History Main / CloneJesus

* The practical difficulty with cloning Jesus of Nazareth - even if the technology was advanced enough to do this - would lie in getting a tissue sample allowing DNA to be retrieved. However, TheBible informs us that following the Resurrection, Jesus was bodily taken into Heaven and did not leave behind a body. Discounting any blood traces left behind on whips, thorns, nails, et c, which at the time would have carried no significance whatever to the Romans and which might have been cleaned or recycled for the next crucifixion (thus removing or contaminating the traces at the very least), this poses a problem. However, imaginative thinkers have pointed out that Jesus would have left ''one'' small part of his physical body on earth. As a Jewish boy, on the eighth day after birth, he would, of course, have been circumcised. On this basis, at least three churches in Europe claim to be the sole ''Eglise de la Saint Prepuce'' - the Church of the Holy Foreskin. This suggests either Jesus was not as other men (or He healed himself three times..), or else there were some genius-level pardoners peddling holy relics in mediaeval times. But if one of those three churches turns out to have the real deal... cloning may be a possibility.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'', one of Galasso's many inexplicable actions was to add clones of UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan and the historical Jesus to his army, i.e., the staff of his toy store. Historical Jesus (Jeshua Ben Joseph) is shorter and darker than most people expect and is generally sullen about modern society in general and toy store customers and coworkers in particular.

[[caption-width-right:350:The Historical Jesus, right where he's needed--at a [[Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}} big box]] [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2012_03_01_sash.png toy store]].]]

[[quoteright:350:[[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2012_03_01_sash.png https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2012_03_01_sash1.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The Historical Jesus, right where he's needed--at a [[Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}} big box toy store]].]]

[[quoteright:250:[[Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2012_03_01_sash.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:250:The Historical Jesus, right where he's needed--at a [[Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}} big box toy store]].]]

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* An odd version in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': [[spoiler: Karkat]]'s ancestor, The Sufferer, is a CrystalDragonJesus, and while he isn't meant to be an exact clone of the Sufferer in terms of purpose (in fact, he's ''[[MyOwnGrandpa his own]]'' clone), they're genetically (and presumably physically) identical and he was heralded by the Sufferer as his second coming. However, because of how paradox cloning works, the Sufferer is ''their''' clone and also qualifies for this trope.

* In ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'', Vivio Takamachi was cloned by the villains from the genetic material of the messiah figure of the Saint Church, the Sankt Kaiser/Sei'ou Olivie Sägebrecht. The villains just wanted her so they could overcome the genetic lock on the Messiah's personal spaceship, though. After she is rescued, those in TheChurch who know about her heritage call her by her full title, which she's extremely embarrassed about. She has, by ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid'', gotten used to it, accepting it as a term of respect and affection. For their part, the Saint Church [[SaintlyChurch has lived up to their name]], treating her as her own person rather than a copy of their Jesus analogue and letting her live her life as she and [[HasTwoMommies her mothers]] see fit. Though she's still highly respected for being the last descendant of the Sankt Kaiser. The manga also gives more information about Olivie, making it clear that while both she and Vivio are KungFuWizard heroines, they each have their own personality.

* During Marvel's ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' crossover, [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]], [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]], and [[ComicBook/MightyAvengers Hank Pym]] use a single hair to create a clone of [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]]. He was basically a cyborg killing machine ''loosely'' under their control - one of the first things he did was kill Bill Foster. Hercules considered him an insult to the real deal, and when Thor got back he outright [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]] Tony for the move.

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* In ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'', Vivio Takamachi was cloned by the villains from the genetic material of the messiah figure of the Saint Church, the Sankt Kaiser/Sei'ou Olivie Sägebrecht. The villains just wanted her so they could overcome the genetic lock on the Messiah's personal spaceship, though. After she is rescued, those in TheChurch who know about her heritage call her by her full title, which she's extremely embarrassed about.
** She has, by ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid'', gotten used to it, accepting it as a term of respect and affection. For their part, the Saint Church [[SaintlyChurch has lived up to their name]], treating her as her own person rather than a copy of their Jesus analogue and letting her live her life as she and [[HasTwoMommies her mothers]] see fit. Though she's still highly respected for being the last descendant of the Sankt Kaiser. The manga also gives more information about Olivie, making it clear that while both she and Vivio are KungFuWizard heroines, they each have their own personality.

