Jesus Cross Found in Turkey, Archaeologists Believe

A group of archaeologists in Turkey stumbled upon a finding of potential major historic importance: in an ancient church, they discovered a stone chest containing what they believe is a piece of the cross Jesus Christ was crucified on.

USA Today reports that the church in question is over 1,350 years old. The stone chest also includes “other relics believed to be associated with the crucifixion,” as per a historian at Turkey’s Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts.

“We have found a holy thing in a chest. It is a piece of a cross,” the historian says.

The relic will undergo lab testing to determine if that’s really the case but, notes the same media outlet, no doubt whoever hid it or kept it in that stone chest believed it was the real deal.

Theologian John Calvin is not entirely convinced , saying for the media that, if someone gathered all the pieces of wood believed to have come from Jesus’ cross, “they would make a big shipload.”