ON THE BRUTISHNESS OF MANKIND - part one

This will humble you as it has me! My own narcissistic attitude faded when I learned how decadent, even depraved, that I was before I was born again; albeit it was a very slow and painful rebirth.

Adam died just as God had warned; the male and female of God’s kind devolved. They were not what they once were. In the beginning they were glorious.

Focus on their states in the beginning. Within their bodies was a soul that was the vessel for the contents of God within. What did the soul look like? The invisible God; it was in His Image that it was made, as you should well know by now. That “Image” from the Hebrew was “Selem” — a “Shadow” or “Phantom” (Strong 2006),

That was the real man! He and she were the shadows of God. Because “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:15) that “shadow” was not darkness but less intense light. Mankind were not gods, but they too were the Light of God, just a dimmer version if it is thought of in that manner.

Shadows have substance. It may not be organic or metallic, but it is still a substance. Plato might have thought, The truth is that the shadow of mankind — his and her souls — is a fragment of the object.  The substance of their souls was Spirit for God breathed life unto them. The substance of the inner male and female would have been the Spirit of God in bodily shapes with the male and female of different forms.

Since life was breathed unto the material bodies of the Adam, then he breathed it unto the woman, the male came first and would be dominant.

Note that life became another life, not by sexual interaction, but spiritual dynamics. There was nobody created in the Garden that was created because of sexual union. That points to the male and female never having pudenda until sin changed them.

That may be ambiguous, but ancient writers of sacred literature share the same viewpoint.

Sin had changed the man and his woman, according to an unknown ancient writer: 

They felt great trouble from the food they had eaten, and to which they were not used, they went about in the cave saying to each other:-- "What has happened to us through eating, that this pain should have come upon us? Woe be to us, we shall die! Better for us to have died than to have eaten; and to have kept our bodies pure, than to have defiled them with food."

Then Adam said to Eve, "This pain did not come to us in the garden, neither did we eat such bad food there. Thinkest thou, O Eve, that God will plague us through the food that is in us, or that our inwards will come out; or that God means to kill us with this pain before He has fulfilled His promise to us?"

Then Adam besought the Lord and said, "O Lord, let us not perish through the food we have eaten. O Lord, smite us not; but deal with us according to Thy great mercy, and forsake us not until the day of the promise Thou hast made us."

Then God looked upon them, and at once fitted them for eating food; as unto this day; so that they should not perish.

Then Adam and Eve came back into the cave sorrowful and weeping because of the alteration in their nature. And they both knew from that hour that they were altered beings, that their hope of returning to the garden was now cut off; and that they could not enter it. For that now their bodies had strange functions; and all flesh that requires food and drink for its existence, cannot be in the garden. (Pseudipigrapha 1926) 

That passage was taken from The Book of Adam and Eve and Their Conflicts with Satan, chapter 45, 2-8). They had just eaten figs and God provided for them digestive organs after they had sinned.

Note their glorious appearance before sin: They had shapes that were male and female respectively, and God provided for them a covering (Gen 2:7). They were both naked (arom) and were not ashamed (Gen 2:25). Their nakedness was without possession as the word means in one context. It seems that their nakedness was transparency. Their soul could be seen through whatever the substances of their fleshes. God and any future passers-by could see the glory within them. The glory of God, much dimmer than the Light of God, would have showed through their organic flesh. I think of that covering as some substance that was similar to modern -day transparent polymers that were alive due to what was within.

God said that they would die. With sin, they died. As the sacred writing above reveals, they were no longer glorious beings, but their nature became brutish and of the same substance as the other kinds.

The man and the woman had changed. Among other things, they felt pain because they had eaten. Hence, they had to defecate but were unable to do so. God was graceful, He then equipped them with digestive tracts. They innards would have taken on gross things and with decay within them, they were no longer glorious but brutish.

The two inglorious beings drank water from just beyond the Garden. There were serious consequences, to wit: 

Then the Word of God came to Adam, and said unto him, "O Adam, thy body is become brutish, and requires water to drink. Take ye, and drink, thou and Eve; give thanks and praise." Adam and Eve then drew near, and drank of it, until their bodies felt refreshed. After having drunk, they praised God, and then returned to their cave, after their former custom. This happened at the end of eighty-three days. (Ibid; 1 Adam & Eve 46:3-4) 

They were then more like, “a lower animal as distinguished from a human being” (Merriam-Webster 2024). Not only were their form like the animals, but their function was as well. Their dominance was even challenged to “one who lacks intelligence, sensitivity, or compassion” (ibid).

Because of sin, God was gracious because they were of God and like God in the beginning before sin when in the realm of Paradise. It seems that Paradise was created in another realm with the environment like the Earth but without decay of any sorts. In other words, the Garden seemed to have been in another realm, and the two were cast out of it into this realm (Gen 3;24). The place that God described for them (Gen 3) was a fair description of our world here on planet Earth.

Mankind’s problem is ourselves. Note that Satan (The “Serpent”) did not mandate man and the woman to do anything; it was by their own volition that they disobeyed God and defied His one and only command!

Satan does not make you do anything. The male and the female were left alone to do as they pleased. The aforementioned book is about them doing as they pleased and the consequences that they suffered. Satan was always there with his cunningness, but not one time did Satan make them eat or drink water. They were free agents to do whatever pleased them, and for them, there was no king in the Kingdom of God, not even Satan.

How did the two become brutish? They defied the Deity, and they created a new deity. Right now, you are probably thinking that the two made Satan lord of their lives. Not so, they became masters of their own domain. The world was theirs now to either dress and keep or to let perish. Satan neither helped not hindered them from their animal husbandry. Before, Yahweh God, the Creator Father, was the Husbandman (John 15:1), afterward they, just like Noah, became the husbandmen (Gen 9:20).

What is “husbandry”?

“The cultivation or production of plants or animals” (Merriam-Webster 2024).

Before sin, Adam was to dress and keep the Garden wherein God performed the husbandry. God cultivated and produced all things that turned out “very good” (Gen 1:31). That is an understatement; they were created glorious; and how was that? It was meod tob — abundantly the best, and not diminished at all. God’s creatures were all glorious, bit only mankind was de-glorified in the Garden in heaven. The beasts that were there then may still be there now, but the brutes were made soulless. Life, then, is not the ability to articulate and grow, but the kinds that have souls with the Spirit of God in them.

Demons are not in the souls of men at their birth. Demons are real but get unto people for significant reasons. Of great significance is those who have been born again; they are the ones that need to remain sober and vigilant (1 Pet 5:8).

