What happened, according to what exists of the historical record, when Jesus Christ allegedly came back from the dead?
I wrote and produced the show for the History Channel, which was determined to present a version of events that would neither shy away from the tough questions nor go out of its way to offend religious sensibilities.
It’s a show with a wide range of elements, including one that is bound to be controversial with some audiences, the use of the artifact known as the Shroud of Turin to attempt a one-of-a-kind visualization of the appearances of Jesus after resurrection. These visualizations are not considered by their creator, CGI artist Ray Downing, to be works of the imagination. Rather, they are based on the image of a crucified man believed by many to have been captured on the ancient burial cloth.
Using the face extracted from the Shroud of Turin in last year’s The Real Face Of Jesus?, Downing attempts to bring an unprecedented realism to the six key appearances of Jesus during the 40 days. Whether he succeeded will be for the viewer to decide.