Skin and Bones — Realm of Tektonikus

I should begin by ending. Or ending what I began elsewhere. And what is that? Well, another unfortunate saint who was flayed, albeit with a twist, alive. This was the fate for…

…Saint Blaise, who was supposedly tortured by having his skin ripped off his body with iron combs. The above image on the right shows the device that was used. Blaise should have been popular with Louis XIV since, according to the Christian physician Aetius of Amida, Blaise could be invoked when suffering from a fistula, and Louis XIV was well familiar with that bothersome medical problem.

We all know that books have been bound in human skin. However, what about what’s between the covers?

Parchment made of human skin is employed to notify candidates for initiation into a well-known secret society composed of wealthy young men. This parchment is affixed to the awaiting candidate’s door with a dagger and, adorned with skull and crossbones, is supposed to convey a weird idea of something awful. But the police will shortly look up these terrible fellows.

Here is one such terrible fellow…

…a well-dressed one at that. How can something secret be well-known? Actually, he’s referring to the rich-boy Yale society known as the…Skull and Bones. And it’s hardly surprising that the Skull and Bones are accused of stealing the skull of…

…the famous Apache leader…Geronimo. The skull shown may not be the real thing.

Terrible fellows aside, the notion of human skin as parchment, symbolically of course, can be found within the Christian tradition. A genre of devotional books became popular in the Medieval period that have been described as using a…Christ-As-Book… metaphor. These works tend to focus on the suffering of Christ during his Passion, and enable the reader to become part of it. Examples of this include Charters of Christ, where Jesus writes out his charter with mankind on a parchment of his own skin. The body of Christ is transformed into a book at the time of his crucifixion in a magical way similar to the bread and wine of the Eucharist becoming the literal body and blood of Christ. Some of these books include rather horrific, bloody images…

The idea is to present Christ’s Passion as the physically violent event that it truly was, as opposed to the more sterilized representations of Christ’s crucifixion…

An example of the two different ways of representing the same thing. The idea that phenomena associated with Christ can manifest themselves in the real world is found with the…

…bleeding tomb of Christ in Jerusalem, and certainly the volto santo (Holy Face). The first notable example is the Volto Santo of Genoa, also called the Santo Mandillo, held in the Church of St Bartholomew…

It is, of course, not the only one…

…identified in 1999 as the real Veil of Veronica, Father Heinrich Pfeiffer claimed to have found it in a monastery in Manoppello, Abruzzo. The story is that it was originally in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, was stolen, and passed down through various private holders until it was taken to Manoppello. Then there’s…

…on the far left is the Holy Face held in the Schatzkammer in the Hofburg, in Austria. The image to its right is a reconstrution. The remaining images are known copies of the one in Vienna including, second to the right, the Holy Face of Venetico and the Holy Face of Chiusa Schlafani, far right. Also…

…the image on the far left is held in the Chiesa del Gesu in Rome, and the second image to the right is the Holy Face of Bologna. Then, one sees a close-up of the Bologna Holy Face, and finally, a side-by-side comparison of the Vienna Holy Face with that of the Bologna version. And then there’s…

…the Holy Face of Jaen, Spain, held in the Cathedral of Jean. Don’t forget…

…the Holy Face of San Silvestro. It’s held in the Redemptoris Mater in the Vatican, with the name…Holy Face of the Vatican sometimes used in place of the reference to San Silvestro. Ah, yes…

…the Holy Face of Alicante, held in the Monastery of the Holy Face in Spain. The one held in…

…Jerusalem, at the Sixth Station in the stations of the cross. This face was produced in the 17th century. One must mention the…

…the Shroud of Turin, a very popular relic today, which includes an image of the Holy Face. This has led many to attempt to construct just what Christ’s real face looked like…

…the shroud dates to the Medieval period, determined by radiocarbon dating and the red ochre and vermillion paint found on the shroud itself. It does not appear in history until the years 1353-1357, possibly in the French town of Lirey. Pierre d’Arcis, Bishop of Troye, denounced it as a fake, following in the footsteps of his predecessor…Henri, and even wrote a letter to pope Clement VII stating that the shroud was a fake and that he even knew who produced it. The reason? Money. Pilgrims flocked to see it, and could, for a little money, purchase a souvenir…

…actually, for a lot of money. Probably due to its popularity, the bishop eventually gave permission to display the shroud. It comes as no surprise that the Shroud of Turin has a rival claimant…

…the Shroud of Oviedo, held in the Camara Santa of the Cathedral of San Salvador, Oviedo, Spain. It is much older than the Shroud of Turin, perhaps as old as 570 A.D. Some seek to remove this competition by asserting that both shrouds were wrapped around Christ’s body in the tomb, and above right, overlap the Oviedo Shroud with the one in Turin.

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.

Some have sought to connect one, or both, shrouds with the description found in John 20: 6-7. This is completely arbitrary. In reality, John has done far more that that…

But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

The Gospel of Mark makes it clear that a young man, who was not one of the twelve apostles, was in the tomb before anyone else. He was the first to know that Christ had ascended into Heaven, something one might not think would be an honor granted to someone whose name isn’t known…or is it? Matthew attempted to side-step this…

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

So the man has been replaced by angel who strangely sits on top of the stone he rolled out of the way.

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!

So Luke has two…people? Without explicitly saying so, these two individuals are clearly angels, who weren’t in the tomb like Mark’s sole, human individual, and somewhat like Matthew, who has an angel appear, but only one. And! There is nothing like blatant reconciliation of contradictory texts…

But in the night in which the Lord's day dawned, when the soldiers were safeguarding it two by two in every watch, there was a loud voice in heaven; and they saw that the heavens were opened and that two males who had much radiance had come down from there and come near the sepulcher. But that stone which had been thrust against the door, having rolled by itself, went a distance off the side; and the sepulcher opened, and both the young men entered.

Sort of like Luke. But…

And having gone off, they found the sepulcher opened. And having come forward, they bent down there and saw there a certain young man seated in the middle of the sepulcher, comely and clothed with a splendid robe, who said to them: 'Why have you come? Whom do you seek? Not that one who was crucified? He is risen and gone away. But if you do not believe, bend down and see the place where he lay, because he is not here. For he is risen and gone away to there whence he was sent. Then the women fled frightened.

Much like Mark. Let them eat cake? Or…have your cake and eat it too? The Gospel of Peter certainly has a taste for confectionaries, as does John…

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

What has John done? If you have two angels, i.e. Luke’s account, then you technically have one angel, i.e. Matthew’s account. But then you add a man, and you have Mark’s account, except John’s attempt at reconciliation does not make sense, and the man in Mark has been changed into Jesus, who apparently looks like the gardener. The Gospel of Peter has two angels and one man, but, unlike John, the man is not Jesus, and there is no mention of the gardener. Mark makes it clear that Jesus was not there.

