Crucifixion 101 (Method Of Capital Punishment)

carole

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What puzzles me is, the Romans used to nail through the wrists, as nailing through the hands wouldn't support the weight of the body on the cross. All the pictures of stignatics I've seen have the marks on the wrists. Something wrong somewhere . . .

Carole
 
it was a coman concencus until quite recently that a victim of crusifiction would have to be nailed through the wrists as the hands had no bones positioned in a way that would stop them ripping and the person falling to the floor.
However there is only one skeliton of a crucifyed person with the nails in situ that has been found and studied and nails were found fused to the metacarples of the hand and through the ankle joints going through from the outer side to the side of the inner leg. From this studies were undertaken by a scientist in New York to find out just why and how the nails in the hands could have supported the body.
He found that where as to be held up by the hands alone would be most likly to rip the hands and not suport weight, once suport was also given to the ankles the pain involved incressed remarkably and the weight was suported by the lower back thighs and legs. This wethod would also have produced a swifter death as well as being wuch more pianfull to the delight of crowds and destress of relatives and friends of the victim.
The romans used crucifiction as a deterent for those who didn't toe the line in palistine, which was one of the few flash points of rebelian in the Roman empire (the only other notible ones being the germanic tribe lands and posibly [although this is now disputed by some experts] Pictland ie the scottish low lands).
This study was also deminstrated on the BBC1 documentary 'son of God' which I recomend watching to anyone who wants to know the science and phycology behind the story of Jesus himself (It is presented by an aitheist [Jeramy Bowen, former BBC Israil corispondant] so it dosen't get preachy and is suitable for all ;)
 
Oll_Lewis said:
This study was also deminstrated on the BBC1 documentary 'son of God' which I recomend watching to anyone who wants to know the science and phycology behind the story of Jesus himself (It is presented by an aitheist [Jeramy Bowen, former BBC Israil corispondant] so it dosen't get preachy and is suitable for all ;)

I just saw that programme and can vouch for the fact that it is a good prog. to watch.
 
And also....

It's been found that the Romans tied the wrists of the crucified to the upright of the crucifix. So even if the victim were to be nailed through the palm of the hand, as in the traditional images of crucifictions, and then the wrists were bound to the upright, enough support would be provided to 'hang' the body on the cross. It therefore follows, that the pain the victim suffered was increased, whilst the body wasn't in danger of falling from the crucifix.

Moggadon
 
hehe
you have the answer in the palm of your hand!

>sorry<
 
Only one in situ?
Does this suggest more possibles? if so where are the other possibles? location and how many?
Did they only nail those who they thought were extra naughty?
or was it just on the whim of the person passing judgement or the area they were in or or or
sorry thinking allowed or in type :D
 
The Romans, borrowing the practice from the Carthaginians, crucified mostly army deserters, thieves and conquered rebels. Israel was a particularly popular spot for crucifixion, with the Legate to Syria, Quintilius Varus, nailing up 2,000 Jewish zealots on one occasion. Josephus tells us that during the siege of Jerusalem the rate was 500 daily.
Crucifixion was also used to punish slaves. If a Roman citizen was found murdered and the murder unsolved, all his slaves were crucified! Although Roman citizens were supposed to be immune from crucifixion, a few who were ex-slaves and from the provinces appear to have met this fate.
 
The wounds through the wrist thing is rather open to debate. Different victims of crucifixtion seem to have different wounds, so it can't be stated exactly where Christ's wounds would be. Also, I remember reading somewhere about there being a channel from just below the middle of the palm through to the wrist which would take a lot of weight. Piercing this would sever the tendons to the thumb, causing it to be drawn tight into the palm. Same with the piercing of the feet. Sometimes this was done, sometimes it wasn't. So basically there doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule about where the nails went exactly.
 
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I'm sure I saw on TV (or was it in FT?) recently that they've only found one body that had been crucified. Christ was very unusual that they took his body down. Mostly they were just left until they fell apart. Hence we don't quite know how they did it.
 
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And if they have only found one crucified body how do we all have so much information on how crucifixions occur? (Not us personallY!) I mean, I suppose there are written records, but, it seems such a little thing to place so much reliance on...
 
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Scholars debate death on the cross

‘Passion’ takes traditional view — but is it accurate?

