Are Any of the Jesus Christ Relics Authentic?

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1:00health, head to TrueDagnostic.com and use code PAST for 20% off your entire order. That's TrueDagnostic.com code PAST for 20% off. Insurance isn't one size fits all. That's why drivers have enjoyed progressives and name your price tool for years now. With the name your price tool, you tell them what you want to pay, and they'll show you options that fit your budget. So whether you're picking out your first policy, or just looking for something that works better for you and your family, they make it easy to see your options. Visit progressive.com, find and rate the works for you with the name your price tool. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates, price and coverage, match limited by state law. Hello everybody, welcome back to another episode of Decoding the Unknown. As always, I'm your decoder. Welcome, welcome today. We talked about whether any of the relics of Jesus Christ, or reality, might be something that could have been easier. This is a terrible episode for you, Simon. You're not religious. You don't believe in Jesus. And I'm like, well, I don't believe like Jesus was magical. But I do believe he's probably a historical person.

2:01So he could have artifacts about him, and then whether they're real or not, is what would be disgusting. I also think it'd be really cool. If you had one of the actual nails that would attach Jesus to the cross, can you imagine how much that would be worth? I'd be wearing a lot of money, I tell you. Also great conversation starter. People come around you house for dinner and they're like, oh, what's that big nail about of your fireplace? It's like, oh, that's one of the nails that Jesus was attached to the cross with. Pretty cool. Anyway, what we'll do is we will talk about it first and then we will debunk it later. And let's jump in. If you find yourself at the Cathedral of Notre Dame on the banks of the San in Paris on the first Friday of the month, it's very specific, then you're in for a treat today between 3pm and 5pm, a holy object where we placed on display and venerated by the devotees in attendance. And this is no ordinary holy object. It is the pickled pe-

3:02Just joking, it's the crown of thorns that torture us headwear that was placed upon the brow of Jesus Christ in his moment of doubt and pain. There can be few more sacred items than this, a symbolic relic that encapsulates the passion of the Christ and the agony that swept the world clean of the sins of man. With that work, though, I feel like the sins of man are still very much present, like I do another podcast, slash YouTube channel called the Casual Criminalist and the sins of man are very much on display. Well, it swept the world clean for a while anyway. But here's the thing. Is it real? Is this really truly an authentic relic from the life of Jesus? Or is it just something that some enterprising young monk or novice knocked up in the Middle Ages and passed off as something ancient and holy? In fact, this is a super important question. The crown of thorns is not the only relic of Jesus' life and death. It's just one of hundreds or even thousands around the world. And these relics are venerated, worshiped, and adored each and every day.

4:05So in this video, we're finding out more about this. We're asking the questions, oh, being had. Are any of these relics actually legit? And if so, which ones like the picker relics are a big deal in Christianity? In fact, they're not just a big deal. They're a huge deal. Apart from the Protestants who view relics as a form of idolatry, most branches of Christianity venerate relics. These objects represent the material evidence left behind by saints and other holy figures. Almost right since the very beginning of the religion, Christians have been into relics. A letter from all the way back in the year 156 of earlier century after the life of Jesus describes the worship of Saint Polly Carps remains, did he have loads of Carps? And Smirner in modern day Turkey. Here's what that letter says. We took up his bones, which are more valuable than pressure stones and finer than refined gold and laid them in a suitable place, where the Lord will permit us to gather ourselves together as we are able, in gladness and joy, and to celebrate the birthday of his martyrdom. Yeah, I mean, if that's real, it would be worth more than gold, even though gold is

5:08real expensive right now. So those 2nd century Christians were already honoring the bones of martyrs. I'm sorry, they weren't Jesus' bones. Jesus' bones would be worth a lot, some like regular-ass martyr probably not. But in fact, they were following ancient editions that had existed for centuries, because long before the birth of Jesus, relics were already a thing. We are of relics for either person, theses in ancient Greece, as well as Buddha in the far east. And that makes sense, religion and spirituality are so important to so many people around the world, but it's all intangible. Flying these deeply held spiritual beliefs to real, material objects that visibly exist in the world is hugely valuable, or church isn't enough. But while relics are certainly valuable in worship, they are not always badine. In fact, the overwhelming popularity of relics among believers has led to some of the most anguished and unpleasant deaths of all time. By the late medieval period, worshipping God wasn't enough, even worshipping the right God wasn't enough. You had to worship the right God in the right way, and if you didn't, then you were a

6:11heretic monster. So heretics were often burned at the stake, which most of us agree is a pretty dreadful way to go. I always heard that if you take deep breaths while being burned at the stake, that's for the best, because then you die of like... carbon monoxide poisoning, or smoke inhalation or whatever, before you get cooked, which I guess is definitely preferable. This was certainly a sadistic punishment designed to achieve maximum pain and suffering. It was also a godly punishment designed to purify an evil body through the extremes of heat and fire. But it also served a more practical, earthly purpose. Okay, burning would result in the total destruction of the heretic's body. I thought it was going to be something useful. Like, and then they used it for fertiliser. This meant there would be nothing left for supporters to wrestle over and take away with them. And then they would go off, no chunks of flesh, no bones, just ashy old ash, which could easily be swept away and scattered to the winds. This makes sense, like a sarva bin Laden. They didn't want people to have his body to light worship or whatever, so they chucked

