Copyright © Stephen E. Jones[1]
This is #45, "Prehistory of the Shroud (2)," of my series, "The evidence is overwhelming that the Turin Shroud is Jesus' burial sheet!" For more information about this "overwhelming" series, see the "Main index #1" and "Other marks and images #26." For more information about this "Prehistory" series, see "Prehistory" (1).
See updates for the years 373, 507 and 521.
[Main index #1] [Previous: Prehistory of the Shroud (1) #44] [Next: Prehistory of the Shroud (3) #46]
c. 150 Several second century Christian writings record that the Shroud had been saved from Jesus' tomb: the Gospel of the Hebrews (late 1st/early 2nd century - see "c. 100"), the Acts of Pilate = Gospel of Nicodemus, the Gospel of Peter and the Gospel of Gamaliel[SD89, 74]. This shows that these second century writers knew the Shroud existed in their day[SD89, 74].
177 Accession of king Abgar VIII, the Great (r. 177-212)[AFW]. Abgar was the ruler of Osroene, a Syriac-speaking kingdom in Upper Mesopotamia, whose capital city was Edessa[OSW]. Abgar VIII was Edessa's (and the world's) first Christian king[GV01, 2; GM09, 142], as is evident from some of his coins which were the first to feature a Christian symbol: a prominent Christian cross on his crown[WI98, 167; WI10, 118-119] (see below).
[Above (enlarge)[JRC]: Second century Edessan coin, one side with Abgar VIII wearing a crown bearing a Christian cross (right), and on the other side the head of the Roman emperor Commodus (r. 180-192) (left).]
c. 183 During the tolerant reign of Roman EmperorCommodus (r. 180-192) Abgar VIII asked Pope Eleutherus (c. 174-189) to send Christian missionaries to Edessa[WI98, 172; SD10, 1]. In Abgar VIII's reign Edessa became the world's first Christian city, as 
evidenced by this stone Christian cross over a lion's head in a former fountain in modern Sanliurfa (ancient Edessa) [Right (enlarge)[WI10, 146G]. This had survived the almost complete eradication of Edessa's Christian history since the Muslim conquest of Edessa in 1144[WI10, 1]. The lion was the symbol of the Abgar dynasty[WI10, 119] which ceased ruling over Edessa after Abgar VIII's death in 212[WI10, 119]
194 Abgar VIII supported Parthia in its war against Rome[SD97, 35-36] causing Emperor Septimius Severus (r. 193-211) to take Edessa's rule from him and give it to a procurator[SD97, 36].
197-8 Abgar VIII changed sides and assisted Rome in its defeat of Parthia[SD97, 36]. To show his loyalty to the Emperor, whose full name was Lucius Septimius Severus, Abgar took on the Latin names Lucius Aelius Aurelius Septimus[SJ01, 14].
201 A major flood of its river the Daisan (`Leaper') devastates Edessa[WI98, 162; WI10, 132], thousands die, and the "church of the Christians" is damaged[WI98, 162]. This is the first mention anywhere of a Christian church building[WI98, 162] and is further evidence that Edessa had become a Christian city
202 As a reward for assisting Rome in its war with Parthia, Abgar VIII was invited to Rome in 202, which he visited after 204, to a lavish reception[SD02, 10; SJ01, 14].
205 Following the flood of 201, Abgar VIII built on higher ground within the walls of the old Edessa, a new walled Citadel, called "Birtha" in Syriac[SD97, 36; WI98, 172]. 
[Above (enlarge)[EFE]: The ruins of Edessa's citadel, within the modern city of Sanliurfa, Turkey.]
