R&I – FS
Hi
The Wood and The Relics of the Cross of Crucifixion!
Timber for a full-size Jesus Cross https://www.findshepherd.com/saying-of-Jesus-on-the-cross.html as depicted by Christian media would require a minimum of twice the height of a man (12ft). With an added 3ft for going into the ground making it 15ft, with a cross beam of 6 to 7 ft minimum. Made out of 8”x 8” or even 6”x 8” timber. The problem now is to find a tree or trees in the so-called holy land that could produce timber at the dimensions as shown. Easy-peasy if you lived in the Americas, Europe or Australasia, but nay impossible in the land of Israel. Which by all accounts is a dryland.http://www.bgu.ac.il/BIDR/rio/desertifrepuriel2.html#:~:text=Israel%20is%20dryland%20country%2C%20with,west%20%E2%80%93%20east%20descending%20precipitation%20gradients.&text=It%20is%20not%20known%20whether,suffered%20desertification%20at%20that%20time.
Israel’s main trees are of the Palm family, the rest of the trees are not much better than large bushes, which have short trunks or even several spindly trunks. There are Palestine Oaks and Cedar of Lebanon trees, which are found further north in Syria, Turkey and can be rare in Lebanon that would give the board measurements require. However, it would be tough going and a long way to get it to the crucifixion sites of Jerusalem. Although Israel boasts many eucalyptus trees, they are not native—imported from Australia, a land discovered in the 1600s. The Israeli Pine tree is also is not a native tree, first planted in Israel in the 1930s. https://www.haaretz.com/1.4988206
https://www.israel21c.org/the-top-10-most-amazing-trees-in-israel/
also https://biblewalks.com/info/Trees.html
In the Old Testament, we find: “And you shall make upright boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood (Acacia wood). Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth of one board.” (Exodus 26:15-16)
(10 cubic length = 10 x 17.777 inches = 177.77 inches or 14.8 ft.)
(1.5 cubits wide = 1.5 x 17.777 inches = 26.7 inches wide or 2.22 ft.)
(Length of Hebrew cubit =17.777 inches
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/peq.1897.29.3.201?journalCode=ypeq20) retrieved 22/01/2019)
I am sure lots of Israeli botanists would like to find these biblical Acacia trees as all they have are short trunk trees which would just about give you a 5ft length board, but one would be hard-pressed for the biblical width as mentioned in Exodus.
Indoctrination by Church Propaganda!
According to the sacred tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the True Cross was made from three different types of wood: Cedar, Pine and Cypress.
https://www.biblewalks.com/monastery-of-the-cross Also see file photo above.
To believe this religious story of a holy Triplet Tree that was grown to make the so-call Cross of Jesus, one would have to suffer from a severe bout of Sepastomania. Yet, devout followers do believe!
According to the sacred tradition of Catholicism: The Venerable Bede (c. 673-735) and John Cantacuzenus (c. 1292-1383) both record the idea, the cross was composed of four kinds of wood: Cypress, Cedar, Pine, and Boxwood. Innocent (probably referring to Pope Innocent VI (1352-62) says the upright was of one wood, the transverse beam of another, the title of a third, and that the feet were supported on a projecting step made of a fourth wood.
https://catholicexchange.com/the-origin-of-the-wood-of-the-cross See relic classification below!
What the Old Testament says on Wood!
The Old Testament states that we can get the lumber for making the Christian True Cross from the Acacia tree. However, in reality, the tree does not exist for producing the size of board required for the manufacture of the tabernacle let alone the True Cross. Also, the Acacia tree is not mentioned by the major faiths within Christianity as the wood of choice for a cross. Christianity believes that it was not one type of wood used in the making of the cross, but three (3) or even four (4) types of wood from one tree.
Relics and their Classification
(I find it hard to believe in this day and age that adherents believe their church when it fabricates a lie as fact. The only possible reason is to authenticate the myriads of varieties of wood that make-up the “Relic of the True Cross” found within the Catholic Churches throughout Christendom. Relics are big business for the church even today.)
Lebanon is the origin of the Box tree http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3609-box-tree as is the Cedar, which also grows in Syria and Turkey as aforementioned.
On relics, the Catholic Church states: Actual pieces of saint’s body, usually bone or hair, are today known as first-class relics. (The other major relic which is included in the first-class relic is the wood of the Cross, slivers of which have been distributed all over the world ever since the…emperor Constantine the Great first obtained it in the fourth century.)
http://canonlawmadeeasy.com/2017/06/15/canon-law-and-private-ownership-of-relics/
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“Now let us consider how many relics of the true cross there are in the world. An account of those merely with which I am acquainted would fill a whole volume, for there is not a church, from a cathedral to the most miserable abbey or parish church, that does not contain a piece. Large splinters of it are preserved in various places, as for instance in the Holy Chapel at Paris, whilst at Rome, they show a crucifix of considerable size made entirely, they say, from this wood. In short, if we were to collect all these pieces of the true cross exhibited in various parts, they would form a whole ship’s cargo.”[John Calvin, A Treatise on Relics, p. 233, Second Edition, Edinburgh: Johnstone, Hunter & Co. 1870]
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What can you say on the type of wood used on the so-call Christian Cross?
Was Jesus’ Cross gigantic or even ginormous as the amount of True Cross relic have probably gone up since John Calvin quoted that the of relics of the cross would fill a whole ship cargo—what do you say?
Cofion
Jero Jones
Article URL : https://breakingnewsandreligion.online/discuss/