7:13in the f*** you know, shit. Woo! And this is crucial. A relic meant that the flame, if you look excuse the word, choice there, of the executed heretic would live on. In fact, all Catholic churches were supposed to be built around relics, so if you were a Protestant like Elizabeth I of England, you'd want to destroy any potential piece of the martyr you had just marted. But despite the best efforts of the Protestants, relics still exist around the world. Places like Arcan Cathedral in Germany are practically overflowing with these holy objects. Here you'll find the cloak of the Blessed Virgin and the cloth that once held the decapitated head of John the Baptist. It's quite dark. And there are other relics at Arcan too. There's a cloth that originally swaddled the baby Jesus. There is the garment that Jesus wore as he hung dying upon his cross at Golgotha. Golgotha? Golgotha? Kind of amazing that I don't know that. I thought I don't know specifically where Jesus died. What do you know? Went to religious school for like seven years. Those two relics essentially bookended the life and work of Jesus Christ, representing

8:16the point at which he came into the world and the moment he departed from it, taking all of our sins with him. Also, I didn't go to religious school to learn to be religious. I don't know how this is in America. I know a lot of you watching our Americans, but like schools have religion in them. Some, I went to one that did. We had to go to chapel like twice a week. It wasn't my jam. And this is important because if you hadn't already guessed, it means there are relics of Jesus himself too, not just the relics of saints and martyrs. In fact, there are loads of relics of Jesus. And if the relics of saints are a huge deal, then relics of Jesus are absolutely off the scale. And what I'm about these relics is that they're not supposed to provide hard proof of Jesus. The reality of Jesus as a person is supposed to be self-evident. And if you're Christian of any denomination, believing in the truth of Jesus's story is kind of non-negotiable. Instead, they are rallying points for Christian faith. They are holy objects that are used for worship and veneration. And we can divide these relics of Jesus into three main types.

9:18First of all, there are the material relics from Jesus's life. The objects he may have used while he was alive, his toilet brush, or the items he may have come into contact with in some way. Also, toilet brush in a mate's house, perhaps. Secondly, there are the bodily relics of Jesus himself, teeth, hair, bones, and even blood and tears. No sweat, though, at least as far as we're aware. And thirdly, there are the archeropoieta. Thank you for the pronunciation guide, whoever wrote this, or the relics that are made without hands. Basically, these are images of Jesus pressed into cloth and other materials. I'll like the shroud of touring, for example, which spoiler alert is not real. And of course, all of it is real, it exists, but it is not Jesus's face on there. I know we normally save that for later on, but I've made a video about it, so no, it's not real. And of course, all of these relics are supposed to be authentic. So let's take a look at some of them, starting with those material relics. As we saw at the beginning of this video, the crown of thorns is one of the holiest relics found anywhere in the world. This is why the guys in Notre Dame are so keen to display and venerate it every month.

10:21So what's the story here? What is this object? How did it end up at Notre Dame? Well, the crown of thorns has plenty of scriptural backing. The holy object is mentioned in several of the gospels, for example, Matthew, Mark, and John, all state that Jesus was mocked and tormented by his Roman guards on the night before his crucifixion. As part of this, a crown of thorns was placed upon his head to cause him pain and also to belittle his status as a figure of religious leadership and authority. When I was younger, I thought for some reason that the crown of thorns was made out of holy leaps. Just in my mind, it was always, you know, like those, you could make like a holy wreath that goes on like your door at Christmas. And so for some reason, I just had Jesus wearing this kind of like semi-spicy Christmas wreath on his head in my mind. In fact, I kind of do think of that still when I think of the crown of thorns, but that would be like the crown of thorny bushes, I suppose. So what happened to the crown of thorns after he died? Well, this is where Saint Helena enters the story, and it won't be the last time that we hear from her how exciting. Helena is also known of Helena of Constantinople. She was the mother of the Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine, and she was a key figure in the

11:25early spread of Christianity. On a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the 4th century, Helena was very busy indeed. She discovered many of the relics that are still associated with Jesus to this day, including the crown of thorns. From the 4th century onwards, the crown of thorns became increasingly important among early Christians. By the 10th century, the crown was one of the relics that was transferred to Constantinople, as Islam began to spread in the Holy Land and Christian control of the region receded. By the 13th century, the crown of thorns was on its way even further west. When August 19th, 1239, it turned up in Paris, where it was housed at Notre Dame. King Louis IX built the Sorsche-Appel here. Well, I see French words of just like, I just have a crackity with a French accent and it sounds a bit alright. Many of me built that Sorsche-Appel to make sure that the crown of thorns stayed safe. This almost didn't work. During the French Revolution, at the end of the 18th century, the ideas of veneration and respect for this kind of sacred object went out the window. Reducuaries were trashed and melted down as they were viewed as symbols of bourgeois excess.

