Even the National Catholic Register says that the two pieces of the True Cross with the most provenance — the fragments in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher and Rome’s Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem — are “probably authentic.” That doesn’t carry the same weight that the conviction of the church usually does, so let’s talk about a few things here. 

The long-held belief is that the True Cross was discovered by St. Helena, who headed to the Holy Land in 327 at the behest of her son, Rome’s Christian emperor Constantine. Tradition says that’s when the True Cross was identified after restoring life to a dying woman, and Helena took a piece back to Rome and left a piece in Jerusalem. But here’s the thing: Aleteia says the relics have changed hands and disappeared more than a few times. In the 7th century, for example, the cross was taken by the Persians and later “returned.” Was it? Who knows! Then, there’s the chaos of the Crusades, which saw the pieces of the Cross removed and hidden. It wasn’t until a century later that it reappeared, so… legit?

It’s also worth considering the mathematical estimations of Charles de Fleury, who estimated the Cross contained 2,400 cubic inches of wood. Even considering 20th century findings that suggest the condemned carried not the whole cross, but only the beam, that’s still a lot of relics that are unaccounted for. Which are real?

The Ark of the Covenant is generally linked with being the vessel that contains the Ten Commandments, but according to Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, there’s a few other things in there, too. Also in the Ark — and also missing — are Aaron’s budding rod, and a jar of manna. So, what are they? Got Questions says that Aaron’s rod was a symbol of his authority as a priest and his status as a chosen one… and it was also used to summon the plagues of frogs and gnats, and to turn Egypt’s water into blood.

Then, when Israelite tribes revolted, they agreed to a divine end. The rods of the leaders would be set before God, and the one that blossomed would indicate God’s chosen. Aaron’s rod sprouted blooms and bore almonds, and God ominously instructed them to put it in the Ark “to serve as a warning to rebels.”

Manna, says CARM, was the food that sustained the Israelites as they wandered for the 40 years of Exodus. Aaron was told to put a jar of it — along with his staff — into the Ark, for future generations. Interestingly, manna is very real and still harvested today: It’s the name for a sweet sap that comes from many of the area’s trees and plants, and it’s commonly used in candy and confectionery (via Moment).

Interesting Engineering says that it’s the largest treasure ever lost, and directions on how to find it are detailed in the Copper Scroll. It’s one of the most intriguing of the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient, 2,000-year-old texts hidden in the desert around the Dead Sea and discovered starting in 1947.

The Scrolls are both Biblical and non-Biblical, but only one was etched into a copper plate. When it was translated, scholars found that it gave precise directions to find a set of 63 gold and silver treasures that had been hidden across what’s now Israel. The scroll talks about everything from coins to bowls, basins, cups, chests of treasure… all estimated to weigh around 160 tons, and have a worth of at least $3 billion. Great, let’s go get them! 

There is, of course, a problem. Even though the instructions look incredibly detailed, that’s the problem. It refers to things like “the big cistern in the courtyard of the peristyle,” the “Reservoir of Manos,” “the portico in Zadok’s tomb,” and “the western side of Absalom’s Memorial,” and the bottom line is that no one’s sure where a lot of these landmarks were. It’s believed that the treasures are relics taken from Jerusalem’s Second Temple, which was built sometime between 516 BC and 70 AD. Clearly, someone took a lot of time and effort to hide these treasures and record their location, but without something more to go on, they’re likely to stay hidden.

So, it turns out that there’s some parts of the Bible that get super personal. In the Book of Luke (via CBC) it’s confirmed that Jesus was — like all other male, Jewish babies were — circumcised when he was just a few days old.

Medievalists says that while the church has threatened to excommunicate anyone who speaks of it, scholars have found the apocryphal “The First Gospel of Baby Jesus,” which says that the foreskin was kept and became something of a family heirloom over the course of a few centuries. In 799, Charlemagne gave what he claimed was the actual foreskin to Pope Leo III, but that disappeared in 1527 after being passed around to people like Catherine of Valois, the wife of Henry V. It showed up in a nearby village about 30 years later, but disappeared for good in 1983 and hasn’t been seen since.

The relic had already had a strange medieval life, and around 31 medieval European churches claimed to have had the Holy Foreskin, and there’s some super weird theories about what happened to it. Catherine of Siena claimed to have gotten a wedding ring from Christ made from the foreskin, while Esquire says others believed they were all clearly fake, because the real foreskin had ascended into heaven and become one of Saturn’s rings. Regardless, the “one true” Holy Foreskin continues to be missing.

When it comes to holy relics, none are as mysterious, elusive, and as captivating as the Holy Grail. It’s the cup that was used by Christ at the Last Supper, sure, but no one’s actually sure what it really was. Over the centuries, History says it’s been called everything from a serving dish to a chalice and — strangest of all — a stone.

There’s seemingly no end to the stories about the search for the Holy Grail, from the medieval tales of Arthur’s quest to Monty Python and Indiana Jones. It turns out, though, that legit searches have been going on for a while, and in 2014, art historian Jose Miguel Ortega del Rio and medieval history lecturer Margarita Torres claimed (via History) that they’d found it — and it had been in plain sight all along.

It started with some documents from medieval Egypt, which traced the Grail from Jerusalem to Cairo, and then on to Spain. There, it was given to King Ferdinand, and it’s been at the Basilica of San Isidoro since the 11th century. That, of course, comes with a healthy dose of, “well, maybe.” The claim has been made around more than 200 cups and goblets from all across the world, and people have been coming forward with those claims for centuries. Some believe, some say it doesn’t exist at all, and who’s to tell what’s really true?