Posted on 02/16/2009 10:55:31 PM PST by Coleus
Benedict XVI’s announcement will allow millions of people to see the linen cloth that according to tradition was wrapped around the body of Jesus after his death, showing that “mysterious Face, which silently speaks to the hearts of men, inviting them to see in it the face of God.”
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – For 40 days in the spring of 2010 it will be possible to see the Shroud of Turin which, according to tradition, is the cloth in which the body of Jesus was wrapped after his death and which shows the marks of the Passion and Crucifixion as told by the Gospels.
Benedict XVI, who owns the Shroud, made the announcement yesterday when he met the participants to the pilgrimage organised by the Archdiocese of Turin led by the local archbishop, Card Severino Poletto, who is the custodian of the Shroud. The Pope spoke about to the display in relation to the diocese’s pastoral journey, which in 2010 will be devoted to a “closer contemplation of the mystery of the Passion of Christ.”
“In such a context I am happy to fulfill your great expectations and accept your bishop’s wish, allowing the Shroud to be solemnly put on display in the spring of 2010,” said the Pope. “It will be a most propitious occasion, I am certain, to contemplate that mysterious Face, which silently speaks to the hearts of men, inviting them to see in it the face of God.” For the Church the Shroud is not a “relic” since it has never actually said whether it is the linen cloth in which the body of the dead Christ was wrapped or not.
At the time of the last display in 2000 (previous ones took place in 1973 and 1998) John Paul II referred to it as “icon”. At the same time though, the Church has never denied that the linen cloth might be the one the Evangelists talk about in the Gospels. On several occasions the Church has allowed the Shroud to undergo scientific tests, with contradictory results that are still source of great debate among scholars around the world.
Thanks for the ping!
Actually, Catholic school. Nevertheless...
I'd guess that it's a function of distance and extremely low-level radiation over a very long period of time, as opposed to the high-energy short-burst theories that have been bandied about over the years. If I recall correctly, the entire cloth has been affected to one degree or another, the image areas having a greater number of affected fibrils than the non-image areas.
No, but it does show that some other unknown (or perhaps unknowable) factor was involved in the image formation.
That's a good point... however, First Century Jewish burial practices included tying the jaw closed (to keep the mouth closed) with a rolled cloth, a napkin if you will, wrapped under the jaw and over the top of the head where it was tied. Certainly that meets the criteria of being "about his head."
In modern mortuary and embalming practices, the morticians actually suture (sew) the lips together to prevent the gaping of the mouth in death. This is a more invisible method of achieving the same result of keeping the mouth closed.
There is a cloth called the Sudarium of Oviedo, that meets this definition and in fact shows evidence of having been rolled to make a binding. The blood stains on the Sudarium match those on the Shroud with 78 points of congruity. The blood appears to be the same typing: AB.
The 1st C. Jews also used smaller strips to bind the wrists and ankles to prevent the body from flopping.
I would interpret that Bible passage to mean that after Jesus stood up and was no longer covered by the Shroud, the sudarium was still wrapped over his head and under his Jaw... he pulled it off and placed it apart from the rest of the grave cloths.
It is irrelevant whether a radiation source is low-level or high-energy. The physics of it is that it radiates in all directions at a rate that averages the same regardless of the vector. Why, if radiation is the modality, does the radiation work at 180º to change the coating, but not at 175º, 170º, or 185º?
If I recall correctly, the entire cloth has been affected to one degree or another, the image areas having a greater number of affected fibrils than the non-image areas.
No, the non-image area fibrils' coatings have not been changed to caramel. That happens only in the image areas.
The Jews wrapped the body the same way Egyptians wrapped a mummy, so the cloth would have been wound about the body, not one solid piece. The people who believe in the shroud are looking for a sign and there is none given, save the resurrection, and they are equivalent to those pilgrims to the Holy Land who buy and bought, all sorts of things thinking they have a true relic.
You’ve obviously never read the Greek bible. The New testament uses entulisso and eneileo mean “to roll in, wind up”, “to twist, to entwine”, “to enwrap”, “to wrap by winding tightly”. Linen strips were used, as per the custom of the Jews, not the Romans
Re: Jews wrapping a body the same way Egyptians did.
No, they did not. The Egyptian mummy wrapping was a prolonged procedure that took months of preparation. The Jews were required to put the body in it’s tomb before sundown on the day of death. Many 1st century Jewish burials have been excavated and not one was ever found mummy wrapped. The belief that Jews buried their dead like Egyptions is a confabulation built out of people learning about Egyptian mummies in the late eighteenth Century and assuming something that never happened and mistranslation of certain Greek words referring to grave clothes.
The Greek bible says differently
Re: definitions
Your four definitions include “to enwrap” which is a precise description of laying the body on a shroud, a sindon, and the wrapping it up and over the body. As I said NO Jewish burial has ever been found as you describe. The science denies your assumption.
Strong’s Number: 1750 Browse Lexicon
Original Word Word Origin
ejneilevw from (1772) and the base of (1507)
Transliterated Word TDNT Entry
Eneileo None
Phonetic Spelling Parts of Speech
en-i-leh’-o Verb
Definition
to roll in, wind up
Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.”
He answered:
“A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here. . .”
I am sure many people will come to know about our Lord and His Love and Mercy through the study and contemplation of the Image on the Shroud.
John 19:39
And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
19:40 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
BTTT
It's not idolatry, because Catholics don't 'worship' the Shroud. We may revere the Shroud, if we believe it could be the burial cloth of our Lord and Savior. What it DOES do, is cause us to contemplate that profound sacrifice He made for our salvation, and make sure that we are living our lives in such a way as to be worthy of that sacrifice.
That was before they realized that the part of the Shroud that was being tested DID include fibers from the medieval era, but only because the nuns who did the repairs on it, at that time, were skillful weavers, and made it impossible to tell, by eyesight, what had been done. When more testing was done, it was shown that there were actually two sets of fibers, one from the medieval era, and one much older.
I hope that Pope Benedict will allow some carbon dating of an area of the Shroud that was not part of an earlier reconstruction, so has to get a better understanding of it's true age.
Again, whether or not it is the Shroud of Jesus is irrelevant to my faith, it would just be cool to have a better fix on the date of it.
The napkin, if I'm not mistaken, didn't lie across the face, but was used to tie up under the jaw, and around the head, to keep the mouth of the deceased from gaping open. That would leave the full burial cloth to cover the face and body of the deceased.
Ridiculous.
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