As is almost always the case, Mark is the version to follow. However, John is the only one to provide the parallel that settles the matter…

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

Clearly the man in the tomb was Lazarus, with Jesus’s situation and Lazarus’s situation flipped around. Why not Lazarus in Mark? I believe the answer to that lies in the editing of the book of Mark vs. the contents of the Secret Gospel of Mark originally held in Alexandria, but is now lost. The most learned man of early Christianity…Clement of Alexandria, received a letter from a Theodore who was troubled about a Gospel of Mark in the hands of a gnostic named Carpocrates, who had been declared to be a heretic, and used the Secret Gospel of Mark in his version of Mark. The version in Alexandria was available only to a few men, but…

Carpocrates, instructed by them and using deceitful arts, so enslaved a certain presbyter of the church in Alexandria that he got from him a copy of the secret Gospel, which he both interpreted according to his blasphemous and carnal doctrine and, moreover, polluted, mixing with the spotless and holy words.

Way to go Carpocrates! You can’t keep a good heretic down! The points of contention between the two lie in the claim of Carpocrates that he, in fact, had the genuine Gospel of Mark, having surreptitiously obtained a copy, and the apparent claim that Christ had engaged in homosexual activity. Clement told Theodore that there were parts of the Secret Gospel of Mark that had been omitted in the official version Mark, and from there made it into the Carpocratian Gospel of Mark, though he directly states that Carpocrates’ conclusion was not supported by the text. However, Clement shared an event that was in the Secret Gospel of Mark, and, in some form, in the Carpocratian Gospel of Mark, but had been edited out of the official Gospel of Mark. Why? The story is awkward, and the interpretation of Carpocrates would be believed by many exposed to the original text…

The secret Gospel brings the following material word for word: “And they come into Bethany. And a certain woman whose brother had died was there. And, coming, she prostrated herself before Jesus and says to him, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me.’ But the disciples rebuked her. And Jesus, being angered, went off with her into the garden where the tomb was, and straightway a great cry was heard from the tomb. And going near Jesus rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb. And straightway, going in where the youth was, he stretched forth his hand and raised him, seizing his hand. But the youth, looking upon him, loved him and began to beseech him that he might be with him. And going out of the tomb they came into the house of the youth, for he was rich. And after six days Jesus told him what to do and in the evening the youth comes to him, wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the kingdom of God. And thence, arising, he returned to the other side of the Jordan.

The man is not named in the text, nor is the man who Mark says was sitting in the tomb when Mary Magdalene arrived. They are the same man. The account of Lazarus appears only in John, who has introduced a name, and re-wrote the story altogether. Why? Jesus loved Lazarus. But John is the only gospel to claim that John was Jesus’s beloved disciple. In re-writing the original story, John has moved the account away from the closeness that existed between Jesus and Lazarus, thereby heading off conflicting claims should the account in the Secret Gospel of Mark become known. Mark implies that it was the beloved disciple of Jesus who was in the tomb, but doesn’t name him, probably for similar reasons…after all, Lazarus doesn’t appear in Mark. So Clement was amazingly honest, for an early Christian, when he told Theodore that Carpocrates was correct in so far as material in the Secret Gospel had intentionally been left out of the “official” Gospel of Mark. Carpocrates was wrong in his conclusions, but he was following his interpretation of an account involving Jesus that would so open up the door for the Carpocratian interpretation, at large, that it was removed the official Gospel of Mark. The latter specifically states that the stone was already rolled away from the opening of the tomb when Mary Magdalene arrived, not subsequently, as in the other gospels, and that John and Peter were not there (vs. Gospel of John).

Getting back on track, another tradition about the Holy Face focuses on King Abgar V of Edessa, a contemporary of Christ, and the first Christian king. He sent Ananias with a letter to Christ asking him to come and heal him. Abgar suffered from leprosy and arthritis. If Jesus refused to come, Ananias was to make a drawing or painting of Christ’s face. It turned out somewhat differently…

The pictures tell the story. Having washed his face, Christ dried his face with a towel and gave it to Ananias. Then Ananias gave it to Abgar, who was healed. The towel is presented as a holy image, and, finally, as a result of that, Abgar converted to Christianity, and hung the image at the city gate to protect the capital. Abgar would go on to be closely associated with the Holy Face known as the…mandylion…

Abgar’s letter read as follows:

Abgar, ruler of Edessa, to Jesus the good physician who has appeared in the country of Jerusalem, greeting. I have heard the reports of you and of your cures as performed by you without medicines or herbs. For it is said that you make the blind to see and the lame to walk, that you cleanse lepers and cast out impure spirits and demons, and that you heal those afflicted with lingering disease, and raise the dead. And having heard all these things concerning you, I have concluded that one of two things must be true: either you are God, and having come down from heaven you do these things, or else you, who does these things, are the son of God. I have therefore written to you to ask you if you would take the trouble to come to me and heal all the ill which I suffer. For I have heard that the Jews are murmuring against you and are plotting to injure you. But I have a very small yet noble city which is great enough for us both.

Christ’s letter of response…

Blessed are you who hast believed in me without having seen me. For it is written concerning me, that they who have seen me will not believe in me, and that they who have not seen me will believe and be saved. But in regard to what you have written me, that I should come to you, it is necessary for me to fulfill all things here for which I have been sent, and after I have fulfilled them thus to be taken up again to him that sent me. But after I have been taken up I will send to you one of my disciples, that he may heal your disease and give life to you and yours.

But the delivery of the mandylion has a different version. A disciple of the apostle Thomas named…

…Thaddeus (Addai), was sent to Abgar, bringing the image with him. It was then presented to Abgar. The canonical version holds that one of Christ’s apostles, named Judas, is the same as the apostle named Thaddeus. Matthew 10:3 also mentions a disicple named…Labbaeus. All manner of hoops have been jumped through in an effort to reconcile the various different lists of Jesus’s inner group. However, it is far more likely that the circle around Jesus was fluid, with different followers appearing and disappearing. A fixed number of “twelve” is the result of the Twelve Tribes of Israel and the Twelve Disiciples of John the Baptist. Nontheless, the Thaddeus of the Abgar myth has been combined with the apostle named Judas, and this conflation that resulted in…

…Jude Thaddeus Labbaeus, who then brought the mandylion to Abgar. However, Eusebius did not follow this conflation, arguing that Thaddeus was one of the 70 disciples sent out by Christ. Eusebius was the first to recount reading of the exchange of the letters between Christ and Abgar, and regarded the letters as authentic. The book…The Doctrine of Addai, states that the mandylion was not a towel…

When Hannan, the keeper of the archives, saw that Jesus spake thus to him, by virtue of being the king's painter, he took and painted a likeness of Jesus with choice paints, and brought with him to Abgar the king, his master. And when Abgar the king saw the likeness, he received it with great joy, and placed it with great honor in one of his palatial houses.