[[folder:{{Comics}}]]

[[folder:{{Film}}]]
* Accidentally invoked in the movie ''Film/TheFifthElement''-the Embodiment Of Love was sent to Earth to protect us from a Big Ball Of Darkness. Ended up getting vaporized, but the forensics who found the wreckage were able create a clone from the few remaining cells with all of the original's memories intact, and her capacity for badassery and {{fanservice}}. There's a HandWave for this: Leeloo's DNA is shown to have multiple helices, and one of the scientists describes it as having 200,000 "memo groups" (a made-up term) compared to the 40 in human DNA. The implication is that her DNA contains memory and acquired traits as well as basic growth instructions.

* This is the main premise (and tagline) of ''The Power of Few''.

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]
* According to an article in "New York Magazine," (April 5, 2004), "Stories about cloned Jesuses first surfaced in 1988 when the sci-fi novel 'Children of the Shroud' was published." That novel, by Garfield Reeves-Stevens, had dozens of teenage Jesus clones being hunted by a televangelist on behalf of a U.S. president eager to start the war of Armageddon. Each clone was slightly different because of the DNA reconstruction technique used to create them, with the kicker being [[spoiler:some of them were female]].

* [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Obviously]] used in the ''ChristCloneTrilogy'' by James Beauseigneur, [[spoiler: except he's the Antichrist.]] Like the example above, this also uses the Shroud of Turin as the source of DNA.

* This is pretty much the entire point of the 1993 novel TheBloodOfTheLamb, as the protagonist Peter Careza grapples with the implications that he is Christ on Earth. By the end of the book, it's fairly clear that [[spoiler:he's the AntiChrist]].
* The Literature/{{Riverworld}} series is set on a world populated by clones of everyone who ever lived, into which their dead spirits have been transplanted. A short story based on the novels reveals what happens to the Riverworld's re-created Jesus.

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' episode "The Shroud" has a religious zealot try to recreate Jesus via artificial conception...it's implied he succeeds, but the surrogate mother and her husband run off with the baby in classic Mary and Joseph-style to prevent the minister, who is also the mothers father, from raising the child and twisting him to his own ends.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' had a Klingon religious caste try to use cloning and [[FakeMemories memory construction]] to recreate their local Messiah Kahless, so that they (with Kahless as their puppet) could take over the Klingon Empire and "[[GloryDays restore it to greatness]]". When Worf finds out, the monks ask him how he knows that's not how the prophesy of Kahless' return was ''supposed'' to be fulfilled. The episode ended with the truth being revealed and a compromise being reached: Kahless II is allowed to become the figurehead Emperor (a previously vacant position).
** Half-way into ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' Worf figured out how powerless Kahless II ''actually'' was. The figurehead Emperor thing was also his idea.

* The show ''Series/{{Zero Hour}}'' involved cashing in the {{plot coupon}}s for this.

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* The main plot point in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiII''.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''WebComic/FLEMComics'' had an arc about a mutant Jesus Clone, with many tentacles. [[spoiler:They had him have sex with a prostitute, and she used the wrong tentacle]]

[[folder:RealLife]]

Of course, since cloning [[ClonesArePeopleToo doesn't make]] [[YouFailBiologyForever the same person again]] one might end up with someone who uses their powers [[DarkMessiah For Evil]] or giving a [[AntiAntiChrist "screw this."]]

Someone has gotten ahold of a DNA strand of Jesus or his [[CrystalDragonJesus equivalent]] and has decided, hey, let's make another! Maybe they actually want to speed along the SecondComing a little, or maybe they want to throw in a little [[ForScience Mad Science]] with Religion.

* During Marvel's ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' crossover, [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]], [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]], and [[ComicBook/MightyAvengers Hank Pym]] use a single hair to create a clone of [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]].

* The Creator/RobertRankin novel ''The Brentford Chainstore Massacre'' had Jesus cloned from DNA found on the Turin shroud. He actually plans to clone multiple Jesuses so that every religion can have one (no, it MakesExactlyAsMuchSenseInContext), but only does two to start with [[spoiler: who turn out to be a good Jesus and a bad Jesus]].

* The Creator/RobertRankin novel ''The Brentford Chainstore Massacre'' had Jesus cloned from DNA found on the Turin shroud.

** She has, by ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid'', gotten used to it, accepting it as a term of respect and affection. For their part, the Saint Church [[SaintlyChurch has lived up to their name]], treating her as her own person rather than a copy of their Jesus analogue and letting her live her life as she and her parents see fit. Though she's still highly respected for being the last descendant of the Sankt Kaiser. The manga also gives more information about Olivie, making it clear that while both she and Vivio are KungFuWizard heroines, they each have their own personality.