Satan via the “Serpent” never got into the souls of the man and the woman. However, they died, died, died. God got out of their bodies, their souls, and their lives. The man and the woman were emancipated entirely from God and became free-range beasts that must fend for themselves.

Who would get to them? Not Satan for he is too cunning. The world would get them; that is revealed in Genesis chapter three. They thought of themselves as the gods, and they would perish themselves!

What happened with sin that Satan did not get into their souls? “He” figuratively speaking, got into the flesh of male and the female. Their souls were empty of God but their fleshes became like Satan’s that was very different than the other existences. Again, The Books of Adam and Eve reveals that Lucifer and “its” demons can morph into various shapes and genders, even into beautiful, seductive women! (That itself is a great argument against transsexualism; it is of the Devil.) To morph, or transition, into any other existence is a abominable sin, or even to behave as the Kenites behaved in the days of Noah — male to male pedophilia, according to The Book of Jasher.

After sin, both the man and the woman were ashamed of their non-transparency (Gen 2:25). No longer could the Image of God be seen within them. They had new flesh in the manner of the older creature, Satan (aka Lucifer, the Serpent, the Devil, the Beast, etc.)

Lucifer was not a beast like you may imagine, but more like a beast in the movie Predator. Lucifer was an invisible but extant being that could only be revealed by its effect on things around it in the same manner as the movie. However, Lucifer could take on flesh and appear to be just another beast, thus “The Beast” in scripture. Now I am going somewhere. Scripture says:

For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that Wicked One, and slew his brother, and wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. (1 John 3:11-12)

It started in the beginning. What started? That us glorious creatures should love each other — to have goodwill for each other.

Cain had neither goodwill for Abel who was right with God nor even for God Himself. If you remember what a brute is, there you have it. Cain lacked intelligence, sensitivity, or compassion just as Merriam-Webster indicated. He lacked wisdom to use intelligence rightly and showed no compassion. He was indeed like a viper within his flesh, or nature. The brute hated his own flesh enough to kill the other who was a reflection of himself; however the ”mirror” was better than the object, so Cain broke the “mirror” because Abel reflected God and he reflected the wicked serpentine creature.

Cain lost his birthright that would be assumed by Seth upon the death of Abel, so she “bare a son, and called his name ‘Seth’ for God, said she, ‘had appointed Me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew’” (Gen 4:25). Hence, both Abel and Seth were “sons of God” because they were like their father, the male man, Adam. Cain was like Satan, his “father” — the Devil.

Cain was much unlike Adam? It was as if he had a different father or mother; or perhaps both!

(To be continued; why men are brutish)

 picture credit: PENGEE "A naked man"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

APOLOGETIC FOR THE SHROUD OF JESUS - Addendum

 I am now in the process of making this series into a book. In my research of the details, I thought of Josephus' appraisal of the Christ. I believe the Shroud of Turin is extant evidence of what Josephus believed. Herein is an addendum:

Jews honor their dead. It is not a celebration of life but a celebration of death. 

In Jewish literature and law, the human being is compared with the scroll of the Torah. The death of a man, for example, is equivalent to the burning of a Torah, and, in both cases, the onlooker is required to rend his garments. As the Torah, used for holy purposes, retains its holiness even when it becomes religiously disqualified, so man, having lived for noble purpose, retains dignity even in death. (Lamm 1966) 

Since the dead’s body is an Image of God, the dead are treated as if he or she is God; not that they are gods, but it is recognized that some spark of God was in them.

Perhaps the reason that the genitals of Jesus were covered for the burial was to prevent fornication. Fornication is not an act but an idea, porno in the Greek. Porno is exposing the body because to do so is disrespectful. No wonder, “those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man” (Mat 15:18).

The nakedness of Jesus was not His shame but our shame. Viewing the private parts of Jesus would have defiled us and disrespected Him. Jews do not display their dead like they were alive. The burial of Jesus defied Judaism. He was put on display, not in the tomb, but on cloth, if my hypothesis is true.

I find no place where Jews cover the genitalia in their funeral arrangements, so the man on the cloth must be a special type of Jew; perhaps a Christian Jew or Christ Himself. Ironically, Jesus was the first “man of the cloth” (a priest) if the shroud is His.

Note that it was written therein, “The death of a man, for example, is equivalent to the burning of a Torah.” The Torah is “The Word” in scripture. Death is like burning the Word, Jesus. So, the burial cloth of Jesus is like the Torah (first five books of the Old Testament). How does that apply to the death of Jesus? The Word was burned on linen. The holy Shroud of Jesus would be like the printed Word of God.

Indeed, Josephus referred to the death of Jesus as a “holocaust,” meaning that He was burned in death. The Shroud is the only evidence that we have that the death of Jesus was a holocaust, or a burnt offering.

Although writers are not in accord, Josephus wrote this about Jesus in the Testimonium Flavianum: 

About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Christ. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared. (Josephus, Antiquity of the Jews n.d.) 

Note that Josephus wrote, “He was the Christ.” That Jewish general believed Jesus was the Jewish Messiah in the flesh!  Josephus also wrote, “He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life.” Josephus believed in the Resurrection of Jesus. Belief that Jesus is the Messiah and that He was raised from the dead is the criteria for the making of a Christian, according to Paul (Acts 17:18).

Of course many disbelieve the Testimonium Flavianum , so the words of Josephus have been edited by posterity. However, the picture remains — the picture of Him spending a third day as He was restored to life. The Shroud is a picture of that restoration process… the glorification of Jesus.

Josephus pointed toward the Shroud, whether he knew it or not. Not only have Christians not disappeared to his writing but even until this day.

It makes sense that the picture of Christ on the linen has faded. It even disappeared for hundreds of years. Could it be that when the cloth fades of its image, the end comes? Or could it be when the cloth is not held in esteem because neither is the Christ that the end comes?

Scroll on Fire; credit StockCake

APOLOGETIC FOR THE SHROUD OF JESUS - Epilogue

After finishing my treatise, I realized that it was not finished, so this epilogue adds to the story.

The man, Adam, is a moving picture in our minds. We think of him like we think of ourselves. So many people have a false idea; that “We are all God’s children.” No, we are not! “You are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father you will do” (John 8:44).

John knew God! He knew that Jesus is Yahweh and had been since the beginning (John 1:1-14). He was saying, You are not of God; your father is the Devil.

