Dossier sindrone 1
It is the late afternoon of the Friday before Easter Saturday in Jerusalem.
The body of Jesus Nazarene, King of the Jews, is raised on a cross on Mount Golgotha.
The political masterpiece, the legal murder for a state crime that is actually entirely religious, of Israel - the people favored by God - and Rome - the civil power, the state par excellence - is complete.
_The crisis in the activity of Jesus that broke out between the religious authority, his people and Jesus himself is clear enough from the Gospels. We must be cautious in attempting reconstructions because the situation of the people of Israel was varied due to numerous religious currents, easily even political factions_ explains Don Giuseppe Ghiberti, professor of exegesis and New Testament philology, assistant to the Pontifical Custos of the Holy Shroud (the cardinal of Turin Giovanni Saldarini) and vice-president of the Commission which must prepare the 1998 and 2000 expositions. _For example, the Pharisaic current, distinct from the Sadducean one which identified itself with priests and with part of the large landowners, he had different attitudes towards the practice of Roman law and authority. Therefore the groups, even towards the preaching of Jesus, did not have a homogeneous behavior. If they were all critical, also because the novelties proposed by Jesus were so many, it is equally true that the disputed ideas were not considered in the same way. The final resurrection, to give an example of Jesus' preaching, was congenial to the Pharisees but was not tolerated by the Sadducees. The political aspect, on the other hand, was not problematic. Because, even if Jesus reminded politicians of very important duties, he did not take positions, which pushed or encouraged rebellions, unless less armed. Therefore the political problem arose at the moment in which it was necessary to decide the fate of Jesus in absolute._ When the idea was born and the decision to physically eliminate Jesus was born, the political problem was created. _ Faced with the decision of a radical action, which starting from a trial arrives at the extreme consequence of the death sentence, the need to legalize the sentence emerges. At that moment the problem of the relationship with the political authority arises, therefore with the Romans, who had reserved the right to death sentence on the territory of Judea. For the sentence, matured in a religious context, to become operative, it must be adopted by the Roman authority on the basis of elements that prove the political difficulties created by Jesus. Here we are witnessing a falsification of the teaching of Jesus: through testimonies we try to demonstrate that the difficulties aroused are not only religious. In the moment in which the Roman authority is able to be involved, the operation is done and, even if from the Gospels it is evident how much the Roman authority is not convinced of that sentence, it still assumes all the responsibility_
The evening already shines on Jerusalem and at the same time the first lamps that the Jewish custom makes to light at the beginning of the Sabbath. The Jewish law forbids leaving the corpses of the executed exposed at nightfall and, although the norm is not always respected, the Jews obtain that the law on condemned at least on the eve of the solemn Easter Saturday be honored. The Roman soldiers are ordered to break the legs of the crucifixes, so as to hasten their death, and lower them from the cross. So much is done. But not to Jesus who, to the great surprise of the soldiers, is already dead; his side is pierced with a spear.
Ignominy and humiliation: this is death on the cross. The execution through the crucifixion, initially adopted by Shiites, Assyrians, Medes, Babylonians, arrived in Rome in all probability through the Carthaginians, soon became the preferred instrument of the Romans, because it was impressive to the view of the spectators and because it was capable of inflicting a long and terrible agony at the crucifix. In particular when the condemned is a thief, an enemy, a defeated or a rebel, or even a slave, in short, a person to humiliate and point to public derision and public disgust. Humiliation, then, and horror. A pole fixed on the ground, a second that the condemned himself is forced to carry through the city to the place of execution, after having suffered the scourging, a seat and a support for the feet: this is all the tragic violence of the cross. The condemned, already weakened by the scourging and then by the transport of the transverse pole of the gallows, is tied or nailed, hands and feet, to the wood, and hoisted. All the weight of the body gravitates on the rib cage "hanging from the upper limbs and on the diaphragm pulled down by the liver". A few minutes and a slow asphyxiation begins. The condemned man then tries to get up on his nailed feet. A huge effort, of a few minutes and then again you have to let go. Asphyxiation attacks him again, again, he tries to rise up. And so for hours until asphyxiation culminates in agony and finally in death. To prevent the body from rising again,
Jesus died relatively quickly, so he may not have died of asphyxiation.