212 Death of Abgar VIII the Great[WI98, 264]. He was succeeded as king of Osroene by his son Abgar IX[WI98, 264].
213 Abgar IX and his son were summoned to Rome and murdered on the orders of Roman Emperor Caracalla (188–217)[AFW]. In 214 Caracalla ended the independence of Osroene and incorporated it as a province of the Roman Empire[AFW].
c. 315 Roman Empress Constantia (c.293-330), the half-sister of Emperor Constantine I the Great (c.272–337), wrote to the church historian, Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea (260-339), asking him to send her an "image of Christ"[PR21]. Constantia's letter is lost but from Eusebius' reply, she seemed to be asking for a specific image of Christ, presumably the Image of Edessa/Shroud. This is supported by Eusebius' reply in which, instead of simply answering Constantia along the lines of, "Sorry, but I don't have an image of Christ to send to you," he gave a long-winded refusal which indicated that Eusebius knew which image Constantia meant, but he needed to find a way to refuse Constantine's half-sister's request without actually saying "no". This is further evidence that the Image of Edessa/Shroud existed in the fourth century, known in Christian circles, but hidden from those who would seize it
315 Constantine, the first Christian Roman Emperor[BW57, 44], abolished crucifixion throughout the Roman Empire[BW57, 44; MP78, 36; AM00, 102], out of veneration for Jesus, crucifixion's most famous victim[CRW]. Crucifixion continued to be banned in the remnants of the Roman Empire which included Europe[IJ98, 69]. Neither the Bible, nor writers in the Roman era, described crucifixion in detail[AF82, 70; OM10, 120] presumably because everyone then knew those details, and crucifixion was so abhorrent[OM10, 120]. Therefore a medieval European forger, ~1000 years later, would not know enough about Roman crucifixion to depict it accurately as it is on the Shroud[MP78, 36; AF82, 70; HJ83, 204; CT99, 292].
325a The First Council of Nicaea, convened by Emperor Constantine I, and attended by over 300 bishops from all parts of the Roman Empire, overwhelmingly rejected Arianism (see below) and affirmed Trinitarian Orthodoxy, that the "Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God" was "begotten not made, of one substance with the Father"[FCW].
325b At the First_Council of Nicaea, Macarius, the Bishop of Jerusalem (r. 312-335), petitioned Constantine to demolish Hadrian's temple to Venus and uncover the tomb of Christ[CH14]. Which happened (see 01Jan20).
c. 325 Eusebius, in his Church History[EEH, 43-47. [See Schaff, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers], includes an account of "Agbarus, Prince of Edessa" (Abgar V) who suffered from an incurable disease. When he heard of Jesus' miraculous healings, Abgar sent Jesus a letter by a courier, Ananias, requesting that Jesus visit Edessa and heal him. Jesus replied by letter that he could not come now, but after his Ascension he would send one of his disciples who would heal Abgar's affliction and give life to Abgar and to those who are with him. Included in Eusebius' history are the two letters in the Syriac language which Eusebius had found in Edessa's public records. With the letters in Edessa's records it is stated that after Jesus' Ascension, the Apostle Thomas sent Thaddeus (Addai), one of the seventy (or seventy two - Lk 10:1-17), to Edessa. Thaddeus healed Abgar, and many Edessans and preached the Gospel in and around Edessa. However, there is nothing in the account of a cloth (the Shroud) having been taken to Edessa. There is no reason why this account, including the letters to, and from, Jesus are not genuine. In their favour is an exchange of letters between Abgar V and the Roman Emperor Tiberius (r. 14-37), which are regarded as genuine[ATW].
c. 330 Athanasius (c. 296–373), who was bishop of Alexandria from 328 to 373[AAW], affirmed in the times of Constantine the Great, who was Roman Emperor from 306-337[CTW], that a sacred Christ-icon, traceable to Jerusalem in the year 68, was then present in Syria, when Syria did not include Edessa[MJ08] [See "68"].
337 Death of Constantine I (c. 272-337)[MJ99, 98]. The Roman Empire was divided among his three surviving sons[MJ99, 98]. The eldest, Constantine II (r. 337–340) would rule the West, and the youngest, Constans (r. 337-350) would rule the South[MJ99, 98]. The middle son, Constantius (337–361) would rule the Eastern Empire[MJ99, 98]. Constantine II and Constans were closely aligned with the orthodox Church[MJ99, 98]. But Constantius became an avowed Arian[MJ99, 98]. Arianism holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but He did not always exist having been made before time by God the Father, and therefore the Son, was not coeternal with God the Father, as Trinitarian Orthodoxy maintained[ARW]. However, Constantine II and Constans were killed in 340 and 350 respectively[MJ99, 98], leaving the Arian Constantius in absolute control of the entire Roman Empire[MJ99, 98].
