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Date: March 23, 2017 07:33PM
Believe it or not, a Mormon doctor has actually tried to "explain" this; of course, he had to make a few assumptions.
M. Gary Hadfield, "Neuropathology and the Scriptures," BYU Studies, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Spring 1993), pp. 324-25:
"Though the combatants in this story were well acquainted with wholesale carnage, Shiz's unique death struggle was so astonishing that his throes were reported in grisly detail. Perhaps Ether and Coriantumr interpreted this astounding incident as a sign of Shiz's indomitable fighting spirit or refusal to die. However, Shiz's death struggle illustrates the classic reflex posture that occurs in both humans and animals when the upper brain stem (midbrain/mesencephalon) is disconnected from the brain. The extensor muscles of the arms and legs contract, and this reflex action could cause Shiz to raise up on his hands. Of course, Shiz would not have remained long in this position, and he would have bled to death rapidly through the severed arteries that go to the head.
"The brain stem is located inside the base of the skull and is relatively small. It connects the brain proper, or cerebrum, with the spinal cord in the neck. Coriantumr was obviously too exhausted to do a clean job. His stroke evidently strayed a little too high. He must have cut off Shiz's head through the base of the skull, at the level of the midbrain, instead of lower through the cervical spine in the curvature of the neck. It is worth noting that critics have questioned this story in the Book of Mormon. But this extraneous detail provides another solid indication that the Book of Mormon is an accurate record. Significantly, this nervous system phenomenon (decerebrate rigidity) was first reported in 1898, long after the Book of Mormon was published."
[Hadfield is named as a Professor of Pathology (Neuropathology) at the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond, Virginia]
Others have tried to take a hack at it (pun intended).
George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 6, p. 201:
"But the question may be raised legitimately whether the fatal wound of Shiz consisted in the complete severance of the head from the body. Is that the fact that Moroni conveys? Coriantumr was almost exhausted when he perceived his victim on the ground. His primitive sword, which certainly was not keen Damascus blade, but must have become blunted during the preceding combat. Did Coriantumr, in his weak condition have physical strength enough to perform so great an operation with a blunt instrument? May we not rather suppose that the fatal wound which he inflicted on his enemy was a ghastly gash in the head, or the neck, causing Shiz to struggle for breath, as stated? Moroni could properly say: 'He smote his head off,' borrowing that expression from popular, colloquial language and using it in a figurative rather than strictly literal sense."
And B.H. Roberts also took his cuts:
B.H. Roberts, New Witnesses for God, Vol. 3, pp. 556-57:
"Mr. G. W. Wightman, of the Seventeenth Lancers of the British Light Brigade, and a survivor of the wild charge at Balaclava, relates, in the 'Electric Magazine' for June, 1892, the… still more remarkable case of Sergeant Talbot's death:
'It was about this time that Sergeant Talbot had his head clean carried off by a round shot, yet for about thirty yards farther the headless body kept the saddle, the lance at the charge firmly gripped under the right arm.'
"After this well attested fact, and many others of a similar nature that might be cited, it is not worth while being skeptical about Shiz convulsively rising on his hands for a moment after his head was stricken off."
Where is room for doubt? All you need is faith… and a fresh tithing slip!