Adam was a picture of God; “God created man in His own Image, in the Image of God created He him; male and female created He them” (Gen 1:27).

First off, “Adam” was not the male’s name. Adam was our kind in the beginning. Hence, all of us were made in the Image of God, not our flesh, but our countenance within; what we now call our “souls.” Right then, God created an Image off His likeness. Since our souls pre-existed us (Ephes 1:4), we were all at that time, a “picture” of Yahweh. We call that picture the “soul” because it is what was inside our ancestor and his woman.

The female was of the male. She was a picture of the male, so the original picture had a copy made from it. Everyone thereafter should have been a copy from the woman as the mother of all the living (Gen 3:20), but with time and repetition, the image faded until it degenerated in nine generations (Gen 5), so much that God could not longer be seen in Adam’s kind (Gen 6). No longer could God tolerate the devolution, so He dissolved the evil pictures of Adam that were not much like him. Mankind had become fornicators, porno in the Greek.

We think of mankind’s outside, but the degeneration was within. The soul of mankind no longer resembled God but looked more like the so-called “Serpent” who was not literally a “serpent” but cunning in that manner.

“Son” and “father” in those passages is genetics. The Devil, for instance, never sired us but is in our genetics because of the original sin. However remote it might be, Jesus said that we must be born again (John 3:7), literally “engendered from above” (Strong 2006). The picture of God within us can be restored. The resurrection process is how Jesus restores what little remains within us (we are not totally depraved but nearly so).

The Shroud of Turin showed how mankind (Adam) can be redeemed. The first step in the process is a through regenning, a time related process beginning with rebirth.

We too must spend time with God for development wherein the “babe in Christ” (1 Cor 3:1) must be set apart (sanctified) until the picture of God within us develops.

When the time of death nears, it does not matter what the picture looked like all the time, but how it looks at the moment of death.

The Shroud shows how Jesus looked at His death but atop that picture is the “negative” — how he looked then at the moment of the Resurrection. The Shroud is both the death mask and a mask of His “quickening Spirit” overlaid onto the same picture (1 Cor 15:45).

The picture on the burial shroud of Christ caught that “quickening Spirit” mentioned in that passage; “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.”

The Shroud was therefore a picture of the “Last Adam,” not a second Adam for each generation to us is a false picture of Adam. The Shroud shows the Image of God that was in the first Adam. The picture on the Shroud is in the negative. It is essentially the shadow of the Divine Adam.

In review, what was the Image of God in Adam? A “Selem” in the Hebrew; literally a “Shadow” but interpolated to be a “Phantom” (ibid). The dark features contrasted on the Shroud is what our soul should have looked like in 3:D. What you see on the Shroud is not a two-dimensional picture of Jesus since it was wrapped around the body, it revealed all the dimensions of the Body and Ghost of Christ at the same time.

Digressing for a moment, the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke each present one viewpoint of Jesus. For now, the viewpoints of each will not be discussed, but together they three gospels, each by one person, reveals a three-dimensional picture of Jesus. To see the real Jesus, each gospel must be read and assembled.

On the other hand, multiple people are believed to have provided information about Jesus for the book written by John. John starts out by giving a view of Jesus that the others did not; that the Image of God in the Old Testament was as real as the walking, talking, articulating Jesus that he saw. Therefore, John chapter one is a verbal picture that correlates with the picture on the burial cloth of Jesus!

John wrote in 3-D because he knew the real Jesus. He did not forget; the picture that he saw of the Living God is related in the Revelation wherein God showed John the picture of Himself fully developed, sometime after He returned to His Father: 

I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks One like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. (Rev 12:15) 

John saw a Shroud that we could not see. It was a garment that went down to His feet. Now examine the burial covering of Jesus. John saw Jesus without His clothes, so to speak. He was dressed in a garment that was more like the burial covering — like the Shroud of Turin.

 

Figure 2; Shroud of Turn

Note that John saw into another realm. He saw Jesus with white hair, and He was alive for His eyes were “as a flame of fire.” Those eyes would have provided the Divine Light that put the picture on the Shroud. The Angel of God seems to have projected His Image onto the burial cloth and in 3-D by hovering around the Body of Christ as He had done with Mary to conceive the original 3-D Living Picture of Yahweh!

The real Image of Jesus — the objectified Image of Him — would look like this if the covering was wrapped which it has been by use of computer technology.

 

Figure 3: YouTube

This could be an actual photo of the last Adam. If so, the first Adam would have resembled Jesus before he sinned and deteriorated the Image.

John saw something in his vision that pointed toward “The Word” which was the very Image of Jesus before He put on flesh; the one that Nebuchadnezzar saw in the fiery furnace.

The king had three men put into the furnace, but he saw a fourth: “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” Jesus was walking in the fire. His Divine feet would have been singed by fire. John saw that in the risen Christ! What John saw validated the story of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego.

However, not only that, but John saw evidence of  intense Light that had altered the feet of the glorified Jesus. His feet had signs of penetration by intense Light, “His feet (was) like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace.” Not only His feet, John, but His entire Body was burnt in the tomb by the Shekinah of God! That was why His death was a “holocaust.” I submit that the Image of Jesus that John saw was very much the same Image that we see on the Shroud!

Now for a moment, consider the first Adam again. He was naked before sin and was not ashamed (Gen 2:25); not that he was literally naked but that his soul could be seen through whatever his glorified flesh was. After sin, he was naked, both of them, and they were ashamed. Their souls had changed, so for that reason, they attempted to cover their genitalia — their genetics — for it would degenerate mankind, and that has been the case. I believe the flesh that we have to this day, since sin, is flesh mutated by the genome of Lucifer — the cunning serpentine-like creature.

With that said, after Jesus was glorified, He assumed new flesh; flesh that could not be touched nor torched. It seems to have been a very different incorruptible flesh that Jesus wore that could overcome the world (1 Pet 1:23).

The picture on the Shroud reveals the wounds that Jesus received, but wounds that failed to kill Him. It is a picture of His incorruptibility as well. In a sense, the burial cloth reveals His nakedness, and He was not ashamed. Note that a closeup view of the Shroud shows the genitalia of Jesus covered by his folded hands. In glorification, Jesus was not ashamed for He was indeed the last Adam.

Morticians generally bury people with their hands folded on their abdomens. Perhaps that is because of the folded hands of glorified Jesus; who knows? However, it makes more theological sense for Christians to be buried with our hands over our genitalia for throughout the course of history our genitals have been our shame.

