# Cloning Jesus
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 18, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123 "2003-10-18T00:27:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Finnie\_the\_Pooh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finnie_the_Pooh)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/1 "2003-10-18T00:27:23Z")
Suppose we were able to collect enough genetic material from the Shroud of Turin to clone the person who was wrapped in it. How could we tell if it really was Jesus? Would there be divine indicators,or would they ever manifest. A virgin birth could even be arranged!
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### Author:  [@Bromley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bromley)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/2 "2003-10-18T00:43:05Z")
Countdown. 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .
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### Author:  [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/3 "2003-10-18T00:47:22Z")
No chromosome pairs?
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### Author:  [@gypsymoth3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gypsymoth3)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/4 "2003-10-18T01:27:04Z")
this is interesting. when i was in eighgth grade, my english/history/Bible teacher actually made us write a science-fiction type paper on this idea. i didn’t write it because i had too many ideas and didn’t know which ones i wanted to go with. besides i hate writing and have to finish writing a paper in one sitting or i’ll be unsatisfied with it when i try to finish. here’s what i think. a clone is merely a twin; it is NOT the same person. of course, yeah, somehow the clone would probably be lacking whatever Jesus got from his Father. anyways, here are some of the possible scenarios i would’ve written about had i actually written the paper. 1) He comes back as a clone and raptures the church after possibly 33 years, and then all that millenium stuff happens. 2) since it’s really His twin, it could be the Antichrist; and he would be able to claim that he was a Jew, and all that lineage stuff. 3) it’s somhow a girl.
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### Author:  [@TexGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TexGuy)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/5 "2003-10-18T01:29:20Z")
Best band name ever
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### Author:  [@gypsymoth3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gypsymoth3)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/6 "2003-10-18T01:32:13Z")
**TexGuy** is that really a band name?
* * *
if they _could_ manage to keep God Himself (the Father)'s part of the DNA, do you think they could eventually somhow make other God-human babies with it using women’s DNA or whatever other than Mary? (nottrying to be sacrilegious or anything, just imaginative).
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### Author:  [@markci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markci)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/7 "2003-10-18T01:41:04Z")
You’d get a perfect twin of whoever faked the shroud of Turin.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/8 "2003-10-18T02:08:23Z")
Here’s your answer. In fact, here are two answers:
[In His Image (The Christ Clone Trilogy, Book 1), by James BeauSeigneur](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0446531251/qid=1066443132/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-2185312-9458338?v=glance&s=books)
> [@](#):
>
> Book Description
> Based on the actual scientific expedition to examine the Shroud of Turin, author James BeauSeigneur creates a fictionalized story that links ancient DNA to the coming of the Antichrist. While examining the Shroud of Turin-believed by many to be the burial shroud of Jesus Christ-Professor Harold Goodman makes an incredible discovery: a cluster of skin cells still alive after 2000 years. Faced with such a startling find, Goodman conspires to carry out what may be the most earth-shattering experiment ever attempted: the cloning of Jesus Christ. When the experiment proves successful, the child born of the ancient cells soon sets in motion forces which trigger worldwide cataclysms, and could end the world as we know it…
[The Jesus Thief, by J. R. Lankford](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0971869413/qid=1066443387/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-2185312-9458338?v=glance&s=books)
> [@](#):
>
> Book Description
> In The Jesus Thief, her national debut, Lankford bypasses apocalyptic themes for mainstream storytelling of an attempt to clone Jesus using DNA stolen from the Shroud of Turin.
>
> At the center is Dr. Felix Rossi, Harvard MD-PhD in obstetrics and microbiology, devout only-son of a Catholic family—or so he’s always believed. Rossi has also been a passionate aficionado of the Shroud since he was a child. He is convinced that the face on the ancient linen is that of Jesus Christ and that the linen’s Type AB blood contains the DNA of God.
>
> The novel opens as his dream of conducting research on the Shroud comes true. Yet Dr. Rossi is in turmoil, having just learned the hidden truth of his family’s Jewish heritage. Instead of studying the Shroud, Felix finds himself staring at “the largest bloodstain, the one that flowed when the Roman soldier used his lance to pierce the side.” Moments later he steals two threads from Christendom’s treasure.
>
> The Jesus Thief is a story of lost family ties and a lost identity, of a devout man’s search for God, a powerful man’s fear of a Jesus clone, and a poor woman’s yearning to be special.
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### Author:  [@TexGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TexGuy)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/9 "2003-10-18T02:20:18Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by gypsymoth3 \*
> \*\*\*\*TexGuy\*\*is that really a band name?
> \*\*
If I had a band, you’d better believe it would be.
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### Author:  [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/10 "2003-10-18T02:28:30Z")
I used to sit around telling people that this was my great idea for a screenplay. (I had never heard of the books cited above.) It still would be, except that The Outer Limits made an episode with this plot a few years ago and kinda’ stole my (presumed) thunder.
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### Author:  [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/11 "2003-10-18T02:36:26Z")
The Outer Limits episode was kinda weak, with the whole telepathy thing…
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### Author:  [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/12 "2003-10-18T02:40:49Z")
Why bother with the shroud? Just cut open a Catholic right after communion.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/13 "2003-10-18T03:42:02Z")
Note that some Christians (and a lot of Muslims) already believe that Jesus had a twin brother. Most say Thomas but there are others put forward. If he was an identical twin, then a clone of Jesus already once existed, without any extra-ordinary powers.
Remember, a clone is just a sort of twin, it’s not the person.
The Shroud of Turin’s a fake. No blood of anybody, let alone Jesus.
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### Author:  [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/14 "2003-10-18T03:56:41Z")
You’re looking for a FACTUAL answer to this?
I think the closest we can come to that is to say that the shroud of Turin is most likely a medieval forgery.
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### Author:  [@Black\_Train\_Song](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Train_Song)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/15 "2003-10-18T04:39:44Z")
Would that be considered a resurection?
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/16 "2003-10-18T05:32:56Z")
And of course, the more general answer is that cloning doesn’t produce the same person. So, even though the person would be genetically identical to Jesus, he would be 2000 years younger, and grow up in a completely different environment. So, his beliefs and attitudes will be very different than the original Jesus.
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### Author:  [@Black\_Train\_Song](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Train_Song)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/17 "2003-10-18T06:06:43Z")
You’re splitting hairs here. Would it count as a resurection?
Think of all the crazy presidential candidates who god would tell to come out of the woodwork.
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### Author:  [@Black\_Train\_Song](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Train_Song)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/18 "2003-10-18T06:07:48Z")
By crazy, I mean crazier than GWB.
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/19 "2003-10-18T07:51:56Z")
…It’d be kinda funny if the clone ended up exhibiting the symptoms of severe pathological schizophrenia.
I mean, it wouldn’t be funny for the suffering _clone_, or for much of western civilization, but for the “Gary Larson” set among us, it’d be good for a few laffs.
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### Author:  [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2003, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloning-jesus/208123/20 "2003-10-18T12:09:05Z")
**How could we tell if it really was Jesus?**
I think as we understand the DNA of populations better, possibly w/i a decade or so, we may be able to say there is a 75% chance that this is DNA from an individual in Palestine in AD 30 … Number of course is completely made up.
If there is a very low probability of the shroud individual being such a person, that is one way to tell - that it is a forgery.
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