A Piece of the "True Cross" Unearthed in Turkey?

From the August 06, 2013 eNews issue
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Turkish archaeologists have announced that they have found a stone chest in a 1,350-year-old church that may have implications for the Christian Church. The archaeologists claim that inside the chest is a relic that may contain a piece of the Cross of Jesus.

The artifacts were unearthed under the Balatlar Church in the Sinop Province in north-central Turkey. Excavation team leader Gülgün Köroğlu said, “We have found a holy thing in a chest. It is a piece of a cross,” the Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News quoted her as saying.

Köroğlu, an archaeologist at Turkey’s Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, said the chest is typical of other artifacts of its type. Chests at one time not only contained the bones of a person, but also items closely associated with that person’s life. In this case, the artifacts contained in this chest were believed to be associated with Jesus’ crucifixion.

The chest has been taken to a laboratory for further examination. Köroğlu said her team has been working at the Byzantine-era church for the last four years. She said that besides the chest, they have foundthe ruins of an ancient Roman bath as well as more than 1,000 human skeletons.

According to tradition, in 325 A.D., Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, believed she discovered the true cross of Jesus at a site outside of Jerusalem. Three crosses were found at the site, including the cross that Jesus supposedly was crucified on along with the crosses of the two thieves. A healing of a crippled woman attributed to stretching her out on the cross was said to reveal the identity of Jesus’ Cross.

The main part of the cross was deposited by Helena in a church erected over the spot. Of the remainder, one portion was sent to Byzantium and inserted into the head of a statue of Constantine, and another was placed in a new church in Rome, specially erected and named for it, Santa Croce (“Holy Cross”).

Pieces linked to Jesus’ cross were spread around the world and can be found in as diverse places outside of the Holy Land as Italy, India, France, and even the Shrine of the True Cross in Dickerson, TX.

Small fragments of the wood of the cross were also encrusted with gold and jewels and sold as souvenirs. Later in the 4th century, Cyril of Jerusalem said the whole world “has been filled with pieces of the wood of the cross.”

Since many early Christian churches and wealthy believers wanted to have a piece of the cross, the miracle of the “multiplication of the cross” was devised so that any relic of the cross was “preserved,” even though pieces were taken from it.

Pundits have commented that there are so many pieces of the cross housed in churches and private collections that one could build a threebedroom house from all the fragments. In fact, in the 1,500s John Calvin was to have said “if all the pieces linked to the ‘true cross’ were assembled in one place, they would make a big shipload.”

The legend of Helena’s find of the cross was widely accepted as true, but the discovery of a 5th-century apocryphal work titled Doctrina Addai has made it evident that the entire story of Helena’s discovery is only a version of an old Mesopotamian legend.

[The Doctrina Addai tells of an identical discovery of the cross, under the very same circumstances, during the reign of Tiberius, by Protonice (wife of Claudius, who became emperor), who had been converted to Christianity by the preaching of Peter.]

Throughout time, many artifacts have been sought after or claimed to be found. The Shroud of Turin, the Ark of the Covenant, the True Cross…. All these items could easily turn into a modern-day variant of the Brazen Serpent. (In many cases they have.)

During Israel’s flight from Egypt, the Israelites began to murmur against God (Number 21:4–5). For this, they were punished by fiery serpents (Numbers 21:6–7). Moses was instructed to make a brass serpent and hang it on a pole, to which the people bitten were to look and become healed. That serpent prefigures Christ “made … sin for us” (John 3:14–15; 2 Corinthians 5:21), hanging on the tree the judgment of our sin (Romans 8:3).

However, people lost sight of the real reason for the Brazen Serpent and began to use it as an object of idolatry (2 Kings 18:4). Because of this perversion, King Hezekiah destroyed it about 700 B.C.

There is a danger that many people will look to other artifacts from the past as they did the brazen serpent and become “snake worshippers” today. To them the power is in believing in a thing rather than in God.

It is faith in God, not faith in things that has power. Without the promises of God’s Word we can have all the faith in the world and not have redemption.

Is that piece of wood part of the cross Jesus hanged from?
Does it really matter?

References
• A piece of Jesus’ cross? Relics unearthed in Turkey - NBC News
• Archeologists claim to have found ‘piece of Jesus’ cross’ at church excavations in Turkey - Hurriyet Daily News