c. 338 St. Nino (c. 296–340), belonged to a Greek-speaking Roman family from Cappadocia[SNW]. She brought Christianity to Georgia during the reign of Constantine the Great (r. 306-337)[HT78,75; PM96, 172]. Nino's father was a Roman army officer by the name of Zabulon, and her mother, Sosana, was the sister of a bishop of Jerusalem, Houbnal I.[SNN]. When Nino reached the age of twelve, her parents sold all their possessions and moved to Jerusalem[SNN]. Nino's father became a monk and left his family to labor in the wilderness of the Jordan[SNN]. Sosana was ordained a deaconess, so she left Nino in the care of an old woman, Sara Niaphor, who raised her in the Christian Faith and related to her the stories of Christ's life and His suffering on earth[SNN]. In 338 Nino wrote in her memoirs that she had been told that the linen strips (othonia[GM04, 20] Lk 24:12; Jn 11:44) had been taken by Pilate's wife, to Pontus, but later they were brought back by St Luke to Jerusalem[BA34, 50; RC99, 53]. The face cloth (sudari[GM04, 20] Jn 20:7), Nino had heard, had been taken by Peter, but it was not by then known where it was[BA34, 50; RC99, 53]. Nino did not mention the Shroud (sindon), but the linen strips (othonia). It is not impossible that Pilate's wife, who Mt 27:17-19 records was a believer in Jesus, did obtain the linen strips temporarily. If the Sudarium was in Jerusalem in Nino's time, she did not know that. Her father being a former Roman army officer may have made Nino a security risk and she may not have been told if the Sudarium was still in Jerusalem. The importance of Nino's memoirs is that she confirmed that it was common knowledge in the fourth century that Jesus' facecloth (the Sudarium of Oviedo) had been recovered from his tomb!As for the Sudarium having been kept by the Apostle Peter, that agrees with Christian tradition. In c. 850 the Syrian bishop Ishodad of Merv, wrote of the Sudarium (Syriac sudara):
"Simon [Peter] took and it remained with him. And whenever he made an ordination, he arranged it on his head ... just as even now leaders and bishops of the Church arrange their turbans that are on their heads ..."[BJ01, 23-24; GM69, 11; GM98, 80; OM10, 184].An earlier mention of the Sudarium was in the 570 chronicle of an anonymous pilgrim from Piacenza, Italy, who wrote that "the sudarium of Christ" was in a cave close to the Monastery of St. Mark, Jerusalem[BJ01, 22-23; GM99, 129]. According to his c. 1109, Book of Testaments, Bishop Pelayo of Oviedo (-1153) recorded that the Sudarium was in Jerusalem up to 614 when it was taken to Alexandria and eventually Spain[GM98, 14-15; GM99, 129; GV01, 41-42]; ahead of the Persian king Khosrow II (r. 590-628)'s conquest of Jerusalem[SCW].
357 In Antioch, the orthodox faction split, Eudoxius (r. 357-360) an Arian, was elected bishop, and Antioch became "a stronghold of Arianism"[DG63, 157; MJ99, 98]. The Arians took control of Antioch Cathedral[MJ99, 98; OM10, 20]. With Arians now in control of both the imperial government (see 337) and the official Church of Antioch, it would have been propitious to exhibit the relics of the Passion, including the Shroud and exhibit them to Arian believers within the confines of the cathedrall[MJ99, 98;OM10, 20].
361 Constantius II died childless and was succeeded by his cousin, Julian the Apostate (r. 361-363)[DG63, 160; JAW], so called because he rejected Christianity and sought to restore pagan worship[MJ99, 99; OM10, 22]. Julian originally intended to be tolerant of all religions[MJ99, 99] but when he was visiting Antioch in 362, the Temple of Apollo in nearby Daphne caught fire and both its roof and an idol of Apollo were damaged[DG63, 169; MJ99, 99]. Julian wrongly blamed the Christians and ordered that Antioch Cathedral be closed and its liturgical vessels and other treasures be confiscated[DG63, 169-170; MJ99, 99]. Julian had made his uncle, also named Julian, the Count of the East, and when he attempted to enforce his nephew's order to confiscate the Cathedral's sacred objects, the Arian treasurer of the cathedral, Theodoretus (-362), refused to deliver them even under torture and death[MJ99, 100; OM10, 21]. If the Shroud was in Antioch Cathedral (which is likely - see c. 330), then it was one of those "treasures" and would explain both Julian's strange attempted confiscation of them and Theodoret's chosing death by torture rather than hand Christianity's holiest relic over to the pagans.
