Today is Holy Saturday, the day before resurrection morning. This is the day many will go to the church to have their Easter Sunday food blessed. (Ham, rolls, colored eggs, chocolates, wine, etc.) This food can not be touched until Easter Sunday. It was tough as a child to not touch those giant, milk chocolate, Cadbury bunnies. ha
But now that I'm older and chocolate isn't as important, Besides blessing food in the afternoon, one of my new traditions is to watch the History Channel's special "The Real Face of Jesus?" That takes us on a journey of the Shroud of Turin and digital artist Ray Downing who set out to pull the faint face from the holy cloth, and show what the person that left that image, would have looked like.
Since many believe the shroud to be that of Christ, through this documentary, we could be seeing the actual face of our Savior. If you go to the History Channel's website or amazon, you can purchase a DVD. For those who enjoy streaming (like I do) it's available to order on amazon instant download as well. If you can't afford the DVD or to own the streaming copy, you can watch on YouTube.
Again, the title is "The Real Face of Jesus" and it includes artist Ray Downing. (there are two versions of "the Face of Jesus" out there. this one is the better researched of the two.)
You can visit Ray Downing's website at raydowning.com to see his work related to his artistic rendering of the face in the shroud, as well as other videos he's made on Jesus using the rendering, or to order prints. Brilliant man with a brilliant artistic skill.
The Shroud of Turin is a very interesting piece of history.
Some say it is the burial cloth of Christ... embedded with Christ's image upon the glorious light of his Resurrection.
We know all things are possible with God, and also, We all know the story of St. Veronica.
St Veronica's real name is unknown. She is referred to as St. Veronica because of the veil itself. In Latin the veil is called Vera Icon (true image)... and thus was derived the word "Veronica".
Legend says the unnamed saint watched as Christ fell under the weight of his cross on the way to his crucifixion. She was so moved by the scene, she ran to him to wipe his bloody and dirt covered face. She removed her head veil to use. As a miracle in return for her act of kindness, he left his holy image on the veil that she used.
Now, it must be mentioned, there is no biblical basis for this legend. St. Veronica does not appear in the passion of Christ either in Matthew, Mark, Luke Or John. It is only depicted in the movies or art, Mostly as a way to explain the existence of the actual veil.
The veil of Veronica really exists, so where does it come from if not from someone who wiped his face on his way to the crucifixion?
There is an unnamed woman in the gospels, for reference: Mark 5:25-34, who was hemorrhaging for 12 years... and through her faith that Christ could heal her, she got on her hands and knees, and touched the hems of his garment and was healed.
Some wonder if the image of Jesus appeared on the woman's veil, rather than the story about his face being wiped during the crucifixion, as a sign of her healing through her faith in Christ. The Vatican is in possession of the veil.
It's also note-worthy, that while faint... the image on Veronica's veil, does not appear to be bloodied and bruised like the image on the shroud of Turin... so it is possible it was from the woman Christ miraculously healed long before Jesus' wounds and crucifixion.
that said, I bring it up to show, there is some religious precedent for such a miracle.
The Shroud of Tourin is very complex, and I can't really do it very much justice in my layman way except to say this much.
There are so many things about this shroud that is quiet interesting.
1. No artist pigments or any artistic media has been found. Neither modern nor from ancient times. That means it most likely NOT the work of an artist.
2. Dr. Baima Ballone, Dr. Alan Alder, and the Late Dr. John Heller were able to procure a sample of what was once believed artistic blood(Painted). They were able to find that it was true blood. Typed AB (a rare type of blood), as well as degraded DNA and XY Chromosomes (meaning male). The Degraded DNA made it "Consistent with the supposition of ancient blood."
3. The Carbon dating of 1988 has come into questions. The Carbon dating put the shroud as a medieval. Now, I'm not a scientist, however, it is said by someone who IS a scientist, that the part of the shroud tested is a part that had been repaired in the middle ages after damage... and not part of the original cloth, so the results are deemed invalid. More modern testing of the original cloth does show that it could have been from around the period in which Christ would have died.
4. The shroud itself is in compliance with the traditional burial customs of that period. From the position of the body, to the way the body would have been wrapped based on the folds in the cloth.
5. Then of course the wounds. The wounds show an injury to the head that looks like points of blood caused by something sharp, a stab to the right side, stab marks in the wrists and feet, and slashes to the back resulting in severe bleeding.
We know a few things: one.. the crown of thorns was an abusive insult specific to Christ, it wasn't common practice to crown those about to be crucified with thorns. two... there is no artist that would subject themselves to such torture, by being beaten enough to create that much blood (since we know it's real blood)and then be wrapped in linen, in order to create an image of the crucified Christ.
Not to mention, newer carbon dating of the original cloth shows it to be around the year Christ died. There weren't artists standing under the cross sketching him as modern day sketch artists do.
So those wounds were real (as we know real blood has been found on the shroud)... the person in that image suffered. And they are exactly what is described in the bible. Scourges, bloody forehead, the wrists have holes (which actually goes more towards the belief that, to sustain a body, they would crucify a person through the wrists, not palms)... and through the feet.
There is also a lance wound in the side. The legs do not look broken. It was a practice to break the legs of the crucified to make them die faster if they were still alive after a certain time. Christ had already passed so they lanced his side to make sure he was dead rather than breaking his legs. Unbeknownst to them at the time, they fulfilled the prophecy that not a bone would be broken. (John 19:36)
So we have the wounds, the blood on those wounds being real blood, the valid carbon dating of the original cloth (Rather than the repaired section) dating back to Christ's time period, the traditional burial customs represented in the shroud, and the lack of any artistic medium known to exist at that time.
Is the shroud truly the burial cloth of Christ? I personally believe so. If you do more research on this miraculous relic...
FURTHER READING
Shroud Website
Shroud of Turin Evidence
Turin-Shroud.com
The Real Face of Jesus DVD (also available on Amazon Instant Download for purchase, or you can rent it for $1.99. Viewable online or on your Roku)
Briefly returning to Veronica's veil... there have been some artistic experiments with both the face on the shroud and Veronica's veil. There was some detailing that had to be artistically done since the image on the veil is so faint... but after all was said and done...
The images matched up fairly close in the positioning of the eyes, the line up of the nose, and the features of the jawline/beard. Both date to the appropriate period which would be in the lifetime of Christ, further proving the authenticity of the shroud.
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