Sojourner553

The reverence of relics was one of the traditions Christians took over from the pagans (along with Christmas and Easter eggs.)

(See excerpt taken from <a href="http://mac-2001.com/philo/crit/FHEAL.TXT)" target="_blank">http://mac-2001.com/philo/crit/FHEAL.TXT)</a> which relies heavily on James Bentley's RESTLESS BONES,
THE STORY OF RELICS,

(General site:http://mac-2001.com/philo/crit/index.html)


Jews have no tradition of revering religious relics. Indeed, according
to Jewish law, touching the body of a corpse makes a person "unclean" for
seven days. According to the book of Numbers: "Whosoever touches the body of
any man that is dead and purifies not himself, defiles the tabernacle of the
Lord". Walking into a tent containing a dead body, also made a Jew impure
for seven days, and special purification rites were required for both the
religious Jew AND the tent. Likewise to touch a dead man's bone or even
to stumble upon a grave, placed a Jew in a state of impurity. (Actually
modern medicine knows that corpses are breeding grounds for disease--which
is why some of the early Egyptian archeologists became ill after opening
ancient tombs).

,,,

Pagans had similar attitudes towards relics and their dead heroes as the
Christians. In the ancient world, pagan cities competed for the privilege
of burying a great hero in a tomb on their soil. According to Herodotus, the
Lacodaemonians believed that if the body of Orestes was not brought back to
their city, then they would lose in battle. During a plague in Orchomenos,
a priestess declared that the plague would not halt-- until the body of Hesiod
were brought there. (As with Christians, if the entire body was not available,
then bodily parts--could be substituted.) (James Bentley, RESTLESS BONES,
THE STORY OF RELICS, Constable and Company Limited, London, 1985, p 40)

In the fifth century, the Christian Bishop Theodoret of Cyrrhus noted how
God had replaced pagan heroes with Christian martyrs. While PAGANS had earlier
built temples over their heroes' tombs, CHRISTIANS now built churches over the
relics of their saints. (Ibid, p 41)

When the Christians were persecuted by the Roman pagans, this ironically
increased the SUPPLY of saintly bones--and hence relics. Because of this,
pagans were often bribed to hand over the remains of Christian martyrs to
their followers.

Still, even with numerous Christian martyrs now available, DEMAND became
so great for religious relics, that it began to exceed the seemingly
endless SUPPLY of Christian saintly remains. At first, reverence was given
only to the corpse itself (ie bones and ashes). Thus, a practical solution to
the SHORTAGE arose, by ALSO showing reverence towards ANY piece of clothing
or possession that had come into personal contact with the saint.--This
included not only clothing and jewelry, but even whips and instruments
of torture that had brought the Christian into his state of sainthood.

St. John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, justified the veneration
of garments worn by the saints, based on his study of the New Testament: In
the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul used handkerchiefs and aprons, which were
taken and used second-hand by others to exorcise evil spirits from the
possessed. Also according to Acts, people waited in the streets, hoping
that St. Peter's SHADOW might fall on them and cure them. St. Chrysostom
argued that if handkerchiefs, aprons, even shadows could heal, then to touch
clothing worn by a holy Christian should also invoke a blessing. (Ibid, p 42)

Pagans had also reverenced the possessions of their heroes. The temple of
Athena at Phaselis once boasted of Achilles' lance. The temple of Athena at
Iapygia claimed it possessed the sandal of Helen. Agememnon's scepter was
displayed at Chaeronaea. Other pagan relics included the egg of Leda and
left-over clay from which Prometheus molded mankind. Like Christians, pagans
believed that these relics contained powers to cure the sick, promote
fertility, guard against the plague, and assure victory in times of war.

...

Sojourner

[ March 16, 2002: Message edited by: Sojourner553 ]</p>

RyanS2

In the Middle Ages, there was a large racket involving pilgrims who wanted to see holy cites. For instance, in the ongoing debate on Jesus birthplace, I remember reading that were three different locations where Jesus was "born", which included forgeries like a miniature Jesus carpentry area, a manger, etc. Because of this racket, various areas would claim to have something holy there, flocking hundreds of people to see their holy relic. Some commentary on it sounds like this:

"There were at least 26 'authentic' burial shrouds scattered throughout the abbeys of Europe, of which the Shroud of Turin is just one. . . . The Shroud of Turin is one of the many relics manufactured for profit during the Middle Ages. Shortly after the Shroud emerged it was declared a fake by the bishop who discovered the artist. This is verified by recent scientific investigation which found paint in the image areas. The Shroud of Turin is also not consistent with Gospel accounts of Jesus' burial, which clearly refer to multiple cloths and a separate napkin over his face.

About the beginning of the 9th century, bones, teeth, hair, garments, and other relics of fictitious saints were conveniently 'found' all over Europe and Asia and triumphantly installed in the reliquaries of every church, until all Catholic Europe was falling to its knees before what Calvin called its anthill of bones. . . . St. Luke was touted as one of the ancient world's most prolific artists, to judge from the numerous portraits of the Virgin, painted by him, that appeared in many churches. Some still remain, despite ample proof that all such portraits were actually painted during the Middle Ages.

About 1200, Constantinople was so crammed with relics that one may speak of a veritable industry with its own factories. Blinzler (a Catholic New Testament scholar) lists, as examples: letters in Jesus' own hand, the gold brought to the baby Jesus by the wise men, the twelve baskets of bread collected after the miraculous feeding of the 5000, the throne of David, the trumpets of Jericho, the axe with which Noah made the Ark, and so on. . . "

The person who made the quote that the wood from the cross could make an ark was the famous and very loving John Calvin.