12:26Notre Dame's crown had a lucky escape, though. It survived, and it still found in the cathedral to this day. So that's a nice story. When you go to view the crown of thorns at Notre Dame today, you're engaging with that story. There's a lineage that stretches back to Jesus himself, and this at least gives us the feeling of authenticity. According to the Cathedral's own team quote, for more than 16 centuries, these precious relics of Christ's passion have been objects of veneration by the faithful. They invite believers to contemplate the passion, mystery, the heart of the Christian faith, and to embrace the promise of eternal life that Christ offers to all of humanity. For one is it said 1600 years, one to the first 400 years. Where was it then? But anyway, this is just one of the material relics there are plenty of other examples, each with their own tale of authenticity and provenance. This includes a relics from one of the most well-known events of Jesus' short life, relics from the last supper. In fact, this event is so important that there is not just one relic of the last supper,

13:27instead, there are at least four. And two of these found at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome. One of these relics is the seat on which Jesus sat during the last supper. This is handily pointed out by an inscription which reads, Jesus was here. That's a lie, it says, part of the couch on which our Lord reclined at the supper of the fifth day. So yeah, basically Jesus was here. The other relic from the last supper at the Basilica of Saint John is the table from this auspicious event, or at least two seedlewood panels taken from this table. In Spain, at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of Alencia, you'll find something very special indeed. The holy chalice, also known as the Holy Grail, or the cup Jesus drank from, at the last supper. F***. I was wondering when I was going to be able to get eternal life at last. Also in Spain, at the Cathedral Museum in Correa, you could find the tablecloth from the last supper. This is a large piece of linen measuring more than four meters long and almost one meter wide. So I was suggested that this tablecloth was even used for another purpose after the last supper was complete, a far more somber purpose.

14:27Wait, did they wrap Jesus up? Is that what we say? They wrapped Jesus up in a tablecloth? Okay. There are tales that say the cloth was used as a makeshift shroud, and that's something we're going to be looking at in greater detail later on. So there's a huge reliquary associated with Jesus, literally thousands of artifacts that give modern Christians a direct connection to Jesus as a real historical figure who walked the earth. A lot of artifacts to carry any spiritual weight, there needs to be some sort of verification. Each artifact has its own story of verification. For example, the nails that L. Jesus on the cross were discovered in Jerusalem by the very busy Helena of Constantinople when she went on her famous pilgrimage during the early 4th century AD. A bit of a coincidence that the mother of Constantine just happened to be the one who discovered Jesus as nails. While this is still a few hundred years after the death of Christ, it does get us closer to his lifespan. It's a similar story with the longness spear. This was the spear that the Roman soldier longness used to pierce the side of Jesus as he was hanging stricken upon the cross.

15:28We don't have any... For some reason I thought he was hit with a sword. In my mind, it's a dude, like a Roman gladiator or something, whacking him with a sword. But it was a spear. We don't have actual evidence for the spear's veracity, but we do have records of it from early Christians who visited the Holy Land on their travels. History searches admit that this kind of verification is not perfect, but it is still no worthy. In ancient history, we look at scraps and clues that suggest historical truth. So these stories do carry some weight. For bodily relics, pieces of Christ himself, verification should be even easier. Can we clone Jesus? They got that Jesus blood, right? Just clone him. Bring him back! We've all seen TV shows like CSR, that would be so. I imagine that religious people would have a problem if we tried to clone Jesus. I mean, like this feels like, uh, what's the word? Blast for me. We've all seen TV shows like CSI or Silent Witness or some other procedural detective drama. A quick DNA test should give us everything we need to know.

16:29Except of course, we can't do that. That's not really how DNA testing works. It's not. It's a verification needs to come from a different source. But first, let's take a look at some of these bodily relics, because this type of relic is a bit problematic in the Christian tradition. Now, according to Scripture, Jesus ascended to heaven after the crucifixion. Here's how the early 20th century Theologian, Justice Nect, put it. Our Lord went up, body and soul, into heaven, in the sight of His apostles, by His own power, to take possession of His glory, and to be our advocate and mediator in heaven, with the Father. He ascended as man, as head of the redeemed, and has prepared a dwelling in heaven for all those who follow His steps. Now, if He went to heaven, body and soul, there shouldn't be a body left behind. In turn, there shouldn't be any relic left behind from that body. What would happen if He had, like, fillings? Or like, I've got a titanium bone in my shoulder. Would that be left behind? Food for thought. This means that all the relics from the body of Jesus must come before His ascension to heaven.

