Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: What is the spear that pierced Jesus' side called?
The Holy Lance, also known as the Lance of Longinus (named after Saint Longinus), the Spear of Destiny, or the Holy Spear, according to the Gospel of John, is the lance that pierced the side of Jesus as he hung on the cross.
In his opera "Parsifal", Richard Wagner identifies the Holy Spear with two items that appear in Wolfram von Eschenbach's medieval poem "Parzival", a bleeding spear in the Castle of the Grail and the spear that has wounded the Fisher King. The opera's plot concerns the consequences of the spear's loss by the Knights of the Grail and its recovery by Parsifal. Having decided that the blood on the Spear was that of the wounded Saviour – Jesus is never named in the opera – Wagner has the blood manifest itself in the Grail rather than on the spearhead.The Lance of Longinus appears in the 1995 anime "Neon Genesis Evangelion", where the seedships of an ancient progenitor species are equipped with a massive spears called the "Lance(s) of Longinus" by the humans.
A Holy Lance is conserved in Vagharshapat (previously known as Echmiadzin), the religious capital of Armenia. It was previously held in the monastery of Geghard. The first source that mentions it is a text "Holy Relics of Our Lord Jesus Christ", in a thirteenth-century Armenian manuscript. According to this text, the spear which pierced Jesus was to have been brought to Armenia by the Apostle Thaddeus. The manuscript does not specify precisely where it was kept, but the Holy Lance gives a description that exactly matches the lance, the monastery gate, since the thirteenth century precisely, the name of Geghardavank (Monastery of the Holy Lance).
A widespread 6.3 magnitude earthquake has been confirmed to have taken place between 26-36 AD in the time of Jesus. The authors concluded that:
A number of theories to explain the circumstances of the death of Jesus on the cross have been proposed by physicians and Biblical scholars. In 2006, Matthew W. Maslen and Piers D. Mitchell reviewed over 40 publications on the subject with theories ranging from cardiac rupture to pulmonary embolism.
In 1847, based on the reference in the Gospel of John () to blood and water coming out when Jesus' side was pierced with a spear, physician William Stroud proposed the ruptured heart theory of the cause of Christ's death which influenced a number of other people.
The Gospels say that Jesus was betrayed to the authorities by a disciple, and many scholars consider this report to be highly reliable. He was executed on the orders of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect of Judaea. Pilate most likely saw Jesus' reference to the Kingdom of God as a threat to Roman authority and worked with the Temple elites to have Jesus executed. The Sadducean high-priestly leaders of the Temple more plausibly had Jesus executed for political reasons than for his teaching. They may have regarded him as a threat to stability, especially after he caused a disturbance at the Second Temple. Other factors, such as Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, may have contributed to this decision. Most scholars consider Jesus' crucifixion to be factual, because early Christians would not have invented the painful death of their leader.
Andrew interviews Frankie, believing her wounds may also be stigmata. When she tells him she is an atheist, Andrew tells her that stigmata is when the deeply devoted are struck with the five wounds that Jesus received during the crucifixion. Frankie begins to research on her own what the cause could be. Her head begins to bleed, the third stigmata wound caused by the Crown of Thorns. Frankie runs home, where Andrew is waiting, and then runs into an alley. As Andrew pursues her, Frankie smashes a glass bottle and uses the shards to carve symbols on the hood of a car: when Andrew approaches her, she yells at him in another language.
Stigmata (singular "stigma") is a term used in Christian mysticism to describe the manifestations of bodily wounds, scars and pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ, such as the hands, wrists, and feet. An individual bearing the wounds of stigmata is referred to as a stigmatist or a stigmatic.
Jesus and His disciples meet in an upper room to celebrate the Passover, and he gives them some of his final teachings, assuring them that His spirit and His peace will always be with them ("Shalom"). Judas leaves the table to betray Jesus to the priests and Pharisees. Jesus predicts that all his disciples will fall away, but Peter insists that he will never leave Jesus. Jesus warns him that before the rooster crows, he will deny Jesus three times. Jesus and the rest of His disciples go into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray ("He Is Jehovah" (reprise)). The disciples fall asleep. Jesus begs God to take away the suffering he will endure, but then asks that God's will be done so that God may be glorified ("Glorify Your Son"§). The disciples awaken as Judas returns with some Roman soldiers. Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss, and the soldiers arrest him and lead him away.