373 Death of Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306-73)[ETW]. Also known as St. Ephraim, the "harp of the Syrian church," he lived in Edessa in the late fourth century, but in all the prodigious amount of ecclesiastical verse he wrote, not a mention is made of the Image of Edessa/Shroud[WI79, 131; DR84, 62; AM00, 135; SD91, 184; WI10, 124],
c. 375 Composition of the Doctrine of Addai (Syriac for "Thaddeus")[DR84, 63; SD03; WI98, 264], based on earlier versions of the Abgar story[see "50"] [DAW]. After quoting verbatim the texts of Abgar's letter to Jesus, and Jesus' reply letter to Abgar[DR84, 63], the Doctrine of Addai interpolates a story of Abgar's keeper of the archives, and king's artist, Hannan (Syriac of Ananias[DR84, 63]), painting Jesus' portrait with "choice paints"[DR84, 63]:
"When Hanan the archivist saw that Jesus had spoken thus to him, he took and painted the portrait of Jesus with choice pigments, since he was the king's artist, and brought it with him to his lord King Abgar. When King Abgar saw the portrait he received it with great joy and placed it with great honor in one of the buildings of his palaces"[DR84, 63].This is the earliest mention of a connection between Edessa and an image of Jesus[SD89, 80; OM10, 21]. In fourth century Edessa Jesus' image on the cloth was regarded as not supernatural, but as the product of merely human skill[DR84, 63]. It provides no support for the 945 Official History's claim that Abgar V set up this likeness of Jesus "not made by hand," fastened it to a board, embellished with gold, over Edessa's main gate[WI79, 280][see "945c"]. And yet the description of the Image as having been "painted with choice pigments" indicates a memory of the Image of Edessa/Shroud having been brought to Edessa and exhibited in the time of the Abgars[WI98, 173, 265]. That Addai was a real, historical person who evangelised Edessa is evidenced by the Outlines of early Christian philosopher Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-216), which recorded that the tomb of Addai (and the Apostle Thomas) was in "Britio Edessenorum," the Citadel built in 205 by Abgar VIII[WI98, 172, 264] (see above).
380 Emperor Theodosius I (347–95), the last emperor to rule the entire Roman Empire before it permanently split between West and East[TOW], established Nicaean orthodoxy as the official religion of the Roman Empire, so the Arians were expelled from Antioch and custody of its cathedral was returned to the Orthodox[MJ99, 98; OM10, 20]. Emperor Theodosius also fought to expel the Arian Goths who had settled inside the Roman Empire between 376–382. It is my Ravenna Theory that the Antioch Arians did obtain possession of the Image of Edessa/Shroud in 357 and took it with them when they fled Antioch in 380. And that they sought refuge from their common enemy, Theodosius I, with their fellow Arians, the Ostrogoths. And so the Shroud came to be in the Ostrogoth Kingdom centred on Ravenna, as evidenced by the "Christ enthroned" mosaic below completed in situ by 526, with its 8 of the 15 Vignon markings. Then in, or before, 540 [see "540b"], when the Ostrogoth kingdom was about to end and Ravenna was about to become part of the Byzantine Empire, the Image of Edessa/Shroud was taken from Ravenna to Arian-friendly Edessa[ETW]. This is more plausible than Ian Wilson's theory that the Image of Edessa/Shroud had been hidden, and then completely forgotten, in Edessa's wall from c.60-525 [see 525 below]; and that part of Jack Markwardt's theory that when the Arians were expelled from Antioch in 380 they left the Image of Edessa/Shroud for the Orthodox to find[MJ99, 100-101].
