Bible Review

Since this article was written, the shroud has been shown to be a medieval forgery. The results of recent radiocarbon tests on small pieces of the shroud and comments about these tests by the author and other experts are reported in the sidebar to this article.

Zias and Sekeles suggest that the blows may have been administered after death, which would, of course, make the crurifragium irrelevant to the victim’s breathing.

Visual observations and Douglas bag studies measured the amount of air expired each minute and the relative oxygen content of the expired air. Both of these measurements determined that the oxygen increase occurred when hyperventilation began after four minutes of hanging, with abdominal breathing at a rate about four to five times normal.

This examination included: a 12-lead electrocardiogram, pulse rate, blood pressure, auscultatory examination, vital capacity and ear oximetry, arterial blood gases and venous blood chemistries.

C.E. is the scholarly, religiously neutral designation corresponding to A.D. It stands for “Common Era.”

By Gabrielle Sed-Rajna (New York: Rizzoli, 1987), 176 pp., 180 illustrations including 60 in color, $85.00.

The Mishnah (from the Hebrew, “to repeat”) is a body of Jewish oral law, specifically, the collection of oral laws compiled by Rabbi Judah the Prince in the second century C.E.

There are some insignificant differences in the two passages. We will be using the text of Judges in this article.

See “Where Is Biblical Debir?” BAR 01:01.

“Problems of Translation: Concern for the Text Versus Concern for the Reader,” BR 04:04.