The Hymn of the Pearl

Deep within the Hymn of the Pearl, itself deep within the Acts of Thomas, some very interesting lines of poetry are found. These words are translated, and understood, many ways. This is but one interpretation, one reflection, one point of view interpolated from different translations and analyses:
 

TWO IMAGE - Within the Hymn of the Pearl - Suddenly, I saw my image on my [burial a] garment like in a mirror Myself and myself through myself [or myself facing outward and inward b] As though divided, yet one likeness Two images but one likeness of the King[ of kings c]

Pondering a connection to the Shroud

Biblical scholar Albert Dreisbach poses asks us . . .

to ponder what these seemingly strange expressions might mean, if they do NOT have reference to the Turin Shroud . . .

The images on the garment described, which by historical circumstance seems to be the Shroud of Turin, are said to be "like in a mirror." The images on the Shroud of Turin, while ghostly and negative are also presumably mirror images.

There are two images on the garment. Are they the  head to head positioned ventral and dorsal images we see on the Shroud of Turin?

We need not be concerned, for our purposes here, with shades of Gnosticism of the Act of Thomas; for in all Christian traditions there are kernels of history. It is history that is our concern.

We need not join the debate among scholars about when the Act of Thomas were written or how much if the epic story is allegorical. The Hymn of the Pearl is our concern. It doesn't matter if the Hymn, specifically, was first written in Syriac or Greek, or if the version in Acts is an evolved version. Many scholar think that the Hymn of the Pearl might be early 1st Century. When is not our concern. What it says is.

There is little question that the Hymn of the Pearl, at least as it was written down, originates in the Mesopotamian city of Edessa. And it was in Edessa, in 544 AD, that the Edessa Cloth was discovered -- the cloth that we now know, from solid historical records, was a full burial cloth in which . . .

You can see [not only] the figure of a face, but [also] the figure of the whole body.

- The Codex Vossianus Latinus   

Note on this interpretation:

1. justifiably, burial garment from other prior references to burial garment. And this phrase is pregnant with meaning: "And when I had put it on, I was lifted up unto the place of peace (sahltation) and homage."

2. possibly, myself facing out and facing in as in frontal and dorsal views.

3. possibly, the "King of king" as in Hans Jonas translation.