Judas Iscariot (died AD) was a disciple and one of the original Twelve Disciples of Jesus Christ. According to all four canonical gospels, Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane by kissing him and addressing him as "Rabbi" to reveal his identity to the crowd who had come to arrest him. His name is often used synonymously with betrayal or treason. Judas's epithet "Iscariot" most likely means he came from the village of Kerioth, but this explanation is not universally accepted and many other possibilities have been suggested.
The Holy Lance in Vienna is displayed in the Imperial Treasury or "Weltliche Schatzkammer" (lit. Worldly Treasure Room) at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. It is a typical winged lance of the Carolingian dynasty. At different times, it was said to be the lance of Saint Maurice or that of Constantine the Great. In the tenth century, the Holy Roman Emperors came into possession of the lance, according to sources from the time of Otto I (912–973). In 1000, Otto III gave Boleslaw I of Poland a replica of the Holy Lance at the Congress of Gniezno. In 1084, Henry IV had a silver band with the inscription "Nail of Our Lord" added to it. This was based on the belief that the nail embedded in the spear-tip was one that had been used for the Crucifixion of Jesus. It was only in the thirteenth century that the Lance became identified with that of Longinus, which had been used to pierce Christ's side and had been drenched in the Blood of Christ and water.
According to the accounts in the Gospels, the royal soldiers, guided by Jesus' disciple Judas Iscariot, arrested Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Judas received money (30 pieces of silver) () for betraying Jesus and told the guards that whomever he kisses is the one they are to arrest. Following his arrest, Jesus was taken to the house of Annas, the father-in-law of the high priest, Caiaphas. There he was interrogated with little result and sent bound to Caiaphas the high priest where the Sanhedrin had assembled ().
The only care that occupied him until his last moment was the desolate condition of the church. He strengthened himself in almost uninterrupted prayer, and in listening to passages of Scripture. Especially significant did the words seem to him, "His own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." When Caspar Peucer, his son-in-law, asked him if he wanted anything, he replied, "Nothing but heaven." His body was buried beside Luther's in the Schloßkirche in Wittenberg.
During the 1978 Conference, after a pilgrimage to Dick Sheppard's grave, activists nailed "Seven Theses" to the door of Canterbury Cathedral. "The theses reflected the theological approach of Gordon Wilson for whom Christ’s victory of love over violence on the cross was a fundamental principle". This action deliberately echoed Martin Luther's famous nailing of The Ninety-Five Theses to the church door in Wittenberg.
"The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist" has been badly damaged, though it did receive some restoration in the 1950s prior to a notable exhibition in Rome in 1955–56, which brought the work considerable attention. It was during the restoration that Caravaggio's signature in the blood became visible to modern viewers. The signature is a matter of some dispute. The work is signed "f. Michelang.o" (the "f" to indicate his brotherhood in the order), but it is popularly claimed that Caravaggio signed "I, Caravaggio, did this" in confession of some crime—perhaps connected to the 1606 death of Ranuccio Tomassoni at Caravaggio's hands, which had caused the painter to flee Rome.
The Bible provides a famous slinger account, the battle between David and Goliath from the First Book of Samuel 17:34–36, probably written in the 7th or 6th century BC, describing events having occurred around the 10th century BC. The sling, easily produced, was the weapon of choice for shepherds fending off animals. Due to this, the sling was a commonly used weapon by the Israelite militia. Goliath was a tall, well equipped and experienced warrior. In this account, the shepherd David convinces Saul to let him fight Goliath on behalf of the Israelites. Unarmoured and equipped only with a sling, 5 smooth rocks, and his staff; David defeats the champion Goliath with a well-aimed shot to the head.
The Second Coming of Christ holds a central place in Christian mythology. The Second Coming is the return of Christ to earth during the period of transformation preceding the end of this world and the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. According to Matthew's gospel, when Jesus is on trial before the Roman and Jewish authorities, he claims, "In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."
The legend of the "Wandering Jew" concerns a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion and was then cursed to walk the earth until the Second Coming.
The most famous passion play in Mexico is held in Iztapalapa in the east of Mexico City. This production involves over 4000 local residents (all of which are born in Iztapalapa) which perform scenes related to the last week of Jesus’s life from Palm Sunday to Good Friday. The production has been done each year since 1843 and today the spectacle attracts over 2 million spectators, mostly Mexican. The play is not a strictly Biblical production as there are a number of characters such as a spy, a dog, a “wandering Jew” and others that are unique to this event. When Christ is captured, Aztec drums and flutes are played. Pontius Pilate sentences Jesus on the town of Iztapalapa’s main square then whipped. He then carries a cross from this square to the Cerro de la Estrella on a route over mile long through eight of the borough’s oldest neighborhoods. The most important event is the procession with the cross and the crucifixion scene portrayed on Cerro de la Estrella. Many others called “Nazarenes” follow, carrying their own crosses and wearing real crowns of thorns like Jesus. The play ends with Judas hanging himself after the crucifixion.
