Deliverance from the Cross — Page 65
of the Shroud could be made by means of an atom clock, the carbon 14 process. The petition was rejected, not apparently by the Pope, but by the authorities in Turin. Recently, however, the present Pope, Paul VI, seems to have granted the necessary permission and it is expected that a small portion of the Shroud might become available in April 1978 for further scientific investigation. This book says that we can be certain that Jesus did not want to die on the cross - hence his fear of death as described by the Evangelists. Where death is welcome, fear holds no sway over man. Although Jesus knew that his suffering was necessary and inevitable, he could not have wanted to die on the accursed wood, the gallows, the cross. His fear of death is revealed to us in this fascinating and significant prayer: ‘And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, 'O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt'. (Matt. 26:39) We can conclude from this passage that a man prepared to die of his own free will and to offer himself for sacrificial death is unlikely to fall on his face and pray in anguish that the cup may pass from him. The problem appears in an entirely different light if one knows that the contemporary (not the currently available) texts of the books of the Prophets suggested 65