This claim about a painting was also made in 1389 by the bailiff of Troyes who, although ordered by King Charles VI to bring it to him, showed up without it. Clement VII allowed the exhibition of the shroud, but only with the caveat that it was not passed off as a true shroud of Christ. The earliest history of the shroud was mired in controversy, bad faith, and avarice. One theory holds that the current shroud was created by…

…the famous Renaissance painter…Giotto Bondone. The basis for this is the assertion that Giotto left initials, and the number 15, denoting 1315, in the painted cloth…

The interesting thing about a painting of Christ’s face rather than a towel is that it dispenses with the magical element, and keeps the story well within the realm of human endeavor. Of course, the mandylion was of later origin, i.e. the 6th century, and was back read into the story of Abgar, Christ, and Thaddeus. But I must admit that I’ve never read that skin was involved in the stories, so I must move on.

It’s time to take a brief look at a very strange series of events. It begins with…

…Jan Hus. On July 6, 1415, a church reformer by the name of Jan Huss was burned to death for heresy. Huss was a Czech theologian. His views gave rise to Hussitism, which in turn, inspired Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. Initially, he was excommunicated by Pope Alexander V. Undeterred, Hus continued to pursue his call for church reform. And the thing which kicked off Luther’s agitation for church reform…indulgences, was an issue with Hus as well. There were actually two popes at the time…Gregory XII, and Antipope John XXIII. John declared a religious crusade against King Ladislaus of Naples, since the latter was the key supporter of Gregory. How would he raise money for another war? Yes, sell indulgences. And just like Luther would a generation later, Hus strongly denounced them. And so he fled Bohemia, but was tricked into returning, and was urged to recant. He refused, and so he was executed. His views continued within the Christian group known as the Hussites. A war was launched against them during the years 1420-1431, during which time the Hussites were able to beat back their Catholic enemies. The Kingdom of Poland under Wladyslaw II Jagietto backed the Hussites, but a formidable array of anti-Hussite Catholic rulers would eventually win out. There was also hostility among rival groups of Hussites. The Hussites remained powerful in Bohemia and Moravia, until the Battle of the White Mountains, when the Hussites were defeated. The country then fell under the control of the Habsburgs, who forced a return to Catholicism in those parts of Bohemia and Moravia where the Hussites were in the majority.

It is in this context that we meet…

…Jan Zizka. He was a staunch supporter of the Hussites, and led the forces against the Catholic coalition. Known as One-Eyed Zizka, he was triumphant in every battle he fought. In the end, he lost his other eye, but remained victorious nonetheless. However, at the time of his death, Jan Zizka had a strange request…

…his skin was supposed to be used to make a drum. Voltaire wrote…

Thanks to his perserved drum, his skin lasts as much as his glory! It is a rather singular fate. Ah! Pitiful morals that we are…to save the skins of great men.

The King of Prussia confirmed that the Ziska-drum had been taken to Germany. However, if this were true, it would seem that Germany, at some point, gave it up…

…so it ended up in the Museum of Prague, which is only fitting since Zizka was, in fact, Czech.

However, the Czechs aren’t the only ones with skin drums. In fact, in some sources drums made of human skin are associated with primitive cultures.

Tibetans played drums made of human bones, with human skin stretched over them. I suppose it’s no surprise that Tibetan officials denied these claims. Oh, by the way, nice shot at America! But are the Tibetian officials telling the truth with all their denialish denials? I would enter into evidence…exhibit number one…

…and so it is that the Count has proven the Tibetian officals wrong.

Enter Ripley’s Believe it or Not. What kind of drums do cannibals play?

…Of course, cannibals play cannibal drums. After eating the person, you can make instruments from the left-overs.

Of course, it’s inevitable that Africa got dragged into this. In this case, the…

…traditions associated with the Hausan Bori rituals…

…and so we have our solution to the mystery of African drums made of human skin. But do we? I should mention an unnamed Scotsman who had, in his possession human skin drums from Africa, but so much more…

In Africa he anticipated, or perhaps suggested, an incident in one of Rider Haggard’s novels, when he had a mechanical bear which walked and nodded its head, to the consternation of the Africans, who regarded him as a great medicine man.

A Medicine Bear? No. But a mechanical bear that walked and nodded its head is very cool. It reminds one of the full-blown robot made by Albertus Magnus, the one attacked by Thomas Aquinas attacked it. Thinking it was devil’s work, he broke it into bits. The byzantine royal court had…

…robotic birds that could sing, not to mention mechanical lions. Sorry…I did mention it. The Greeks had…

…Hercules forever pounding on the head of a poor dragon.

The Greeks also believed the gods built a massive bronze robot named…

…Talos, who was built to protect the princess Europa at Crete. King Solomon supposedly had mechanical lions, tigers, and eagles…oh my! And the great inventor Ismail-al-Jazari built, among other things…

…the Musical Robot Band Boat, featuring four robotic musicians who played instruments and enthralled all who saw it. But bears? Ah, yes…the emperor Galerius, who supposedly fed his pet bears with the bodies of his slain enemies. The emperor Valentinian followed Galerius’ example, but improved upon it. He had two bears, one named…Golden Camel, and a second bear named…Innocence. He took them on his campaigns and fed his slain enemies to them for lunch.

…snake-skin drums, human skin-head drums, alligator drums, and, or so it would seem, a whole drumset made of human skulls…not to mention just how dangerous being a musician can be. Who made these? Yes, the Indians. Is it…grewsome? Or…gruesome? Let me check with that old drudge of a lexicographer…the man himself…Samuel Johnson, and I’ll get back to you. Ok, back to Africa…

Human skin-drums and Pumpkin Pianos. What will they think of next? If the emperor Claudius can turn into a pumpkin, I suppose a piano can too.

If you dig around in the depths of a museum built on top the Bath Reference Library, and you were as intrepid as Roger Vaughan, you just might make a grisly find…

Yes! A sacrificial African drum made of human skin, complete with skull cymbals. Are you sure this didn’t come from Tibet?

Surely America would never get involved with such a thing. Really? An American story is better than all the others discussed so far…

Stranger than fiction? Clew? Clue?

Now that’s a bummer.

Two intrepid explorers travel to Africa and have the misfortune of being captured by head hunters…why should cannibals get all the action? They saw a drum with the American flag painted on it. Of course, they escaped. But instead of running for their lives, they first took the time to steal the American flag drum and drag it along with them. Suddenly, there’s an English village, whose inhabitants don’t seem to be troubled by their neighbors…the head hunters. An English doctor said the drumhead was made from human skin. A little caustic potash revealed that the tassels on the drum were made from human hands. Ah, yes…you can see where this is going. The drum-tassel-hands were fingerprinted! And they were found to match those of an unnamed retired naval officer. He too visited the head hunters living next to the English village, but unlike our intrepid explorers, he ended up being turned into a drum. And the American flag? Of course! It was a tattoo from the unlucky naval officer’s chest. Then the drumhead was returned to the US and buried with military honors.

