The discovery of a 5,000 year old stone raises a big question about the birth of Christianity

Researchers discovered 5,000-year-old rock art on the ceiling of a cave in the Egyptian Sahara desert. Credit: Marco Morelli

Italian researchers have discovered what might be the oldest nativity scene ever found — 5,000-year-old rock art that depicts a star in the east, a newborn between parents and two animals. The scene, painted in reddish-brown ochre, was found on the ceiling of a small cavity in the Egyptian Sahara desert, during an expedition to sites between the Nile valley and the Gilf Kebir Plateau.

"It's a very evocative scene which indeed resembles the Christmas nativity. But it predates it by some 3,000 years," geologist Marco Morelli, director of the Museum of Planetary Sciences in Prato, near Florence, Italy

Nativity of Jesus - Wikipedia

Morelli found the cave drawing in 2005, but only now his team has decided to reveal the amazing find. "The discovery has several implications as it raises new questions on the iconography of one of the more powerful Christian symbols," Morelli said.

The scene features a man, a woman missing the head because of a painting detachment, and a baby.

"It could have been interpreted as a normal depiction of a family, with the baby between the parents, but other details make this drawing unique," Morelli said.

He noted the newborn is drawn slightly above as if raising to the sky. Such a position, with the baby not yet between the parents, would have meant a birth or a pregnancy.

"As death was associated with Earth in contemporary rock art from the same area, it is likely that birth was linked to the sky," Morelli said.

The scene becomes more symbolically complex if the other figures, two animals and a small circular feature, are taken into consideration

On the upper part is a headless lion, a mythical beast that appears in several rock art drawings from the same area, while below in the scene a baboon or an anthropomorphic monkey can be seen.

In the east, the Neolithic artist drew what appears to be the star.

The researchers called the site the "Cave of the Parents."

"No doubt it's an intriguing drawing," Morelli said. "We didn't find similar scenes until the early Christian age."

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Livescience . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

What happens to us when we die? Will we recognise ourselves? Will we be re-united with those who have gone before?

Illustration from Dante's ‘Inferno’, the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem ‘Divine Comedy’, depicting thieves tormented in hell by serpents. Engraving by Gustave Dore, 1885. (Photo by Stefano Bianchetti/Corbis via Getty Images)

Updated today 16/05/2020 

What happens to us when we die? Will we recognise ourselves? Will we be re-united with those who have gone before? Since the time of the ancient Greeks and Hebrews, people have searched for answers to these questions – and others – about the afterlife. Here, historian Philip Almond investigates.

Last Judgment - Wikiquote

Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the highest heavens; from Gustave Doré's illustrations to the Divine Comedy. image wikipedia

In his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, the Venerable Bede tells us of King Edwin of Northumbria, in the year AD 627, contemplating acceptance of the Christian faith and discussing it with his friends and counsellors. One of his chief men eloquently expressed our ignorance of our final destiny: he likened it to a sparrow flying into a lighted hall at one end and out at the other. 

While inside the hall, it is safe from the wintry tempest outside. But after a short time it disappears, “passing from winter into winter again. So this life of man appears for a little while,” he declared, “but of what is to follow or what went before we know nothing at all”.

That we all die, we know. But of what may lie beyond our deaths we remain, like Edwin’s adviser, completely ignorant. And yet, since the time of the ancient Greeks and Hebrews, there has been a long and complex history of our imaginings about the afterlife, both after our individual deaths and after the end of history; a history of attempts to answer a series of perennial questions with which we have always grappled: Do we ‘survive’ death? 

Will we recognise ourselves? Will we be re-united with those we have left behind or those who have gone before? Will our actions in this life be punished or rewarded? Will we have an opportunity after death to make amends or change our ways? Will our lives continue immediately after death or do we have to wait for a final end to history? What kind of body might we have? Where will we be?

The last judgment photo: pinterest

For all we know, one, some, or none of these imaginings may be true. But whatever, the history of the afterlife is the history of our hopes that there will be something after death and of our fears that there will be nothing. And, granted that there is something rather than nothing, the history of the afterlife speaks to our dreams of eternal happiness, of our nightmares of eternal punishment, and of the myriad ways in which these have been inflicted over the centuries.

