|
|
Historians have long known about an ancient cloth said to bear an image of
Jesus known as the Image of Edessa, the Edessa Cloth, and later in the Byzantine
era as the Holy Mandylion. Edessa was a cosmopolitan city in Jesus’ day and one of the cities were
Christian communities developed early as they did in Antioch. Edessa, now the
city of Urfa in modern day Turkey, is situated about 400 miles north of
Jerusalem. We can be quite confident that this ancient cloth, which disappeared
during the sacking of Constantinople in 1204 by knights of the Fourth Crusade,
is the Shroud of Turin. Legend has it that
the cloth was brought to King Abgar V Ouchama of Edessa (13 - 50 CE) by one of
Jesus’ disciples known to us as Thaddeus Jude (Addai). We know of this legend
from Eusebius of Caesarea’s early fourth century Ecclesiastical History.
Therein, we learn of a now lost document once in Edessa’s archives purportedly
written by King Abgar V and delivered to Jesus by an envoy named Ananias. Abgar,
supposedly, asked Jesus to come to Edessa and to cure him of leprosy. Eusebius’
history reports that the Apostle Thomas did send Thaddeus Jude sometime after
Jesus’ death and that he founded a church in Edessa. Historians are highly
critical of this legend since Eusebius’s history includes, as elements of the
letter, references from the Gospels, which were written later, as well as
theological concepts, which were developed later. It also must be pointed out
that Eusebius makes no mention of the cloth. Another Syrian manuscript, the Doctrine of Addai, fills in some
gaps. According to this document, which also mentions the letter, Ananias
painted a portrait of Jesus "with choice pigments." A later document, the
Acts of the Holy Apostle Thaddeus, written in the early part of the
sixth century, adds more detail. It suggests that the image was formed when
Jesus wiped his face on the linen cloth and it refers to the Edessa Cloth as a
tetradiplon. We can only assume that this is all legend. But from this material
we can gather three very important clues: Regardless of how
the image-bearing cloth arrived in Edessa, it was discovered in the early sixth
century concealed behind some stones above one of the city gates. It was a
practice in ancient cities of this area to mount a stone tile with a picture of
some favored deity above the city’s main gate. It may be that the Image of
Edessa was simply stored behind such a tile as suggested by some Byzantine
iconography. It could well have been that because of severe floods, to which
Edessa was very prone; the cloth was placed high in the city’s walls for
protection. There is also the very real possibility that it was hidden to
protect it from invaders or to protect it during times of Christian
persecutions. We know that during the many persecutions of the first three
centuries, valuable relics, writings, and ceremonial items of the church were
routinely destroyed. There is evidence of local persecutions in Edessa as early
as the latter part of the first century and of Roman persecutions that persisted
until the time of Emperor Constantine. If, in fact, the cloth was taken to
Edessa in the earlier part of the first century, it might have been hidden for
protection as early as the reign of Ma’nu VI, Abgar’s son, who is thought to
have reverted to paganism. What is not legend, nor speculation, is that the cloth, with an image of what
was then believed to be a true and miraculous facial image of Jesus - described
as a divinely wrought image and an image not made by hand - was found in the
walls of the city in the sixth century. During repairs of the city walls in 525
CE, or more likely, during a Persian invasion of the city in 544 CE, the cloth
was rediscovered and placed in a church built especially for it. It was, to the
people of Edessa, the lost cloth of the "legend." In the late sixth century,
Evagrius Scholasticus’ Ecclesiastical History mentions that Edessa
was protected by a "divinely wrought portrait" (acheiropoietis) sent by Jesus to
Abgar. In 730 CE, St. John Damascene in On Holy Images describes
the cloth as a himation, which is translated as an oblong cloth or grave cloth.
This may be the first mention, among extant documents, of it being a grave
cloth. For a bigger picture see: Image of Edessa |
The
scientific study of the Turin shroud is like a microcosm of the
scientific search for God: it does more to inflame any debate than
settle it.”
And yet, the shroud is a remarkable artefact, one of the few religious relics to have a justifiably mythical status. It is simply not known how the ghostly image of a serene, bearded man was made.”
Scientist-Journalist Philip Ball Nature, that most prestigious of scientific journals, that once had bragging rights to claim that the Shroud was fake, responding to new, peer-reviewed studies that discredit the carbon 14 dating and show that the Shroud could be authentic. WHAT WE KNOW IN 2005
|