What if head hunters went to England to hunt heads?

There is an English “head hunter” at Clapham Park. Under his roof he is sheltering the once crowned skulls of forty king, more perhaps than haver ever been in one house together before.

From mantelpiece and shelf they grin at him with protruding teeth, and look round with sightless eyes on his 15,000 other relics of silent vanished races and tribes from over the seas. Mr. W.O. Oldman, a middle-aged jovial man, who has more valiant scalps that the biggest chief ever collected, today took a Leicester Mall representative through the most eerie house in London

There was a little drum, with a tuneful note which would have been welcomed in an nursery. It made of the skulls of a man and a woman who were executed for offening against the laws of their tribe.

The skulls are joined back to back, and the parchment on which the tune is played is the skin of the victims. This drastic ironical punishment was once quite common.

The skulls of forty kings? 15,000 other relics? How big was this guy’s house? And a drum made of the skulls of a man and a woman…to be played in a nursery? There’s nothing like scarying little kids to death. I suppose it’s only natural that the the skin of the man and the woman became the drumhead. Quite common? Please.

Too bad we’re not given the name of the naval-officer-turned-drum. But wouldn’t it be cool if we knew just who it was who became a human skin-drum?

What could be Yankee-Doodeler than that?

…according to the article, the Solomon-Sanford-drum was never made. Hmmm. If you were a patriot, you might like Yankee Doodle, but you would also like the Star Spangled Banner. However, if you were an artist who was by no means patriotic, you might just turn the Star Spangled Banner into the…

…Star Mangled Banner! Aren’t critics clever! So what constitutes a mangling of the spangling?

India? Africa? Tibet? And now we have a flag made from human skin. Where else might we find such a valuable type of drum? Let’s ask…

Corporal Jack B. Gidden of Company B. And why does he matter to us?

India? Africa? Tibet? Korea? Back to America for a little skin-drum entertainment.

Ah, yes…Tinsel Town. But what else would you expect from Hollywood? Cut!

In an earlier episode of this essay and related the story of the book supposedly made from the Flayed Jonah Wright…and skinned alive on top of it. And not to be outdone, we read of the vicious Chief Matapwiri in Africa. It appears he was a music lover, particularly…

…percusion. Flaying people alive to turn them into books is bad enough, but skinning them alive to make drums? Still, can skinning people for the purpose of making drums be something special? Let’s ask J. Emanuel (Goucho) Vanderhands…

The Thrill of Brazil! Complete with the skin of dead bodies! So many places we’ve seen where such drums are to be found! Now we must add South America to the list. But how is this special? Let’s ask J. Emanuel (Goucho) again…

…Vanderhands, the Dutch drummer who gave us the Thrill of Brazil. His human skin drum is his very most prized possession in the whole wide world. Making such a drum is not barbaric…it is highly spiritual. If you’re a good South American drummer, when you die, you are turned into a drum that has extra special tones due to the fact that you’ve trapped your victim’s soul in your drum.

As strange as it may seem, skinning someone can be an act of brotherly love…

But on the subject of grewsome drums, it’s actually the case that sometimes they’re quite religious and family-friendly….

…so you can go the East Main Methodist Church, arriving promptly at 7:15 mind you, and enjoy a fellowship family dinner and listen to music played on drums made from dead people. Shades of Mary Jo and her human-skin bound cook book? Maybe not. But I thought, before moving on from skin-drums, I thought I’d show some pictures of drummers who don’t play human skin-drums.

Who doesn’t love a one-armed drummer?At any rate, it’s clear that you can have a Star Mangled Banner flag if you wish. Ah, human skin could have other uses.

A screen made of the skins of 12 self-sacrificing servants is something indeed. And the number 12 would seem to be written into the very essence of the universe. What can be said of ghoulish medical students…

Don’t purloin skin! And Dr. Hopkins can play innocent all he wants. But it would seem that public sentiment could become even more outraged if they found out just how creative ghoulish medical students can be…

Grisly! Or is it grizzly? That would be hard thing to bare. What else would a girl like more than a human eye tucked neatly away in a case made of human skin? If the perverted medical students had given any thought to using a book instead of a case…

Now I don’t know what kind of case was involved. And while on the subjects of eyes…

You can keep your glasses in a human-skin spectacle case.

But I do know the nature of the case in the following…

Quite a story! I also found this…

One of the town’s nefarious characters carries a matchbox with a chunk of the skin of a lovely young woman discovered drowned in the Delaware River. It hasn’t lost its natural color. Another young man I know carries a cigar box made of negro skin with a horrible skull and crossbones carved in relief on one side.

But some like to roll their own cigarettes…

Now a certain class of traders in the bodies of the dead take advantage of these circumstances, and any man is able, through evasion of loosely enforced regulations, to own some corpse or other. It is said that certain hare-brained youths boast canes, sticks, and even pouches made of human skin and bone.

I sure hope those hare-brained youths are old enough to smoke. But you might be the sort of person who gives out business cards…

Take that England! A fad?

Art? How about sculpture…

Trauma! That just so happens to be the name of Darla’s new rock group. And Andrew Krasnow made skin lampshades. He uses only the skin of white people because of all the trouble they’ve caused for so many others. And can it be that different races and gender produce different kinds of leather?

Dinner, anyone?

A recipe? I just lost my appetite. But! We now know what recipes were in Mary Jo Wood’s cookbook.

You thought I’d miss one of the coolest uses of human skin. And I must say that Darla helped me out considerably by letting me take pics of her very own collection. There have been rumors that human skin was used when making…

…these sooper-dooper cool Ekoi masks and head ornaments. Bottom, second from the right…Frankenstein rises again…albeit with only one tooth. Bottom, far right…this head appears to have a bad case of oral thrush. Are you sure that kids didn’t make these during arts-and-crafts hour? Now I must go where most would not…so turn back now. The concept of the American skin-mask, as with other things, was created by…

…Ed Gein, a hauntingly distrubed former resident of Plainfield, Wisconsin. It appears that he may have killed a couple of people, so he wasn’t really a serial killer. And these pictures clearly illustrate that, as some asserted, wanted to be a woman, he was making no effort to appear feminine. But it is certain that he was a ghoul, digging up graves and taking body parts to make various things out them. He was overly-attached to his overbearing, religious fanatic of a mother. Upon her death…

…although Gein lived in garbage and filth (right), the rooms his mother had used were kept clean and well-preserved. This is something we recognize from…

…the way Norman Bates kept his mother’s room just as it was while she was alive. Of course, the image on the right is in the very end of the film, and the traces of a skull are superimposed over Norman’s face. This would have been very difficult to see when the film came out in 1961. So did Hitchcock want us to see this? It is clear why he included it. The teeth are clearly the teeth of his mother’s corpse. In this shot, Norman is thinking with his mother’s voice. And shortly before this scene, we find out that Norman really has two personalities…his own, and that of his mother. The superimposing the teeth of his mother is simply intended to illustrate that Norman is two people. Perhaps.