17:29Well, these don't outlippings. This is why we have so many relics of Jesus as a child or adolescent. For example, we have things like a juvenile tooth that Jesus lost when He was only nine, or the hair from His head and beard, that grew when He was a young man. There's even a famous four-skin relic, which we'll discuss later on. Please tell me it's pickled. Please tell me that Jesus' four-skin is pickled. Any relics that exist outside this remit tend to get ignored as they don't fit in with the idea of Christ, ascending bodily to heaven. But those that do fit within this remit are seen by many as authentic. The blood of Christ is one such relic. At the Basilica of the Sacred Blood in Bruges, Belgium, the words of St Ignatius, Anomer, Christy Prayer, wait, this religious dude's last name was really prayer. They're displayed clearly upon the wall. It reads, Blood of Christ. The inscription says, Inebreate me. Inebreate me brother, yes! Woo! This refers to the church's celebrated centipedes, a vile that holds the precious blood of Jesus Christ. On ascension Thursday, every year, the vile is brought out for display and veneration, making its way through the brew streets as adoring worshipers show their respect.

18:33We can DNA test that, though. It's not that old. Like DNA lasts thousands of years, right? We can't get the dinosaurs, but they were a much longer time ago. According to the Keepers of the Church, it was Joseph of Arimathea who collected the blood. Joseph removed Christ's body from the cross, and he took some of the blood and water that poured from Jesus' side. Why was Waterporea like a nasty-ass bio-loss? He then preserved that blood and passed it on to the family of Jesus. In the fourth century, Hallenar of Constantinople emerges again. She mentions how she encountered this relic on her own travels. Centuries later, Crusaders also mentioned this precious file, and in fact, it was the Crusades that led to the blood making its way to Europe. Of course it was. Europe back in the day. Look at all that cool tt. Let's bring it back and put it at our museums! Especially as we all know, the British Museum. Tiarif Alsas had been a Crusader knight serving under Baldwin III. As Tiarif had proved his loyalty, even during the catastrophe of the Second Crusade, Baldwin decided to reward Tiarif with the vile of holy blood.

19:33From around 1150 onwards, so the story goes, the vile resided in Bruge, and it's still there today. By 1310, quote, climate 5th had even issued a papal bull, which said that the vile and blood were legit. Well then, DNA test it might do. Just get that kit out. Just send it off to 23 and me and it'll be like Jesus. This is Jesus' ancestry DNA. All the stories emerge elsewhere in Europe, the Holy Trinity Abbey and Facamp. France also holds a vile of Christ's blood in its own reliquy. In 2022, the one-eight box holding the reliquy was stolen by a set of enterprising thieves until they realised what they were dealing with. Arthur Brand is a Dutch investigator who worked on the case and a specialist in retrieving ultra-valuable items. That sounds like a f**k job. It's just like a reverse thief. In his own words, they had no idea what they had stolen until they found out on the internet. And that's when they started panicking a bit. The two lead viles of Christ's blood were eventually returned to the Abbey, but how they got there in the first place. While the blood was reportedly collected in a pair of lead viles on Jesus' death and then hidden in a fig tree.

20:35Naturally. In time, the fig tree fell into the sea and then floated across the Mediterranean, skirted around the Atlantic coast and then ran aground at Normandy in northern France. Right. The monks at Facamp took the viles in and they had become key to worship and veneration at the Abbey ever since. Additionally, this is still the case today, despite the attempted theft. Brand explained what it was like to recover the relic quote, it was a very deep feeling. You must understand. This relic, according to legend, was in the church for some fifteen hundred years. Millions of people in those fifteen hundred years travelled, some having walked for hundreds of miles to see the blood of Jesus. They went there to pray for their son to return from the crusades, or their daughter, who was caught by the plague. And this is another example of a relic with a long and caseous story. Is this kind of backstory that gives Christians the confidence that these relics are authentic? Not enough confidence for a DNA test though. They'll test the blood and be like, now it's from a pig. Don't think Jesus was a pig. The aim with the relic like that, the problem with this is the religious people who argue

21:37against it would be like, oh no, well of course it is. Jesus swapped it for your sins. Like you tested it before it was Jesus's blood. God swapped it out so you couldn't test it properly. There is no end. The aim with the relic like this is not really to look for historical proof. Instead the aim is to search for a crum of possibility around which faith can take hold. What about our last category of relics? The images of Christ. Now the most famous of all of these is certainly the shroud of Turin, and I'm sorry I already spoiled this one for you. If you visit the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in the Italian city of Turin, you will be standing in the same building that houses arguably the most famous relic of them all. This is the cloth that Jesus' body was wrapped in when Jesus ascended to heaven, the imprint of his body was left upon this cloth. Is that the dining table? The dining table. Cover? Dining table cloth? What the hell is it called? Do you ever have those complete blanks where you're like, what is that like the white sheet that you put over a dining table? Table cloth? Table cloth.