Philippe Antonello / AP


By Peter Enav

The Associated Press

Updated: 3:13 p.m. ET Feb. 20, 2004

Correction: In the original version of this story, The Associated Press erroneously quoted Israeli anthropologist Joe Zias as saying there was no evidence that nails were used in the Crucifixion of Jesus. Zias said there was no evidence that Jesus’ feet were nailed to the cross.JERUSALEM - The dearth of information about Jesus’ Crucifixion makes it impossible to describe the event in accurate detail, as Mel Gibson attempts to do in his new film, “The Passion of the Christ,” biblical scholars and anthropologists say.


The Crucifixion is the centerpiece of the movie, set to open in U.S. theaters on Feb. 25, Ash Wednesday on the Roman Catholic calendar.

People who have seen the movie say it adopts standard Christian imagery in excruciating detail: Jesus being pinioned to a Latin cross — a T-shaped device with a short upper extension — with one nail driven through both feet and one through each palm.

In a December e-mail sent to The Associated Press, Gibson said he did “an immense amount of reading” to supplement the Bible’s relatively unadorned account of the Crucifixion in the four Gospels.

“I consulted a huge number of theologians, scholars, priests, spiritual writers,” Gibson wrote. “The film is faithful to the Gospels but I had to fill in a lot of details — like the way Jesus would have carried His cross, or whether the nails went through the palms of His hands or his wrists ... Since the experts canceled each other out, I was thrown back on my own resources to weigh the different arguments and decide for myself.”

Details open to debate
Some scholars say even the most widely recognized features of the crucifixion, such as the shape of the cross and the use of nails, are open to debate.

James F. Strange, professor of religious studies at the University of South Florida in Tampa, said 1st-century historian Josephus provided only general information, probably because crucifixion was so common that details seemed superfluous.

Crucifixion was first used in the 5th century B.C., and was a widely used form of execution in Asia, Europe and Africa for the ensuing eight centuries, said Israeli anthropologist Joe Zias. Depending on technique, death could be swift or take days.

“If you suspended people by their hands and left their feet free you would kill them within an hour,” Zias said. “If you suspended them in a way they couldn’t exhale they’d be dead within minutes.”

Zias said the question of whether Jesus was nailed to the cross or simply tied to it remains a mystery. “The Gospels say he was crucified and leave it at that.”

'Crucifixion 101'
Zias criticized “The Passion of The Christ” for accepting the standard version of three nails being used. He said experiments on cadavers carried out by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages have shown that people hanging with nails through their hands will fall to the ground within a relatively short time, pulled by gravity.

The Gospels suggest it took Jesus three to six hours to die.

“All this is Crucifixion 101,” Zias said. “People who study these things understand them. But Gibson ignored them in his film.”

Photos and film clips released in advance of the movie indicate that Gibson's version of the Crucifixion has Jesus nailed as well as tied to the cross.

John Dominic Crossan, emeritus professor of religious studies at DePaul University in Chicago, agrees with Zias that little is known about Jesus’ execution.

“Early Christians believed that Jesus was nailed to the cross,” he said. “But there is absolutely no proof of this. The only skeleton of a crucified person ever recovered indicated that the two arms were tied to a crossbar, and two nails were used in either shinbone. There was no standard procedure in any of this. The only common feature in the different types of crucifixion is intense sadism.”

Shape of the cross
The type of cross in Jesus’ execution is also in question, Crossan said. First-century Romans are known to have used both a T-shaped device, without an upper extension, and the Latin cross that is standard in Christian iconography.

Each of the four Gospels says an inscription mocking Jesus as the “king of the Jews” was affixed to the cross. Crossan said this would have made sense “because the whole point of crucifixion was to warn people through alluding to a specific crime.”

Two of the Gospels say the inscription was mounted above Jesus. This presumably would strengthen the argument for a Latin cross, which would have provided space for writing about the condemned man’s head.

However, the other two Gospels don’t give a locator. “It (the written warning) could just as easily have hung around his neck,” Crossan said.

What did Jesus carry?
Crossan is also uncertain whether the complete cross on which Jesus was crucified was carried to the execution grounds — either by Simon of Cyrene, as three of the Gospels report, or by Jesus himself, according to John’s account.

It is possible that the vertical part of the cross was kept at Golgotha, the place of Jesus’ death, and that the condemned person carried the crossbar, Crossan said.

“The point is we simply don’t know,” he said, “not in general cases and not in the case of Jesus either.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/20/science/22CND-DARK.html
 
“But there is absolutely no proof of this. The only skeleton of a crucified person ever recovered indicated that the two arms were tied to a crossbar, and two nails were used in either shinbone. "

im sure i saw on telly a foot bone with a nail still embeded in it.. i think it was a program about early christianity refuteing the question that jesus would not have been released for buriel after death.... the foot bone was found in a jewish cemitary/cave..
 
