I’m sure I’m out-of-step with most here, but I do not believe it’s biblical to depict Christ in any manner. On the basis of Exodus 20:4-6, among other passages, I believe it’s forbidden idolatry to paint pictures of Jesus Christ or portray Him in movies. Graven images are forbidden because God is a Spirit, not to be conceived of or fashioned in man’s image, or the image of any other created thing.
Exodus 20
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
And in Romans 1, the Apostle Paul wrote:
22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
I tend to agree and for the reasons you state here, God is a spirit,
Many tend to have a need for an image to focus their attentions toward,
It only matters who he was, what he did for us, and that we accept the gift he provided freely to us,
With that said, I do think the shroud, and the image of a man with a graceful and broken face is very interesting, especially if its ever proven to be related to the madylion, which would push its history back centuries,
As a side note, the robe that Jesus wore, the ones they cast lots for at the cross, was most likely a seamless garment like a High Priest would wear,
He was our High Priest,
To apply that to Jesus is to say that he never became man, that he was a spirit the whole time who only appeared as a man. The gnostics thought that way, that the body was corrupt and that God could never be corrupt so therefore Jesus was never a man. This of course would then more or less makes Jesus' sacrifice meaningless because as a spirit he never could have suffered or died for us. That's the main reason gnosticism was deemed heretical.
I believe Jesus did become a man and that we can depict the man Jesus became, as close as we can after 2,000 years anyway.
I'll bet when the anti-Christ shows up, he'll look just like the picture of the shroud of Turin...
My problem with the Popular Mechanics picture is it is the picture of a dullard. The eyes are all wrong and I am not talking about color but in the lack of focus.
Don’t you understand that a graven image refers to something - an object - that is worshiped [idolatry] as a substitute for the Living and True God? I think you are taking that verse completely out of context esp. in regards to verse 5. Were you implying having/investigating the shroud is something others are worshiping or serving? - makes no sense to me...
Not depicting God in any manner then yes I agree wholeheartedly. But where does Exodus mention Jesus and wasn’t Jesus our earthly physical interface directly tying us back spiritually to God?