Christ: The 1st Christian martyr

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Friday, April 9, 2004 | Mary Jo Anderson

[JohnHuang2]

Friday, April 9, 2004

Quote of the Day by Agnes Heep

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[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Doesn't John the Baptist count?

[MarMema]

The most famous Byzantine icons feature an image of Christ that is a remarkable, even eerie likeness of the Man of the Shroud. Rivulets of blood on the face of the Man of the Shroud are reproduced as locks of hair on the icons. Did early icon painters see the "Image of Edessa" as it was displayed during liturgies and misunderstand the trails of blood as strands of hair? Why is it that before the year 550, most drawings of Christ resemble a beardless European man, but afterwards the Byzantine icons portray Christ as the image on the Shroud?

[MarMema]

Suitable for posting here...

"But seeing your impress on the towel he cried out, ‘You are Lord and God’."

[Swordmaker]

Shroud of Turin Ping!

As always, if you want to be included or deleted from the Shroud of Turin Ping list, Freepmail me.

Swordmaker

[Cvengr]

Maybe Cain could be considered in that distinction.

[hetzman]

If anyone would like to buy a documentary on the Shroud of Turin you can find it at http://www.shroud2000.com/ShroudStore.html

[ex-snook]

Thanks, bump back.

"It is, as it was", also applies. The Shroud is gradually unfolding Jesus as the capabilities of science grow.

[Bob Eimiller]

Thanks swordmaker.. keep these incredible reports coming..

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

What a wonderful post. How fitting on "Good Friday".

The Shroud and Sudarium being left behind is a gift from God. They do not take away from us being needing to have a deep and abiding faith. They are a Blessing and a wonderful gift!

Thanks for posting this John.

We just did a wonderful e-mail with links to the Shroud and Sudarium after viewing "The Passion of the Christ" movie. This e-mail is almost identical in information, but much more succinct. It just doesn't have all the wonderful pictures of the Shroud and Sudarium and some of the other awesome links. :o)

We suggest everyone study these Holy garments then see the movie not ONCE but TWICE!

Anyone interested in our e-mail need only send us a private freepmail and we'd be happy to share it. (PS. I may not get back here until this weekend sometime. But I will send you a copy of it).

God Bless!

[katnip]

Thanks for the ping.

[kosta50]

Okay, even if the Shroud and the Sudarium were related to the one and the same person, where is the proof that it was Jesus? Thousands were crucified. Thousands were covered with sudaria and wrapped in shrouds.

Where is the proof that the image of the Shroud is that of Jesus? Why is the Shroud not mentioned in any of the biblical texts, and why is this not the most sanctified of all relics from the beginning of Christianity?

[FormerLib]

Why is the Shroud not mentioned in any of the biblical texts...

I believe the burial wrappings are mentioned.

Anyway, the mere absence of something being mentioned in the Bible is not proof that it cannot exist. I'm reminded again of the folks who refused to eat potatoes because they weren't mentioned in the Bible and grew beneath the ground.

[kosta50]

Well, the existance of the Shroud and the Sudarium doesn't prove they belonged to Jesus. One would think that anything that beloned to our Lord and Savior would have been known to the Church in more than an oaccational way.

Is there C-14 dating for the Sudatorium?

[FormerLib]

The Transfer from Edessa to Constantinople of the Icon of our Lord Jesus Christ Not-Made-by-Hands occurred in the year 944. Eusebios, in his HISTORY OF THE CHURCH (I:13), relates that during the time of the Savior's preaching, Abgar ruled in Edessa. He was stricken all over his body with leprosy. Reports of the great miracles worked by the Lord spread throughout Syria (Mt 4:24) and reached even Abgar. Without having seen the Savior, Abgar believed in Him as the Son of God. He wrote a letter requesting Him to come and heal him. He sent with this letter to Palestine his own portrait-painter Ananias, and commissioned him to paint a likeness of the Divine Teacher.

Ananias arrived in Jerusalem and saw the Lord surrounded by people. He was not able to get close to Him because of the large throng of people listening to the preaching of the Savior. Then he stood on a high rock and attempted to paint the portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ from afar, but this effort was not successful. The Savior saw him, called to him by name and gave him a short letter for Abgar in which He praised the faith of this ruler. He also promised to send His disciple to heal him of his leprosy and guide him to salvation.

