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Article 1
QUICK HISTORICAL & SCIENTIFIC OVERVIEW
QUICK HISTORICAL & SCIENTIFIC OVERVIEW
Much has been written on the Holy Shroud of Turin. Some claim it to be the authentic burial shroud of Our Lord. Others claim it is a hoax and a fake. We will take an in-depth look at the matter over the Easter season, which is a most appropriate time to examine the Holy Shroud—since it was used and left behind during the Easter season at the resurrection. In this, the first of several articles on the subject, we will simply give the big picture overview from both the historical and scientific positions. Then, in future articles, we will descend much deeper into many interesting aspects that surround the Shroud. Hopefully, this will shed some light onto the mysteries that enshroud the Shroud!
1. HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY
What's it all about?
Was the Shroud image the original image upon which all Byzantine icons were based? The icon pictured here is the Sinai Icon from the Monastery of St. Catherine in the Sinai Peninsula. It was created around 550 AD and has numerous “points of congruence” to the Shroud image. It curiously was crafted only 25 years after the Image of Edessa was discovered in 525AD. The field of Iconography suggests that the Shroud Image was the “Image not made by hands” from which all icons drew their inspiration. Was that inspiration what we know today as The Shroud of Turin?
Looking at Recorded History
Now let us fast-forward to France in the Middle Ages for now because that is where the fully documented and continuous history of the Shroud begins. But there is more to the story on the Shroud’s probable history. We’ll get to that later.
1353: The Shroud’s fully documented history began in Western Europe when it was revealed by Geoffrey DeCharney in Lirey, France.
1452: DeCharney’s granddaughter sold the cloth to the Duke of Savoy in exchange for two castles. It remained in the Savoy family until 1982 when it was officially willed to the Catholic church although it had custodial care of the Shroud for centuries.
1532: The burial linen was severely damaged by fire in Chambery, France. Thought to be arson the very security measures in place to protect it from theft thwarted the Shroud’s rescue until it was too late to prevent severe damage. Theories about the fire somehow altering the carbon date of the cloth have proven to be erroneous. More on that later.
1534: The Shroud was repaired by the Poor Claire Nuns who were skilled in making textile repairs. The holes from the fire were patched and the entire cloth was attached to a backing cloth for support. This repair now looms large as the carbon dating tests of 1988 are called into question as having dated a medieval reweave rather than the original cloth of the Shroud. This now is the most credible explanation as to what the labs dated and why they were wrong.
1578: The cloth was moved to Turin, Italy for safe keeping and remains there until this day. It is kept in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and is only brought out for public display on rare occasions. The next public exhibition will be held in 2015.
Pre-1300's History
The history of the Shroud prior to 1353 is not fully documented, but a significant historical trail allows for the following reconstruction of the cloth’s early history.
70AD: Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman Empire. The “Legend of King Abgar” suggests the Shroud was taken to Edessa (now Urfa, Turkey) sometime prior to this date. The King was miraculously healed of leprosy after gazing upon a mysterious image and converted to Christianity. The first church outside the Holy Land was reported to have been built in Edessa in the early second century. Later that century persecutions would sweep the Roman Empire. The mysterious cloth would be hidden away inside the fortified wall surrounding the city and forgotten for 300 years.
525: A severe flood destroyed most of Edessa. During the rebuilding of the walls, a metal box containing the mysterious cloth was rediscovered. By this time the Emporer Constantine had declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Holy Roman Empire (330AD). It was safe to reveal the image without fear of the persecutions. It became known throughout the Byzantine world as “The Image of Edessa” and later was called the “Mandylion”. It was described as “The true likeness of Christ, not made by human hands.”
944: The Byzantine Imperial Army invaded Edessa for the express reason of retrieving the cloth from the city which had fallen to Islam. In exchange for gold and 200 prisoners of war, the cloth was delivered to the army without a fight. It was taken to Constantinople (now Istanbul) and presented to the Emperor. August 16th of 944, with great ceremony, the cloth was draped over the Emperor’s throne and crowned with his crown. The sermon that night was delivered by Gregory the Arch Deacon of the Hagia Sophia, the great cathedral. In that sermon he points to both the face and side wound of the image declaring it to be that of Christ.
1204: Constantinople was invaded by the Fourth Crusade. After laying siege to the city for two years, they finally breached the walls and ended up burning down nearly half the city. In the carnage nearly everything of value was stolen. All the silver and gold were taken by the Venetians who had funded the campaign but the French desired the “relics of the saints” and, according to a letter to the pope written in 1205, “Most holy of all, the cloth in which our Lord was wrapped after his death and before the resurrection”. The Mandylion as it was then known had disappeared and most likely in the hands of the French.