Heaven in Christianity - Wikipedia

Whether in Greece of the seventh century BC or in the ancient Israel of the same period, the fate of the dead was the same whether they were good or evil – a shadowy half-life in Hades beneath the Earth or its Hebrew equivalent Sheol. 

But by the time of the Christian era, there were two foundational narratives about the afterlife in western thought already weaving in and out of each other. In both cases, the vice or virtue of the deceased determined their fate. On the one hand, there was a narrative built around the anticipation that life will continue immediately after the death of each of us. At the point of death, it was thought, the soul will be weighed in the balance, be judged according to its virtue or vice and be sent to the bliss of Abraham’s Bosom (paradise) or be cast into the pit of Hades.

Papyrus from the 'Book of the Dead' depicting the weighing of souls. (Photo By DEA/G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images)

On the other hand, there was another narrative, one that was driven by the expectation that our eternal destinies would be finally determined, not at the time of death, but at that time when history ends – when this world will be no more and when Christ returns to judge both the living and the dead on the Day of Judgment. Early Christians were less interested in life immediately after death and more focused on the imminent expectation of the return of Jesus in judgment. And then, there will be only two possible destinations for us. For Christ will bid the blessed among us to enter an eternity of bliss in heaven and will throw the damned among us into the everlasting fires of hell. And of the latter there will be many more than the former.  

With these two narratives in place, the history of the afterlife within the west became the history of a constantly fluid series of negotiations, contestations and compromises between these two versions of our futures after death. The majority held to the necessity of both. As the Christian tradition gained in social prestige and political power, the expectation of the imminent return of Christ faded into the background and the emphasis fell on life immediately after death. For those socially, politically or economically disenfranchised, the expectation of the imminent return of Christ remained at the forefront. When Christ returned, the oppressed would then receive their reward and the wicked their eternal comeuppance. 

Giotto last judgement Pinterest-

But what of resurrected bodies? To the non-Christian Greek intellectual elite of the first four centuries AD, the notion of the resurrection of the body on the Day of Judgment was absurd. Thus, St Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–430) had to deal seriously with a set of questions that he believed rightly were intended by Christianity’s cultivated despisers to ridicule his faith. 

Would aborted foetuses rise from the dead? What would be the size of resurrected foetuses and children? Would the bodies of the monstrous, the disfigured and the deformed be made perfect? What was the fate of those devoured by beasts, consumed by fire, drowned, or eaten by cannibals? What gender would the resurrected be?

St Augustine of Hippo. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

How much of any individual was needed to reconstitute ‘him’ on the Last Day was a question with which Thomas Aquinas was grappling in the 13th century and Robert Boyle, the father of modern chemistry, was still wrestling in the 17th. Drawing on the biblical vision of the resurrection of the valley of bones (Ezekiel 37.1-14) and his own chemical experiments on the stable and long-lasting texture of bones, Boyle surmised that skeletal remains would ensure the identity of the post- and pre-resurrection bodies, God adding such other parts as he saw fit to restore the bodies.

The Last Judgement Flickr

From the beginning of the third century, the Christian tradition adopted the Greek tradition that individuals were composed of a mortal body and an immortal soul. This enabled sense to be made of the tension between the fate of the individual after death and after the Day of Judgment. It was the soul, it was argued, that survived between death and the Last Day, and it was the body that was resurrected on the Last Day and re-united with the soul. Thus, the history of the afterlife was also the history of the conflict between the body and the soul as the essence of what it is to be human; sometimes of the necessity of both, occasionally of the acknowledgement of the one to the exclusion of the other.

The Last Judgment, 1600-25, by Cornelis de Vos. National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen. (Photo by PHAS/UIG via Getty Images)

This opposition between body and soul was intellectually difficult to sustain. The distinction between body and soul was sufficiently fragile for the one to be likely to collapse into the other and the difference between the two made effectually redundant. The soul was given a ‘bodily’ status and the body a ‘spiritual’ one. On the one hand, it became necessary to accord to the soul the sort of ‘bodiliness’ that allowed it a geographical location after death either above or below the earth. As a result, it took on physical aspects – the soul was gendered, had rank and status. 