Then the Lord asked that water and a cloth be brought to Him. He washed His Face, drying it with the cloth, and His Divine Countenance was imprinted upon it. Ananias took the cloth and the letter of the Savior to Edessa. Reverently, Abgar pressed the holy object to his face and he received partial healing. Only a small trace of the terrible affliction remained until the arrival of the disciple promised by the Lord. He was St. Thaddeus, Apostle of the Seventy (August 21), who preached the Gospel and baptized Abgar and all the people of Edessa. Abgar put the Holy Napkin in a gold frame adorned with pearls, and placed it in a niche over the city gates. On the gateway above the icon he inscribed the words, "O Christ God, let no one who hopes on Thee be put to shame."

For many years the inhabitants kept a pious custom to bow down before the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands, when they went forth from the gates. But one of the great-grandsons of Abgar, who later ruled Edessa, fell into idolatry. He decided to take down the icon from the city wall. In a vision the Lord ordered the Bishop of Edessa to hide His icon. The bishop, coming by night with his clergy, lit a lampada before it and walled it up with a board and with bricks.

Many years passed, and the people forgot about it. But in the year 545, when the Persian emperor Chozroes I besieged Edessa and the position of the city seemed hopeless, the Most Holy Theotokos appeared to Bishop Eulabios and ordered him to remove the icon from the sealed niche, and it would save the city from the enemy. Having opened the niche, the bishop found the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands: in front of it was burning the lampada, and upon the board closing in the niche, a copy of the icon was reproduced. After a church procession with the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands had made the circuit of the city walls, the Persian army withdrew.

In the year 630 Arabs seized Edessa, but they did not hinder the veneration of the Holy Napkin, the fame of which had spread throughout all the East. In the year 944, the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitos (912-959) wanted to transfer the icon to the Constantinople, and he paid a ransom for it to the emir of the city. With great reverence the Icon of the Savior Not-Made-by-Hands and the letter which He had written to Abgar, were brought to Constantinople by clergy.

On August 16, the icon of the Savior was placed in the Tharossa church of the Most Holy Theotokos. There are several traditions concerning what happened later to the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands. According to one, crusaders ran off with it during the time of their rule at Constantinople (1204-1261), but the ship on which the sacred object was taken, perished in the waters of the Sea of Marmora.

According to another tradition, the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands was transported around 1362 to Genoa, where it is preserved in a monastery in honor of the Apostle Bartholomew. It is known that the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands repeatedly gave from itself exact imprints. One of these, named "On Ceramic," was imprinted when Ananias hid the icon in a wall on his way to Edessa; another, imprinted on a cloak, wound up in Georgia. Possibly, the variance of traditions about the original Icon Not-Made-by-Hands derives from the existence of several exact imprints.

During the time of the Iconoclast heresy, those who defended the veneration of icons, having their blood spilt for holy icons, sang the Troparion to the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands. In proof of the validity of Icon-Veneration, Pope Gregory II (715-731) sent a letter to the Byzantine emperor, in which he pointed out the healing of King Abgar and the sojourn of the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands at Edessa as a commonly known fact. The Icon Not-Made-by-Hands was put on the standards of the Russian army, defending them from the enemy. In the Russian Orthodox Church it is a pious custom for a believer, before entering the temple, to read the Troparion of the Not-Made-by-Hand icon of the Savior, together with other prayers.

[FormerLib]

Anyway, that last post concerned the knowledge of the Church toward the icon not made by hands.

Is there proof that they belonged to Jesus? My friend, I cannot even answer those who ask me for proof of God's existence (though I believe that has more to do with our inability to provide proof than anything).

Of all the stories that I have ever heard concerning the Shroud, I am intrigued by the idea that the image appears to be a perfect photographic negative of a crucified man. How could such a thing even have been made so many centuries before photography was even conceived? I doubt that we'll ever know the answer to that one, not in this life anyway.

[kosta50]

Thank you, most fascinating post. The "photographic negative" image is the effect of the staining -- the raised (light-reflecting) areas contained oils and blood which left dark stains on the shroud fabric. Since the areas that are normally light appear dark as a result, their negative of the shourd look like a positive image of a crucified man.

The questions is who was that man?

[FormerLib]

The questions is who was that man?

That is a question we will never answer in this life.