First Glance

002

In “Two Questions About Crucifixion: Does the Victim Die of Asphyxiation? Would Nails in the Hands Hold the Weight of the Body?” Frederick T. Zugibe counters two popular theories. Jesus died of shock, not asphyxiation, says Zugibe. And palms (not wrists, as most people today assume), if nailed to the cross in a specific place, could support several hundred pounds of human weight. Chief medical examiner for Rockland County, New York, Zugibe bases his counter theories on extensive studies—of live volunteers in his own laboratory, of data from World War I and World War II, and of evidence from the human anatomy dissection laboratory.

To support his presentation, Zugibe refutes scientific observations based on the Shroud of Turin, a cloth revered for centuries as the burial sheet of Jesus. Results of the recent radiocarbon dating of the shroud are reported in the sidebar entitled, “Has the Shroud of Turin Been Dated—Finally?”

Zugibe is adjunct associate professor of pathology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. A civic leader who has earned numerous awards for public service, he is the author of The Cross and the Shroud—A Medical Examiner Investigates the Crucifixion (Paragon House, 2nd ed., 1988) and Fourteen Days to a Healthy Heart (Macmillan, 1986).

“This is what Yahweh showed me,” the prophet Amos begins (Amos 7:1, 8:1), and then goes on to describe terrible threats to Israel—swarming locusts devouring crops, a rain of fire decimating the land, and so much death that corpses will be strewn about. Most scholars read in these passages only messages of utter doom, but H. Neil Richardson disagrees. He reads some hope in the visions of Amos and includes in “Amos’s Four Visions—Of Judgment and Hope,” a new translation of a key phrase in the third vision.

Before his death last December (see the obituary in BRiefs), Richardson was emeritus professor of Old Testament at Boston University School of Theology. As a textual scholar, he published numerous articles on the biblical books of Amos, 2 Samuel, Esther, Tobit and Judith. In a second career, he served as pastor for churches in Washington, New York and Massachusetts. His third hat protected him from the bright sun in Israel and Jordan: As an archaeologist, he participated in several digs, including Tel Dor, Israel, from 1980 to 1986, where he supervised the volunteer program. The Bible contains more “bad words” than any little boy can ever find, because many have been translated euphemistically or have disputed meanings. Harvey Minkoff’s wide-ranging examination of how some of the Bible’s “bad words” have been translated, “Coarse Language in the Bible? It’s Culture Shocking!” reveals that some of the words were not offensive when they were written and others were chosen to be deliberately offensive. Aside from technical considerations, however, Minkoff also addresses the far more important question of whether the Bible ever should be translated euphemistically.

The subject of translation holds special interest for Minkoff, who speaks six languages and whose previous article for BR dealt with “Problems of Translations—Concern for the Text Versus Concern for the Reader,” BR 04:04. Since 1976, he has served as associate professor of English linguistics at Hunter College of the City University of New York. He also serves as assistant cantor and Bible instructor at Temple Beth Shalom, in Mahopac, NY, and has published five books on the English language and writing.

In a lavishly illustrated review-article, “Visual Glories—The Hebrew Bible in Medieval Manuscripts,” Roger S. Wieck examines an important, recent book, The Hebrew Bible in Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts by Gabrielle Sed-Rajna (Rizzoli, 1987). The abundance of illuminations, with illuminating commentary, Wieck says, is an even greater achievement than the book’s scholarly purpose, an argument for an ancient source for medieval Jewish iconography.

An expert on medieval and Renaissance art, Wieck serves as the associate curator of manuscripts and rare books at The Walters Art Galley in Baltimore, Maryland. The most recent of his five books, Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life (George Braziller, 1988), provided the basis for his article in the the June 1988 BR, “The Book of Hours—The Medieval Best Seller.”

In “Two Questions About Crucifixion: Does the Victim Die of Asphyxiation? Would Nails in the Hands Hold the Weight of the Body?” Frederick T. Zugibe counters two popular theories. Jesus died of shock, not asphyxiation, says Zugibe. And palms (not wrists, as most people today assume), if nailed to the cross in a specific place, could support several hundred pounds of human weight. Chief medical examiner for Rockland County, New York, Zugibe bases his counter theories on extensive studies—of live volunteers in his own laboratory, of data from World War I and World War II, and of evidence from […]