On the other hand, it was crucial to ‘spiritualise’ the body – to resurrect it not as it was at the point of death but in an ‘ideal’ form most suited to its enjoyment of the delights of heaven or to its suffering of the pains of hell. A ‘spiritual’ body at least had the virtue of avoiding difficulties inherent in the notion of a resurrected physical body. From the middle of the 19th century, a ‘spiritual’ body overtook the physical body as the preferred form of afterlife vehicle.

BRUEGEL PIETER PAINTINGS

And heavenly needs, along with heavenly bodies, also changed over time. From the early modern period onwards, there was a tension between the idea of eternal life as one centred on the love and worship of God to the exclusion of human relationships to one focused on human relationships to the virtual exclusion of God. Thus, from the middle of the 17th century, there was a gradual transition from a heaven focused on the vision of God with much playing of harps and casting of crowns upon glassy seas, to heaven as a place of ongoing activities, moral improvement, travel and reunion with family, friends and pets – a kind of ethereal Club Med. At the same time, by the middle of the 19th century, hell, with its dark fires and gnawing worms, its tormenting and tormented demons, was becoming marginalised in the European mind, in part no doubt the result of the diminution of the public spectacle of punishments, torture and pain in the secular sphere.

The Hell, c1545. Found in the collection of Staatliche Museen, Berlin. Artist Henri de Patinier. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The story of life after death is also part of the history of the human demand for justice. It reflects the belief that there is a need for justice on the other side of the grave, since there is precious little of it on this side. So it speaks to the recognition that, because virtue is not obviously its own reward, the best solution to the injustices on this side of death was to ‘even them up’ on the other side. Thus, a moral economy demanded the creation of places after death where the righteous would receive their just recompense and the wicked their just deserts, and of punishments and rewards proportionate to vices and virtues.

But by the beginning of the fifth century AD, it was clear that, while the really wicked deserved instant and eternal hell, and the really good instant and everlasting heaven, most of us, occasionally good but not very good at being really bad, deserved a place between the two. Thus we find that between the 5th and 11th centuries, the development of the idea of Purgatory, a place between heaven and hell where the not too wicked could be purged and purified in preparation for Heaven after the Day of Judgment. The Protestant Reformation in the 16th century was to throw Purgatory out, leaving our options after death either only heaven or hell.  

That all said, the ultimate destiny of the dead lay in the hands of God. It was he who would reward the good and punish the wicked, who would weigh up souls at the moment of their death and who would determine their eternal destiny. God rewarded the good and punished the wicked in different ways at different times in the history of the afterlife, according to various measures of his goodness, his justice and his righteous anger.

That said, it was accepted for the most part that God would save or damn in accordance with the virtues or vices of the dead. But it was also argued (by Augustine in the fifth century, for example, and later by John Calvin in the 16th), that God apportioned eternal happiness or everlasting torments merely as the arbitrary act of his own sovereign will, regardless of any person’s virtues or vices. This was to become a central feature of reformed thought about the afterlife from the time of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century.

John Calvin. (Photo By DEA/ G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images)

In short, God could do whatever he liked and, it was argued, he did just that. For those of a libertine turn, this was a view conducive to eating, drinking and merry-making in the here and now; for those more puritanically inclined, it was an incentive to piety, sobriety and accumulation of wealth as proof of election to salvation. God’s power was emphasised – although, for many, it was at the cost of his goodness and justice. 

Our imaginings about the afterlife, both after death and after the end of history, are a testimony to the hope that many have had, and still do, for an extension of life beyond the grave. They speak to the desire for light beyond the darkness of death; for ultimate goodness beyond present evils; and for final justice over earthly inequities. They give voice to the faith that the drama of history, and the minor role that each of us has played in it, has an ultimate meaning and purpose, one that is discernible from the vistas of eternity if not from our present perspective.

For good and ill, these imaginings have enormously influenced how we have understood how we should think about life in the here and now and how we should act until life is no more. At the end of the day (or the world), they result from our being members of a species, each member of which knows that he or she will die. This is both our triumph and our tragedy.