So is it true; did John see the gloried Jesus as we see Him on the Shroud? I believe so! I trust that the Image on the Shroud is our Savior demonstrating the resurrection is possible for Him and us!

There is no shroud of it, but the first Adam may have been one of the saints on Calvary that were resurrected with Jesus that “came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many” (Mat 27:53). [1]

In regard to Adam, he was made in the Image of God. He was a negative picture of God, not in the sense that he was created wicked, but that although God could not be seen, Adam could. Whatever the substance of that Image, it could be seen because it was a picture of God. How did God make Adam. He took a 3-D picture of Himself and put it into the man, and then made it a living, articulating anthropoid (anthropos is “man” in the Greek) that stood upright.

Adam was then covered with a flesh that revealed his inward image.

Only with sin came human skin like the beasts. As the last Adam, the photograph on the Shroud may very well be what we should look like when we too are resurrected, hopefully minus the wounds and such. The burial Shroud of Jesus might very well be a picture of the dead when they arise, not in the sense of elevation from the grave, but when our bodies are assembled again with our souls and made incorruptible. It is a picture of us in Christ if we are born again.

There is much speculation in the contents of this treatise, but I do present plausible evidence that the burial shroud is the Image on cloth of Jesus at the very moment that He was glorified! That should not only excite you but comfort you, as well. Not only is it a picture of the Man of God but the “Comforter” as well, meaning the Holy Ghost (John 14:6). The Shroud is more than a cloth but a comforter for those in Christ. I am not Jewish, but the sign is plain to me!

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[1] For more on that refer to my book, The Skull of Adam.

APOLOGETIC FOR THE SHROUD OF JESUS - final part

The purpose of this treatise is to determine if it is plausible that the Shroud of Turn is indeed the burial cloth of Jesus, the Christ. If it is, then that holy cloth would reveal the glorification of Jesus just as He said in the following passage. 

He that believes on Me, as the scripture has said, “out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water.” But this spoke He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:38-39)

 Some “fluid” flows from Christ to believers. For this passage to be understood, I had to punctuate it because there was a quote within the quote. The Living Water is from the belly of Jesus, not another, and Jesus defined it as the Spirit of God. It goes onto say that the day would come soon after He was glorified. It did not come until after Jesus was resurrected and ascended (Acts 2). Hence, only Jesus had the Holy Spirit in Him and that is confirmed by His baptism. John the Baptist said, “Upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizes with the Holy Ghost” (John 1:33).

Therein we have the “photographic fluid” to develop the picture of Jesus on His burial cloth. When Jesus was glorified, the Image of God came onto Him after leaving Him at the crucifixion.

As I wrote in my book, The Awesome Quantum God, the godhead consists of Jesus, the Holy Ghost, and the Dynamics, or Power. The Living Water is the movement, or transmission, of the Holy Spirit. “Glorification,” in my lexicon, would be the transmission of the Holy Spirit, which in effect “assembles” the Holy Trinity.

Jesus figuratively was “raised (egerio) from the dead” (Acts 3:15); the idea of which is “to collect one’s faculties” (Strong 2006), or to assemble them. As Jesus was raised, His faculties were re-assembled after they had left Him at the crucifixion (Mark 15:37).

“Glorification” is the re-assembly of the Image of the Father into the Son. The third “Divine Substance” would be the Power of God — the Creator aspect of Him.

Why a Quantum God? Because the Dynamics of God which was, according to King David, acted in the following manner, “In the daytime also He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire” (Psalm 78:14). However, when God rested, His Image was a bright “Shadow,” not that His Image was dark, for there is no darkness in Him according to John, “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

Thus the “cloud” was not dark but a bright cloud. Likewise, the “Shadow” (Selem) of God was not dark but a phantom that radiated brightness. When God rested a second time during the  New Testament era, the Shadow of God appeared as the Man, Jesus. The bright Cloud, the bright Phantom, and the radiant Jesus are each as much God as the next in Power.

After the Resurrection and Glorification of Jesus, “(Th)ereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the Power of God” (Luke 22:69). Jesus did not literally sit alongside the Father but was re-assembled to the Father by Divine Power. That Process is Glorification.

Again, I believe that the Shroud captured the glorification of Jesus, and as such it is the ultimate evidence that Jesus is in fact God and that God left forensic evidence for posterity because we are all inwardly Jews (Rom 2:29) that need a sign.

What happened in the “dark room” of the tomb is that the picture of the glorification of Jesus was captured and developed and sent around the world like a negative image on a film. The “film” was the burial cloth, if that is correct.

Within the tomb in the darkness thereof it seems that the Light of God came onto the Man and exposed Him as God. It was a re-assembly because the Holy Ghost would have come in Power and re-entered Jesus just as at the baptism of Jesus when “the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him” (Luke 3:22).

Now imagine this: Jesus lies completely still in the tomb just like in an old still picture like the one shown below.

 

Figure 1: Victorian Photo Showing girl as if alive

 

Now imagine the Holy Spirit in bodily shape coming onto His body again. The Holy Ghost would have passed through the burial cloth and sinched the material. The dark image would not be made by blood or a dye, but the Phantom Image of God burned onto cloth by the Power of God.

Before I write about the source of the Image of God in verse, there is one loophole to be closed; it was not just the affusion of oil on His head, but on His body: “She has done what she could; she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying” (Mark 14:8). His whole body was covered with anointment; no wondered some were indignant toward Mary; it was not just the money wasted but Christ exposed (probably down to his pants) as He would be when they stripped Him naked on the cross.

Mary did that for a specific reason, for some purpose during his burial. Jewish burials traditionally had two steps: (1) internment in a tomb or cave until the flesh decayed, and (2) the placing of bones in a ossuary made of stone where they were kept. Jesus lost His flesh but apparently not His basis.

The other women took care of step one when they came to preserve Jesus with oils when He was entombed. So, Mary’s purpose was for something else: She was preparing Jesus, I would bet, for His photograph! Indeed, that picture has now been seen throughout the world so that Jesus even accomplished the “Great Commission” after His death. The picture is not of just a man; but the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In a sense, it too is the picture of the baptism of Jesus in blood and Living Water in the manner of the baptism of John, but the “water” was this time, the Waters of the Holy Spirit that came from the belly of God to re-assembly the “Last Adam” and a “quickening spirit” (1 Cor 15:45).

That takes care of the loose ends. It was not just the “head” of Jesus that had nard applied to it, but the entire body. Matthew was just being polite in the company of his peers if that is true.