* Accidentally invoked in the movie ''Film/TheFifthElement''-the Embodiment Of Love was sent to Earth to protect us from a Big Ball Of Darkness. Ended up getting vaporized, but the forensics who found the wreckage were able create a clone from the few remaining cells with all of the original's memories intact, and her capacity for [[{{Badass}} badassery]] and {{fanservice}}. There's a HandWave for this: Leeloo's DNA is shown to have multiple helices, and one of the scientists describes it as having 200,000 "memo groups" (a made-up term) compared to the 40 in human DNA. The implication is that her DNA contains memory and acquired traits as well as basic growth instructions.

* The practical difficulty with cloning Jesus of Nazareth - even if the technology was advanced enough to do this - would lie in getting a tissue sample allowing DNA to be retrieved. However, TheBible informs us that following the Resurrection, Jesus was bodily taken into Heaven and did not leave behind a body. Discounting any blood traces left behind on whips, thorns, nails, et c, which at the time would have carried no significance whatever to the Romans and which might have been cleaned or recycled for the next crucifixion (thus removing or contaminating the traces at the very least), this poses a problem. However, imaginative thinkers have pointed out that Jesus would have left ''one'' small part of his physical body on earth. As a Jewish boy, on the eighth day after birth, he would, of course, have been circumcised. On this basis, at least three churches in Europe claim to be the sole ''Eglise de la Saint Prepuce'' - the Church of the Holy Foreskin. This suggests either Jesus was not as other men (or He healed himself three times..), or else there were some genius-level pardoners peddling holy relics in mediaeval times. But if one of those three churches turns out to have the real deal... cloning may be a possibility.

* Jesús Christo, a Mexican clone of Jesus, appears on ''CloneHigh'' and is a carpentry student who talks like Cheech Marin.

* This trope was parodied in AquaTeenHungerForce, when Frylock uses his cloner with a strand of what a museum claimed was Jesus' hair. He ended up with a very effeminate man in a too-short toga, who reveals he's actually Jesus' hairdresser.

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* Used in the 2001 film ''Revelation'' (no relation to the film from the ''Film/{{Apocalypse}}'' series), where the KnightsTemplar attempt to clone Jesus from DNA left on the four nails used to crucify the original in hopes of using the clone as a puppet messiah to rule the world. It's implied at the end of the film that the cloned Jesus is TheAntichrist while the baby born from Mira and the late Jake's union is the true messiah since Mira was Mary Magdalene's descendant and Jake was Christ's descendant via the Merovingian dynasty. As predicted by Revelation 12.4, the baby is kept a secret from the order until he can oppose them and the Grand Master's puppet Christ.

* In ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikerS'', Vivio Takamachi was cloned by the villains from the genetic material of the messiah figure of the Saint Church, the Sankt Kaiser/Sei'ou Olivie Sägebrecht. The villains just wanted her so they could overcome the genetic lock on the Messiah's personal spaceship, though. After she is rescued, those in TheChurch who know about her heritage call her by her full title, which she's extremely embarrassed about.

* In ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'', Vivio Takamachi was cloned by the villains from the genetic material of the messiah figure of the Saint Church, the Sankt Kaiser/Sei'ou Olivie Sägebrecht. The villains just wanted her so they could overcome the genetic lock on the Messiah's personal spaceship, though. After she is rescued, those in TheChurch who know about her heritage call her by her full title, which she's extremely embarrassed about.

* The manga ''{{Bremen}}'' includes this trope as part of its climax. [[spoiler: Kasuga Romio is the Clone Jesus whose charisma is sent to others via [[ThePowerOfRock rock music]].]]

* Whether God or just channeling him, [[spoiler:Mokona]] from ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth'' visited Clow Reed and Yuuko of ''{{xxxHolic}}'' and ''{{Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle}}''. They were allowed to make copies.
* This was the aim of the Adam Project in ''{{NEEDLESS}}''.

* This is part of the plot underlying ''Anime/AmazingNurseNanako'', a six-episode series that mixed ''Series/TheXFiles'' with {{I Love Lucy}} and served it with a healthy side order of {{fan service}}.

* In ''Webcomic/SisterClaire'', it turns out that [[spoiler: Claire is a clone of Clementine, an extremely powerful and important witch. Since many of the main cast members knew Clementine "back in the day", this has caused quite a bit of conflict and confusion. Claire's "birth" was accidental, since Catherine was just trying to give Clementine's remains a decent burial.]]