There is an interesting article in the Huffington Post, Witness: To Be With Jesus’ Companions After the Crucifixion, by essayist Jonathan Wolfman:
By the late 50s, we have abundant written evidence that Paul and his companions are organizing home-based churches in communities throughout the Mediterranean and in Rome itself and then writing to the parishioners. And 20-some years on from Paul’s work, we have Mark writing the first canonical gospel.
I don’t want to speculate as to what went on. I want to be there, to light up and penetrate those earliest dark years and to see, to really know, how and why the first Jerusalem community survived its near decimation, its scattering after the murder of its leader, and how it once again coalesced and grew.
I want to have known the charisma of the rabbi who was Jesus. I want to have been among the first to hear his words on justice and the Kingdom of God spoken over and over and over again, throughout Galilee and the south — the striking, illuminating parables, stories and sayings forming a distinctly Jewish paradigm of justice, the basis for all extant gospels.
And then I want my own ears to hear that silence and my eyes to see beneath it, because the story of the companions of Jesus may well be the most unlikely yet overwhelming success story of all unrecorded time.
And what I am wondering, and have long wondered about, is what role the shroud might have played. Of course, we can speculate, but what are the clues, if any?
Dan, re-read e.g. the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Book of Revelation in the light of the TS as an oversized Rorschach or visual support for early Christian visions and Christian symbols. Also re-read the Acts of the Apostles (Ac 10:10-16; 11:5-10) re Peter’s ‘co-lateral’ vision of the creatures he saw in a sheet as a remarkable cryptic resurrection scenario.
“I (Peter) was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. 6 I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7 Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’ 8 “I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 “The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ 10 This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.”
A vision of wild beasts such as a lion head with a leopard body?
This is funny. Jonathan Wolfman talks about Mark and the first canonical gospel and appears to have forgotten the other three evangelists. Mathew 7:7 has what he is looking for.
Addition: Most curiously, in 2 Timothy 4:13, Paul of Tarsus altered the spelling of the ancient Greek phelones or phailones (a large, sleeveless outer garment made of a single piece of heavy material with a hole in the middle through which the head was passed) by adding a “ν/n” to the end and coin the Greek word φαιλόνην (phailonen) by metathesis. The doubt in regard to what is here really meant is as old as Chrysostom. The latter says, (Horn. x. on this epistle) “that the word (phailonen) denotes a garment (to himation = a very large rectangle of fabric that can be draped as a shawl, a cloak, or a head covering)”.
The philological fact is the word can read as a reference to a very large wrap, wrapping fabric or wrapper. Now the Greek Word φαιλόνην (phailonen) is derived from the ancient Greek word phaos, “to shine”, “give light” (e.g. a heavenly light such as surrounds angels when they appear on earth) or “make manifest”.
Thus philologically speaking, the word phailonen most accurately denotes “a very large wrap that shines and/or makes manifest (through a porthole in the middle?)” and can refer to the TS shroud as a 4.44m long and 1.13m wide sindon/himation in which shines (in full daylight or natural transmitted light) the crucifixion victim’s bloody body (or just face?) image as visual epitome of the Gospels. Reminder: the phailonen Paul asked is mentioned along with books (2 Th 4 13: The large wrap that I (Paul) left at Troas, with Carpus, when you come, bring with you: and the books, especially the parchments).
Tpo: phao, “to shine”….
+typo: phlainoes
Ooops; I meant phenoles/phainoles (too hasty typing)
Reminder: The Greek word phelonen/phailonen, “large shining wrap” (2Th 4: 13) is to read in the light of the TS body image as the latter when seen under a certain angle and light, looks like translucid straw yellow impression. This is consistent with the use of flashing gold mosaic tiles to feature the Christ’s pallium in the Pudenziana apse mosaic.