70    The Bible and the Future of the World 

Cross.

13

 This agrees with Blessed Anne Catherine's visions. She compares 

similarities between Jesus on the Cross and an ancient wine press, shaped 

like a cross and located on that same hill.  I saw several young men, with 

nothing but a cloth wrapped around their loins like Jesus, working at this 

wine press. 

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 That wine press was a prophetic symbol of the Cross. She also 

mentions the man who gave Jesus the cloth He wore on the Cross in the 

book, The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

15

The Nails (John 20:25 27) 

     So the other disciples told him, `We have seen the Lord.' But he said to 

them, `Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in 

the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.' 

Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with 

them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and 

said, `Peace be with you.' Then he said to Thomas,  `Put your finger here, 

and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be 

faithless, but believing.'   (John 20:25 27). 

    Many passages in Holy Scripture have more than one true meaning 

intended by God. In this passage, Holy Scripture clearly indicates that the 

nails of the Cross went through Jesus' hands. Yet some Christians today 

foolishly believe that the nails which held Jesus to the Cross went through 

Jesus' wrists, not His hands. In a way, this passage is speaking to those 

Christians, telling them to believe. How quickly and how easily do some 

Christians go astray from the teachings of Holy Scripture! 

    They say that nails put through a man's hands could not hold the weight 

of a full grown man on a cross. An explanation as  to why this view is 

incorrect can be found in the writings of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich. 

She says that the nails went through the palms of Jesus' hands.

16

 She 

explains that a piece of wood was fastened to the Cross where Jesus' feet 

would be nailed,  and a place hollowed out to receive His heels, to help 

support His weight.

17 

She also details to us how Jesus was tied to the Cross 

with ropes (which were removed after the Cross was raised up), so that His 

wounds would not tear open as they lifted the Cross into its place.

18

    Furthermore, all eight wrist bones in the human hand are found in what is 

commonly called the heel of the hand, that is, the lower portion of the palm. 

Physicians and researchers who claim that the nails of the Crucifixion went 

through the wrist are referring to the anatomical wrist, that is, to the location 

of the wrist bones (carpal bones) in the lower part of the palm of the hand. 

They say that the nails passed through the first and second row of wrist 

bones but this location is  definitely found in the palm of the hand. In