c. 384 Visit to Edessa by the pilgrim nun Egeria[WI98, 265; GM09, 146]. She had travelled from Spain[DR84, 62] in a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and important Christian sites in Palestine and Syria[DR84, 62; WI98, 298]. Egeria kept a record of her visits and experiences, the beginning and its end of which is lost, leaving only the middle, although the account of her visit to Edessa has survived[GM09, 146; WI10, 123-124]. Lacking an introduction to her travel diary, Egeria's real name is uncertain[WI10, 123-124]. Egeria described how Edessa's bishop Eulogius (-387), took her to the gate of the Bastions through which Hannan, Abgar's messenger, had entered carrying Jesus' letter[WI79, 136-137; PM96, 173]. He also told her that an attack on Edessa by the Persians [361 by Shapur II (r. 309–379)?] had been repulsed by the reading of Jesus' letter from this gate[WI79, 136-137; GM09, 147]. But, significantly, Egeria makes no mention of being told that an image of Christ was then, or had been, in Edessa [DR84, 62; AM00, 135]. This is consistent with my Ravenna Theory (see 07Dec16 & 01Jan20) that the Image of Edessa/Shroud only arrived in Edessa from Ravenna, Italy, shortly before 544 (see "540a" and "544").
c. 400 The German Shroud scholar, Prof. Werner Bulst (1913-95), 
[Left (enlarge)[FCP]: Extract from "Christ Between St. Peter and St. Paul" fresco (see original) in the catacomb of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, Via Labicana, Rome, Italy, end of third centuryPM96, 189]. Although Jesus' face does not have the rigid frontality[WI98, 173] and Vignon markings of later Byzantine icons, it "shows a very striking similarity to" the image on the Shroud, and is such a radical departure from the beardless Apollo[AF82, 18; DR84, 29; IJ98, 151, etc] depictions of Jesus then current, that the simplest explanation is that the artist had seen the Image of Edessa/Shroud and painted this part of the fresco from memory.]
dated the fresco in the catacomb of Peter (not the apostle) and Marcellinus (above) to "about 400" and noted that "... the image on the Cloth of Turin ... shows a very striking similarity to ... [this] picture in the catacomb of Peter and Marcellinus ..."[BW57, 41]. This is more evidence against the 945 Official History's highly implausible story that the Image of Edessa/Shroud was bricked up above Edessa's public gate in c.60, was completely forgotten, and not rediscovered until 525 [see "c. 60" and "525"].
402 Emperor Honorius (r. 393-423) transferred the capital of the Western Roman Empire from Mediolanum (today's Milan) to Ravenna[RVW]. Ravenna subsequently served as the capital of the empire for most of the 5th century and the last de facto western emperor Romulus Augustulus (r. 475-476) was deposed there in 476[RVW]. The transfer was made partly for defensive purposes: Ravenna was surrounded by swamps and marshes, and was perceived to be easily defensible[RVW]. It is also likely that the move to Ravenna was due to the city's port and good sea-borne connections to the Eastern Roman Empire[RVW].
c. 450 The Gospel of Nicodemus or Acts of Pilate, in its current form, is thought to date from around the 4th or 5th century[GNW]. According to that Gospel, on the first Easter Saturday, Joseph of Arimathea. is seized by Jewish leaders and locked up, because he had asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in a tomb (Mt 27:57-60; Mk 15:43-46; Lk 23:50-53; Jn 19:38-42)[SD02]. But on the next day, he had mysteriously disappeared from his cell. Joseph later related how angels had lifted up the prison at its four corners and how Jesus had released him and had proved his identity by showing him the linen shroud and face napkin still in the tomb[SD02]. This was evidently based on Jn 20:6-7 where Peter and John enter the empty tomb and see the "linen cloths" [othonia] and the "face cloth" [soudarion]. But in this fourth or fifth century writing, the Shroud and face cloth (Sudarium of Oviedo) are known to still exist. Otherwise what would be the point of writing about them if they had ceased to exist four centuries earlier?
507 Completion of the Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite, which was written in Edessa[WI79, 131]. It covers the death of Emperor Julian the Apostate (r. 361-63) in 363, the reigns of the Persian kings Peroz I (457-84) and Balash (484-88), and the history of the relations between Persian and Roman Empires from the beginning of the reign of Kavadh I (489–531), which culminated in the Anastasian War of 502–6[JTW]. Yet Joshua makes with no mention of the Image of Edessa/Shroud[WI79, 131; AM00, 134-135; WI98, 266].