Professor Ugo Wedenissow, of the University of Milan, at the II International Congress of Sindonology in Turin, in 1978, explained in detail how, according to him, he would have died in so few hours and not of asphyxiation.
The beginning of the end for Jesus would have begun approximately 60 hours earlier. "We are on the evening of the last supper" says Wedenissow "all events are inexorably rushing towards their dramatic conclusion." Although the facts are foreknown by Jesus, this "pursuit of them" subjects him to "a strong stress" made up of "transcendent anxiety", "consciousness of being" betrayed, "certainty of an atrocious death", "psychic suffering". It is in these moments that Jesus probably determines "a long coronary spasm" which shortly after, on the Mount of Olives, in the cold, only with his anguish, "has its manifestation of acme". The Gospels tell us of Jesus who says that his soul is afflicted until death, perhaps he had the sensation of feeling dying, failing, certainly he has a very serious sweating, symptoms that belong to the "primary cardiogenic shock", in short, Jesus has a "myocardial infarction". But his fiber is strong. He kneels to pray and recover. An "attempt at neuro-hormonal compensation favored by the horizontal position", says Wedenissow. Shortly thereafter, Jesus is in fact ready to be taken; "the pain eased, the circle compensated" as much as he feels weak "he has the feeling of having overcome the crisis". Excited hours begin. He gets caught. And then betrayed, tried, beaten, humiliated, scourged, forced to bear burdens and drag themselves along. Wedenissow has no doubts that he psychically he has overcome the shock, but from the physical point of view the clinical picture is tragic. "Coronary ischemic syndrome cannot improve. Self-defenses run out", especially after the scourging which caused a further terrible shock, "he starts feeling anginoid pains again and progressively falls back into irreversible shock". The soldiers, expert executioners, realize the state of Jesus, they know that he will not be able to carry his gallows to Golgotha, so along the way they stop a certain Simon of Cyrene, returning from work in the fields, and order him to carry the cross. Having reached Calvary "as if what he had been subjected to before was not enough, the man is also crucified with the most painful procedure, by nailing" to the feet, the left one superimposed on the right, and on the wrists, which "will only shorten" his "stamina". However, for a while he manages to make movements, to speak, perhaps for a beginning of "asphyxiation and collapse" he makes an attempt to lift "using the only supports available to him: the nails on which he leverages". He is dehydrated, he complains that he is thirsty. Now his resistances "are exhausted. In yet another effort tending to lift the body" while the heart rate increases at a dizzying rate, "excruciating pain" tears him apart, he still speaks a few words but his heart is about to break "he launches a scream and he dies. " However for a while he manages to make movements, to speak, perhaps for a beginning of "asphyxiation and collapse" he makes an attempt to lift "using the only supports at his disposal: the nails on which he leverages". He is dehydrated, he complains that he is thirsty. Now his resistances "are exhausted. In yet another effort tending to lift the body" while the heart rate increases at a dizzying rate, "excruciating pain" tears him apart, he still speaks a few words but his heart is about to break "he launches a scream and he dies. " However for a while he manages to make movements, to speak, perhaps for a beginning of "asphyxiation and collapse" he makes an attempt to lift "using the only supports at his disposal: the nails on which he leverages". He is dehydrated, he complains that he is thirsty. Now his resistances "are exhausted. In yet another effort tending to lift the body" while the heart rate increases at a dizzying rate, "excruciating pain" tears him apart, he still speaks a few words but his heart is about to break "he launches a scream and he dies. "
"Only a heart attack justifies this type of death, while talking and screaming - explains Wedenissow - certainly not asphyxiation, which does not cause such an" acute "death, nor does it give the dying person the opportunity to speak and even scream until the last moment. ".
Of a different opinion is Pier Luigi Baima Bollone, professor of forensic medicine at the University of Turin, one of the leading sindonologists in the world, President of the International Center of Sindonology of Turin, who maintains: _This is mechanical asphyxia due to suspension on which he intervened an orthostatic collapse. At a certain point the heart no longer held up_.
Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man from Judea, a distinguished member of the Sanhedrin and secretly a disciple of Jesus, goes to Pilate to ask to be able to take the body of Jesus for burial. Pilate agrees.
Along with Joseph, on his way to Golgotha, there is Nicodemus, also a member of the Sanhedrin who became a disciple of Jesus. Joseph bought a cloth, perhaps of Indian manufacture, Nicodemus brings an abundant quantity of myrrh and aloe useful
for delaying the decay of the corpse.
They walk fast along the road outside the city walls, crowded with Jews who enter Jerusalem to celebrate Easter.
Arriving at the mount of Calvary, under the cross they find the young disciple of the Master, John, the Mother of Jesus, Mary of Cleopas and Mary Magdalene.
There is not much time, the evening of the festive night is now about to rise, the Jewish law prevents burial on feast days.
The preparation for Jesus' burial will inevitably be rushed.
Nearby there is a vegetable garden with a sepulcher that Joseph of Arimathea, who is the owner, had made a new excavation for himself. Given the proximity and the need not to waste any more time, it was decided to transport the Nazarene there.
The men remove the body of Jesus from the cross and quickly take it to the nearby tomb, where they proceed to the first, indispensable funeral care. The eyes are closed with two coins, two lepta placed on the eyelids, the mouth closed with a chin rest, the limbs arranged. The sheet brought by Joseph is spread, sprinkled quickly with the mixture of myrrh and aloe, the bloody body of Jesus is placed on it, while the second part of the sheet is sprinkled with aromas which is turned over on the head, to cover the front part. of the head itself and of the body, and tucked up at the feet.
The entrance to the sepulcher is temporarily closed with a large boulder, while the final burial operations are postponed to the day after Easter.
In the Jewish custom, the burial rite provided that the deceased should close the eyes, the mouth, the orifices (nostrils, ears, etc ...) to be blocked, the whole body was washed - except for the deceased of violent death with relative output of blood so as not to cleanse, together with the filth, << the blood of the soul >> says the Jewish norm - they cut their hair and hair in general, anoint themselves with spices and perfumes, dressed with a white linen cloth , a shroud. Long operations that would have taken much longer than was left before Easter night fell. For this reason, the operations for the final burial are all postponed to the day after Easter.
_One of the topics that most animated the debate and the historical and scientific study on the Shroud is undoubtedly that relating to the wrapping of the corpse_ says Don Luigi Fossati, a Salesian at the House of San Benigno Canavese, for half a century one of the most refined scholars of the Shroud. _The Synoptics all speak of << sindón >>, a term then translated into the Shroud, while John uses two terms, namely << othónia >> and << sudárion >>. The debate stems from a problem of correct translation of the two terms. In the last century, when the controversy over the authenticity of the Shroud broke out, some translators of the Bible, detractors of the Shroud, began to translate the term << othónia >> with bands and to identify the << sudárion >> with a shroud, that is to say a small piece of cloth, almost a handkerchief, used to wipe the sweat from the neck or even roll it to the forehead, used in burials as a chin rest to keep the mouth of the corpse closed. All this to support and prove a contrast between the Synoptics and John and above all that the sheet, the Shroud, << sindón >>, did not exist or, in any case, not like the Shroud of Turin. Finally, for some decades now, most of the scholars of the Bible and scholars of the Shroud have come to a translation of the three terms that seems the most faithful to the original and that dissolves in the most absolute way what seemed contradictions. << Othónia >> has a generic meaning that can be translated into << linen cloths >> comprising various items of linen, from handkerchiefs to sheets, towels, bandages. Translating it, as also in the current official edition of the CEI of the Gospel, in <<bende>> is evidently partial with respect to the broader meaning of the term, and contradicts the shroud, << sindón >>, of which the Synoptics; more: it would suggest, as it was intended to make us think, that the sheet would never exist, there would only be a chin guard and bandages that wrapped the corpse. Today we tend to identify the << othónia >> of John and the << sindón >> of the Synoptics with the Shroud as we know it, that is to say with a large sheet._ John's use of the two terms, << othónia >> and << sudárion >> is to be attributed to the Hebrew habit of defining the largest and most important part with the name of the whole (<< othónia >>) and the rest with the name of the particular, so much so that John in the account of the resurrection of Lazarus uses the precise term <<keriai>> to indicate bandages. An interesting theory in this regard is that of the French Father Levesque, linked to the sindonologist Barbet. He identifies the << sudárion >> of John with the Shroud of the Synoptics and finally with the Holy Shroud. Levasque's theory starts from the derivation of the term << sudárion >> from the Aramaic term << soudarâ >>. The term << soudarâ >> does not indicate a small cloth, but a very large cloth, in use in the East even today, which is suitable for various uses: rolled around the head like a turban or as a huge veil that, put on the head, reaches the feet and wraps the whole body. Levesque notes a parallelism that is certainly not a small one in Giovanni's own symbology. It is precisely in a large cloak called << soudarâ >> that Ruth the Moabite, from which one of the books of the Old Testament takes its name, ascendant of the Messiah, sleeps at the feet of Booz, her second husband and father of her son. , waiting for the morning that he would see her as a bride. Thus Jesus in his << soudarâ >> stays in the tomb waiting for the Easter morning of the Resurrection. And a << soudarâ >> is what Moses wears when, descended from Mount Sinai where he had been in the presence of Yahweh, he returns among his people and must hide the dazzling brightness of his face, coming from the splendor of God's glory, unbearable by his people. And isn't Jesus the new Moses for Saint John?