Lacking as of now is the source of the light that burned the picture of the Godhead into the covering. The source can be found in scripture as well. At dawn the darkness still hovered over the tomb of Jesus; and there came Mary Magdalene. She saw the Tekton at His work! 

Behold, there was a great earthquake: for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. (Mat 28:2-3) 

There came a flash of Light from the Angel of God as if a picture was being taken in the contrast of the darkness. His countenance, or appearance, was like lightening. I believe the Holy Ghost — the Phantom of God — flashed His Image onto the covering of Jesus dead body, and re-Spirited it. In other words, the Holy Ghost came onto Jesus like Light.

Throughout scripture, “The Angel of God” is always the Presence of God in phantom form. Jocob wrestled with the Angel of God who was of a different “substance” but was in the shape of a man (Gen 32). It was not a literal wrestling match, but the Hebrew word for that meant “vapor.” Living Water would have come onto Jacob and He somehow won. I believe that God endowed Jacob with His Image — the Spirit of God in bodily shape.

In a sense, the Angel of God “wrestled” with the still body of Jesus and Jesus won! In modern terms, Jesus got His groove back; His Holy Ghost returned to Him, and there remains a picture to prove it.  The “Vapor” of the Holy Spirit would have passed through the covering as if it was not even there, as God overcame the world again.

Now for some science… neutrinos pass through hard things as if stone is not even there. Neutrinos are sub-atomic particles that are impervious to matter. The substance of the Holy Ghost is not a neutrino, but the Power of God behaves in much the same way.

First off, the tomb was empty when it was opened. Envision this now; there remained only the so-called “Shroud” and a folded face cloth. The Shroud would have been exactly where Jesus had been laid to rest. Perhaps. Mary Magdalene saw the picture on the burial cloth and saw exactly where Jesus had been placed the day before. It does appear that the “napkin” had gone unused so that the face of Jesus would not be erased to reveal that this was a picture of a real man.

That Angel of God was the same quickening Spirit of God that endowed Adam with His Image. The Angel was the “Shadow” of Light, or Phantom, that is the Holy Spirit in bodily shape.

Imagine now this scenario: The Angel of God — an Image of Light — passed right through the burial cloth into the body of Jesus, leaving behind the exact Image of the “Object” Jesus in the form of a negative Image, or a “Shadow.” In a sense, if my conjecture is true, then the Shroud of Turn reveals the Image of God in the bodily shape of a man. It is a picture of Yahweh — the “Angel” that “wrestled” with Adam and with Jacob.

Yes, Yahweh, the Angel of God, “wrestled” with Adam as well: “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen 2:7). When the Angel of God breathed life onto Jesus, He too became the “Last Adam” — a living soul. God took a picture of the glorification of Jesus, and ironically, Eve was the “picture” of Adam. The Phantom that was God seemed to have just passed through Adam unto her. The Image of God was perhaps the bodily shape of Jesus like at His baptism.

That the Angel of God passed through walls, and such, is miraculous, it seems, but it is now known that things can pass through other things undetected. Right now, as you read this, neutrinos, it is said, pass right through you as if you are not there, even undetected. If neutrinos can do that, certainly the Holy Spirit of God can pass through the thin flesh of your chromosomes that is in every nuclear cell of your body. Or even through the fibrous covering over the Body of Jesus.

Now, about Jesus who was walking with some men that failed to recognize Him after His glorification, “Their eyes were opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished out of their sight” (Luke 24:31). “Vanished” (aphantos) in that passage as deeper meaning. He immediately became unseen. He disappeared as if a phantom! They saw Jesus in a different light and He seemed not there!

Jesus did not disappear, he translated to another realm and soon appeared in a locked room where the remaining eleven apostles were discussing Him.

Those on the road to Emmaus soon returned to Jerusalem and joined the eleven. Something miraculous occurred: 

And as they thus spoke, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said unto them, “Peace be unto you, but they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. (Luke 24:36-37) 

They thought that Jesus was just Spirit because He reappeared from “nowhere” to them. However, Jesus challenged them to touch Him because He said that He was of flesh and bones. Hower it was not mortal flesh and bones but glorious. He looked like Himself, even with the wounds, but something happened to His old flesh that made Him new.

Nobody thereafter touched Jesus, even Thomas who doubted. His doubt subsided without ever touching Jesus.

Earlier Jesus had said to Mary, after He arose, “Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to My brethren, and say unto them, “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God’” (John 20:17). The Greek root translated “ascend” is “origin” — in English, it is His basis. What is the basis, or genesis, of Jesus? Yahweh. Jesus would neither arise to His origin nor walk to it but gain the Power of Yahweh just as Jesus had said, “Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God” (Luke 22:69).

Something had happened to Jesus; He had lost virtue (dynamos) to save mankind from the sins of the world at His crucifixion, and when He was glorified, his “Shadow,” Yahweh had lost Power to do that! In other words, Jesus had to regain the Power of God for Him to return to His basis — the godhead.

We think of light as illumination, but the basis of light is power. That God is the “Light of the World” does not mean that He is the Sun but that He is the Power that powered the world into existence and keeps it together. In a sense, even gravity is the “Light of God” because even gravity bends to Him!

For instance, a solar eclipse reveals both the omniscience and omnipotence of God. During that interval when the Moon passes between us and the Sun, the Moon and Sun appear to be the same size. What are you seeing? God’s Power. They cast a shadow on the Earth and the observer knows by the shadow what is happening with the objects above even without looking at them. That too acknowledges the Existence of God. Paul said to the Romans, “The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead” (Rom 1:20).

That the sizes, densities, and distances of those two bodies are perfect during an eclipse proves the Existence of God. So, does the Shroud of Jesus: it is the picture of the Shadow of both bodies just as is an eclipse. God places and holds the Sun and Moon together to form a shadow, so why could He not do the same with the two “Bodies” of God?

In a Platonian manner the shadow of the Moon is cast onto the Earth by the light of the Sun. Hence, the shadow, like Plato indicates, is a “fragment” of the real thing. In like manner, the Holy Ghost — the “Shadow” of Jesus — is as real as the objective man, Jesus. The shadow of Jesus goes where He goes, and that Shadow, or Phantom Image, is Yahweh. That invisible Being from the foundation of the world is understood by the created Thing — the body of Jesus.

In a similar manner, the burial covering of Jesus, if that is true, bears the “Shadow” of the man, Jesus. The Image in the fabric is in the negative just like a picture negative. It is indeed difficult to see the Image. However, when reversed, the Image is clearly of the man, Jesus, and not just His “Shadow.”

