VIDEO: "The Mystery Man": Is this what the crucified Jesus looked like?

Thanks to Agent 17 for pointing us in the direction of a video report on "The Mystery Man", a hyper-realistic model, based on the images on the Shroud of Turin, showing how Jesus Christ may have looked following the Crucifixion.

The Shroud, first mentioned in 1354, has baffled scholars through the ages. Many Christians (and some agnostic scientists and scholars) believe the mysterious relic is the bloodstained burial cloth of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus, after his crucifixion. Others call it an elaborate medieval fake.

The Roman Catholic Church takes no position on the genuiness of the Shroud, but has declared it an object worthy of veneration. (See "Do Catholics really worship images?" WWW, 17/10/22.)

Now, people will be able to make up their own minds. After years of research, experts have designed and created  a realistic sculpture, made of latex, silicon and real human hair, based on the Shroud. Here's the video. He who has eyes, let him see. 

  

The impressive creation went on display in Salamanca Cathedral, Spain, last Thursday. It can be seen there until December, after which it is set to go on a worldwide tour, with exhibitions scheduled on five continents. 

The sculpture weighs 165.3 pounds and is 5'10" long... or tall... and shows all the wounds Jesus suffered, including the wound inflicted on Jesus' side by the Holy Lance, the numerous scratches to his body sustained after Pontius Pilate ordered him to be scourged, and the cuts on Jesus' head and Holy Face caused by the Crown of Thorns which Roman soldiers pressed on his brow.

There are some graphic close-ups circulating on the Internet, which Ed. judges too gruesome to show here -- like watching The Passion of the Christ.

Said Most Rev. Jose Luis Retana, the Bishop of Ciudad Rodrigo y de Salamanca, "This morning in this cathedral we are going to be the protagonists of what seems to be a worldwide success." He highlighted "the great opportunity that this exhibition represents for the faith."

The prelate said that the body of the man in the Holy Shroud can represent "the concretion of God's love that becomes flesh in Jesus Christ who dies like a malefactor with a terrible sacrifice for our salvation. There is no greater love in the world."

Further reading: "Behind 'The Mystery Man' and the Shroud of Turin", The Pillar, 17/18/22.

New tests date Shroud of Turin to time of Christ

Andrea Tornielli has been mentioned in WWW before as one of the preeminent Vaticanistas (Vatican watchers). It is rumored that the "Pope Emeritus", as they want us to call Benedict XVI, used to turn to Sr Tornielli's "Vatican Insider" blog to make sure he was getting the straight goods from the Great Prevaricator (Cardinal Bertone).

Sr Tornielli's column of March 26th has an extremely interesting report on the results of fresh experiments on the Shroud of Turin, conducted at the University of Padua. The latest tests confirm that the Shroud does indeed date back to the 1st Century A.D. -- the time of Our Lord Jesus Christ.   This makes its compatible with Catholic tradition, which holds that the cloth with the image of the crucified man imprinted on it is the very one Jesus' body was wrapped in when he was taken down from the cross.

The study was made by Giulio Fanti, a professor of mechanical and thermal measurement, who cooperated with Saverio Gaeta to produce a new book, Il Mistero della Sindone ("The Mystery of the Shroud"), which cites the evidence of the new tests, conducted on fibres taken from the Shroud.

Further testing was required because some years ago a different group of researchers, after making Carbon-14 tests, claimed that the cloth was manufactured in medieval times. It now appears that the fibres tested previously were taken from a part of the Shroud that had been repaired following a fire around the 13th century. But the medieval dating was at odds with the style of painting used by artists of that period. Moreover, analysis of the "paint" itself failed to match any pigments or dyes known at that time or this.

The research conducted more recently included three new tests, two chemical ones and one mechanical one. The average dating of the three tests is 33 BC ±250 years -- 95% certain and 100% compatible with the historic date of Jesus' death on the cross.

Click here for more details of this and other stories on the Shroud of Turin.   And -- believe it or not -- there’s an app for that! It’s called "Sindone 2.0" and you can get a free preview (in Italian) of the app in operation by viewing the video clip in this article from Oggi.