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Historyextra . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Secrets Behind the Shroud of Jesus from Turin

To say that the Vatican has historically tried to hide malicious authenticity of the Shroud of Turin may seem, at first glance, a paradox inexpensive and lacking substance. Why would the clergy to deny a truth that, pragmatic thinking, would not only bring benefits? Yet, there are some who argue that a confirmation of the authenticity of the sacred relics could radically change our understanding of Western civilization. In the face of such evidence would inevitably have rewritten history.

To say that the Vatican has historically tried to hide malicious authenticity of the Shroud of Turin may seem, at first glance, a paradox inexpensive and lacking substance. Why would the clergy to deny a truth that, pragmatic thinking, would not only bring benefits? Yet, there are some who argue that a confirmation of the authenticity of the sacred relics could radically change our understanding of Western civilization. In the face of such evidence would inevitably have rewritten history.

About the authenticity of the Shroud were written thousands of articles, books and treatises. Dozens of experts have tried to prove the truth or that it would only be a medieval forgery. By its nature, the relic born today paradoxes: to be proven as false and destroy such a myth for millions of faithful Christians, or to recognition in the fundamentals of hitting authenticity same Christian religions. The mere chance or good plan in place, the Shroud of Turin remains as controversial as seven centuries ago, and nature, human or divine, and today continues to be a fierce discussion topic.

Short history of the Shroud of Turin

Officially, the shroud in which it is assumed that Jesus was wrapped after the crucifixion appears immediately on the scene in 1357, year in which Jeanne de Vergy, the widow Knight Geoffroi de Charny (killed at the Battle of Poitiers in September 13, 1356), finds among goods deceased husband and expose him in the abbey of Lirey, France. Soon, Bishop of Troyes, Henri de Poitiers, prohibit public exposure to under why it would be just a painting and the veneration by the faithful they would be heresy. In 1389, another bishop, Pierre D'Arcis announced that the Shroud was a fake and that the author or was caught and admitted the offense. He does not mention the name but never farsorului and the argument that we bring for his hypothesis is not only that the existence artifact is mentioned nowhere in the Scriptures. 

A accusations without solid coverage, obsolete over time. Noble Humbert of Villersexel is the first to take the artifact and hides it in his own castle for fear of thieves. Louisa of Savoy (who paid a hefty sum of money annually abbey of Lirey to give up claims of ownership of the relic), is the next owner of the Shroud and expose it to the public in many European cities. Since 1532 relic take possession of the House of Savoy and remains so until 1983, the year is donated to the Vatican.

Shroud and promote its image in the world. But a shock provokes negative photographer. The picture shows how it clear "image of a man in distress" man with all the wounds that Jesus would have had when it was lowered from the Cross.

Holy See accept radiocarbon dating of the Shroud, an event that takes place in 1988, and that brings a disturbing result ... According to tests, the artifact was a medieval fake, created somewhere between 1260 and 1390. Later, scientists who conducted research has admitted that it is likely that the Shroud of Turin to be genuine, as long as the analyzes were strongly influenced by traces of fire 1532 fire that caused burns on much of the surface of the object and which would be distorted dating results carbon. For better protection of the material, it was locked in a silver box, exposed today in Turin Cathedral. As for the authenticity of the Shroud, opinions are still divided.

Proof of authenticity

Perhaps the simplest and to urge the originality observation is that the Shroud was created, if we are to believe radiocarbon tests in full Middle Ages, a golden age for counterfeiters relics. Dozens of "head of John the Baptist", a lot of chips and Graaluri Cross which was crucified Saviour, goose feather feathers sold as a cherub or any "artifact" that had contact with anyone who was associated with Jesus circulated fake markets of the time. And yet, there is only one shroud. Why not replicated author or a work masterfully perfected that certainly would have made a lot of money? Why not created and shrouds with images of saints or apostles?

Going on seniority artifact idea is interesting opinion reputed journalist Ian Wilson, one of the most vocal supporters of the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. He says the linen printed with the image of the Saviour was adored in the first centuries of the first millennium in Edessa (Urfa in Turkey present location), important early Christian center in what was then Syria. Subsequently, the Shroud is transported to Constantinople, in Hagea Sofia, where captures a note left by Archdeacon Gregory Refendarius in 944 - "Non Figure sed tantum facial Totius corporis Figure screening poteris" (You can see not only the face, but also the entire body image ), a testament that makes a direct reference to the sacred relic.