22:38Thank you. Table cloth? I'm doubting myself now. You just have those moments where you're just like, baaaah. Mr. President, my company for me is the explosion I'm not rigged. On October 2nd. Causing massive water displacement and triggering the tsunami. They all heat the blame on me. Tom Cruise is. Digger and Honour Center this mess. And Digger is gonna dig us out. From the director of Bergman and the Revenant. What would happen if I stopped doing it? You stole it. You freeze the deck. That's what. With great power, comes great deniability. I'm not the earth then. Digger. See the Trilong Line. Only in the years of October 2nd. There are several mentions of Jesus' burial at our in the Bible. In John chapter 11, verse 44, the man who had died came out. His hands and feet bound with linen straps. And his face wrapped with a cloth. In John chapter 20, verses 6 and 7, then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus's head, not lying with the linen cloths, folded up in a place by itself.

23:38In Matthew chapter 27, verse 59, and Joseph took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud. Now the archaeologist and historian, Dr Scott Strypling, says that the shroud of Turin is the Sindon mentioned in Matthew. Athonia refers in plural to the assemblage of burial garments. It was comprised of the shroud, the face covering, and the binding strips. The face covering went over the shroud and tied the jaw closed. Writing for the Bible Archaeology report, Bran Windall believes there is a lot of evidence to suggest that this is truly a relic of Jesus Christ. The Sindlesis study was published in the scientific journal Thermo-Kimicca Acta. This study involved testing fibres from the shroud, and analyzing levels of the organic compound Vanillin. The results of the study suggest that the shroud is indeed ancient, and comes from the type of Jesus. According to the author of the report, quote, the fact that Vanillin cannot be detected in the lignin on shroud fibres, Dead Sea Scrolls linen, and other very old linens, indicates that the shroud is quite old. The determination of the kinetics of Vanillin loss suggests that the shroud is between 1300

24:43and 3000 years old. Well, can't we just carbon date it? Like that feels like better than Vanillin dating. Windall also talks about the composition of the shroud and the original location. To quote Windall himself, a 2024 study in the journal Archive of the Hematology Case Reports and Reviews demonstrated that there are particles of blood on the shroud, the contain nanoparticles of fibrin, and creatinine, typical of a tortured person. And from later in Windall's article, another study showed that residue from a rare type of limestone, called Argonite, which is common to Jerusalem, was discovered near the foot area of the image. So the shroud of Tyrin is old enough to be an authentic relic of Jesus. Its creation also matches the circumstances of Jesus' death, and it comes from the right place. This at least gives us the suggestion that the shroud is authentic. And for many people looking for relics to venerate, this suggestion is enough. What we've got here is a vast body of evidence, something that is just so weighty that it can't

25:44be easily dismissed. It's a bit like water. A few raindrops are easily ignored, but when that flow of water builds into a massive torrent and becomes a tsunami, it's going to have a massive impact. But this is kind of ignoring the main question here. Yeah, there are tons of relics of Jesus, and yes, many of these relics are a bit compelling. But how many of them are actually authentic? All two ask an even starker question, or any of them are actually authentic. Well, let's find out as we get into the second part of this episode where we break it all down, and well, not to side, I mean I'll probably announce my thought as I want to do, but let's get into it and see what we can debunk. Alright, so now we're part of the video where we get our sled shaman, we start smashing up the lovely evidence that we've massed so far. To know if it's lovely, it's like it's vanilla, and yeah, maybe, in its just people really wanting to believe. Okay, that's maybe a bit over-dramatic. We're not going to do any actual smashing up.

26:45Instead, we're going to get scientific, and we're going to get critical, and we're going to get to the bottom of the old authenticity debate. Now before I get into this, I do have this to say, this analysis is purely historical, the spiritual symbolism and theological weight of these relics and not up for debate. Instead, I'm looking at the evidence that shows historical authenticity. Yeah, I mean, people worship these things, they are real in their minds, and religion is real because it exists, everything's kind of real because it exists in your mind and away, but it's like more with religion as neck as... It's like a story. With that said, let's get into it. Straight away, there's something striking about these relics. There are just so many of them, and with so much evidence, how can we possibly refute them? And a little closer, we see that the sheer volume of evidence presents its own problems. The massive number of relics out there actually undermines their authenticity, rather than supporting it. Here's what I mean. There's only one tablecloth. There we go. Tablecloth. For some reason I was doubting it like tablecloth? Is that like a... A cloth that you use to wipe a table?

27:47No, it's a tablecloth whistle. There's only one tablecloth from the last supper, for example. It doesn't matter how many spanned tablecloths were kept in reserve or how well prepared that particular venue was. Only one tablecloth was actually used. So when Cathedral Museum in Korea claims they have the whole tablecloth, they're kind of maxing out the quota, their tablecloth maxing, as the kids would say. There's no room for any other tablecloths. There's not even any room for tablecloth straps, because Korea has tablecloth maxed. And that's fine, because only Korea is claiming the relic. It sounds like I'm saying Korea, but it's Korea. CORAA. This isn't happening in Korea. But as for other relics, it's not fine. Take the true cross, for example. There's only one true cross, and yet relics from this artifact appear all over the place. Well, it was quite big right, so there could be chunks of it. That'd be another good convoy piece. What's that? Ah, it's a piece of the cross. Wait, like Jesus' cross, they're like, yeah, yeah, picked it up on eBay. Cost me a pretty packet. Pretty penny?

