This week there was a special lecture about a certain famous shroud. I chose to attend. The place was packed. The lecturer was a famous Jesuit priest who also has his own TV show. He works for the diocese and our pastor works with him there and knows him. He is highly acclaimed.
I would like to share some insights from the lecture, as well as the new insight, which, isn't it ironic that someone who apprenticed to work with wood as a contractor was put to his end by being nailed himself to wood?
The long story short is that the carbon 14 dating is off because there was an electromagnetic radiation event that sent out lots of neutrons (uncharged particles) which created the image on the shroud. This image is not from dye or blood, as it only affects the topmost layer of the fibers of the linen.
The shroud itself is fourteen feet long, and it is made of exceptionally expensive, fine woven linen.
The victim of the crucifixion is five foot ten inches tall.
The crown of thorns was a Syrian crown, not a circle like some show but more of a cap. It is not like a British crown that has parts that meet up over the top. It is a solid, almost beret like hemisphere with a ring like band at the bottom. Oddly enough I can't find anything that even looks like the image he showed us on the internet. That is a big hmmmm. And this is what the crown was made of syrian christ thorn. They are thick at the base, taper to a point and curve in.
The shroud is a negative image. So what we see is like looking at what the negative in film would make, the positive image. It is anatomically accurate and shows the front and back of the victim. You can see the spine, the spear wound, one hundred twenty six whip wounds (big number but I forget exactly how many), and even that the right shoulder was dislocated.
Apparently when he carried the cross and fell, the heavy wood bounced up and then fell hard on the shoulder. The arm could not work any more, it was paralyzed. That is why someone else had to carry the cross the rest of the way.
The nails went in at the base of the wrist and angled the tip towards the elbow. This goes through the median nerve. On the right he wouldn't feel anything (hopefully) due to the dislocation but on the left it would be terribly painful.
There are fluids in the shroud that have been tested. Blood type I think was AB positive. They saw high levels of creatine and another thing that according to the priest was indicative of rhabdomyolysis and extreme trauma. Rhabdo is when muscles are crushed and kidney failure is a risk because of the myoglobin from the broken muscles in the bloodstream gumming up the kidney filtering apparatus. We hydrate and acidify the urine. I have taken care of many trauma patients. The only one I recall with rhabdo jumped off a bridge in a suicide attempt. Just to give you an idea of the intensity of the trauma.
It was hard for me as a medically trained person to listen to a priest talk about medical information. Especially when it came to the water coming out of the chest. He said it was pleural fluid. I know you can get a pneumothorax, a hemothorax, or a pneumohemothorax where the chest fills with blood. Since he had trouble breathing because of the positioning on the cross, if he tried breathing against a closed airway, fluid would rush into the lung tissues, and pink foam would come up and out. If chest trauma had caused the hemothorax, and the blood had clotted, then you would see clear and blood tinged fluid.
What bothers me is that the tip of the spear went over the fifth rib on the right and touched the heart tip (possible) according to the priest. Then the 'water' came out.
What I think is that this soldier had seen a lot of crucifixions. And that death was imminent with the fluid of whatever kind in the lung. And he knew how to let it out so that the crucifixion could go on for longer. That person had the kind of knowledge of someone in battle or in healthcare who works with trauma has. That is one of the first things a trauma surgeon team does is put in a chest tube.
I know everything was cruel and deliberate and designed to make the victim suffer. But from the lecture, that is the biggest thing I encountered.
The lecture itself was hypnotic and boring. My Oura ring actually registered sleep for the whole hour, and my neighbor seated next to me, his wife and daughter didn't even come because they thought it would be boring, and even though he always goes to the special Lent lecture, he agreed it was boring too.
The speaker spoke of technical things, carbon fourteen dating and other tests. Not many photos. And after long discourses of technical matter, would say Bing! Bong! Wrongo! Basic elementary sounds to summarize to the audience what all of his discourse had been. Proving scientific doubters wrong about the most miraculous piece of cloth.
He was literally preaching to the choir!
I am grateful for the opportunity. I was hoping for something hopeful, something visual, something to prove that which cannot be proven, once and for all.
Time to go through another day, and start it. Thank you for your interest and for your reading.
Ross is quiet. He smiles briefly, nods and looks down, and holds up his left arm and hand to say, 'I'll talk to you later'.
clap! clap!
Aloha and Mahalos,
Namaste,
Peace,
Ross and Carla
The Couple
