Archaeologists have discovered an ancient artifact depicting Jesus has thrown light on one of the Bible's most famous verses.
There have long been arguments across history about whether or not the Bible is based on fact or fiction.
The latest find casts new light on how early Christians interpreted the holy text.
The discovery of the artifact was made at Topraktepe, the ancient site of Eirenopolis in Turkey. Thanks to the natural carbonization process, the unusual things were left with their detail left almost unmarked by years of aging.
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The artifact was left to be exposed to fire under specific conditions of temperature, as well as experiencing a lack of oxygen to preserve them without destroying the finer detailing.
According to researchers, they are the best documented examples of their kind in all of Anatolia, the westernmost part of Asia.
So, what are they and how do they relate to Jesus and the Bible?
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For starters, five carbonized loaves of bread were found, bearing striking marks of what appears to be Jesus and crosses on the food.
Dating back around 1,300 years, it all seems to be tied to one specific verse, and the history of the loaves have been revealed to mean a lot more than blessing food.
One of the loaves was inscribed with a portrait of Jesus, along with an inscription in ancient Greek that reads: “With thanksgiving to the Blessed Jesus.”
This references the verse John 6:35, where Jesus declares told the public: "I am the bread of life."
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Those who lived in Eirenopolis considered bread as sacred objects because of this quote, and considered it to be part of Jesus’ body.
The Topraktepe breadbasket shows Jesus as being a sower - a person who plants the wheat for harvest, while the other four loaves are adorned with crosses, which suggest they could have been used as part of communion rituals.
It also could have been used for the Eucharist, which is also known as the Lord's Supper.
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There, like mentioned above, people will eat bread and also drink wine to remember Christ.
Jesus being seen as a sower is deeply spiritual in nature, and sees the lifecycle of growing and eating crops as a symbolic meaning for salvation.
But this isn’t the only artifact to stump people and give scientific backing to the theory that Jesus was a real man.
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The infamous Turin Shroud, which is currently on display at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, was allegedly the burial cloth of Jesus Christ when he died 2,000 years ago.
The shroud was first discovered in the late 14th century, and while a lot of people did not believe that it could be true, scientists managed to date it all the way back to Jesus’s time period.
Previously it was thought to have been made between 1260 and 1390, but a study, which was published in Heritage in 2022, said x-ray analysis meant the artifact is 'much older' than first thought, and the findings 'are compatible with the hypothesis that the TS [Turin Shroud] is a 2000-year-old relic, as supposed by Christian tradition'.
However, the researchers admitted that this could only be the case if the shroud was kept in strict temperature-controlled conditions for 2,000 years.
Britt Jones