For two thousand years many have wondered what Jesus/Yahshua actually looked like when He walked this earth.  Does it really matter?  ”Behold me, and Seek my face“, God implores us.  In John 6: 40 Jesus declares, “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” If we have seen the Son, then we have seen the Father.  The question now begs, “How can we, two thousand years later, seeth the Son?  If we see Him, Jesus, and believe upon Him, we will have resurrection into eternal life!  Therefore, seeing Him is of great importance…and recognizing Him.  ”I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14: 6.  Did our Lord Jesus leave us a WAY?  The Way was the name of the Church that He built.  What is the Church?  According to the Apostle Paul, it is the Body of Christ!  To Simon Peter, or Simon bar Jona (meaning the dove, and representing the Holy Spirit), Jesus said…”upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  Matthew 16: 18-19.  Whoever believes will make it…whoever doesn’t…won’t.  Peter would be the “custodian” of that rock…not the rock itself.  The Greek word here, petra, in feminine form, as in Church, means a mass of rock, whereas the name, Petros (Peter) is a piece of rock.

The Savior made it quite clear, yet, early on, even the disciples did not understand, and ran and hid as cowards when the Lord was crucified.  Obviously, something miraculous happened not long after, that transformed those twelve into courageous ones unto persecution and death!  On the night of the arrest of Jesus in Gethsemane, it seemingly required the kiss of betrayal by Judas to identify Jesus.  Did they all look so alike?  They were Galileans, and Jesus, according to Matthew, would be called a Nazarene.  Was this just another word for the pious Nazarite?  If so, then there were strict requirements by God the Father that had to be followed.  Abstaining from wine, strong drink and grapes was one of them.  However, we are talking about the Vine Himself!  The vow of the Nazarite required, as with Samson, “All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no rasor come upon his head; until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.” Numbers 6:5.  The scripture goes on to tell us that “the consecration of his God is upon his head“…and “All the days of his separation he is holy unto the LORD.”  Jesus/Yahshua was the Vine, partook of wine…and was holy unto death!

Many people, even scholars, are thrown by the scripture of Paul in I Corinthians 11: 14 which says, “Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?”  In Corinth, Paul was dealing with a rather perverse group, worshippers of feminine male gods, who interchanged male and female appearance and adornments.  He certainly was not putting down the vow of the Nazarite, which he himself took in Acts 18:18. The key to understanding is the Greek word Paul used here.  Instead of using the normal word for hair, thrix or trichos, he used the word komao or kome which means “ornamental tresses“!   According to the ancient Church writer, Hegesippus, of about 180 AD, James, brother of the Lord, was a priest of the Temple, and also had long hair.  From Hegesippus’  “Commentaries on the Acts of the Church”, James “drank no wine or other intoxicating liquor, nor did he eat flesh; no razor came upon his head…”.  It is written that James the Just was on his knees so much for the people that he had knees like a camel.  He, not Peter, was named the head of Jesus’ Church, the Way, and was so revered that his death was the spark that ignited the Jewish War in 70 AD. James also was a vegetarian, as was likely the Lord Jesus!  Jesus was described in ancient writings, and representative of the Shroud image, as tall…about 6 ft.

A lost, and very early gospel, if not the earliest…as some believe it to have been the source for the Gospel of Matthew, and compiled in the middle of the first century…not long after the Crucifixion of Christ…is called the Gospel According to the Hebrews.  It comes from the writings of Jerome (341-420 AD)…”De Viris Illustribus 2“…and I quote it here as Jerome wrote: “The gospel called according to the Hebrews which was recently transcribed by me into Greek and Latin, which Origen frequently uses, records after the resurrection of the Savior:  And when the Lord had given the linen cloth to the servant of the priest, he went to James and appeared to him.  For James had sworn that he would not eat bread from that hour in which he had drunk the cup of the Lord until he should see him risen from among them that sleep.  And shortly thereafter the Lord said:  Bring a table and bread!  And immediately it is added: he took the bread, blessed it and brake it, and gave it to James the Just and said to him: My brother, eat your bread, for the Son of man is risen from among them that sleep.”  The words servant of the priest are not clear, but some believe it to have been a reference to Peter and John.  In I Corinthians 15: 5, Paul, in speaking of the Lord’s resurrection, confirmed that Jesus was first “seen of Cephas (Peter) then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.”

