The true cross of Jesus had been revealed. Helena carved it up, leaving some of it in Jerusalem and transporting a chunk to Europe where it seemingly multiplied, so much so that Protestant reformer John Calvin said: " Yet the Gospel testifies that a single man was able to carry it.
But was Calvin exaggerating to support his own reforms to Catholicism? How could we ever know what the true cross was made of, or looked like, since neither the Gospels -- nor the Romans -- bothered to tell us?
Enter science. In , French architect Charles Rohault de Fleury catalogued all known fragments of the true cross. He determined the Jesus cross weighed pounds, was three or four meters high, with a cross beam two meters wide. If all these bits of the cross were cobbled together, he reckoned, they wouldn't amount to a third of the cross on which Jesus died.
And based on the fragments he was allowed to examine by microscope, de Fleury concluded the true cross was made of pine wood. Later, four cross particles were also microscopically examined -- part of ten pieces of the true cross, accompanied by documentary proofs from Byzantine emperors.
But scientists discovered that they were all made of olive wood. So now the question became: Was the cross of Jesus made of olive wood or pine?
One of the perplexing realities for archaeologists is a lack of residual wood from the massive record of Roman crucifixion. Despite the fact the Romans killed tens of thousands of people through crucifixion -- and as many as a day during the siege of Jerusalem from CE -- the only piece of evidence connected to this terrible punishment was discovered in , when archaeologists found the heel bone of a crucified man with the nail still intact.
In the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Israel Hershkovitz, who teaches anatomy and archaeology at Tel Aviv University, said that the heel bone of the crucified man was found in a Jewish burial tomb in a northern suburb of Jerusalem, near Golgotha -- the hill where the Romans crucified people. The man, whose ossuary, or burial box, identified him as Yehohanan, was in his mid 20s when he died on the cross. His good teeth and lack of heavy musculature meant that he most likely came from a wealthy family, for most crucifixion victims were far too humble to wind up in tombs --save for Jesus, who was put in one by the wealthy Joseph of Arimathea.
Others buried in the same tomb as Yehohanan had connections to the Temple, so it's possible that he was killed by the Romans for some political transgression. Yehohanan was cut down from the cross with a 4. And for almost years there was no mention in the Christian account of that piece of wood. Some versions indicate that Helena, doubting which would be the true one, put a sick woman on each of the crosses and the one that finally cured the woman was considered authentic.
According to various accounts, Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, was the one who found the cross where Christ died in Jerusalem.
Other historians claim that he recognized it because it was the only one of the three that had signs of having been used for a crucifixion with nails, since according to the Gospel of John, Jesus was the only one who was crucified with that method on that day.
The academic points out that the first Christians were not focused on seeking or preserving these types of objects as a source of their devotion.
The origin of the search for these relics has a lot to do with the martyrs. With which there were only objects to be linked with him, such as the cross and the crown of thorns, among others. Several churches around the world claim to have a piece of the cross where Jesus is supposed to have died.
Relics to fill a ship. Heiligenkreuz Abbey, in Austria, also keeps a piece and another very important segment is in the Church of the Holy Cross, in Jerusalem. Together with the physical evidence, the councils of Nicea, in the 4th century, and of Trent, in the 16th century, gave spiritual validity to the devotion of these relics, so much so that they were recorded in the catechism:.
According to historians, due to persecution, the early Christians did not keep many objects related to the physical presence of Jesus. In addition, the multiplicity of fragments was questioned in his time by various thinkers.
However, this claim was later refuted by various theologians and scientists throughout history. The academic indicates that there is another difficulty in proving whether these pieces really belonged, at least, to a crucifixion that occurred during the time of Christ.
This role gave the tree both a curse and a blessing. From then on it grew short and twisted so that it could never be used for crucifixion again. The blessing was the beautiful petals that grew on the knobby branches. These petals are symbolic, too. They appear in groups of four on each blossom, growing in the shape of a cross.
0コメント