Of all the horrible things Gein made from human body parts, two are most relevant here…

…masks. And it seems likely that the third mask shown above became the source for…

…two characters in the movie Halloween, and I mean the original, the one made in 1978, not all the crap movies made after that. Who? Michael Myers and his brother…The Shape. I wrote a two-part essay on Halloween proving that there are, in fact, two characters, not just one. But I will leave it at that. Certainly, and thankfully, there was only one Ed Gein.

…to the left…Norman Bates dressed up as his mother. In the center, the sewing project Agent Starling found in the closet of one of Buffalo Bill’s victims in Silence of the Lambs. It was at this moment that she realized why the killer is skinning his victims. On the right is a picture of a “woman suit” made by Ed Gein, possibly to masquerade as his mother. But he certainly added to the list of things made with human skin, including…

…upholstery for chairs. Sure, Gein had skulls…but if Gein can collect skulls so can…

…Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The thing that looks like a soup tureen in the center of the image is probably an allusion to the false propaganda spread about the real Vlad III being a cannibal So if he were drummer, he’d play cannibal drums. Still, Ed Gein inspired yet another movie villain…

…Leatherface, the key character in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, who makes masks from the skin of his victims, and wears them throughout the film. Yes, a clear adaptation of Ed Gein. And, since all of these characters are remarkably similar, it would be worth pointing out that Leatherface’s…

…great grandmama, apparently dug up from the local cemetery and kept in her favorite, comphy chair, just like…

…Norman Bate’s deceased mother.

American politics have always been rough-and-tumble. And both parties have accused the other of doing bad things…some true, some not. The next story had to be cut up into different pieces, and then put together. Of course, reading left to right and then down. Politics? It took the Republicans to dream-up the following…

It’s somewhat hard to read…but it’s the best I could do. Certainly there’s no Mary Lynch here…no deceased hospital patients…no countesses…no willing skin-donors. The Democrats skinned dead prisoners…Irish and African-American, and then forced living prisoners to make grizzly canes.

Of course, not everyone needs a human-skin cane. But everyone does need…

…no, not ladies’ underpants. The image to the right is a pair of Chinese slippers. And that’s a strange thing for the Smithsonian to have. Legend has it that Pierre Sue, the famous Paris surgeon, gave…

Louis XIII, who collected weird things, a pair of slippers made of human skin. That is interesting for another reason…perhaps a coincidence?

Pierre Sue (left) was the younger brother of Jean-Joseph Sue (right). Pierre Sue had no children, so his considerable wealth passed, ultimately, to his nephew, Eugue Sue. And who is Eugene Sue?

Yes, the author of The Mysteries of Paris. In an earlier episode of this essay, I noted that there were claims that he had a copy of the book bound in the skin of a woman who loved him.

But even better than slippers is…

…a pair of sooper-dooper Smithsonian human skin boots. And there was a precedent for this. The French Revolution is never far behind…

Slippers and boots are all well and good. But how about…

…these awesome human-skin shoes. The skin donor is well known to history…

…Big Nose George, born George Manuse (left), was a robber and cattle rustler in the Black Hills, and then in Wyoming. Captured by Bill Rowe (second from left), lynched and left dangling from a telegraph pole, his body was turned over to Dr. John E Osborne (right), a doctor who worked for the Union Pacific Rail company. George lead a criminal gang that included…Buck Williams, Jack Allen, Dutch Charley, and Bill Cary. And George’s gang would steal anything that wasn’t nailed down. He was tracked to Rattlesnake Canyon by a posse, and George engaged them in a gun fight. In the course of the shoot-out, Deputy Sheriff Robert Widdowfield and Union Pacific detective Henry Vincent were killed. George would be arrested and put in a local lock-up, but the locals dragged George from the jail and hung him from…

…a telegraph pole. Thus was the end of Big Proboscis George Manoose. Fate, not to mention karma, catch up to us all in the end. Then George’s body was given the William Burke and John Horwood treatment….souvenirs. Rawlins National Bank had the shoes, at one point, made from the skin of George’s thighs, and a set of his prison shackles. The shoes were originally in the possession of Osborne, who wore them to his inauguration after being elected governor. But the bank also had…

…his death mask, shown here with the shoes made from his skin, and the shackles used to get him to jail. But Dr. Union Pacific also took the top portion of George’s skull. Time to meet a very interesting lady…

…Dr. Lillian Heath, who worked with Dr. Osborne. But she is actually quite famous in her own right…Wyoming’s first woman doctor and someone you didn’t want to mess with…

I had two deep pockets set in front of some garments in which to carry, among other things, my medical bag, and a revolver.

Well, Dr. Osborne sawed off George’s skull cap and gave it to Lillian. And what did she do with it? She…

…used it as an ashtray, pen holder, and a door stop. George’s skin was also used to make a medicine bag, although that has never been found…maybe ask Lillian what happened to it. Then on May 11, 1950, a construction crew was working on the Rawlins National Bank, and the crew was doing some digging, with some sources claiming they were actually digging in the backyard of the house originally owned by Dr. Osborne. A barrel full of monkeys? I know something way better…

…that’s right…George did not get a Christian burial. His body had been stuffed into…

…a whiskey barrel, or a rum barrel. You’ll notice the skull, missing the skull cap, given to Lillian Heath. So it seems pretty certain that the bones are those of Big Nose George. They even went as far as taking Lillian’s skull-cap-ashtray and putting it on top of the skull…

The result was a perfect fit. The skull is currently on display at the Union Pacific Museum in Omaha. So human skin shoes and possibly a doctor bag, which no doubt would have been in the possession of Dr. Osborne. An ashtray? According to some Soviet sources, Stalin had…

…parts of Hitler’s skull, first as proof that Hitler was dead, and then as a trophy on Stalin’s desk. Given the extreme amount of smoking on the part of Stalin, one might assume that he flicked his cigarette ashes into his favorite souvenir from time-to-time.