28:47Cost me a pretty penny. Cost me a packet? Cost me a pretty penny. Shouldn't mix my metaphors. The largest piece of the true cross is supposedly at the Monastery of Santo Terebio de Laibana in Spain. The Basilica de Santa Croce and Jerusalem also has a piece as does the Zero Potomore Monastery on Mount Athos in Greece. And this is just three examples, as I would have quite literally hundreds of locations that claim a bit of this holy bit of carpentry. When King Charles III had his coronation, the Vatican donated two more pieces of the cross as a gift. Wait, King Charles III we have the King now, I think it is right? They gave him two pieces of the cross. Wait, so he really has that conversation piece? That's pretty cool to be honest. This might seem like it's not a problem. The true cross is presumably big enough to have plenty of splinters. But for the noted Theologian John Calvin, this kind of explanation doesn't carry much weight. In Calvin's own words, if we were to collect all these pieces of the true cross exhibited in various parts, they would form a whole ship's cargo. The Gospel testifies that the cross could be born by one single individual.

29:48While glaring then is the audacity now to pretend to display more relics of wood than 300 men could carry. Exclamation point. Calvin seems a little bit upset about this. The church refuted Calvin's presentation at the time. Their idea was that the blood of Christ imbued the Holy Cross with some sort of magical property which allowed it to step outside typical physics. Dude, like I'm saying with the pig's blood thing being swapped out, there's always an excuse. John Calvin had his own counterargument of this response and it was even more scathing. This is such a clumsy and silly imposter that the most superstitious may see through it. Yeah, and Calvin is a Theologian, right? Wait, does Theologian mean that you believe in it or just that you study it? I think it just means you study it, right? But then if you don't believe in it, it would be a bit weird to study it. It probably won't surprise you to learn that John Calvin was pretty down on relics in general. He described them like this. Instead of observing the lives of apostles, martyrs and other saints in order to imitate their examples, it directed all its attention to the preservation and admiration of their bones, shirts, sashes, caps and other similar trash.

30:49Calvin doesn't mean his words, but he does have a point. If there are thousands of material relics spread all across the globe, then the whole idea of a relic is cheapened. And if some of these relics are fakes mocked up by some huckster looking to make a quick bark. Then why not all of them? But I suppose, with things like tablecloths and swaddling cloths and wood splinters, we could just about let it slide. There may be lots of fragments of the true cross, just like there may be loads of other items associated with Jesus. The duplication is not a massive issue here. Er, when it's so much, I think it's like, well, they're not, they cannot possibly be all real. The like magical cross which grew, so there's more relics, is just obviously daft. I agree with Mr. Calvin on that one, although not quite as upset about it. But when it comes to body parts, duplication is a real problem. Perhaps the most famous bodily relic of Jesus Christ is the Holy Prepute-se. Prepuse? Prep-pute-se? This is four-skin, okay? It's the end of his- that was cut off, like the skin around it, not the actual end of the- that would be really different and worse.

31:52But the thing about this kind of relic is there should be only one, but this is not the case. There have been a various points over the centuries, dozens of versions of this relic. Who is it he said? It's like, Jesus' four-skid sits outside the normal rules of physics. Jesus' magical four-skin could multiply. The historian Robert Palazzo found evidence of at least 31 European churches that claimed to house the Holy Forskin. In some cases, the delicate sacred object wasn't treated with particular reverence. In 1421, it was sent to Catherine of Valois to help her conceive a child with her husband Henry V. I'm not sure that Jesus would have wanted his four-skin to be used in some sort of pagan-style fertility ritual. No, probably not. Also, why did they keep? I know Jesus was born and everyone thought he was magical and stuff, but they kept his four-skin. It's a bit weird. Like, I know some people are weird and they like keep the- the- the- the umbilical- Actually, keeping the umbilical cord, I mean, it frozen is a good idea, because it's got those stem cells in it, right?

32:53But like, some people keep the, like, placenta after birth. Maybe some people do hold onto their four-skins. They're like, maybe I'd like to put it back on someday, you never know, put it in the freezer. Although it'd be way too small, right? You'd put your baby-four-skid. This is enough, we've got too far. Other stories are even stranger. Castorine of Sienna claimed to have a wedding ring made from the four-skid. I did the 13th century, Agnes Blanbekin said this during a confession. I began to think about the four-skid of Christ, where it may be located, and be hold, soon I felt, with the greatest sweetness on my tongue, a little piece of skin, like the skin of an egg, which I swallowed. After it, I had swallowed it. I felt the little skin on my tongue, with sweetness as before. I swallowed it. And this happens about a hundred times. What the f- did you smoke, Agnes? But if we put all that weirdness to one side, is this relic actually authentic? Well, the answer's unclear. This particular relic has been controversial for all over millennium.