I submit that the “picture” that we call, the “Shroud of Turin” is both a photograph of the Man and His Shadow, the Holy Ghost, depending on the filter in which it is viewed. If that garment does anything, it reveals that Jesus is God in the flesh, and the process for that was done in the tomb by the Power of God.

There you have what I call “The Quantum God” who appears from His Dynamics, when stopped, as either a Man or a Ghost. The Dynamic of God was the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Luke revealed that those Images are indeed the Power that was revealed as the Holy Ghost on that occasion (Acts 2).

We often forget that the “Creator” God was His Power, and only when at rest does He reveal Himself as either Yahweh or Jesus and the Holy Ghost is the substance of Yahweh.

Don’t gloss over the Godhead. We often forget the cloud and the pillar of fire that contain the Power of God in action. The third part of the Holy Trinity is the Virtue that heals, saves, and takes photos of miracles. The Power of God entered the tomb of Jesus, as if it was a photographic dark room, and burnt an Image of both the Ghost of Jesus and the Object Jesus on cloth for posterity.

Now imagine the process of glorification; Jesus lies still within the cubby of the tomb. What did people do in early photography? Nothing; they remained still as if dead! Jesus was “asleep” as He would say… that His Dynamic was robbed of Him because of the loss of Virtue when He
“healed the nations” (Rev 22:2); where He is symbolized as “The Tree of Life.”

Jesus did suffer death and was weakened, even pierced. Surely His heart no longer beat! In a sense, Jesus had fallen asleep (koimao). The root word in the Greek is “keimai.” meaning “of things that quietly cover some spot” (Strong 2006).

Remember God giving life? He breathed life unto Adam. When the Holy Ghost had gone out from Jesus, life had left Him. He was not dead but stilled as if to take a photograph! That does not diminish Jesus because he still suffered the agony of death.

So there lies Jesus immobile. He is prepared for what was to come and indeed this glorious event was planned. Nobody but God was responsible for it was Him that sacrificed His “Son.” It was not His offspring but His Own Image; think of “Son” as the “Genome” that would be the invisible (chromosomal) substance of Yahweh.

Father God, seeing the loss of Virtue from His invisible Image would have engendered Jesus again by the filling of the Holy Spirit to reveal the Holy Ghost.

Now remember that Spirit is pneuma in the Greek: the wind, cloud, tongue of fire, and so forth. Only when stopped was the Holy Spirit the Holy Ghost. They are not interchangeable but different forms of the same Divine Dynamic.

While still in the tomb, Yahweh would have imbued Himself into the lifeless Body of the Christ. The Shroud captured that event, if I have it right. The Image on the Shroud is of both the Body and Ghost of God, depending how it is viewed. What we can’t see but know that it is there is the Creator God; His Divine Power that burned the Images of both the Body and Ghost of Jesus onto cloth. Again, I say, that burial cloth is a picture of the Godhead!

So, from where did the Power of God come? The Angel of the Lord God who had been in the tomb both snapping the picture and processing it in a sense. He had that capacity for “His countenance was like lightning, and His raiment white as snow” (Mat 28:3).

Now imagine this: That “Angel” was invisible Image, or Phantom, of God that was made visible to Mary. Jesus saw the Image as she would a man. That makes sense, because the Holy Ghost was visible to some even at the crucifixion. They even wrote about seeing Jesus give up the Ghost. Mary saw the gloried Jesus who surely passed through the walls of the tomb and rolled the stone away, not for Him to get out but to let others see in.

Now consider the burial cloth. The Light of the Angel of God in bodily shape passed through the organic material that basically burnt the carbon from it where the skin touched it. The carbon, if that is true, would have discolored the cloth because of the intense light. The photo-chemicals within the spikenard provided the right atmosphere to promote the process just as the chemicals used in the dark room.

As the Image of the Angel passed though, the Shekinah Light of God would have burned the Image of the Angel onto the cloth, and as Jesus was raised from His sleep, His glorified Body then had the Power to Pass through; hence both the Images of the Body and Ghost of Jesus was emblazoned on the cloth, thus burning a picture of the glorification process. That Shroud caught the very instant in time when God revealed all three of His Substances on cloth. The picture is perhaps one of the Godhead — “The Holy Trinity.”

Mary first saw the Angel of Jesus and as soon as she left, then she saw Jesus somewhat later. Jesus could overcome the world and as later scripture reveals, can appear objectively and vanish unto His unseen Image.

Why not touch the gloried Body of Jesus? Perhaps because it was still developing; perhaps if Thomas had touched Jesus, his hand would have just passed through the flesh as if it was not even there.

What did you see at the crucifixion of Jesus. Some that were around Him saw the body of a man. Others saw the Holy Ghost of Jesus leaving. Some saw the Power of God leaving the Body of God. I believe that Dismus, the repentant thief, saw the Man, His Ghost, and the Power to save mankind. Dismus saw the Godhead, and now we have a fairly clear picture of the Holy Trinity on cloth that reveals the mysterious Power of God.

 

THE END…  or is it?

APOLOGETIC FOR THE SHROUD OF JESUS - part two

So far, it has been established that there was a full body covering over Jesus in the tomb. God, in His wisdom, provided evidence of His three-fold existence: (1) The object, Jesus; (2) the “negative,” the Holy Ghost; and (3) the Power.

Jesus was not a mere carpenter; He was literally a highly intelligent technician (tekton in the Greek). He is the omniscient (all-knowing) God. He had knowledge of all things before any person ever thought of them.

Things often occur to me in “dreams,” not in REM sleep but somewhere between the conscious and unconscious. That stage is called the “hypnagogic state” wherein “spontaneously appearing visual, auditory and kinesthetic images; qualitatively unusual thought processes and verbal constructions; tendencies toward extreme suggestibility; symbolic representations of mental and physiological processes; and so on.” (Schacter 1976).

In scripture, many people, even heathens, had pertinent dreams. A hypnagogic state is where a person is subject to unusual thought processes. Much of my commentary occurs to me as I get caught somewhere between sleep and awake. Perhaps that is how God shares His divine Thoughts with people, especially Christians.

In the darkness in bed, the Thoughts of God occurred to me early this morning. I was receiving thoughts that were not my own. That agrees with scripture (Isa 55:8). God guides people by getting into our minds. I am content with that. However, we must test all things and hang onto what is good (1 Thes 5:1), so that process drives me toward evidence of the truth. I believe the truth is that the shroud of Turin is a “photograph” of Jesus that reveals the third “substance” of the godhead — His Power.