Medical students can be rather morbid, especially when it comes to Big-Nose-George-style footwear…

If you send some human skin to someone, and you’re a skinflint, send it Cash-on-Delivery. And a resurrectionist? Yes, a fraudster who claims to be able to raise the dead. In England, the term referred to a body snatcher. Still, this isn’t England, and it would appear, however, that in this case, his powers failed him, and he ended up with a corpse stolen from the graveyard. And as it must needs be, the corpse should be that of a wealthy, beautiful young woman. Shades of Camille’s countess. The body was sold to medicial students for dissection, but our steathly lad was able to become invisible, walk into the morgue, and cut off a piece of her skin. He subsequently had a pair of shoes made this skin. Our lad is Ed Carnahan, a medical student, who once saw a nice pair of boots made of human skin…and so hit upon his idea…

Only the tops of the shoes were made from the skin, with the human pores clearly visible. Some people have enough problems with stinky feet, so they don’t need shoes that sweat. Despite Ed Carnahan’s deed, he was still a respectable young man, though one fit more for digging up chunks of granite. Back to racism…

I recall mentioning two or three years ago that a renowned physician in our city was wearing shoes made from slaves’ skin. He continued to follow that tradition, claiming that an African’s tanned skin produces the most durable and malleable leather known to man.

I only met him on the street last week with a beautiful new pair of sneakers. I smiled as I stared at his shoes, as I often do — his pedal coverings have an irresistible fascination for me – and said:

“Do you still have the downtrodden African beneath your feet?” “I presume you mean to enquire if I still wear shoes made of negro skin,” he replied flatly and without a hint of a smile. I absolutely do, and I have no intention of changing until I find a leather that is softer, lasts longer, and has a nicer aesthetic.

How about sexy shoes?

While at Leyden, in 1818, I remember seeing in a museum, amongst Borehaven’s surgical collection, a pair of lady’s shoes, with high heels, made of human leather from the skin of a man who had been executed. The nipple was placed as an ornament in front of the instep.

If you cover your feet, then there must be times when you need to cover your hands…

…on the right is a pair of gloves made of human skin by Ed Gein. The gloves to the left are rumoured to have been made at a Nazi concentration camp. If these were made in a concentration camp, then it would be rather difficult to determine who wore them. The SS wore formal, usually black, gloves. But skin-gloves can be sexy…

There can be no doubt that he is referring to…

…opera gloves. Still, gloves would come in very handy when riding a horse…

It is a fact well known to a few skilled workmen, and not known to the world at large at all, says a scientific magazine, that human skin can be prepared, tanned, and made into durable articles quite as successfully as can the skin of our four-footed friends. And if you examine these articles, you will find that the leather is very much like dog skin or pigskin.

The largest article yet made of human skin is a beautiful, pure white saddle and anyone examining it would be at a loss to tell the kind of skin from which it is made. When you are told, you realize that the pores which show have a familiar look; but when you are given a bit of the skin, you are amazed at the thickness.

Our four-footed friends? How many friends have you slaughtered and skinned? Still! A beautiful pure white human-skin saddle. Whose saddle?

The Scientific American relates that William Hansell, of Philadelphia, has a white saddle made of human skin, the largest article ever known to be made from human skin. He was particularly fortunate in getting enough of one grain and succeeded only after a long and systematic search. Anyone examining the pure whitle saddle (it is made from the skin of one man) would be at a loss to tell the kind of skin from which it is made. When you are told, you realize that the pores have a familiar look.

So we know who it was that turned a man into a saddle. And I’ve heard of saddle sores, but not saddle pores. However, William Hansell of Philadelphia was not the only one who had a saddle made of human skin. Warning…ugly and violent racism…

There can be no doubt about the fact that this whole human-skin-gloves-thing has gone off the rails, if it ever was on the rails.

The fact is, the tanning of human skin is extensively carried on in France and Switzerland. The product is manufactured into gloves, and these are imported into this country. Thus you see a person may be wearing part of a distant relative’s body and not know it.

This is the only time I have ever seen a reference to Switzerland in this context. And I’m sure that imported human-skin gloves from Switzerland cost much more than those made in this country. You might end up wearing a distant relative on your hands this winter. However…

Then the doctor drew from a drawer a brand-new pair of black gloves. “There,” he said, “is a fine article made from the skin of a child. As the hide of a kid compares with that of a goat, so, of course, does the skin of a child compare with that of an adult, and it is much sought in France for glove purposes.

You can always count on somebody taking things too far. These are the words of Dr. Mark Nardyz who, in 1889, lived on Pine street. Although, as was made clear from earlier installments of this episodic essay, it is the French who are commonly accused of shenanigans with human skin, no doubt because of the Meudon Myth, and then the Nazis. But the skin of a child? Well, goats have kids and people have kids. Perhaps Dr. Nardyz got this confused. Then we learn about the good doctor’s slippers…

The doctor possessed a fine pair of slippers made of the skin of a member of the genus homo…

This is all the more mind-boggling when the article is titled…

Gloves Manufactured of Queer Material.

Ok, good-bye Dr. Nardyz. We’ll leave it at that.

What about pants? You can’t walk around wearing only museum unmentionables…

…the so-called Necropants made of human skin, as worn by Scythian warriors. The pants in the picture are, however, only a replica…and a somewhat akward one at that. And one will have to visit the Museum of Icelandic Witchcraft to see them. But is this the only example of human skin-pants? Meudon again, and a fascinating French nobleman…

Philip Egalite was originally…Louis Phillip II, cousin of King Louis XVI, and wealthy beyond belief. When the revolution kicked-off, Phillip changed his name to Egalite and supported the revolutionairies. He was even involved in the execution of his royal cousin. No deed goes on unpunished, and Philip himself was executed in 1793 when the Committee of Public Safety, which is a nice way to say…blood-thirty murderers, notably Robespierre, came into its own. That said, the richest man in France would probably not have worn breeches made from human skin. However, the Reign of Terror unleashed by the Committee of Public Unsafety brought another lover of human skin to the fore. One of Robespierre’s pals was…

…Louis Antoine de Saint-Just. According to legend, Saint-Just fell madly in love with a beautiful young woman. She, however, didn’t feel the same way about him. So he had her arrested and executed. Skin was taken from her body, prepared by a tanner, and made into a waistcoat.

A good thing to keep in your human-skin pants is your human-skin…

…wallet. I showed this wallet in a previous episode, identifying it as made from the skin of the executed murderer known as William Burke. This wallet was made from the skin of the murderer Antoine le Leblanc…

The next wallet was rumoured to have been made from human skin at…

…Auschwitz. Then there’s…

…this wallet, which comes with a great story. A Red Army veteran of WW2 took this wallet from a German POW, who in turn, told the Russian soldier that it was made from a POW’s skin. This wallet…

…was made in 1906 and was owned by Dr. W.W. Keen.