33:54Anastasia Sinaita, who is writing in the 7th century, and said this, we can be sure that he, having voluntarily submitted himself to the act of circumcision, will have kept his four-skid. Wait, how can he, vol-- he was, like, circumcised as a baby, right? That's what happened. You're not circumcised as an adult unless you have like some medical issue. So I don't think people voluntarily subject themselves to circumcision. Their parents choose. He kept his four-skid so that it could be restored to his body, following his resurrection, thus allowing her resurrection. Thus allowing him to ascend to his heavenly father with a perfect body, entire and intact. This is bizarre. Sinaita is skeptical, but he's still pretty measured and restrained in his criticism. Famously outspoken, Czech reformer Jan Hus was, of course, let's diplomatic to quote us, to teach the Christ's four-skid and survives is just as foolish as to teach the Christ's head survives cut off from his body. I mean, yeah, but also Jesus probably did have, I mean, he

34:58was Jewish, right? So he definitely had his four-skid cut off. But he did have his head cut off. It seems that after a while, even the Vatican became a little embarrassed by all the conjecture over something so personal. Pope Innocent III had this to say, rather than attempt to rash answers to whether the Holy Four-skid is a true relic, it is better they be left entirely to God. Which is quite a convenient way of saying, can we all just shut up about the four-skid now? Over time, the magical Holy Four-skid has gradually receded from public view, a church in the Italian village of Calcata, who was still displaying one long into the 20th century, but it was allegedly stolen in 1983. The four-skid has been kept in a secure location, which was a shoebox under the bed of a local priest. So now that final relic has gone to, which means we can't do any scientific testing, or analysis on it, there's no way to scientifically verify authenticity. Again, rather the convenient. Yeah, it's not real, it's not really Jesus' four-skid. No one would have kept this. It's weird. It's not just using the big yellow binmart medical waste.

35:59But other relics have caused even more controversy down the years with people split across two camps, team real and team fake. Surely the most controversial of them all is one we've already seen, the Turing Shroud, one of the, oh god, acropoietta, acropoietta, or the imprints of Christ's image. Big problem with the Turing Shroud is that it's never referenced at all until over a millennium after Jesus' crucifixion. In 1195, the Hungarian prayer codex offers us an image of Jesus' burial. In this image, we see Jesus' buried and then resurrected. Wait, Jesus wasn't buried, wasn't he put in a cave? I might imagine it this, but I saw Jesus was taken down from the cross, they put him in a big cave, and then they rolled a big boulder in front of it. Right? Both of these image sections show a shroud featuring a distinctive herringbone pattern and four holes. These features match those found on the shroud of Turing so so far, so good. Over the following centuries, the Hungarian codex fueled speculation as the racity of the shroud. But by the 1930s, theologians and religious figures were already skeptical about the true

37:04history of the artifact. Bishops to Arsis of Troyes had this to say, It is a certain cloth cunningly painted, falsely declaring that and pretending that this was the actual sedarium in which our Savior Jesus Christ was enfolded in the tomb, and upon which the whole likeness of the Savior as remained thus imprinted together with the wounds which he bore. Oh my god, that was so hard to read. When was that? 13, 13, 13 hundreds? I hate reading the historical quotes. A century and a half later, our old chum, John Calvin had some big questions about the shroud. In his own treatise on relics, he asked, How is it possible that those sacred historians who carefully related all the miracles that took place at Christ's death should have emitted dimension one so remarkable as the likeness of the body of our Lord remaining on its wrapping sheet? Okay, so he's religious right, the body of our Lord, he's Lord as well. So he's religious and everything. And you're picking apart the idea of relics, which I'm doing, but I'm not religious, and it doesn't bother me, but it seems like it bothers you quite a bit. What was your name?

38:05Calvin. And that is a good point from Calvin. Of course, Jesus would have had a shroud. So why was no mention of it made until almost 12 centuries later, especially when his literal bodily imprint is visible on the cloth itself? In 1988, researchers decided to get to the bottom of the mystery. They used cutting-edge radio-carbon dating techniques to work out how old this thing was. And what was the result? Well, the team decided with around 95% confidence that the shroud was made sometime between 1260 and 1390, which, as you know, is way too young to be anything related to Jesus. But hold on a minute, because some people have suggested that the researchers tested the wrong bit of the shroud. Uh-huh. Of course they do. Or maybe God swapped it to punish us for testing it and doubting our, what's it called? Where you doubt? Like it's like a test, but they test about doubting. I feel there's a biblical word for that. There's evidence to suggest that the shroud was repaired in the Middle Ages, that the team tested the newer fragments rather than the original. So we're back on. Maybe the shrouded cheering is legit, after all.