I have vague recollection of reading or hearing someplace that the preferred crucifiction method of time and place of Jesus' death would be on an X not + shape.
 
According to The Encyclopedia of Cruel and Unusual Punishments:

"Because of the extensive international publicity given to the incident that took place at Golgotha almost two thousand years ago, it is not fully appreciated how widespread and common torture and execution by crucifixion was in the ancient world. For example, it was widely used by the Assyrians, Carthagenians, Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Phoenecians, Scythians, and of course the Romans who, at the insistence of the Jewish Sanhedrin, executed Jesus Christ.

The customary form of crucifixion, though there were many variations, was to tie or nail the victim to a stake (with or without a cross-beam), though despite the wide-spread use of this method of execution and (when the prisoner was dead) display, very few detailed descriptions of crucifixion have survived; in fact the account of Christ's death contained in the Synoptic Gospels represents one of the best existing narratives on the subject.

The prisoner was first scourged (though this was a preliminary to many of the Roman capital punishments) and then, if a cross-beam was to be used, he would be made to carry this heavy wooden member to the place where an upright post was already securely fixed in the ground - usually alongside a main road to ensure maximum exposure of the body after death. The victim was then stripped and forced to lie face up on the ground with his arms outstretched while the executioner nailed or bound his hands to the cross-beam; sometimes both methods were used so that the weight of the body did not cause the flesh of the hands to tear away from the nails. The beam, with its victim suspended from it, was then hauled to the top of the upright. Again to prevent the hands from tearing away from the nails, a wooden peg protuding from the upright between the captives legs gave some measure of support. The preparations were concluded by nailing both feet to the upright. In this position the victim suffered a slow, agonising death, aggrevated by whatever supplementary torments the executioner and the mob might indulge in - breaking his legs with clubs, tearing his skin with combs like metal rakes, stoning... In the case of the execution of Christ, the executioners had already exhibited uncommon ingenuity in fashioning the crown of thorns.

Other novelties were effected by changing the position of which the victim was attached to the cross - upside down was a popular varient, and Josephus described a Roman mass execution of Jews, where 'They nailed those they caught in different postures to crosses, by way of jest'.

For the Romans, crucifixion was rated above burning and decapitaion as the most commom penalty for severe crimes such as treason, desertion from the army, murder, the practive of 'magic' (particularly if it involved making predictions concerning the welfare of the emperor!), and incitement to rebellion. Initially it was a punishment for slaves and foreigners (prisoners of war, etc), though later it could be invoked in cases of aggrevated crime committed by Romans of the lower class. This is in direct contradiction to the attitudes of the Carthagenians and the Persians, for whom crucifixion was a punishment appropriate only for high-ranking officials and military commanders."
 
The Times April 15, 2006

'God made me cancel my own crucifixion'

By Nico Hines

BRITISH broadcaster who travelled to the Philippines to be crucified on Good Friday for a television programme pulled out of the stunt in tears yesterday — and blamed God for his decision.

Dominik Diamond broke down and wept after watching nine Filipinos take their turn to be whipped and nailed on crosses and realising that his turn was next. “God wanted me only to pray at the foot of my cross,” he sobbed, sinking to his knees and praying as local people and tourists started to boo.

Five, the television channel, denied it was disappointed that Diamond, a radio and TV presenter and outspoken Daily Star columnist, had decided against being crucified. No date has been set for the broadcast of the programme. If shown, it may have to change its original working title, Crucify Me.

Diamond was set to join an elite group of radical Roman Catholics who mark each Easter by re-enacting the Crucifixion. Thousands of people gather to watch the volunteers nailed to crosses with metal spikes the size of pencils.

Negotiations had taken place to bestow on Diamond the privilege of becoming only the second Westerner to take part in the event, known as Karabrio. The ceremony is held in the village of Cutud, 50 miles (80km) north of Manila. Men dress in white robes and flagellate themselves with glass-tipped paddles and bamboo whips, in penitence for their sins.

Diamond, who said that he had had a crisis in his faith, decided to go on a pilgrimage taking in the Vatican and a Jesuit retreat in Italy, and culminating in the crucifixion to restore his faith in God. Despite his failure to go through with the exploit, producers insist that the documentary would still be aired.