There are other clothing accessories that have been made from human skin. But here, one must go to a very dark place. No, not Meudon or Buchenwald. We must visit Prussia, where we meet one of the most deranged serial killers and cannibals of all time…

As is always the truth with these sorts of cases, there’s truth and lies, fact and fiction. And what makes this particularly true of the Monster of Muensterberg is the fact that our monster, aka…

…Karl Denke committed suicide immediately after his arrest, but before the police even had a chance to question him. This allows the authorities to tell the story unchecked. And that story is that Denke killed and ate 30 – 31 homeless vagrants, drifters, and travelers during the years 1903-1924. When the police searched his home, they found a human slaughterhouse. Particularly interesting was a book with the names of 31 people written in it, assumed to be the names of the people he…

…killed and ate. Among all the horror, two particualy disturbing things were noted. First…no one had any idea why he did what he did. Second…he sold pickled-meats to the locals, indicating that they had been eating human flesh for two decades. All that said, Denke clearly followed that old proverb…waste not, want not.

He used the skin of his victims to make straps, shoe-laces, garters, and suspenders. He was actually wearing the latter when he was arrested…they still had hair on them, and human nipples were visible.

All gentlemen need a good shave…

…following the death of the great Chief Tecumseh, strips of his skin were used to make leather shaving straps for sharpening straight-edge razors. This was not a singular event…

Now that’s a Christmas present!

It is hardly surprising to learn that human skin was used to make to purses. This caused quite a controversy in Michigan…

So there we have the unique conceits. But a purse made of human skin, if you possess one, can be quite a good thing to have…

So a human-skin purse can make one lucky. And luck comes particularly handy when, or so Ed Blooms says…

…Chinese Pirate playing cards. But surely, we have something similar in the US as well…

But not all cards are poker cards…

Quite a story about a monte deck! At least it can be said…

Apache playing cards. One individual took this to heart, and gave a sigh of relief…

Thank God the victim didn’t live in Missoula county!

What about luggage? Well, I should say…what about a Doctor’s Bag? Earlier, it was noted that a Doctor’s Bag was made from the skin of Big Nose George. But what about a Ghastly Relic?

It was my intention to avoid the subjects, which I discussed before, of Buchenwald and Meudon, both of which are two sides of the same coin. However, I found an interesting statement by someone who visited Buchenwald shortly after it was liberated…

I met a man who spoke broken English. He was a minister of bridges and highways in Belgium- a political prisoner. He had found a model boat, and he gave it to me. On the face, it said Santa Maria. On the back was a painting of the virgin and the baby Jesus. The man who gave it to me said the sails were made of human skin.

I’m not sure what to make of this story. However, one thing I can say…I’ve never heard any accusations against llse Koch claiming that she made human-skin sails for model boats. So if the story is true, and the Belgian actually made the claim he supposedly did, then it wasn’t Nazis who made the boat.

I have also written about the infamous Buchenwald lamp shade made of human skin. Now Ed Gein made a human-skin lampshade…

…it is made of the real thing. But Gein was fascinated with the subject of the Nazis, so he was simply imitating the Buchenwald lampshade. It is worth putting the matter to rest, and it was a high-ranking American who did…

Despite Clay’s assertions, popular opinion since 1945 desparetly holds on to the Ilse Koch Lampshade Story, which was proved to have been made from goatskin, as a fact, and has been regurgitated ever since the ridiculous Buchenwald photo became known to the western allies at large.

…taken as souvenirs is another way of saying…they existed, but we can’t find them. But that does not appear to be the only way to interpret the disappearance of such crucial evidence…

In 1948 the American military governor, General Lucius Clay, reviewed her case and determined that, despite testimony produced at her trial, Frau Koch could not be related to the lampshades and other articles which were “discovered” (i.e. planted) in the Buchenwald commandant’s residence when the camp was captured in 1945. For one thing, she had not lived there sinsce her husband’s, and her own, arrest in 1943. Also, her family journal” said to be bound in human skin, and which was of the major accusations against her, was never located, and obviously never existed.

At the very least, the context of Ilse Koch included yet another thing made from human skin…

…knife sheaths? I’ve never seen that one before. And it’s worth noting that in the Buchenwald photo, the lampshade has nothing tatooed on it. Now there have been many nicknames given to Koch including…Beast of Buchenwald…Witch of Buchenwald…Bitch of Buchenwald. But I must admit that I never saw this one before…

…Belle of Buchenwald? A strange choice of words, giving her an almost romatic character. Still, the notion of human-skin lampshades resonated with some people…

So, apparently, Chinese tattoes are better than their American countparts, though I’m sure the tattoe artist who painted graffitti all over Carol Rucker felt somewhat insulted.

As noted earlier, the Apaches were accused of skinning their victims and making playing cards out them. Another source states…

Women hung trinkets on strings made of human skin, and in some tribes, tied the babies on the backboards with sinews and muscles.

That is an intersting claim, and must clearly be a reference to…

…the papoose, which is really cool since you can lug your baby around, leaving your hands free to make playing cards. Actually, the image on the far right is Little Louis XIV…looking a bit like a royal French papoose. The bow on his head is pretty, or so I think.

Gein also created a horribly grewsum human belt…

But he was by no means the first. Back to 1898…

As a form of personal desecration, along the lines of drawing, hanging, and quarterly, this surprise no one. Several instances of this have noted previously. But there is certainly another, and high-profile case that bears mentioning. And it goes to show that one can be very clever on the one hand, and very stupid on the other. Edward I (Longshanks) decided that the Pyx Chamber in Westminister abbey would be a great place to store his treasure. That seems stupid. So along came Richard Pudlicote…a career burglar. When he heard about the royal treasure up for grabs in the Pyx Chamber, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity…

On April 24, 1303, Pudlicote made his way into the Pyx Chamber, and after filling his pockets, so to speak, he exited the chamber and scurried off. This was, of course, one of the most daring and clever burglaries of the medieval period. However, when he went out to celebrate, Pudlicote ended up showing people some of the things he stole from the Pyx Chamber, and knowing about the burglary, they gave him up. Edward wasted no time…off Richard went from the Tower of London to the gallows, where he was hanged. Then Richard’s body was flayed and the skins was nailed to the…

…door to the chamber. What Edward should have done was to take some of that skin, write an account of the affair, and bind it with a little of Pudlicote’s epidermis.

And those pesky Vikings…all was causing trouble where they go. One such Viking, messing around in England, met an awful fate. Sometime in the 11th century, a rogue of a Viking decided to plunder…

…Saint Botolphs Church. The locals were rather peaved about this. They managed to apprehend the culprit, and he was, quite naturally, skinned alive. Pieces of his…

…skin was attached to the hinges of door of the church.

Religious? Yes religious, but in different ways. First, in a highly racist way…

I sure hope that the idol being referred to is not…

…the African Kaka. And I really dig mythological beings whose name consists of two repeated syllables.