The year 1205 brings a new proof of the existence of the Shroud before the date that is officially recognized. This is a note of Theodor Angelos, nephew of Byzantium, which describes the Codex Chartularium Culisanense a short inventory of assets taken by the Knights Templar in Constantinople: "Venetians turned their attention to gold, silver and ivory, while French did the same with sacred relics and most valuable of all, canvas in which our Lord Jesus Christ was wrapped after the crucifixion and resurrection before. Items were taken to Venice and France, while the Shroud was taken in Athens. "

Reconstitution of the image of the Savior after the Shroud of Turin

Some historians claim that the Shroud took possession knight Otto de la Roche, later Duke of Athens. Another source indicates it Tibault of Champagne, who plundered Constantinople Templar leader, as the author of theft. Coincidentally or not, the abbey of Lirey, the place where the Shroud is mentioned first time from a reliable source, it is right on the field. Interesting to note is the fact that Geoffroi de Charny, knight whose wife expose artifact in the abbey of Lirey, is none other than the grandson of Geoffrey of Charney, Templar leader burned Jaques de Molay with in 1314. Was it Shroud even that Grail which so much has been written throughout history and what is believed to have been discovered by the Knights Templar?

No further assumptions above are from Hungary and a manuscript dated in the period 1192-1195, the Saviour is represented image while it is wrapped in the shroud mortuary. The similarities between the images on the Shroud of Turin manuscript and are striking, emphasizing that it was known long before him to be officially recognized.

Aside from data provided by historians, we focus on results provided by chemists, data supporting the authenticity of linen again. The chemist Alan Adler, cited by Time magazine says that blood which is impregnated with the Shroud is real and, moreover, as revealed in the tests, blood clot particularities. If possible forger wanted to give authenticity to his creation a blood spewing, you would expect it to clot? At that time, be it ancient or Middle Ages, the possibility that any person to have knowledge of the chemical composition of blood and the fact that it borders on the absurd change in clotting time. A noteworthy detail is the crucifixion wounds resulting from. Contrary to widespread religious image at the time, do not have crucified character prints of the nails in his hands and feet but in the joints. Only recently it was shown that an execution by crucifixion take place in this way. Where, then, would have known prankster same technique extinct for centuries?

Vatican conspiracy theory

Those who support the idea of ​​a conspiracy by the Vatican to the Shroud of Turin, including journalists Jonathan Vankin and John Whalen, are convinced that recognition of its authenticity would amount to a veritable storm in the Christian world. Why?

The fabric and how was buried man whose face remained impregnated shroud are identical to those of a small sect Israel i.Hr proliferated between centuries II and I d. AD ... Essenes. It mentioned that the same Essenes are Gnostic manuscripts and authors of the Dead Sea manuscripts remained largely unpublished in the twentieth century after their discovery. 

It recognizes that the whole Christianity derives its origins in pre-Christian sect that would mean, first, a denial of one of the principles promoted by Catholicism, is that there was no Christianity before Christ. A true heresy. In addition, if Jesus would have been part of the Gnostics, it would mean that the Vatican has persecuted and killed dozens of followers of an authentic 

Christian religions. Remember only the culmination of the campaign anti-Gnostic Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars (1209 - 1229), the campaign resulted in the nearly 20,000 victims and legislating Inquisition.

He knew Henri de Poitiers and Pierre d'Arcis, first bishops who have called for a ban Shroud exposure, these details? He had tried them and those who followed them to impose a "monopoly" on the history and image of Jesus? These are questions to which we probably never find the answer. The fact is that despite dozens of tests and historical evidence, the true origin of the Shroud of c will remain unknown for long.

In a press conference held on Tuesday, in Rome, Barbara Frale, researcher of the Vatican Secret Archives, said the Knights Templar owned and secretly venerated the Shroud of Turin for over 100 years . The announcement not only shed light on the Shroud disappears century of public attention in medieval Europe, but it comes and attest to its age and contradicts radiocarbon tests showed you a fake as the XIV century. However, Barbara Frale not said if the relic is only one authentic or fake, leaving further held suspicions.

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