"A circular area can be seen, squashed above the right eyelid, justified only with the use of a coin to keep the eyelid closed after the deposition of the cross" declared Giovanni Tamburelli and Giovanni Garibotto of the University of Turin and CSELT-IRI, reporting the results of a survey conducted through the three-dimensional processing of the image of the Shroud. Coin "then probably removed after the stiffening of the corpse and before the closure of the sepulcher", although considered on the one hand the haste and on the other the times of rigor mortis, it may be that the two leptons have not been removed. The hypothesis would be based on the fact that the traces of the second coin.
In July 1996, after months of research, the official announcement was made and immediately all the newspapers in the world were unleashed: at the University of Turin the famous sindonologists professors Nello Balossino, professor at the Computer Science Department, and Pier Luigi Baima Bollone, had found, through the computer processing of the image of the Shroud face, the second coin - about 14 mm in diameter and 2.3 grams in weight - the one on the left side, which allowed to date the Shroud, between 29 and 30 AD, demonstrating that the Shroud of Turin could really be Christ's shroud.
_Already in '77_ Nello Balossino tells _the hypothesis that the right eye of the face of the Shroud bore the trace of a coin had been advanced, on the occasion of a congress of American scholars, by JPJackson and EJJumper and, from '79 onwards, long and strongly supported by the Jesuit Francis L. Filas, theologian at the Loyola University of Chicago, who claimed to have identified, with the support of the numismatist Michael Marx, a coin, and precisely the lepton on the right eyelid, but more then It did not seem possible. _ The fact that it was not customary among the Jews to close the eyes of the dead with a coin (a decidedly pagan symbol) and a Roman coin on the body of a Jew would have been almost sacrilegious compared to Jewish purity rules ritual. Oppositions, perhaps, a little rash. Meanwhile, although it was rare, the custom of closing the eyes of the dead with a coin seems to have persisted, albeit tepidly, until the early years of the Christian era. This is shown, among other things, by archaeological excavations in the community cemetery of Jericho, where skulls were found (the first dated around 63 BC and the second around 6 AD) with coins in the orbital cavities, all as small as and more than those. found on the Shroud. Secondly, we must identify with the muddled situation. Jesus is taken down from the cross, with his eyes open. On the one hand there is the haste to temporarily fix the body, on the other hand there is the Jewish law which prevents many of the usual funeral actions, including the closing of the eyes which would involve the exercise of a movement (the performance of any "action" is prohibited on a holiday), while the mouth could have been closed as long as the chin was tied not to lift it but to prevent it to stoop. What, then, do men of common sense who are in a hurry to arrange a deceased loved one with dignity, and closing his eyes and mouth is really the minimum threshold of pity, in such a situation? The chin rest is taken and arranged so that the mouth does not open, rummaged, there are two coins (the leptons, although Roman were coins in common use among the Jews, even the priests of the Temple accepted the offerings in Roman coins) and they rest on her eyes;
_I don't agree! _ Don Fossati blurts out _I don't think that the disciples, after having mercifully treated the master's corpse, resort, even in a hurry, to a custom not transmitted by their fathers, desecrating the corpse. But there is another consideration to be made. Some scholars ophthalmologists of the Shroud affirm that the eyes of Jesus were already closed at the moment of the deposition from the cross, both for the muscular relaxation that occurred with death, and for the various secretions produced by the traumas. However, assuming an error by the experts, the eyes had remained open, could a coin of about 14 mm in diameter and just 2.3 grams in weight be enough to close them? _ It is a controversial question but it would seem that, sometimes, when it takes over rigor mortis, the eyelids, already closed by conjunctival secretions, tend to reopen. Even small objects, such as the coin in question, would be enough to prevent its reopening.
