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.
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.
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?
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