Mary Magdalene, Jesus, and the Resurrection Events:
Frank Dodd (Tony) Smith, Jr. - 2012

After his crucifixion, during Passover, Jesus was temporarily buried in a tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea near the crucifixion site and within 3 days his body was removed to be entombed in an ossuary in the tomb of Madonna Mary in Talpiot.

According to Thomas de Wesselow in "The Sign - The Shroud of Turin and the Secret of the Resurrection" (Dutton 2012):
"... This miniature by Giovanni Battista della Rovere, painted between 1625 and 1630, represents Christ being wrapped in the Shroud at the base of the Cross ... as was customary at the time, the figure of Christ has been supplied with a loincloth ...



... Once Jesus died, his compatriots would have been concerned to have his body laid in a tomb before sundown ... Joseph of Arimathea ... petitioned Pilate for the body ... having been granted leave to bury Jesus, Joseph ... bought a linen shroud ...
the body of Jesus was washed on Golgatha [ the site of the Crucifixion ] ... Joseph and his assistant(s) ... broke... the rigor mortis in the shoulders and repositioned the hands over the groin ... Golgotha was situated beside an old quarry ... several rock-hewn tombs have been found ... cut into the cliffs of the ex-quarry ... the small burial party ... accompanied by some women, including Mary Magdalene ... lifted the body, still loosely enshrouded, onto a broad stone shelf ... there was no time to do anything more ... a blocking stone ...[ was ]... trundled ... into place ... the women would come to anoint the body after the Sabbath ...
on Easter morning ... Mary Magdalene ...[ who ]... was ... likely ... Jesus' widow ... was accompanied ... to the tomb ... by another Mary ... Jesus's mother ...[ and ]... at least one other woman ... The women would have seen ... the enshrouded body of Jesus ... the moment they entered ... In order to perform the anointing, the women would have had to have pulled back the top section of the cloth ... the frontal image ... Shroud-face ...[would have been seen ]...



... the body of Jesus ... would have been ...[ anointed and prepared ]... to decompose [ In my view, the body was probably taken by the women to the Talpiot Tomb of Madonna Mary for decomposition. ]...  After ...[ decomposition ]... the bones would have been ... reburied in an ossuary ...[ In my view, also in the Talpiot Tomb of Madonna Mary ]...
The women ... did not remove the Shroud immediately ...[ but ]... went to tell others of the mysterious figure they had encountered in the burial cloth ...
Luke 24.12 ... "But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves; and he went home wondering what had happened" ...
a sixth- or seventh-century liturgical text known as the Mozarabic Rite ... tells ... how "Peter ran with John to the tomb and saw the recent traces (vestigia) of the deand and risen man in the linen cloths." ... The Latin word vestigium ... is an appropriate word t denote the stain on the Shroud. ...
Unlike the women, Peter saw nothing and comprehended nothing, and whereas ... the women ... returned to Jerusalem to announce the Resurrection, ... Peter ... just went quietly home ...
Peter saw the linen cloth but not the person therein. He was spiritually blind. ...
the Epistula ... transmits a ... non-canonical version of the Jerusalem Tradition. In this text the Twelve have ... rejected the women's announcement of the Resurrection ... "Then the lord said to Mary and her sisters, "Let us go to them." ...
[ Jesus ] said to ...[ the Twelve ]...
That you may know that it is I, put your finger, Peter, in the nail-prints of my hands;
and you, Thomas, put your finger in the spear wounds of my side; ..." ...
At last, ... the Twelve ... fall on their faces, confessing their sin ... that ...[ they ]... had been unbelieving
...
the Jerusalem Tradition descends from the testimony of the woman ... Mary Magdalene ...

...[


Here is my view of what happened at the Last Supper:
Consider the Leonardo da Vinci painting (here an image of a restoration at freechristimages.org with identification of Jesus and the Twelve from www.jaydax.co.uk/lastsupper/lastsupper.htm):



Note the Void between John and Jesus - I think that Void is suggestive of an omission in the canonical gospels of a very significant presence: Mary Magdalene
( image from ordokalendar.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/st-mary-madgalene-22-july-ist-century/ )
holding the Shroud


so that the Twelve can see and feel in the Shroud the Risen Christ, including nail-prints of his hands and spear wounds of his side. I feel that a full and accurate representation of the Last Supper would look like this:

Last Supper with Mary Magdalene

with Mary Magdalene and the Shroud filling the Void,
and with Jesus shown in greater Brightness/Contrast to emphasize his Spiritual/Risen Nature.



]...

... The Reverend Albert Dreisbach ... retouched Caravaggio ...


...[ and ]... connected the Doubting Thomas story with the Shroud ... Thomas was the reputed founder of Christianity in Edessa, where the Shroud was kept ...[ from about 100 AD to 944 AD when ]... the Mandylion is brought to Constantinople ...
the Mandylion ...


... was the Shroud ... fold[ed] over on itself three times, so that the facial image is still visible ... an eight-layered, four-doubled arrangement  ... Christ's face set within a horizontal rectangle of cloth ... and honored by being encased in gold ...".


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