_In the 70s / 80s, of course, today's photographic and computer equipment was not available_ explains Nello Balossino _ Already the Americans on the right eye had noticed a somewhat strange presence that could be put in correspondence, from a probabilistic point of view, with the hypothesis of a coin on the lid of the left eye. With the three-dimensional processing, developed by the team led by Tamburelli, we had come to see something strange on the right eyelid and the three-dimensional analysis of this area gave rise to an image that was sent to a group of researchers Americans. At first glance we hadn't seen the trace of this coin. The Americans said that in fact, according to them, there was a trace that suggested this presence, namely traces of the writing and the command stick or the question mark. And here arose the question of whether it could be a coin with a stick of command or with a question mark. But why is there no coin on the left eye? The idea of the presence of the coin was abandoned for years and years. Then there was a subsequent evolution and all the attention was concentrated on the right eye, until one day Baima Bollone and I, almost in unison, said: I know where the coin is on the left eye, so do I. I know! _ After 20 years the adventure begins again. _In fact, we have always looked for it in the wrong place, that is to say on the eyelid, instead, observing the three-dimensional image of the face, you see a rather strange bump on the left eyebrow that suggests the presence of an object and not a bump due to the blood stain that would appear in a not so rounded shape. From these assumptions we started the search for the probable presence of the coin on that area. I am not a numismatist so I could not imagine at all what the coin could be, first I wanted to see what could be obtained from the image processing, if there was an image that could still be related to a coin. We looked for the imprint of something in that area that could make us think of a coin and from the analysis emerged a stain that had a central part and another much thinner one that stood perpendicular to the first and then a kind of side writing . The first interpretation was that this central spot was a trace of a ship's hull with triremes and a mast. We believed that maybe yes, there was the coin with a silhouette of a ship with oars but it was not what we were looking for. It was also thought that it could be a central part with an upward protuberance. We connected it to a coin with an amphora shape inside and with the inscription LIS, an abbreviation that means the sixteenth year of the emperor Tiberius which corresponds to 29 AD. We contacted the numismatists Mario Moroni and Cesare Colombo, who supplied the coin, the lepton, to Baima Bollone, and we began to study this material. We understood that there could be this adherence between the lepton and the trace of the coin found on the Shroud. And in fact there are big points of coincidence, it is clear that I would like to refine the methodology, perhaps using new images, to see if I can better test the information content. It is not easy because one thing is to have the currency on which the writing and all the information can be read, another thing is to go and do a probabilistic work. We understood that there could be this adherence between the lepton and the trace of the coin found on the Shroud. And indeed there are big points of coincidence, it is clear that I would like to refine the methodology, perhaps using new images, to see if I can better test the information content. It is not easy because one thing is to have the currency on which the writing and all the information can be read, another thing is to go and do a probabilistic work. We understood that there could be this adherence between the lepton and the trace of the coin found on the Shroud. And indeed there are big points of coincidence, it is clear that I would like to refine the methodology, perhaps using new images, to see if I can better test the information content. It is not easy because one thing is to have the currency on which the writing and all the information can be read, another thing is to go and do a probabilistic work.
But what does it mean to have found the coin on the left eye? _The fact that there is also a coin on the left eye supports the principle that it is actually a use. For what reason? To keep the eyelids down? No, because the coins weigh too little, they are small, they have no meaning in this sense_ explains Baima Bollone _The coins are clearly positioned so that they can be seen by those who looked at the face of the corpse, therefore an intentional use. The amazing aspect concerns the history of these coins: minted by Pontius Pilate, their existence was unknown until 1875. This means that the hypothetical forger of the Shroud could not not only have them but not even know them and therefore use them to 'make' the Shroud, at the end of the 14th century, when the Cloth, for the first time, it officially entered history. The coins allow us, therefore, to date the Shroud: the one on the right is certainly from 29 AD, even if the dating is complex because it is on the hidden side, the coin on the left is also from 29 AD and the date is on the side. evident that dating is simpler. With this examination in my opinion the Shroud is dated. It is certainly from the year 30 AD