Luke wrote about how, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power” (Acts 10:38). That occurred at the baptism of Jesus when the Holy Ghost came on Jesus and remained, at least until the crucifixion where the Holy Ghost left Him. Perhaps it happened again in the tomb. More on that later.

It came to me earlier in the year that when Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” that God used Plato’s way — the Allegory of the Cave — wherein in a cave chained men who could only see shadows issued by the light on objects behind them were seeing a fragment of the real thing. The crucifixion was an enactment of the Allegory of the Cave that God revealed to me when half asleep.

That was “wisdom” from the Divine. To save them that believe, Paul wrote, “The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom” (1 Cor 1:22). Many saw the “Shadow” of Jesus as real as the “Object” Jesus. Hence, the Shadow, or Holy Ghost, was a fragment of the Man.

That would satisfy Pilate who seemed to be familiar with the Platonian question. Next, how to satisfy the Jews? A sign. How about a photograph of the godhead in action? Let me explain in the next few paragraphs.

I saw the tomb as a photographic darkroom. God would be the Technician who took and developed the photograph to present to the world to satisfy the Jews. So far, neither the Jews nor the Gentiles are satisfied, even though the shroud may be the sign that they needed. It is indeed forensic evidence that a dead man was crucified during the right time (ascertained by the weave of the fabric), right place, and right manner of death. That occurred to me half asleep when I was open to suggestion, just as the Allegory of the Cave did some time ago.

But we must tackle the process; some other things require examination. Paul wrote, “Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Ephes 5:2). Jesus was the sacrifice for all the sins of all time, one time. He was the one satisfactory sin offering that was a onetime event.

Would you not want a picture of that? Of course, you would be standing there with your smartphones clicking away! We all need evidence that things occur, and they were no different then. So, God perhaps provided a picture for all of us for all time. His photograph has faded, is worn and dirty, yet it remains a picture of the ultimate sacrifice, if you accept it as evidence.

Josephus called the crucifixion a “holocaust.” At one time, “holocaust” meant burning by fire. How was the death and resurrection a “holocaust” for He did not seem to be burned by fire? He was crucified but indeed His Body may have indeed been burned by fire in the tomb. More on that shortly.

The Law was this: “You shall offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement: and you shall cleanse the altar, when you have made an atonement for it, and you shall anoint it, to sanctify it” (Exod 29:36).

Jesus was the substitute for the bullock, or better said, the other way around. The crucifixion was a sin offering and “it” had to be cleansed, anointed, and burned.

Calvary was the place of the crucifixion. It was the altar. The Romans prepared the altar and hopefully it was cleansed before it was used for the Law to be done.

When did the cleansing and anointing of the “Bullock” occur?

Jesus prepared Himself. Dung would not make a clean sacrifice, so the day before Jesus announced, “Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God” (Mark 14:25). Jesus did not eat the Last Supper. Supper was over and then came the last course after Jesus was anointed (see Luke’s account). The Last Supper was the last meal of Judas wherein he effectively dipped the body of Christ into the blood of Christ.

God is polite. The bowels of Jesus would be empty just as the dung of a bullock would be emptied before a sacrifice. (We don’t like to think about Jesus having biological functions but as a Man He did.)

Next came the washing. Jesus said about Mary, “She has done what she could; she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying” (Mark 14:8). Mary with her ointment was preparing the perfect sacrifice and as was pointed out, she went to great expense and used the finest ointment there was — spikenard. That is important! That she was preparing for His burial means that she was supplying something that would be there when He laid in the tomb. Was she supplying the chemicals for some process? Let’s see.

We are to hang onto what is good from all the information we dream. I asked myself about spikenard. It was used to perform the Law exactly; Jesus said so: “Let her alone; why trouble you her? she has wrought a good work on Me” (Mark 14:6). She had performed according to the Law, He was saying. The Law required both cleansing and anointing; spikenard did just that! 

Spikenard consists of many essential components it being an essential oil. The spike prefix comes from the inflorescence, or stem of the plant that flowers. It represents life giving power. Wikipedia Nard oil is used as a perfume, an incense, and in Ayurvedic practices. Sesquiterpenes contribute to the major portion of the volatile compounds, with the eponymous jatamansone (also known as (-)-valeranone) being dominant. Many coumarins are also present in the oil. The alkaloid actinidine has been isolated from the oil, and valerenal alongside valerenic acid (formerly called nardal and nardin respectively). Among the other phytochemical products are found in the rhizomes are: nardostachysin, a terpenoid ester; nardostachnol; nardostachnone; jatamansic acid and jatamansinone.lists the constituents of spikenard.

 

Thinking thoughts does not make me a chemist, but alkalides stuck out. Alkali metals have low ionization enthalpies and therefore, the electrons are easily ejected when exposed to light. Light upon alkalides causes ionization — that is “any process by which electrically neutral atoms or molecules are converted to electrically charged atoms or molecules (ions) through gaining or losing electrons” (Encyclopedia Britannica 1787-2024).

The ionization of alkalides is a photographic process. Such processes produce photogenic images; and what is that? “A past concept that involves the production of images (and how after-images can continue to produce affects, emotions, ideas, and wonder)” (Ulmer 2017). The Shroud of Turin is a photogenic image that produces such emotions and things.

Some of the other substances in spikenard are alcohols — cleaning agents. Spikenard is a parfume — the most powerful of the essential oils. I submit that spikenard may have been the photographic compound that Mary used for the picture of Jesus made on the shroud.

Spikenard ointment used on Jesus contains alkalides. They are used to develop pictures, changing the color on the slide. Perhaps that process was used by the Great Technician to produce an image of Jesus in His covering.

Remember, that Mary was preparing Jesus for his burial! That is significant as His burial place was a dark and never used (clean) tomb. It would be the Great Tekton’s laboratory where the greatest photograph ever taken was shot and the negative image of Jesus revealed. (Yes, the Shroud is the negative of the Image of Christ. It is in a sense, His “Shadow,” or Holy Ghost.

The Law, or the Word (pre-incarnate Jesus), had great significance: “The Law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things” (Heb 10:1). The negative Image of Jesus on the Shroud could represent the “backside” of God that Moses saw, and the Object the Face of God (Jesus) that he could not see. Hence, the Image of Jesus on the Shroud would be what Moses saw — Jesus in the negative image, or His Holy Ghost.