521 Death of Jacob of Serug (c. 451-521), a most prolific Edessan writer[AM00, 135], but like other Edessan writers Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306-73) (above) and Joshua the Stylite (above), he did not mention the Image of Edessa/Shroud[WI79, 131; DR84, 62; SD91, 184; AM00, 134-135; WI98, 162, 266]. This is further evidence for my Ravenna Theory (see above), that except for perhaps a brief, passing display of the Image of Edessa/Shroud in the first century, it was never in Edessa until it arrived from Ravenna, Italy, shortly before 544.
525 Edessa suffered another major flood (see 201) of its river, the Daisan ("the Leaper")[WI98, 162; WI10, 118-119]. According to a contemporary historian, Procopius of Caesarea (c. 500-65):
".. .the river rose to an extraordinary height ... It levelled to the ground a large part of the outworks and of the circuit-wall and covered practically the whole city, doing irreparable damage. For in a moment it wiped out completely the finest of the buildings and caused the death of one third of the population"[WI79, 138; WI98, 266; GV01, 2].The city, its wall, and a new Hagia Sophia ("Holy Wisdom") cathedral, were then rebuilt by the Byzantine Emperor Justin I (r. 518-27), although the actual work was carried out by his nephew and future Emperor, Justinian I (r. 527-65)[DR84, 60; GV01, 2; WI10, 298]. Justinian also constructed a diversion channel for the river, to prevent future flooding of the city[WB06, 224]. According to the 945 `Official History of the Image of Edessa' [see "945c"] the Image of Edessa/Shroud, had been hidden in the city wall above Edessa's public gate, early in the reign of Abgar V's pagan younger son, Ma'nu VI (r. 57–71), then been completely forgotten, and was not rediscovered until just before the 544 siege of Edessa by the Persian King Khosrow I (r. 531-79) (see "544"). However this story of the Image of Edessa/Shroud having been hidden in Edessa's wall, completely forgotten, for almost 500 years, contains multiple implausibilities [see "c. 60"].
Likewise Ian Wilson's theory, based on that `Official History' story, that the Image of Edessa/Shroud was discovered in, or soon after 525, during the rebuilding of Edessa's flood damaged wall[WI79, 139, 254; WI98, 266], suffers from the same multiple implausibilities and it does not even have the support of the `Official History' that the Image of Edessa/Shroud was discovered during the 544 Persian siege of Edessa. Wilson only theorised that the Image of Edessa/Shroud was discovered during the repairs to the wall after the 525 flood because the historian Evagrius (c. 536-94), who lived through the 544 Seige of Edessa, in his Ecclesiastical History ascribed Edessa's deliverance to a "divinely wrought image"[RC99, 55; WI91, 134; WI98, 266] (the Image of Edessa/Shroud), but does not mention its discovery during the siege, which he surely would have if its was[WI79, 139; DR84, 60]. But according to my Ravenna Theory (see above), the Image of Edessa/Shroud only arrived in Edessa from Ravenna just before the Persian seige of 544!
526a Completion of mosaic, "Christ enthroned with four angels," in
[Above (enlarge): Face of the "Christ Enthroned" mosaic in the Sant'Apollinare Nuovo church, Ravenna, Italy[RMW] (see full mosaic at "526a") compared to the Vignon markings[WI78, 82E] (see 11Feb12).]
the Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna. According to Maher, this "early (sixth-century) ... mosaic of Christ enthroned" has "eight [of the 15] Vignon markings"[MR86, 77], which is proof beyond reasonable doubt that it was based on the Shroud, over 700 years before its earliest 1260 radiocarbon dating[DP89]! And since this is a mosaic, created in situ, not a portable painting, it is evidence that the Shroud ("four-doubled" = tetradiplon, as the Image of Edessa), was in Ravenna in the early sixth century! See above that Ravenna was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 402-476. After which it was the capital city of the Ostrogoth Kingdom until, very significantly, 540. [See "540a" ].
Notes:
1. This post is copyright. I grant permission to extract or quote from any part of it (but not the whole post), provided the extract or quote includes a reference citing my name, its title, its date, and a hyperlink back to this page. [return]
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Posted 22 January 2024. Updated 26 February 2024.