Yes, the ever goofy Egyptian god…Tutu. And no one could forget of the Chinese deity…

…Gong gong. Or, in the Sumerian Enuma Elish…

He has created the four, fearful winds
To stir up your belly on purpose, and we simply cannot sleep!
Was your lover Apsu not in your heart?
And (vizier) Mummu who was captured? No wonder you sit alone!

…Mummu is a pretty cool name. Kings have them too!

…All hail the Great King Du-du! A name that Thomas Crapper, King of Commodes, would probably think is pretty cool. And it goes well with Kaka. And someone that everyone thinks is cool…

…King Gu-gu, more commonly known as…Gyges. He’s a big hit with babies. And the once humble Gu-gu just so happened to find the Ring of Invisibility. Yes, you’re dead right…

The ring of Gu-gu reappeared as the One Ring.

Religion? Yes, moving right along. There is little to no positive things to say about the Aztecs and their bloody, violent religion. What would expect from cannibals who wallowed in human sacrifice? An religion that could come up with the…

…the cult of the rain god Tlaloc, who was worshipped by…

…sacrificing crying children to him, is one that is best left as a historical curiousity for people with a strong stomach. So too with Xipe Totec, a deity associated with agriculture and the life-death cycle of nature, and, hardly surprising, war, death, and seeminly gratutious horror. First, Xipe Totec flayed himself to provide sustenance to humankind. He could of course of just given us this sustenance, but that isn’t the gory Aztec way. In fairness, there appears to be a link between this concept of the deity and the snake shedding its skin as part of a renewal process. But Xipe Totec, lacking his own skin, clothed himself in the skin of others…

…with two fascinating modern interpretations of the Flayed Lord. There are less than flattering images of Xipe Totec, as if that were possible:

And when I told Xipe Totec that he was a horrid deity, he didn’t take the news very well…

In the images shown above, the human skin worn by the Icky God is apparent. So too…

…his priests. And now…

…in a sick way, this looks almost like a child’s toy and a doll for your children. Just make sure you don’t give them Tlaloc action figures. To make it worse, the priests of Xipe Totec murdered their victims, skinned them, and danced around in their skin. What else would satisfy a god? Shades of Elizabeth Bathory’s husband, perhaps? As disturbing as all of this is, it is still just another form of human religion.

And now it is time to present the most disturbing non-book, and non-instrument, religious use of human skin that I found, and one found within Christianity. It is a strange story about a life-sized statue of Christ known as the…El Santisimo Cristo. This statue was from the Medieval period…

Talk about making your own relic.

I don’t know if the statue is more horrible, or that some people believed it was made by Nicodemus. Still, this reference to…

…Nicodemus here is odd. Nicodemus appears only in the Gospel of John, where he is identified a Pharisee who has a conversation with Jesus, and then is put at the scene in which Joseph of Arimathea takes Christ’s body down from the Cross. Although I don’t see a food reason to discount the existence of Nicodemus, or that he may have been associated with Joseph, the evidence of the other gospels precludes his presence at the time Jesus’s body was taken down. So has John changed the story.

It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath).

So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.

Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died.

When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph.

So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.

Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.

Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb…

Mark is very clear about what happened and the flow of events makes sense. It is important to note why the women were present. Matthew will make an important change…

As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus.

Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him.

Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock.

He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.

This is very much like what Mark said. Matthew’s somewhat comical reference to…the other Mary, is not doubt due to the large number of women named Mary, and the fact that the gospels do not agree on what women were present.

The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate.

“Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’

So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.”

So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

This is not found in Mark, but is undoubtedly accurate. There was a guard of Roman soldiers at the crucifixion. Why? To see if any members of Jesus’s Inner Circle showed up. If so, they would have been arrested. So we know that Mathew’s account is essentially correct. But…

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.

His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.

The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.

This is very important. Why were the two women named Mary present? Why did they go to the tomb? Matthew does not provide an answer. But Mark did…the women went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’s body. With Matthew, they have no real purpose to be there. What about Luke?

Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action.

He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body.

Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.

It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it.

Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.

Luke’s account is very much like that of Mark, which was no doubt the source for the narrative in Luke. But! Luke has provided us with the reason the women showed up…they were going to anoint Jesus’s body with spices. So what Mark had, and Matthew took way, i.e. the reason for the women’s presence, Luke has given back. What about John?

Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away.

He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.

Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.

At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.

Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

So we have the appearance of Nicodemus. And it is worth noting that John’s account does not state that the tomb belonged to Joseph. John implies that they simple found an unused tomb, and put Jesus’s body in it.

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.

So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.

So this is the significant point. Of all the women, only Mary Magdalene shows up. But why? Mark and Luke say that the women had a very specific purpose…anointing Jesus’s body with spices. Matthew took that away, Luke gave it back, but John creates a whole new narrative. Recall what is said about Nicodemus…

He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.

Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.

Nicodemus, not the women, anoints the body of Jesus. Therefore, there is no need for the women going to the tomb. Essentially, the purpose and significance of the women have been written out. I believe that the redactors of John would have written Mary Magdalene out tooif she hadn’t, by that time, become a larger-than-life character who everybody knew had been present at the tomb.

But John has done something else that is very clever. First, Mark…

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.

Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.

As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

Compare Matthew…

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.

His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.

The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

Ah! So our man sitting in the tomb is now an angel. In Mark, the stone was already rolled away from the entrance of the tomb. The human inside the tomb…Lazarus…had moved it when he decided to enter Christ’s tomb. According to Matthew, the stone was NOT rolled away at the time the women arrived. Instead, an angel suddenly appears, and rolls the stone of the way. Matthew has some redactional overlap with John. Notice that Mark says the women entered the tomb. According to Matthew, they did not. Luke…

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.

They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.

Again, Luke gives back to Mark what Matthew took away. In Mark and Luke, the women enter the tomb. They don’t in Matthew. Watch what John does…

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.

So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.

Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.

Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.

Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.

(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

Again, Mary Magdalene does not enter the tomb. Peter and John? Where in the world did they come from? At the very least, the guards Matthew described as present would have arrested them on site. So John’s narrative must needs eliminate that. Then it’s muddled. It’s important the redactors that John reach the tomb first…he apparently runs faster than Peter, but Peter enters the tomb first, followed by John. So John has not only taken away the reason for Mary Magdalene’s presence, and not allowed her to enter the tomb, the redactors knew that someone had to anoint Jesus’s body, and figuring it made sense that it would have taken two men to carry Christ’s body, he inserted Nicodemus and made him responsible for the anointing with spices. Not only that!

He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.

Nicodemus must have been a pretty strong guy to lug 75 pounds of spices around with him. But the point is that the only account that references Nicodemus, whom John uses to get those uppity women out of the way by taking away their purpose, leaving it to the men. The account in John is not historical. And one last point.