Did Christ Die on the Cross?
A group of German scientists had been making investigations regarding the shroud of Jesus for the last eight years. The results of their research have been recently made available to the press. The two-thousand-year-old winding sheet of Christ has been found in the Italian town of Turin. It bears the impressions of Christ’s body. The scientists have informed the Pope about the discovery. But the Pope is silent. The discovery brings to light a vital secret of the religious history of the Catholic Church. With the help of the art of photography, scientists have tried to prove that the resurrection, which was regarded as a miracle by the people for the past two thousand years, was in fact a natural physiological phenomenon. They have conclusively proved that Christ did not die on the cross. The issue of Christ’s shroud has been under discussion for the last one thousand years. This cloth was sent to Constantinople in 438 A.D. by Queen Endoxi. It was originally found near the catacombs. It remained in Constantinople for seven hundred years. Finally, De La Roche took it away with him after an attack on Constantinople. When the fire broke out, the cloth was in a silver box. As a result of the melting of silver, it became slightly indistinct. But the marks of Christ’s body were still visible. The people of France earned a large sum of money by displaying this cloth. From France, it was taken to Turin, and there it was taken out for exhibition after every thirty-three years. In 1898 A.D. an Italian advocate looked at the negative in the light of the sun, he was astounded to find that it bore an exact likeness to Christ. When the negative was printed, it showed the face of the man ( Jesus) whom no one had seen for the past 1900 years. In 1931 A.D., when the cloth was again displayed, Guiseppe Enrie, a photographer, took another photograph of the cloth with the help of bulbs operating at 6,000 and 20,000 volts supply in the presence of an important dignitary of the Church. This photograph brought to light a sensational fact and demonstrated for the second time what Pia had already shown. The picture bears an exact likeness to the face and body contours which the Church, for the last two thousand years, has been describing as those of Christ. When a man looks at the photograph which has been reproduced in the book Das Linnen Kurt Berna Stuttgart by Hanas Naber Verlage, he can easily understand the reaction of the Church. Pope Pius IX remarked: “This picture has not been made by any human hand.” The scientists declare that the cloth and history both confirm that it is the picture of Christ. The manufacture and texture of the cloth show that it is the sort of cloth that was found at Pompeii. The double marks on the cloth show that one half of the cloth was wrapped around the body of Christ, and the other half was used to cover his head. The ointment applied to Christ’s body, together with the heat of the body reproduced the impressions of Christ’s body on the cloth. The fresh blood of Christ as absorbed into the cloth also left marks on it. The photograph clearly shows the marks made by the crown of thorns on the base of the head and the forehead of Christ, the swollen right cheek of Christ, the deep spear mark on the right side, the bloodstains due to blood flowing from the wounds caused by nails, and the marks on the back caused by friction with the cross. But the most astonishing fact is that in the negative, the two closed eyes of Christ seem as if they are open. The photograph also reveals that the nails were not struck on the palms but on the hard joints of the wrists. Another thing that becomes clear is that the spear did not touch the heart of Christ. The Bible says that Christ gave up the ghost, but the scientists insist that the heart had not stopped functioning. It is also observed that if Christ had remained lifeless on the cross for an hour, the blood would have coagulated and become dry, as such no blood marks would have been left on the cloth. But the fact that the blood was absorbed in the cloth shows that Christ was alive when he was taken down from the cross. I may add here that this sensational discovery of the German scientists merely confirms what was stated by Holy Quran fourteen centuries ago. The Holy Quran declares that Jesus had not died on the cross: