Relics Associated With Jesus
Main article: Relics associated with Jesus.
Throughout the history of Christianity a number of relics attributed to Jesus have been claimed and displayed. While some people believe in the authenticity of some relics, others have cast doubt on them. For instance, the 16th-century Catholic theologian Erasmus wrote sarcastically about the proliferation of relics and the number of buildings that could have been constructed from the wood claimed to be from the cross used in the Crucifixion. Similarly, while experts debate whether Jesus was crucified with three nails or with four, at least thirty holy nails continue to be venerated as relics across Europe.
Some relics, such as purported remnants of the Crown of Thorns, receive only a modest number of pilgrims, others such as the Shroud of Turin (which is associated with an approved Catholic devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus) receive millions, including Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.
Read more about this topic: The Lamb Of God
Famous quotes containing the words relics and/or jesus:
“Is it not singular that, while the religious world is gradually picking to pieces its old testaments, here are some coming slowly after, on the seashore, picking up the durable relics of perhaps older books, and putting them together again?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“They circumcised women, little girls, in Jesus’s time. Did he know? Did the subject anger or embarrass him? Did the early church erase the record? Jesus himself was circumcised; perhaps he thought only the cutting done to him was done to women, and therefore, since he survived, it was all right.”
—Alice Walker (b. 1944)