h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I just had a little thought, inspired by all the religious threads at the moment. Has anyone ever tried to find the remains of Jesus? Could you imagine the world if they were actually discovered, it'd be incredible and it'd put the God vs Man debate to sleep for a while, we'd know he was a human. What do you think, whether you believe in God or not
P.S Justin please don't come on this just to troll, I've decided to leave you alone, I'd appreciate the same courtsey
Ta, Iago

That's a very interesting idea. If a body did remain, it would quite likely have been buried somewhere. Are there any clues in any ancient texts? What was the customary way to dispose of bodies in those days?

Thinking of all the religious relics around the world, I'm sure someone said something along the lines that if they were all put together there'd be more than enough for a body!

There was something on TV not so long ago that made a good case for a final resting place somewhere in Northwest India or Kashmir. The remains are real but the identity not confirmed.

And the Ark of the Covenant is in Ethiopia

Noggin

The Ark of the Covenant was removed many years ago, last thing I remember was that it was in the hands of some religious movement somewhere in Scotland, but I don't know where they kept it.

How could the body be identified as Jesus'?

Without any known descendants, you couldn't get any DNA link. I suppose the best you'd get would be a probability based on available information.

A link to a page called 'The tomb of Jesus in Kashmir'
http://www.alislam.org/library/links/00000094.html#9

the knights templar suposadly have the ark although it is eather in scotland ethopea or the vatacan depending on who you baleve

There is the shroud of Turin but I think tests proved that didn't date back to the correct period

presumably no relics of Jesus apart from the odd vial of blood were "discovered" in the middle ages because he was supposed to have ascended into heaven

I thought the ark was the container for the covenant and predated Jesus by many centuries. Also, wasn't Jesus supposed to have risen bodily to heaven? The only flesh to do so, if I remember correctly. That's why the tomb was empty except for the shroud.

agreed which is why in the middle ages you could get supposed bits of every saint including the ones that never existed but not him

the vial of blood was supposed to contain his blood from when the legionary Longinus stabbed him

that was the "Spear of Destiny" the Nazis were interested in

Ah. According to the Bible and tradition, a number of people have "ascended" or been taken up, including Methuselah,
Elijah, Jesus, Mary, and, if I remember correctly, Melchizadek.

Basically, the doctrines of the various churches that have waddled through the Holy Land in the last 2000 years would have allowed them to collect personal bodily relics (like skulls, finger bones, bits of hair) of anyone except Jesus. So anything that remotely smelled of ol' Jeshuah Von Nazareth himself would have been destroyed, labelled a fake, or just plain ignored.

That part of the world is full of tombs. If you look hard enough, you can find one for each author of a bible book, plus his relatives.
Oddly enough, while I believe there is a putative tomb of Esther, who is one of the most famous fictional characters in the area, I don't think that there is a tomb for Samson. Now that would be an interesting place.

But, the chances of finding any bones in most of them are rather remote. Tombs being family property, they were often used over and over for centuries until interested parties came along to scatter the bones across Europe or grind them up for amulets and potions.
We'll never know how much of the rhino horn sold in the markets of the Middle East to tourists and foreign soldiers was actually someone else's great-grandmama mortared and pesteled for the sake of current family finances.

Anyway, so many "civilizations" have rolled through that area in the last two millenia that it is hard to be sure of the date and provenance of much of anything.

"I thought the ark was the container for the covenant and predated Jesus by many centuries. Also, wasn't Jesus supposed to have risen bodily to heaven? The only flesh to do so, if I remember correctly. That's why the tomb was empty except for the shroud."

Ehhh, according to the scriptures, the Ark had a bunch of junk in it like Aaron's Rod, a sample of the golden hemorrhoids that the Philistines made to stop the plague of same when they had the Ark in their territory, the first and second editions of the tablets... according to tradition, a sprig of the burning bush and a bit of manna was also supposed to be in there, along with some of the jewelry taken from the Eygptians... And there was a bunch of junk on the outside, enough to make a Texas Cadillac owner drool.

The ascension supposedly took place about a month after the resurrection.

in a way the relics business is not dissimilar to todays antique business, supply always expands to meet demand

Funny how that works.
Yet it is so hard to find a really dependable #2 pencil nowadays, isn't it? Particularly one with a nice, just hard enough, but not too hard rubber...

it only does that with useless junk nobody in their right mind would want like drugs, relics and antiques

should offend a fair proportion of the population with that

Ah, well. I was hoping to offend the unfair portion....

According to the Bible, Jesus ascended into heaven, so his body was never buried. If we did find the body of Jesus and could say for definite it was him, it would disprove that particular belief. But there would be no way of knowing it was Jesus if we found a body dating from 2000 years ago. The Romans crucified thousands of criminals, so there'd be no way of telling. We don't have a DNA sample of him.

Just look for someone approximately 33 years old with all his teeth and no TB scarring. Of course, the thumb on the left hand might be a little on the flat side.

So nobody thinks hes in Kashmir then?