From this website
http://christiananswers.net/q-eden/jesusdeath.html
I found this:
James Thompson believed that Jesus did not die from exhaustion, the beatings or the 3 hours of crucifixion, but that he died from agony of mind producing rupture of the heart. His evidence comes from what happened when the Roman soldier pierced Christ's left side. The spear released a sudden flow of blood and water (John 19:34). Not only does this prove that Jesus was already dead when pierced, but Thompson believes it is also evidence of cardiac rupture. Respected physiologist Samuel Houghton believed that only the combination of crucifixion and rupture of the heart could produce this result.
The point of the article I mentioned in my previous post is that one cloth was used when He was taken from the cross, and that another set of clothing was used when He was buried.
John 20:6-7, "Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths (plural), but folded together in a place by itself."
Right there in the scriptures it states to the reader that more than one piece of cloth was used when Jesus was buried. In the article it also says that 75 lbs of spices and many pieces of cloth are used in a common Jewish burial.
This webpage also has many commentaries on the burial customs in the time of Jesus. Note that many of them detail the practice of wrapping the body in many strips of linen cloth.
http://bible.cc/john/19-40.htm
I know that many people want to believe in the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, but from where I sit I see only an elaborate hoax perpetuated upon a populace eager for tangible proof of Christ's death and resurrection instead of just believing in what the Bible says is true.
Instead of seeking a sign (see what Christ says in Matthew 12:38), just seek the Savior.
John 11:43-44 (NASB)
43 When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” 44 The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus *said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Both Lazarus and Jesus are described as having been laid in the tomb in the same way with the same grave wrappings.
I was under the impression that part of the reason for the rupture is that the body being bleed out to large extent, leaves the heart working hard, pumping on next to nothing, compared to a full or sufficient supply.
Otherwise;
One can image how agony of the mind, at the moment when he made the pronouncement was made, would be quite severe. As the scripture says, that is the moment He "gave up the Ghost", so perhaps the explanation you bring is the better one, even if large loss of blood was a contributing factor.
Don't get me wrong... I was not taking a position one way or the other as to the shroud's authenticity. Although I would like to believe it, it's one of those things that for myself, must be categorized as uncertain.
It's amazing how people seek to discredit things without first looking at the evidence, on the basis of what they suppose others' wishes to be.
The physical evidence for the authenticity of the Shroud (a real burial cloth of a real crucified man from the 1st century AD) is overwhelming.
In addition to many details preserved in the Shroud which were either unknown to medieval forgers (e.g. position of the thumbs consistent with damage to the medial nerve from crucifixion, placement of holes not in hand but not in wrist), the spectrographic evidence is beyond the reach of any forger (the image is a surface phenomenon on the coating of the individual cloth fibers and does not have the signature of any pigment known to be used through medieval times; the blood is real mammalian blood with degraded hemoglobin and bilurubin); and there is the three-dimensional nature of the image which to this day cannot be duplicated *consistently* with other KNOWN, OBSERVED features of the Shroud.
Cheers!