The antelope's horn is prized for medicinal and magical powers in many places. The horn of the male saiga, in Eastern practice, is ground as an aphrodisiac, for which it has been hunted nearly to extinction. In the Congo, it is thought to confine spirits. Christian iconography sometimes uses the antelope's two horns as a symbol of the two spiritual weapons Christians possess: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The antelope's ability to run swiftly has also led to their association with the wind, such as in the "Rig Veda", as the steeds of the Maruts and the wind god Vayu. There is, however, no scientific evidence that the horns of any antelope have any change on a human's physiology or characteristics.
The work has a rectangular shape in the lower part, ending with a triangular cusp, and has a golden background above which is St. Francis receiving the stigmata during his prayer on Mount Alverno from a flying Christ who appears him as a seraphim. The latter's wounds emit light rays which strike Francis' body. The scene was innovative as it abandoned the Byzantine tradition of inexpressive, frontal figures; the background is a mix of newer and old elements, the latter including the very generic mountains and the lack of proportions in the landscape elements. The chapels in the mount show the attempt to draw them according to geometrical perspective. Francis' face is characterized by a strong use of chiaroscuro.
There are several explanations as to why Judas betrayed Jesus. In the earliest account, in the Gospel of Mark, when he goes to the chief priests to betray Jesus, he is offered money as a reward, but it is not clear that money is his motivation. In the Gospel of Matthew account, on the other hand, he asks what they will pay him for handing Jesus over. In the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of John, the devil enters into Judas, causing him to offer to betray Jesus. The Gospel of John account has Judas complaining that money has been spent on expensive perfumes to anoint Jesus which could have been spent on the poor, but adds that he was the keeper of the apostles' purse and used to steal from it.
In the 20th century, scholars became more likely to see early Christian faith and practice as evolving out of the religious beliefs and practices of Second Temple Judaism and Hellenic pagans, rather than standing out in sharp contrast to them. Modern historians have come to accept Jesus' Jewish identity and that of the apostolic church (referred to as Jewish Christianity). The relationship of Paul of Tarsus and Judaism is still disputed. The anti-Jewish Jesus of the gospels is now recognized as a later interpretation, perhaps Marcionite, as are the universalist themes in Acts and Luke. H. G. Wells, in his Outline of History, depicted Jesus as a man and Christianity as a religion of no divine distinction. Scholars such as Walter Bauer and Bart Ehrman have emphasized the diversity of early Christianity, with Proto-orthodox Christianity being one thread, against the traditional account of catholic unanimity.The historical and contextual time of the early church.
The lance (Greek: λόγχη, lonkhē) is mentioned in the "Gospel of John" (), but not the Synoptic Gospels. The gospel states that the Romans planned to break Jesus' legs, a practice known as "crurifragium", which was a method of hastening death during a crucifixion. Just before they did so, they realized that Jesus was already dead and that there was no reason to break his legs. To make sure that he was dead, a Roman soldier (named in extra-Biblical tradition as Longinus) stabbed him in the side.
"So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with Jesus; but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water... For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, ‘Not a bone of him shall be broken.’ And again another scripture says, ‘They shall look on him whom they have pierced’" ().
Stephaton, or Steven, is the name given in medieval Christian traditions to the Roman soldier, unnamed in the Bible, who offered Jesus a sponge soaked in vinegar wine at the Crucifixion. In later depictions of the Crucifixion, Stephaton is frequently portrayed with Longinus, the name given to the soldier who pierced Jesus' side with a spear.
Using the work of Samuel Haughton, commentators Frederick Charles Cook and Josh McDowell argued that the death of Jesus in the Gospels could not have been fabricated, as the text displays medical knowledge not available at the time. Haughton wrote that the description in the Gospel of John of the flowing of "blood and water" after the soldier pierced Jesus' side with a spear was prescient of an as-yet undiscovered medical condition called respiratory acidosis: "... With the foregoing cases most anatomists who have devoted their attention to this subject are familiar; but the two following cases, although readily explicable on physiological principles, are not recorded in the books (except by St. John). Nor have I been fortunate enough to meet with them."