THE ONLY AUTHENTIC LIKENESS OF JESUS CHRIST
Only very few people have heard the amazing story of a national treasure we have in the United States Library of Congress.
This amazing picture of Jesus Christ, is accompanied by the following text in the Library of Congress, "From the only authentic likeness of our Saviour, cut on an emerald by the command of Tiberius Caesar.
Tiberius Caesar lived in the time of Jesus and he commissioned a skilled engraver who witnessed of seeing the Messiah in person then he engrave his likeness into an emerald.
The emerald ended up in the hands of the Ottoman empire after the fall of Constantinople and then later was given back to Pope Innocent VIII around 1492 AD from the treasury at Constantinople by the emperor of the Turks, the Sultan Bajazid II, for the ransom of his brother, then a captive of the Pope.
The Emerald disappeared probably with the sack of Rome by the mutinous troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1527, but the same profile-image of Christ appears on paintings of the Flemish school which were copied from the emerald.
The claim is that the Flemish paintings or another direct replica from the emerald were the source of John Sartain's engraving "Our Saviour" first published by Richard De Forest, Rochester, NY, and L.W. Carr, Detroit, MI and entered according to Act of Congress in 1865. But some have speculated that since the likeness is so accurate to the original that the emerald is probably in a secret private collection, accessible to high ranking officials in the US government, because of the accuracy of the engraving made by Sartain, the man who made many engravings for the US mint and presidential authenticates.
Interestingly, there must be a strong resemblance of this picture to Jesus, as he appeared on this earth, because Ellen G. White was greatly impressed. She was the prophet that saw Jesus many times in vision.
The following legend is attributed to the picture from witnesses to Mrs Ellen White seeing a copy of this painting for the first time. This is the personal testimony from the letter of Abbie Kellogg Norton, dated March 19, 1935. --->
"I well recall seeing Brother and Sister White coming to our home many times when I was a child - probably in 1878-79 or 1880-81, and Sister White never failed to comment upon the picture and its likeness to the Saviour as she has seen him in visions. I think her exact words were, "Yes, yes, it looks as I've seen our Saviour in visions - it's more nearly a likeness than anything I have ever seen." Of course, it made a great impression on us all. Not long before my mother died, she retold this story to some of the brethren and sisters in Mountain View, California."
I can add my personal testimony as I have seen this picture hanging on a bedroom wall at Elmshaven in Deer Park, California. Ellen White's granddaughter showed it to us and told about Ellen White's comments, that it was a great likeness to what she had seen in vision."