So, what made the crucifixion a burnt offering? The Shroud is evidence of that. The body of Jesus was burned on the linen cloth by some Divine Power.

So far, the nard met step one of the Jewish burial process. It cleansed and anointed the dead Jew. Step two was the clothing for which the soldiers gambled. Step three was the full-body covering; what we now say is His Shroud. Those have been explained.

Also, the chemicals and “dark room” have been presented. Jesus asked, “And now, O Father, glorify You Me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world was.” (John 7:5). The photographic process is glorification and that implies that the Image of God be exposed. What was that Image? “Selem” in the Hebrew, the “Shadow” of God, or His Phantom Presence (Strong 2006). Jesus was asking that the Holy Spirit come onto Him after His death.

The death and resurrection of Jesus was His glorification (John 7:39). Glorification explains the source of the Light that came on Jesus to make the photonic Image of the Savior.

(To be continued)

APOLOGETIC FOR THE SHROUD OF JESUS – part one

The so-called “Shroud of Turin” has gained much interest. It is unknown how it got to Turin and even if it is the burial cloth of Jesus. Scholars are still in search of the origin of the shroud that Jesus was allegedly covered with in the tomb.

I have always been interested in forensic evidence. As scripture says, “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; (1 Cor 20:20, 22-23).

While everyone else is looking for the Holy Grail, I have found it. It is, in my opinion, the vessel, that is translated “cup” that held the Holy Spirit of God as Jesus. I am no longer in search of the Holy Grail, so now I consider the Holy Shroud of Christ.

The argument in the passage above is about the crucifixion. The Greeks would need reasonable evidence and the Jews some type of sign. In a sense, the burial shroud of Jesus tells the story of the crucifixion. Experts say that all the evidence of the crucifixion is on that shroud. First is the uncommon crown of thorns not usually put on corpses. Likewise, abrasions showing that the deceased’s picture on the shroud is evidence that He carried what could have been the cross. Likewise, it shows that it was a crucified man with nail marks in his hands and feet, and that the man had been pierced in the side.

The others crucified were not pierced. Apparently, it was uncommon, but Jesus died too quickly, and because certainty was required that the King was dead, as is usual for any king, they made sure that He was dead.

It is also known that Jesus was covered with a burial cloth. How much is uncertain. Perhaps I can shed some light on that shortly.

“When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth” (Mat 27:59). Mark gives more information. Joseph wrapped the body in fine linen, not some of the person, but all the body. Luke concurs with that assessment… “on Him” — on the body of Jesus.

Now we turn to Jewish burial customs: The Jews have always  required that burial customs be common for all. They standardized the funeral process: 

Step 1: Preparing the body for burial by cleansing.

Step 2: Wrapping the body in a shroud which has parts: “shirt, pants, head covering, belt, and for some, a long jacket.”

Step 3: Lastly, a “wrapping sheet.” (Star of David Memorial Chapels 2024) 

Therefore, the shroud, since it is essentially the burial clothing is not the Shroud of Turin. It should be called the “Covering of Turin” or better said, the “Covering of the Body of Christ.” It was not a face covering but the overlay — the wrapping sheet for the whole body.

However, there was a napkin of sorts that was folded neatly, according to the following: 

He (some other man) stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then comes Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and sees the linen clothes lie, and the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. (John 20:5-7) 

Jesus was “naked” at His death. Not fully naked, but mostly so. Nakedness was considered indecent as with the “nakedness” of King David who wore only his lower garments.  It is supposed that Jesus had on only his pants because He was whipped severely on the back. That would have torn any clothing that He had worn beneath his gown. If He had on a short, it would have been ripped badly.

Jesus had a crown of thorns on his head. It was His head covering. (John 19:5). The soldiers had cast lots for his “shroud” — the shirt, pants, belt, and long jacket.

His head-covering was the crown that they put onto Him. Then they put onto Him a purple robe of royalty (Mark 15:17.) and finally after “they had mocked Him, they took off the purple from Him, and put His own clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him” (Mark 15:20). Lastly, after the death of Jesus, “They parted His garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take” (Mark 20:24).

Unless I’m missing something, the soldiers removed what was left of the blood-stained and torn clothing of Jesus, ostensibly as souvenirs.[1]  That action reveals to me that they respected Jesus because they wanted the King’s bloody personal clothing.

With that said, Jesus was dressed to some degree while on the Cross. When He died, they divided His clothing. There was no napkin for His face, so Joseph applied it later, or perhaps Joseph was persuaded that Jesus was God enough that like the thief, Pilate, and the centurion; he knew that Jesus would be raised from the dead as He had implied so many times.

In other words, Joseph may have folded the face covering all neat, clean, and folded. I’m just looking at the facts and drawing some conclusions from what I read.

Nowhere that I know of did Joseph put onto Jesus a traditional shroud of multiple pieces. Think of a suit that is on a modern corpse; that is a “shroud.” A face covering would not be required because Joseph was surely confident that Jesus is the Lord God just as He said He is.

By not putting on the face cloth reveals faith.

What was Moses not allowed? To see the Face of God… “You (Moses) cannot see My Face: for there shall no man see Me, and live” (Exod 33:20).

Jesus had just died so that we need not. Out of respect, Joseph of Arimathea, knowing the Torah very well, would never cover the Face of God again. However, a burial covering was tradition. That alone would cover the Face of God but because of that, the so-called “Shroud” should reveal the Face of Jesus, and it did!

Again, keep in mind that the burial cloth was not a shroud but a linen covering in the manner of the Shroud of Turin. In that Jesus was stripped of His clothing, then the covering became the “shroud,” so I will not argue the details.

The “linen” in which Jesus was wrapped was a clean loosely woven cloth from the Greek (Strong 2006). The cloth of the Shroud of Turin is loosely woven linen. So, far, so good; no need for a face cloth that went unused, and so far, the linen matches the scripture account. In addition, the stains on the Shroud match the injuries of Christ. The only hurdle is the age of the Shroud.

It was indeed cloth to be found in that era, and scientists have found a reason for the carbon-decay method to be inaccurate; contamination by human hands, mostly in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to which it was dated.

I believe that is now settled, so I have no way of arguing that point myself. Science, however, wants it to be fake, so to call it real means that they are wrong.  Again, scientific pride stands in the way.

(To be continued)

Picture credit: Shroud. com

 

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[1] In like manner, I contacted the office of President Donald Trump and requested his bloody suit in which he was shot for a souvenir of a man I respected.