1204 to 1353: One of several gaps in the history of the Shroud, evidence suggests it was secretly kept by the Knights Templars for safe keeping. The Templars offered protection for items of great value. They had castles all over France and Europe and specialized in offering safe passage to pilgrims making their way to he Holy Land. They would a small army of “warrior monks” to accompany the pilgrims on their trek by land or sea. Such protection came at a price and the Templars became wealthy with land, castles and gold. They had the means to keep the safe the booty stolen from Constantinople.
1307: It was in this year that the King of France conspired with the Pope to bring down the Templars. They had become too rich and too powerful. The King had borrowed heavily from them to finance his war with England. It was decided that the Pope would issue a decree to have all Templars arrested and their property confiscated. It was Friday the 13th, 1307 when over 15,000 Templars were arrested in France on the same day and thrown into prisons. As part of the French Inquisition, the Catholic Church’s crusade against heresy, they were all made to confess under torture to various heresies. One of those heresies was that they “worshiped” a mysterious image.
Two leaders of the Templars, Geoffrey DeCharney and Jacques DeMolay were burned at the stake for their “heresy”.
1353: The Shroud is revealed in public for the first time at a small collegiate church in Lirey, France. Who owns it? None other than Geoffrey DeCharney. A coincidence? Not likely. Although how the Shroud came into his hands is not completely known, he was obviously a descendant to the Geoffrey DeCharney who was burned at the stake less than 50 years prior.
Summary
It is from this point that the history of the Shroud is without dispute. Did the Templars have it? We can only speculate. Was it the same cloth as the Mandylion that disappeared in 1204? It sure sounds like it from descriptions. Was it the same cloth that was revealed in 525 and heralded as the “True Likeness of Christ”? Was it the same image that was delivered to King Abgar in the First Century which brought about his healing of leprosy?
We cannot answer these questions with absolute certainty, but only with probability. The pollen trail confirms this same historical trail. The evidence from Iconography also confirms it. Other evidence indicates its origin in Israel, its manufacture in the Middle East, and its correlation with other Jewish burial shrouds and burial practices.
The enemies of the Church will always want to cast doubt and skepticism over the miracles that God performs in His Church. That is something that we must always take into account. Miracles like those of Lourdes have always been questioned, doubted and even ridiculed. Some even doubt the Resurrection itself; and among them, sadly, we even find modern Catholic clergy!
2. SCIENTIFIC CHRONOLOGY
1898: The Shroud was photographed for the first time by Secondo Pia. These first pictures led to the discovery that the image on the cloth is actually a negative. In other words, the image becomes positive only when the light values are reversed in a photographic negative. This discovery startled the scientific community and stimulated worldwide interest.
1931: Guisseppe Enrie photographed the Shroud again with more advanced film technology confirming that the Shroud is indeed a negative image. Copies of Enrie’s photos were circulated throughout the world prompting more scientific inquiry and interest.
1950: Dr. Pierre Barbet, a prominent French Surgeon, published his landmark book, A Doctor at Calvary documenting 15 years of medical research on the Shroud image. He described the physiology and pathology of the man on the Shroud as “anatomically perfect”.
1973: Max Frei, a noted Swiss criminologist, was given permission to take dust samples from the Shroud which contained pollen. He discovered 22 pollen species from plants that are unique to areas around Constantinople and Edessa, and 7 pollen species from plants common mostly to the Middle East. The pollen trail confirmed the historical trail.
1975: Air Force scientists John Jackson and Eric Jumper, using a sophisticated image enhancement analyzer (VP-8) designed for the space program, discovered the Shroud image contained encoded 3-D data not found in ordinary reflected light photographs. This discovery indicated that the cloth must have wrapped a real human figure at the time the image was formed.
1978: The Shroud was on public exhibit for the first time since 1933 and was displayed for six weeks. Over 3 million people passed through the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist to view it behind bullet proof glass. At the close of the exhibition, 40 scientists comprising the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP), mostly from the United States, analyzed the Shroud for five continuous days (122 hours) working in shifts around the clock.
1980: In June, National Geographic magazine published a landmark article on the Shroud further propelling the cloth into a science superstar calling it “One of the most perplexing enigmas of modern times”.
