Truth About The Crucifixion — Page 101
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 by the spear as it entered, the angle at which the latter moved when entering the body (with reference to the wound made as it came out) is 29°. As the spear entered between the fifth and sixth ribs, the straight line traced in this way by the spear passes well above the heart of Jesus, so that it was not damaged or even grazed by the spear of the Roman soldier. The reason why Kurt Berna places so much emphasis on the fact that the spear did not reach the heart of Jesus stems from the fact that, according to the gospel of St. John, “blood and water" flowed from the wound. Since the fact that blood flows from 93