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A doctor-turned-priest has claimed he has solved the mystery of how Jesus Christ died, having shared his theory in the latest edition of Catholic Medical Quarterly.
Patrick Pullicino is a former consultant neurologist at East Kent Universities Hospitals NHS Trust, who became a priest in his retirement.
Pullicino analysed work carried out by forensic and medical experts on the Shroud of Turin, a length of linen cloth bearing the negative image that some believe is a depiction of Jesus of Nazareth, saying the fabric is the burial shroud he was wrapped in after being crucified.
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The London-based priest thinks the image on the shroud – which has been preserved since 1578 – shows a man with a dislocated shoulder, saying it was pulled so far out of its socket that the right hand stretches four inches lower than the left.
When stretched out for crucifixion, Pullicino claims this would cause the subclavian artery – a pair of large arteries in the thorax that supply blood to the head, neck, shoulder and arms – to rupture. This, he says, would have led to severe internal bleeding, the collapse of the circulatory system and death.
Around three pints of blood would have filled the cavity between the ribcage and the lung, which Pullicino explains why blood poured from Jesus when he was pierced by the centurion, with the Bible saying that a Roman soldier had pierced his side with a spear, letting blood and water to spurt out.
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Pullicino wrote: “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.”
While Roman soldiers often broke the legs of those being crucified to speed up their death, Jesus’ were left unbroken as he had already died.
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This, according to Pullicino, means that, when he was pierced by a soldier, blood would have spurted out after the build-up of pressure.
Pullicino also says that the ‘water’ that came out of his body, as the Bible states, would have been cerebrospinal fluid, which had leaked up towards Jesus’ lung.
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