1980: This same year, microscopist Walter McCrone who was not part of the Shroud Project was given several fibers to analyze. After finding iron oxide particles and a single particle of vermillion paint, he broke ranks with the Shroud scientists who had agreed to make all findings public the following year. McCrone proposed that the Shroud was a painting of red ochre paint created from iron oxide particles suspended in a thin binder solution. However McCrone’s findings in no way agreed with any of the highly sophisticated tests conducted by two dozen other scientists. McCrone jumped the gun for the sake of getting his own publicity. His claims have all been dismissed.
1981: After three years analyzing the data The Shroud of Turn Research Project (STURP) made their findings public at an international conference in New London, CT. All the scientists agreed upon the following statement: “We can conclude for now that the Shroud image is that of a real human form of a scourged, crucified man. It is not the product of an artist. The blood stains are composed of hemoglobin and give a positive test for serum albumin.”
1988: The Shroud was carbon dated by three laboratories in Oxford, Zurich and Arizona. They indcated a date range from between 1260 to 1390 making the cloth only about 700 years old. This earth shattering news seemed to contradict the conclusions of STURP which gave support to the Shroud’s possible authenticity. This new data posed a great dilemma for proponents of the Shroud and further complicates an explanation for the Shroud’s existence.
The Shroud cannot be explained in a medieval context because it demonstrates medical knowledge and artistic expertise unknown until centuries later. If it was not made by an artist then what is it? Was it a custom crucifixion performed to mimic that of Jesus? Knowledge of Roman crucifixion practices was totally unknown in the Middle Ages. There are dozens of reasons why a medieval date doesn’t fit the evidence.
1997: Noted Israeli Botanist and a professor at Hebrew University, Avinoam Danin confirmed Dr. Alan Whanger’s discovery of flower images on the Shroud. He also verified that several pollen were from plants that grow only around Jerusalem.
2000: Shroud researchers Joseph Marino and Sue Benford present a landmark paper at an international conference in Ovieto, Italy. Their paper would present initial evidence that the area of the Shroud cut for carbon dating in 1988 was actually a medieval reweave.
2002: The Shroud was secretly restored amidst much controversy. All the burns and patches were removed. The shroud was attached to a new backing cloth as well. Most researchers feel the restoration was unnecessary and that much important data will be lost to future researchers. .
2004: Redeeming what may have been lost during the restoration, textile expert Mechthild Flury-Lemberg revealed that the seam on the Shroud that runs the entire length known as the side strip is typical of burial Shrouds found in Masada. This further supports the Shroud’s ancient origin.
2004: Another result of the restoration was the discovery of the Shroud’s double face image. Italian scientists, Giulio Fanti and Roberto Maggiolio of Padova University were able to analyze scans of the backside of the Shroud after it was removed from the backing cloth. This had never been done before. The previous backing cloth had been attached since 1534 as part of the restoration following the fire of 1532. Examining the scans revealed faint superficial images of the face and hands. The image occurs only on the top surface of the fibers, similar to the front side of the Shroud but there is no coloring of the threads in between. This enhances the mystery of image formation and makes it that much more difficult to ascribe the Shroud to the work of an artist.
2004: Thermal Chemist, Dr. Raymond Rogers, retired Fellow with the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory proves using samples from the area cut for carbon 14 dating and samples from the main body of the Shroud that the sample cut in 1988 for C-14 dating was in fact a medieval reweave confirming Marino and Benford’s hypothesis presented in 2000.
Rogers also determined the evidence of a madder root dye used to blend in the color of newer threads with the more yellowed threads of the original Shroud. He also found cotton in the C-14 sample but not from the main body of the Shroud indicating both cotton and flax were used in the repair.
Lastly and most importantly, he found that 37% of the vanillin remained intact in the lignon from the C-14 fibers whereas the vanillin content from the main body of the Shroud had decayed to 0%, similar to the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Not only does this new evidence show that the carbon dating tests were severely flawed by dating an erroneous sample, but that the evidence also shows the main body of the Shroud is much older as indicated by the lack of vanillin.
This critical research is precisely the kind of micro-chemical analysis the carbon dating labs were supposed to do in 1988, prior to taking the sample according to the original protocol, but failed to follow.
The carbon dating tests of 1988 have been thoroughly and completely invalidated by good science rather than the shoddy and arrogant effort demonstrated by the carbon labs in 1988. The cloud has been lifted.
1. HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY
What's it all about?