Like all gospels, this is a treasure, but especially as it had been lost to us, with only fragments remaining.  It also tells us that James had been in attendance at the Lord’s Last Supper.  A “pearl of great price”, it is also known and used by researchers of the Shroud of Turin.  The words linen cloth (note singular) jump out at you, and you realize that the scriptures were not going to give that away out of protection of the Lord’s evidence…or Way.  Was this the “keys to the kingdom of heaven” that Jesus would (future) give to Simon Peter? Did this foretell the coming of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit…or the Spirit of truth, which would teach us all things and bring all things to remembrance? Jesus told His disciples, “It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.  And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:  Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.  John 16: 7-11. Would this be evidence for Jesus that had been left lying, along with another smaller head cloth (Sudarium Christi), in His empty tomb? The linen cloth (Sindon, or othone mean a linen cloth or sheet, and othonion encompasses other strips of linen to tie the hands, feet, and one to keep the jaw closed). This is a mistake that many make, and often have our Lord wrapped up like a glued Egyptian mummy.  Not so!

Of the Comforter, Jesus said, “He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” John 16: 14. He would look like, and reveal things just like Jesus. Of God’s suffering Servant:  ”He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.  A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth“.  Isaiah 42: 2-3. Compare this to Matthew 12: 16-21. Smoking flax translates scorched linen!  ”Thou has given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth“.  Psalm 60: 4.  The Hebrew word for banner is nec (nase) which means a flag, token, banner, sign or standard…as in the “sign of Jonah“…the only sign to be given to a wicked and evil generation!  Nacac in Hebrew means to gleam from afar, to flutter as an ensign, to raise as a beacon…and to be conspicuous!  This was the evidence (or sign) for the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ…and for the coming of the Holy Spirit.  The ancient “Church fathers” all wrote about the evidence…in code…for protection and preservation. Some referred to it as the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost.  The Pearl: Seven Hymns on the Faith, written by St. Ephraim of Syria in Edessa (where the Shroud was hidden), described the evidence, the Shroud,  beautifully and poetically…in 350 AD!  That is long before any radio-carbon tests, yet Ephraim mentioned much of the same controversy in those ancient times as we experience today concerning the Shroud of Christ and it’s inexplainable image.  How does one explain the first photo taken in Italy by Secundo Pia in 1898 becoming a perfect negative from the actual linen image?  Shroud of Turin.

Many have spoken against this sign, and have not believed or understood it’s significance.  ”And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be evil spoken against…” Luke 2: 34.  I approach the conclusion with a question.  What holds up a flag or a banner?  A pole or mast, right?  The Hebrew word for mast or pole, from scripture written long before the birth of Christ, is from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance #8650…and is representative of what has upheld the Lords’s evidence and truth for about 500 years.  The word is…TRN…no vowels (Tav Reysh Nuwn)…”Toren” or…TURIN ! This is absolutely astonishing! And, you think that God doesn’t hide His Truths in plain sight?  Praise and Thankfulness to the Lord Jesus/Yahshua of Nazareth…and for His Banner and Body of Christ. May His Truths abide with you always and eternally.

The radio-carbon dating on the Shroud of Turin in 1988 has already been disproven…and the evidence in this post is from absolutely reliable Holy Scripture and other ancient voices that spoke before 20th century  science.  God IS science…and cannot be over-powered.  His WORD is the only answer!  Some Shroud researchers may disagree with me, but here it is!

Most importantly: Heed this carefully.  Jesus warned us:  ”Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.  And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come“.  Matthew 12: 31-32.  THAT is the ONLY unforgivable sin!  Aren’t we thankful to have been warned?

Did the Apostles use this evidence which, in turn, gave them the confidence and assurance to risk death in their preaching?  Yes.  At Pentecost, Peter described the Holy Spirit as two-fold, visual and audio.  Speaking in the Holy Spirit, the universal tongue understood by all, and going back to King David as prophet, Peter said, “He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses.  Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear“. Acts 2:31-33.

“For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  II Corinthians 4: 6.  The Shroud is believed to have begun as a facial portrait, with the Shroud folded behind, framed, and known as the Face of Edessa and the Mandylion.

“How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?  For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge“.  Jeremiah 4: 21-22.

That standard has been around for over two thousand years!…and we’ve not known Him.

Stay tuned for our next posting which concerns the Truth of the Biblical Exodus…and the actual faces of the people who experienced it.  This, and the above are being written in book form…and are being done in God’s time…not my own.  The Exodus story has much evidence from, not only scripture, but archaeology and ancient Egyptian artifacts.  This, too, will astonish you!

The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:  The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:  The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.  Numbers 6: 24-26.