39:06More recent tests have used the waxes method, which means wide-angle x-ray scattering. Rather than measuring carbon, this technique measures the aging process of the cellulose in the flax material to give what is supposed to be a more accurate picture of its age. It's pretty cool. And well, the testing found that the shroud strongly matches Fabric found in Massada, Israel, which dates from 55 to 74 AD. So a little bit after Jesus, but not much. In terms of its age, the shroud is pretty close to bang on. Ho, they said 95% confidence 1260 to 1390, and it turned out to be wrong, although they could have been that repaired bit. That's so very skeptical about all that. But they were wrong. Okay, but does this mean that the shroud categorically depicts Jesus? No of course not. As Brian Windle of the Bible archaeology report tells us quote, The shroud of Teorin is likely the authentic burial shroud of a man who was crucified in the first century near Jerusalem. However, I'm not prepared to go so far as to suggest that it is the actual burial shroud of Jesus and Nazareth. Jesus is one of thousands of people crucified by the Romans in the first century in Judea.

40:10And this is as close to proof as we're ever going to get. We can debate how old the shroud is until the cows come home, but we're never going to get definitive proof that the haunting image etched into the fabric is truly the image of Jesus. I'm sorry, I thought this was like fully debunked. I mean, I don't believe it for a second, but I thought it would have been like actually fully properly done. And to be honest, this is not surprising. Direct material evidence for Jesus is really hard to come by. Archaeological examinations have found things like the original side of Nazareth, while their examinations have found orseries containing the remains of crucifixion victims who were then buried in traditional Jewish ceremonies. Another osary discovered in the Kidren Valley was even suggested to contain the bones of Jesus as brother James. I just found out Jesus had a brother. I did not know that. Do you think he was a bit jealous? Like, because if you're James, literal Jesus Christ is your brother. I mean, that's got it. Was it the same parents? Like, proper sibling?

41:10That would suck. However, I should note here that the osary's owner was put on trial for forgery in 2007. He was eventually acquitted, but this mercenaries continues to cast out over the osary's authenticity. So, if we're looking for absolutely indisputable proof, either from the reliquary or from the archaeological record, we're not going to find it. In answering the question that started today's video off, are any of the relics of Jesus Christ actually authentic? The answer is this. We don't know. But almost definitely not. But does this matter? Does any of this undermine the existence of Jesus or any of his teachings? No, it doesn't. This is ancient history we're talking about. Ancient history doesn't really work in terms of absolutes. When we look at ancient history, we're not typically looking for the smoking gun that proves the existence of a specific figure. We're not looking for a lock of emperor Augustus's hair or a sliver of pericles' toga. Instead, we're looking for a rich patchwork of textual evidence that tells us whether or not someone was a real person.

42:11And there's actually quite a lot of that for Jesus. The Jewish writer Giuseppe tells us of a wise man named Jesus who was executed on a cross. He tells us that a man named James, a brother of Jesus, who was called Christ. The Roman writer Tassata speaks of, quote, Christus, from whom the name had its origin, who suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pallatus. Another Roman writer, Pliny the Younger, gives us another mention. When Pliny was serving as a governor in modern day Turkey, he wrote an irritated letter to the Emperor Trasian in which he said, quote, The Christians were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn of Christ as to a god. This suggests that both Pliny and Trayon were already aware of Christ, which certainly indicates he was a known figure at the time. Yeah, I made a video about historical Jesus's while back. I think the academic consensus is generally that Jesus was a real person, although, I mean, he wasn't magical. A few decades later, another Roman, Sutonius writes,

43:13Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Christus, Emperor Claudius expelled them from Rome. These are not Christian sources, and yet they still mention Jesus as real, and in many cases, as something of a pain for the local Roman authorities. So in historical terms, there's plenty of evidence about the existence of Jesus Christ, surely one of the most influential figures in the last two millennia of human history. But is any of that evidence a bone, a shred of cloth, or any other physical relic is real? No. Unfortunately not. Those things just can't be authenticated, when it comes to its authenticity the textual evidence is our friend. This is where we find proof of Jesus's life. Relics still have a huge role to play, but that role is about belief, faith, and veneration, rather than actual history. Yep, completely agree. This has been an episode at Codinian Nain, we fully decoded it. I mean, almost definitely, in the words of, I'm sorry, the name's not in the script, so I don't know who wrote this, but I think it was John, I got a feeling it was John, but I'm not sure. But that's the episode, thank you so much for being here, and I'll see you next time.

44:29Being a tsunami, they all keep the blame on me. I'm Ali Roper, the host of The Wiserworld podcast. If you've ever read a headline and thought, wait, how did we get here?

45:30This podcast is for you. I break down world history in a simple, approachable way for busy people who want real context, not just sound bites. If you want to start understanding how world history affects current events, listen to Wiserworld wherever you get your podcasts. Hello there, I'm Dave and Hiski, and on my podcast, The Brain Food Show, our team, including the great Simon Whistler, our own devices, Jio Messier and FactVeeens Carl Smallwood, serve up fascinating facts and stories that will blow your mind. From ancient mysteries to scientific curiosities to deep dive history, we delivered knowledge that will help you become the star of Watercooler Talk, The World Over. Listen to The Brain Food Show wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Nick Venzand, host of profoundly pointless, signal award winner for best interview podcast, exorcist, money launders, Arctic explorers, every week we explore something new from a side of life you may never have even heard of. Check out profoundly pointless wherever you listen to podcasts.