Was the Shroud image the original image upon which all Byzantine icons were based? The icon pictured here is the Sinai Icon from the Monastery of St. Catherine in the Sinai Peninsula. It was created around 550 AD and has numerous “points of congruence” to the Shroud image. It curiously was crafted only 25 years after the Image of Edessa was discovered in 525AD. The field of Iconography suggests that the Shroud Image was the “Image not made by hands” from which all icons drew their inspiration. Was that inspiration what we know today as The Shroud of Turin?
Looking at Recorded History
Now let us fast-forward to France in the Middle Ages for now because that is where the fully documented and continuous history of the Shroud begins. But there is more to the story on the Shroud’s probable history. We’ll get to that later.
1353: The Shroud’s fully documented history began in Western Europe when it was revealed by Geoffrey DeCharney in Lirey, France.
1452: DeCharney’s granddaughter sold the cloth to the Duke of Savoy in exchange for two castles. It remained in the Savoy family until 1982 when it was officially willed to the Catholic church although it had custodial care of the Shroud for centuries.
1532: The burial linen was severely damaged by fire in Chambery, France. Thought to be arson the very security measures in place to protect it from theft thwarted the Shroud’s rescue until it was too late to prevent severe damage. Theories about the fire somehow altering the carbon date of the cloth have proven to be erroneous. More on that later.
1534: The Shroud was repaired by the Poor Claire Nuns who were skilled in making textile repairs. The holes from the fire were patched and the entire cloth was attached to a backing cloth for support. This repair now looms large as the carbon dating tests of 1988 are called into question as having dated a medieval reweave rather than the original cloth of the Shroud. This now is the most credible explanation as to what the labs dated and why they were wrong.
1578: The cloth was moved to Turin, Italy for safe keeping and remains there until this day. It is kept in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and is only brought out for public display on rare occasions. The next public exhibition will be held in 2015.
Pre-1300's History
The history of the Shroud prior to 1353 is not fully documented, but a significant historical trail allows for the following reconstruction of the cloth’s early history.
70AD: Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman Empire. The “Legend of King Abgar” suggests the Shroud was taken to Edessa (now Urfa, Turkey) sometime prior to this date. The King was miraculously healed of leprosy after gazing upon a mysterious image and converted to Christianity. The first church outside the Holy Land was reported to have been built in Edessa in the early second century. Later that century persecutions would sweep the Roman Empire. The mysterious cloth would be hidden away inside the fortified wall surrounding the city and forgotten for 300 years.
525: A severe flood destroyed most of Edessa. During the rebuilding of the walls, a metal box containing the mysterious cloth was rediscovered. By this time the Emporer Constantine had declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Holy Roman Empire (330AD). It was safe to reveal the image without fear of the persecutions. It became known throughout the Byzantine world as “The Image of Edessa” and later was called the “Mandylion”. It was described as “The true likeness of Christ, not made by human hands.”
944: The Byzantine Imperial Army invaded Edessa for the express reason of retrieving the cloth from the city which had fallen to Islam. In exchange for gold and 200 prisoners of war, the cloth was delivered to the army without a fight. It was taken to Constantinople (now Istanbul) and presented to the Emperor. August 16th of 944, with great ceremony, the cloth was draped over the Emperor’s throne and crowned with his crown. The sermon that night was delivered by Gregory the Arch Deacon of the Hagia Sophia, the great cathedral. In that sermon he points to both the face and side wound of the image declaring it to be that of Christ.
1204: Constantinople was invaded by the Fourth Crusade. After laying siege to the city for two years, they finally breached the walls and ended up burning down nearly half the city. In the carnage nearly everything of value was stolen. All the silver and gold were taken by the Venetians who had funded the campaign but the French desired the “relics of the saints” and, according to a letter to the pope written in 1205, “Most holy of all, the cloth in which our Lord was wrapped after his death and before the resurrection”. The Mandylion as it was then known had disappeared and most likely in the hands of the French.
1204 to 1353: One of several gaps in the history of the Shroud, evidence suggests it was secretly kept by the Knights Templars for safe keeping. The Templars offered protection for items of great value. They had castles all over France and Europe and specialized in offering safe passage to pilgrims making their way to he Holy Land. They would a small army of “warrior monks” to accompany the pilgrims on their trek by land or sea. Such protection came at a price and the Templars became wealthy with land, castles and gold. They had the means to keep the safe the booty stolen from Constantinople.
1307: It was in this year that the King of France conspired with the Pope to bring down the Templars. They had become too rich and too powerful. The King had borrowed heavily from them to finance his war with England. It was decided that the Pope would issue a decree to have all Templars arrested and their property confiscated. It was Friday the 13th, 1307 when over 15,000 Templars were arrested in France on the same day and thrown into prisons. As part of the French Inquisition, the Catholic Church’s crusade against heresy, they were all made to confess under torture to various heresies. One of those heresies was that they “worshiped” a mysterious image.
Two leaders of the Templars, Geoffrey DeCharney and Jacques DeMolay were burned at the stake for their “heresy”.
1353: The Shroud is revealed in public for the first time at a small collegiate church in Lirey, France. Who owns it? None other than Geoffrey DeCharney. A coincidence? Not likely. Although how the Shroud came into his hands is not completely known, he was obviously a descendant to the Geoffrey DeCharney who was burned at the stake less than 50 years prior.
Summary
It is from this point that the history of the Shroud is without dispute. Did the Templars have it? We can only speculate. Was it the same cloth as the Mandylion that disappeared in 1204? It sure sounds like it from descriptions. Was it the same cloth that was revealed in 525 and heralded as the “True Likeness of Christ”? Was it the same image that was delivered to King Abgar in the First Century which brought about his healing of leprosy?
We cannot answer these questions with absolute certainty, but only with probability. The pollen trail confirms this same historical trail. The evidence from Iconography also confirms it. Other evidence indicates its origin in Israel, its manufacture in the Middle East, and its correlation with other Jewish burial shrouds and burial practices.
The enemies of the Church will always want to cast doubt and skepticism over the miracles that God performs in His Church. That is something that we must always take into account. Miracles like those of Lourdes have always been questioned, doubted and even ridiculed. Some even doubt the Resurrection itself; and among them, sadly, we even find modern Catholic clergy!
2. SCIENTIFIC CHRONOLOGY
1898: The Shroud was photographed for the first time by Secondo Pia. These first pictures led to the discovery that the image on the cloth is actually a negative. In other words, the image becomes positive only when the light values are reversed in a photographic negative. This discovery startled the scientific community and stimulated worldwide interest.
1931: Guisseppe Enrie photographed the Shroud again with more advanced film technology confirming that the Shroud is indeed a negative image. Copies of Enrie’s photos were circulated throughout the world prompting more scientific inquiry and interest.
1950: Dr. Pierre Barbet, a prominent French Surgeon, published his landmark book, A Doctor at Calvary documenting 15 years of medical research on the Shroud image. He described the physiology and pathology of the man on the Shroud as “anatomically perfect”.
1973: Max Frei, a noted Swiss criminologist, was given permission to take dust samples from the Shroud which contained pollen. He discovered 22 pollen species from plants that are unique to areas around Constantinople and Edessa, and 7 pollen species from plants common mostly to the Middle East. The pollen trail confirmed the historical trail.
1975: Air Force scientists John Jackson and Eric Jumper, using a sophisticated image enhancement analyzer (VP-8) designed for the space program, discovered the Shroud image contained encoded 3-D data not found in ordinary reflected light photographs. This discovery indicated that the cloth must have wrapped a real human figure at the time the image was formed.
1978: The Shroud was on public exhibit for the first time since 1933 and was displayed for six weeks. Over 3 million people passed through the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist to view it behind bullet proof glass. At the close of the exhibition, 40 scientists comprising the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP), mostly from the United States, analyzed the Shroud for five continuous days (122 hours) working in shifts around the clock.
1980: In June, National Geographic magazine published a landmark article on the Shroud further propelling the cloth into a science superstar calling it “One of the most perplexing enigmas of modern times”.
1980: This same year, microscopist Walter McCrone who was not part of the Shroud Project was given several fibers to analyze. After finding iron oxide particles and a single particle of vermillion paint, he broke ranks with the Shroud scientists who had agreed to make all findings public the following year. McCrone proposed that the Shroud was a painting of red ochre paint created from iron oxide particles suspended in a thin binder solution. However McCrone’s findings in no way agreed with any of the highly sophisticated tests conducted by two dozen other scientists. McCrone jumped the gun for the sake of getting his own publicity. His claims have all been dismissed.
1981: After three years analyzing the data The Shroud of Turn Research Project (STURP) made their findings public at an international conference in New London, CT. All the scientists agreed upon the following statement: “We can conclude for now that the Shroud image is that of a real human form of a scourged, crucified man. It is not the product of an artist. The blood stains are composed of hemoglobin and give a positive test for serum albumin.”
1988: The Shroud was carbon dated by three laboratories in Oxford, Zurich and Arizona. They indcated a date range from between 1260 to 1390 making the cloth only about 700 years old. This earth shattering news seemed to contradict the conclusions of STURP which gave support to the Shroud’s possible authenticity. This new data posed a great dilemma for proponents of the Shroud and further complicates an explanation for the Shroud’s existence.
The Shroud cannot be explained in a medieval context because it demonstrates medical knowledge and artistic expertise unknown until centuries later. If it was not made by an artist then what is it? Was it a custom crucifixion performed to mimic that of Jesus? Knowledge of Roman crucifixion practices was totally unknown in the Middle Ages. There are dozens of reasons why a medieval date doesn’t fit the evidence.
1997: Noted Israeli Botanist and a professor at Hebrew University, Avinoam Danin confirmed Dr. Alan Whanger’s discovery of flower images on the Shroud. He also verified that several pollen were from plants that grow only around Jerusalem.
2000: Shroud researchers Joseph Marino and Sue Benford present a landmark paper at an international conference in Ovieto, Italy. Their paper would present initial evidence that the area of the Shroud cut for carbon dating in 1988 was actually a medieval reweave.
2002: The Shroud was secretly restored amidst much controversy. All the burns and patches were removed. The shroud was attached to a new backing cloth as well. Most researchers feel the restoration was unnecessary and that much important data will be lost to future researchers. .
2004: Redeeming what may have been lost during the restoration, textile expert Mechthild Flury-Lemberg revealed that the seam on the Shroud that runs the entire length known as the side strip is typical of burial Shrouds found in Masada. This further supports the Shroud’s ancient origin.
2004: Another result of the restoration was the discovery of the Shroud’s double face image. Italian scientists, Giulio Fanti and Roberto Maggiolio of Padova University were able to analyze scans of the backside of the Shroud after it was removed from the backing cloth. This had never been done before. The previous backing cloth had been attached since 1534 as part of the restoration following the fire of 1532. Examining the scans revealed faint superficial images of the face and hands. The image occurs only on the top surface of the fibers, similar to the front side of the Shroud but there is no coloring of the threads in between. This enhances the mystery of image formation and makes it that much more difficult to ascribe the Shroud to the work of an artist.
2004: Thermal Chemist, Dr. Raymond Rogers, retired Fellow with the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory proves using samples from the area cut for carbon 14 dating and samples from the main body of the Shroud that the sample cut in 1988 for C-14 dating was in fact a medieval reweave confirming Marino and Benford’s hypothesis presented in 2000.
Rogers also determined the evidence of a madder root dye used to blend in the color of newer threads with the more yellowed threads of the original Shroud. He also found cotton in the C-14 sample but not from the main body of the Shroud indicating both cotton and flax were used in the repair.
Lastly and most importantly, he found that 37% of the vanillin remained intact in the lignon from the C-14 fibers whereas the vanillin content from the main body of the Shroud had decayed to 0%, similar to the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Not only does this new evidence show that the carbon dating tests were severely flawed by dating an erroneous sample, but that the evidence also shows the main body of the Shroud is much older as indicated by the lack of vanillin.
This critical research is precisely the kind of micro-chemical analysis the carbon dating labs were supposed to do in 1988, prior to taking the sample according to the original protocol, but failed to follow.
The carbon dating tests of 1988 have been thoroughly and completely invalidated by good science rather than the shoddy and arrogant effort demonstrated by the carbon labs in 1988. The cloud has been lifted.
Article 2
IS THE SHROUD OF TURIN REAL OR A FAKE?
IS THE SHROUD OF TURIN REAL OR A FAKE?
Is the Shroud of Turin the Burial Shroud of Christ?
Evidence like the pollen point to a Middle East origin of the cloth. Other evidence like the Roman coins over the eyes suggest a first century origin. So let's say for argument sake that the Shroud is an authentic 1st century burial shroud. Many people ask how it could ever be determined to be the Shroud of Christ? Why could it not also be the shroud of someone else who was crucified? It's a fair question.
Aside from the obvious parallels with what happened to Jesus which are all featured on the Shroud, such as the Crown of Thorns, severe scourging, wound in the side, wrists and feet pierced, and legs that were not broken. The very fact that a burial shroud of someone executed by crucifixion exists at all is a complete anomaly.
Disowning the Crucified
Those who were crucified in Roman times were done so because they were criminals. Crucifixion was a public way of creating fear and keeping order in an occupied country. Similar to public hangings in more recent centuries. It was considered a shame and disgrace that any one in the family be found guilty of a crime worthy of execution. They were usually renounced from family affiliation … excommunicated from all family contact. This is a particular Middle East custom. You can almost hear the Jewish father saying,"You're not my son!" And then forbidding all contact. See Fiddler on the Roof and you'll understand this cultural aspect. When the last of the three daughters decided to marry a gentile. Tevia, her father, ousted her from the family forever. Such was the case with those sentenced for a crime worthy of death.
So what happened? Those crucified were almost always given a common burial. They were simply thrown together into a burial trench and covered with dirt. The dirt was often mixed with lime to hasten decay so that the "bones" might be given a proper burial at a later time. Common graves like this are found today in war-torn Bosnia and in Nazi Germany following the Holocaust. You've probably seen the gruesome pictures.
Criminal's Death, but Rich Man's Burial
Jesus was executed as a criminal yet he was given a rich man's burial! The Gospel of Mark recounts how Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy merchant, purchased a fine linen cloth for Jesus' burial (Mark 15:46). And he also offered his own tomb in which Jesus would be laid to rest. This is a fulfillment of Isaias' prophecy of the coming Jewish Messiah as written in chapter 53:9 — "And they made his grave with the wicked (crucifixion) and his tomb with the rich (Joseph's tomb)."
The very fact that an expensive shroud was used in the burial of someone executed by crucifixion, combined with all the other unique aspects as mentioned above, leaves little doubt as to the identity of the man whose image appears on the Shroud. If it's not an artwork done by some unknown medieval genius, then there really is no other reasonable choice.
Image Formation Theory
Much of the science involved in Shroud research is in the area of image formation theory. If Shroud were an obvious work of art, the subject would be irrelevant and even ludicrous. But it is precisely because the cause of the image still remains a mystery after years of diligent research that leads some to investigate other non-artistic causes of the image.
Let’s summarize what we know about the image
Are there paint particles on the Shroud? Yes. But they do not make up the image. They are randomly distributed over the whole cloth. How did they get there? Because over the course of hundreds of years, painted copies of the shroud or the face of Christ have been touched to the cloth thereby giving it greater value. Without question, particles from these paintings dislodged and fell onto the Shroud. Does that mean the Shroud is a painting? Obviously not. Unfortunately, a few people still try to make headlines by rehashing old theories.
The Blood of the Shroud
What about the blood? It’s real human blood. AB Positive and evidence for human DNA. The blood tests positive for the following components: Hemoglobin Heme Porphyrins Serum albumin Bile Bilirubin
The blood stains show the separation of blood and serum and also show where blood would have spurted from an artery or dribbled from a vein depending on the wound. The blood flows show the influence of gravity as if the body was alive and upright yet also shows post-mortem blood flows from when the body was lying down on the back. Evidence of rigor mortis is also visible. As gruesome as all this seems, it all represents medical knowledge totally unknown in the Middle Ages.
Rash Judgments Condemn the Shroud
To declare in a brash cavalier manner that the Shroud is the work of some medieval artist is to totally ignore nearly everything we know about the cloth. That is simply not a scientifically satisfactory answer. This is why many question the validity of the C-14 (carbon-14) dating tests and is also why we continue to search for new clues as to how this incredible image may have been formed.
The image shows up because something caused the rapid dehydration and oxidation of the linen fibers immediately surrounding a body. What caused it? Direct contact with a corpse only explains the blood images. Another process is at work to account for the image. Heat? Light? Radiation? A combination of the three? Dr. Gus Accetta’s experiments on emitted radiation may be an important clue.
STURP (Shroud of Turin Research Project) findings, published in 1981, contain the following results:
► "No pigments, paints, dyes, or stains have been found on the fibrils. X-ray fluorescence and microchemistry preclude the possibility of paint being used as a method for creating the image."
► "It is clear that there has been a direct contact of the Shroud with the body, which explains certain features such as the scourge marks, as well as the blood. However, while this type of contact might explain some features of the torso, it is totally incapable of explaining the image...there are no chemical or physical methods known which can account for the totality of the image..."
► "We can conclude for now that the Shroud image is that of a real human form of a scourged, crucified man. It is not the product of an artist. The blood stains are composed of hemoglobin and give a positive test for serum albumin."
TEXTILE ANALYSIS
► No similar material found from Medieval times.
► Threads hand woven - pre 12th Century
► Unique manufacture indicates a Middle East origin
► The cloth measures exactly 2 x 8 Syrian cubits, a Middle East measurement.
PARTICLE ANALYSIS:
► Travertine Aragonite limestone particles indigenous to caves surrounding Jerusalem
► Outside pollen are mineral coated whereas inside pollen are uncoated
► Suggests placement in damp tomb or cave
3-D ENCODING
► The image density corresponds to a mathematical gradient related to distance between body and cloth. “Confirmation that the Shroud covered a body shape at the time of image formation.” (Dr. John Jackson ).
THE BLOOD
► “The blood is, in fact, real blood.” Confirmed by presence of heme, porphyrins,bile pigments and serum albumin. Confirmed also by spectrographic analysis. (Dr. John Heller).
► “The blood marks seen on the shroud are consistent with a contact transfer to the cloth of blood clot exudates that would have resulted from major wounds inflicted on a man who died in the position of crucifixion.” (Dr. Al Alder & Dr. Gil Lavoie)
► “The stains have a central hollowness which probably results from the physical separation of red blood cells from serum.” (Dr. Robert Bucklin)
► “The remarkably fine detailing of the scourge marks revealed by ultraviolet fluorescence would be impossible to obtain by any other means than direct contact between a body and the linen.” (Dr. Sam Pellicori)
Evidence like the pollen point to a Middle East origin of the cloth. Other evidence like the Roman coins over the eyes suggest a first century origin. So let's say for argument sake that the Shroud is an authentic 1st century burial shroud. Many people ask how it could ever be determined to be the Shroud of Christ? Why could it not also be the shroud of someone else who was crucified? It's a fair question.
Aside from the obvious parallels with what happened to Jesus which are all featured on the Shroud, such as the Crown of Thorns, severe scourging, wound in the side, wrists and feet pierced, and legs that were not broken. The very fact that a burial shroud of someone executed by crucifixion exists at all is a complete anomaly.
Disowning the Crucified
Those who were crucified in Roman times were done so because they were criminals. Crucifixion was a public way of creating fear and keeping order in an occupied country. Similar to public hangings in more recent centuries. It was considered a shame and disgrace that any one in the family be found guilty of a crime worthy of execution. They were usually renounced from family affiliation … excommunicated from all family contact. This is a particular Middle East custom. You can almost hear the Jewish father saying,"You're not my son!" And then forbidding all contact. See Fiddler on the Roof and you'll understand this cultural aspect. When the last of the three daughters decided to marry a gentile. Tevia, her father, ousted her from the family forever. Such was the case with those sentenced for a crime worthy of death.
So what happened? Those crucified were almost always given a common burial. They were simply thrown together into a burial trench and covered with dirt. The dirt was often mixed with lime to hasten decay so that the "bones" might be given a proper burial at a later time. Common graves like this are found today in war-torn Bosnia and in Nazi Germany following the Holocaust. You've probably seen the gruesome pictures.
Criminal's Death, but Rich Man's Burial
Jesus was executed as a criminal yet he was given a rich man's burial! The Gospel of Mark recounts how Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy merchant, purchased a fine linen cloth for Jesus' burial (Mark 15:46). And he also offered his own tomb in which Jesus would be laid to rest. This is a fulfillment of Isaias' prophecy of the coming Jewish Messiah as written in chapter 53:9 — "And they made his grave with the wicked (crucifixion) and his tomb with the rich (Joseph's tomb)."
The very fact that an expensive shroud was used in the burial of someone executed by crucifixion, combined with all the other unique aspects as mentioned above, leaves little doubt as to the identity of the man whose image appears on the Shroud. If it's not an artwork done by some unknown medieval genius, then there really is no other reasonable choice.
Image Formation Theory
Much of the science involved in Shroud research is in the area of image formation theory. If Shroud were an obvious work of art, the subject would be irrelevant and even ludicrous. But it is precisely because the cause of the image still remains a mystery after years of diligent research that leads some to investigate other non-artistic causes of the image.
Let’s summarize what we know about the image
- There is no significant trace of paint, pigment, dye, ink or stain.
- The image is purely superficial penetrating only the top two microfibrils.
- No directionality to the image as with brush strokes.
- No outline to the image as would be necessary for it to be a work of art.
- No cementing of fibers as would occur with the application of any liquid substance.
- Uniform intensity on both front and back images—something that is artistically impossible.
- No variations in density—another artistic impossibility.
- No particles between the threads.
- Not the result of any kind of powder rubbing.
- No capillary action.
- No liquids used to create image except for the blood images.
- No paint binder. