Truth About The Crucifixion — Page 72
that the circulation of the blood takes place in completely airless conditions, and this circulation is always caused by the pumping action of the heart. In a recently dead body, after the heart has stopped beating, not only does the blood cease to flow from wounds after a certain time, but the blood itself begins to shrink within the veins. The blood drains out of the capillaries below the surface of the skin, producing the pallid appearance of death in the corpse. Therefore no fresh blood could flow from the wounds made by the thorns unless the heart was pumping, even slowly. . From the medical point of view, Jesus was not dead at that moment. . It is true that under certain conditions a pallid appearance similar to that of death may appear, and the person in question may appear to be actually dead when respiration has apparently ceased, but in such cases the heart need not necessarily have stopped beating. Respiration may cease after asphyxia caused by gas or by being temporarily buried in sand; but if proper medical attention is given to the individual in question immediately after the accident, and if the heart has not yet stopped beating, his life may well be saved. . Furthermore, the blood-stains on the cloth show a trickle of blood, running along the line of the right arm, which has oozed from the wound caused by the nail in the right wrist of Jesus. . This indicates-since the blood is fresh and has therefore soaked into the linen—that sufficient fresh blood flowed from this wound during the act of unnailing the body of Jesus from the cross, at which moment the right arm, having been unnailed before the left, hung down vertically and caused a trickle of blood to flow along the line of the arm. This bleeding during the descent from the cross indicates clearly that the heart was beating in Jesus' body during that moment. . Kurt Berna then analyses the wound caused by the spear of the Roman soldier who was testing to see whether Jesus was really dead. . On the right side of the thorax can be seen the mark of the wound caused by the spear of the Roman soldier as it penetrated. . High up on the left side of the thorax can be seen the wound caused by the point of the spear as it came out of the body. . These two wounds show the angle at which the point of the spear passed through Jesus' thorax. If a horizontal line is drawn towards the left side of the body starting from the wound made 74