After pulling out of the challenge, Diamond said: “At no point was it ever conveyed that I would definitely be crucified. At all times in this journey I have been guided by my God in ways I could never have predicted. Having experienced the humility of bearing my own cross through the streets, I felt my God wanted me only to pray at the foot of my cross.”

Sebastian Horsley, an oil painter, was the first Westerner to take part in the Karabrio. He felt that it would be valuable for him to experience that level of pain, for artistic rather than religious reasons.

Horsley was pleased with Diamond’s refusal to go through with the ordeal. “I’m glad he bottled it. I mean, going over there with a Channel Five crew is not right. It got leaked to the press when I did it but I wouldn’t allow any film crews to come with me.

“This is very special to these people. It is something they do to get closer to God, not something that should be cheapened,” he said “I tell you, it really hurts having nails driven through your hands. Your arms are strapped up and they put alcohol on them and then bang in the nail.”

Five denied that the television channel was disappointed with Diamond’s decision: “It’s not a surprise. He always said from Day 1 he would make a decision when he got there and it was absolutely up to him.”

Ruben Enaje, a Filipino carpenter who takes part in the festival every year, became Diamond’s mentor as the presenter tried to summon the willpower to be crucified. Mr Enaje has had himself nailed to a cross every year since 1988 to show his gratitude to God for saving him when he fell out of a window. Guided by him, Diamond made his own cross and carried it for two miles through the streets of Cutud.

Ed Stobbart, the executive producer, said: “I've been talking to Dominik for about a year about the idea. He used to be practically the face of Celtic (football club) up in Glasgow and he would get into all kinds of problems there with people who had an issue with him being Roman Catholic. He thought, ‘Hold on, I’m not even that into the religion’. He ended up leaving Scotland with his family.

“His insomnia was a major problem. He used to lie in bed all night praying for God to let him sleep and He never answered so he began to think there was no God.”

Mr Stobbart conceded that the programme’s name, Crucify Me, may no longer be appropriate. “Let’s just say the title is subject to discussion. Read between the lines,” he said.

www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25689-2135354,00.html
 
This is terrible, where would Easter be without a good crucifixion??

And I didnt get any eggs either.

And my team lost.
 
Dominic Diamond always came across as a wimp. Even on Gamesmaster. I reckon Patric Moore could have beaten him up...
 
Full text, dealing with crucifixion in Japan etc at link.

Crucifixion from ancient Rome to modern Syria

Disturbing photographs recently emerged from Syria showing the bodies of two executed men hanging on crosses. Why has a punishment used in ancient Rome now emerged as a feature of Syria's civil war?

The dead men in the photographs are blindfolded - their limp, outstretched arms tied to planks of wood with green string.

A banner wrapped around one of the bloodied corpses reads: "This man fought against Muslims and set off an explosive device here."

The photos show a handful of people, including children, taking a closer look while others go about their normal business in the northern city of Raqqa, unfazed by the bodies suspended a few feet away.

The bodies remained on display in the centre of a roundabout for two days according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A jihadist group, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), is thought to have been responsible.

As with a similar case in Raqqa in March, the men are thought to have been executed first, before being attached to crosses and publicly displayed.

Isis has banned cigarettes in Raqqa
Isis has banned cigarettes and music in Raqqa, and ordered shops to close during prayer times
Amnesty International also documented a case of crucifixion in Yemen in 2012, when an Islamist group found a 28-year-old guilty of planting electronic devices in vehicles, enabling US drones to track and kill their occupants. He too was executed first and hung on a cross afterwards.

Continue reading the main story

Start Quote

These groups tend to be very harsh and unmerciful, which is why it is our contention that they are extremely un-Islamic ”

Sheikh Dr Usama Hasan
Quilliam Foundation
Sheikh Dr Usama Hasan, Islamic scholar and senior researcher in Islamic Studies at the Quilliam Foundation in London, says this form of punishment arises from a very literal, or fundamentalist, reading of the Koran.

Verse 33 of the fifth book of the Koran says: "Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment."

But Hasan says this passage should not be read in isolation. He cites the following verse which reads: "Except for those who return [repenting] before you apprehend them. And know that Allah is Forgiving and Merciful."

Verses of the Koran which sound very harsh are always followed by the option of repentance and a "reminder that God is ultimately forgiving and merciful," he says.

"These groups tend to be very harsh and unmerciful which is why it is our contention that they are extremely un-Islamic and very far from the spirit of Islam."

For Hasan, crucifixion has no place in the modern world. What happened in Raqqa was intended as a warning to anyone questioning the authority of Isis, he suggests. ...
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27245852
 
This would seem the most appropriate thread for this news item - only the second confirmed discovery of human remains subjected to Roman crucifixions ...

How Jesus Died: Rare Evidence of Roman Crucifixion Found
The body of a man buried in northern Italy 2,000 years ago shows signs that he died after being nailed to a wooden cross, the method used for the execution of Jesus described in the Christian Bible.

Although crucifixion was a common form of capital punishment for criminals and slaves in ancient Roman times, the new finding is only the second time that direct archaeological evidence of it has been found.

A new study of the skeletal remains of the man, found near Venice in 2007, reveals a lesion and unhealed fracture on one of the heel bones that suggests his feet had been nailed to a cross. ...

The skeletal remains were found at Gavello, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Venice ...

Unusually for a Roman-era burial, the body had been buried directly in the ground, instead of being placed in a tomb, and without any burial goods, the researchers said.

The researchers ran genetic and biological tests on the remains, finding that they were from a man of below-average height and slim stature who was between 30 and 34 years old when he died.

The lack of grave goods and the dead man's relatively small build suggested he may have been an underfed slave who was buried without the regular Roman funeral ceremonies — commonly part of the punishment for executed prisoners, the researchers said.

A depressed, unhealed fracture in the heel bone suggested a metal nail had been driven through it, from the inside to the outside of the right foot, either directly onto the wood of a cross or into a wooden footrest attached to a cross. ...

Regarding the remains from Gavello, there were no signs that the man was nailed up by the wrists; instead, his arms may have been tied to the cross with rope, which was also done at the time, Gualdi said. ...

The only other time that the remains of a crucifixion victim have been found was in 1968, during an excavation of Roman-era tombs in Jerusalem. In those excavations, Greek archaeologist Vassilios Tzaferis found that a 7-inch-long (18 centimeters) nail had been driven through the heel bone of a man found in one of the tombs.

The nail was found in place within the bone, attached to a small piece of olive wood — part of the wooden cross where the man had been hung to die.

The scientists who studied the recent remains from Gavello said victims of Roman-era crucifixions were hard to identify because of the state of the ancient bones and the difficulties of making a scientific interpretation of the injuries.

... In addition, the metal crucifixion nails were often salvaged from a body after death. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/62727-jesus-roman-crucifixion-found.html
 
... im sure i saw on telly a foot bone with a nail still embeded in it.. i think it was a program about early christianity refuteing the question that jesus would not have been released for buriel after death.... the foot bone was found in a jewish cemitary/cave..

That would apparently be the 1968 Jerusalem discovery mentioned in the article I cited today.
 
I'm not sure if this recent re find is linked to the finds above?

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/worl...one-embedded-inside/ar-BB1ahJqU?ocid=msedgdhp

No - this isn't the same as either of the two finds described earlier. In this case the nails were found separately (no matter which story of their discovery one believes).

Further discussion of the recent Shimron research and claims has been moved to:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/jesus-crucifixion-relics-in-caiaphas-tomb.46174/
 
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And also....

It's been found that the Romans tied the wrists of the crucified to the upright of the crucifix. So even if the victim were to be nailed through the palm of the hand, as in the traditional images of crucifictions, and then the wrists were bound to the upright, enough support would be provided to 'hang' the body on the cross. It therefore follows, that the pain the victim suffered was increased, whilst the body wasn't in danger of falling from the crucifix.

Moggadon

So all the Passion plays I've ever sat through were accurate in their use of rope!
 
Who needs nails in the 21st Century
 

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Doctor-turned-priest claims to have solved ‘mystery’ of Jesus’s death


Jesus died of fatal bleeding caused by a dislocated shoulder from carrying the cross, a doctor-turned-priest has claimed.

The Bible tells how Jesus fell while carrying the cross to his own crucifixion up to Calvary, the skull-shaped hill in ancient Jerusalem.

Also, following the crucifixion, a Roman soldier pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, prompting blood and water to spurt out.

However, for the first time, a doctor-turned-priest has written a scientific paper explaining why he believes that Jesus Christ may have ultimately been killed by complexities linked to his dislocated right shoulder.

The Rev. Professor Patrick Pullicino, a former consultant neurologist at East Kent Universities Hospitals NHS Trust who since retirement has become a priest, has published his theory in the latest edition of Catholic Medical Quarterly (CMQ).

The London-based doctor analysed work conducted by forensic and medical experts on the Shroud of Turin.

Rev Prof Pullicino saw that the image on the shroud depicts a man with a dislocated shoulder, but thought that its position was particularly significant - it was pulled so far out of its socket that the right hand stretches 10cm lower than the left.

When stretched out for crucifixion, he claims that this would cause the subclavian artery (a pair of large arteries in the thorax that supply blood to the thorax itself, head, neck, shoulder and arms) to rupture causing massive internal bleeding, the collapse of the circulatory system and, eventually, death. As a result, around three pints of blood would fill the cavity between the ribcage and the lung.

This new theory, he argues, explains why blood poured out of Jesus when he was pierced by the centurion.

Rev Prof Pullicino concurs with other scholars that Jesus’s dislocated arm was most likely the result of his arm being trapped under the T-shaped cross he was forced to carry and that abrasions on the back of the Turin Shroud indicate that it was shifted from his right to his left side, possibly because due to his inability to use his dislocated arm following a fall.

However, he advances the theory claiming to answer how Jesus died and why blood and water gushed from his dead body. He claims: “Because of this right arm stretching, the right subclavian/axillary artery was also subjected to stretch, as it was one of the only remaining intact structures connecting the body and the right arm.

“Transferring of body weight to the arms in inspiration is likely to have caused further stretching of the right subclavian artery. Transferring weight to the legs in exhalation would reverse this stretch.

“This would cause the stretched subclavian artery to move across the rib surface with each breath and its underside would be subject to friction.

“This paper postulates that over the course of three hours, the subclavian artery became abraded, injured and its wall attenuated until finally the artery ruptured and profuse bleeding ensued.”

https://apple.news/A_1aMDBr9SwyELkRBkm5OXw

maximus otter
 

Doctor-turned-priest claims to have solved ‘mystery’ of Jesus’s death


Jesus died of fatal bleeding caused by a dislocated shoulder from carrying the cross, a doctor-turned-priest has claimed.

The Bible tells how Jesus fell while carrying the cross to his own crucifixion up to Calvary, the skull-shaped hill in ancient Jerusalem.

Also, following the crucifixion, a Roman soldier pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, prompting blood and water to spurt out.

However, for the first time, a doctor-turned-priest has written a scientific paper explaining why he believes that Jesus Christ may have ultimately been killed by complexities linked to his dislocated right shoulder.

The Rev. Professor Patrick Pullicino, a former consultant neurologist at East Kent Universities Hospitals NHS Trust who since retirement has become a priest, has published his theory in the latest edition of Catholic Medical Quarterly (CMQ).

The London-based doctor analysed work conducted by forensic and medical experts on the Shroud of Turin.

Rev Prof Pullicino saw that the image on the shroud depicts a man with a dislocated shoulder, but thought that its position was particularly significant - it was pulled so far out of its socket that the right hand stretches 10cm lower than the left.

When stretched out for crucifixion, he claims that this would cause the subclavian artery (a pair of large arteries in the thorax that supply blood to the thorax itself, head, neck, shoulder and arms) to rupture causing massive internal bleeding, the collapse of the circulatory system and, eventually, death. As a result, around three pints of blood would fill the cavity between the ribcage and the lung.

This new theory, he argues, explains why blood poured out of Jesus when he was pierced by the centurion.

Rev Prof Pullicino concurs with other scholars that Jesus’s dislocated arm was most likely the result of his arm being trapped under the T-shaped cross he was forced to carry and that abrasions on the back of the Turin Shroud indicate that it was shifted from his right to his left side, possibly because due to his inability to use his dislocated arm following a fall.

However, he advances the theory claiming to answer how Jesus died and why blood and water gushed from his dead body. He claims: “Because of this right arm stretching, the right subclavian/axillary artery was also subjected to stretch, as it was one of the only remaining intact structures connecting the body and the right arm.

“Transferring of body weight to the arms in inspiration is likely to have caused further stretching of the right subclavian artery. Transferring weight to the legs in exhalation would reverse this stretch.

“This would cause the stretched subclavian artery to move across the rib surface with each breath and its underside would be subject to friction.

“This paper postulates that over the course of three hours, the subclavian artery became abraded, injured and its wall attenuated until finally the artery ruptured and profuse bleeding ensued.”

https://apple.news/A_1aMDBr9SwyELkRBkm5OXw

maximus otter
Interesting, but the Turin shroud is a medieval fake.
 
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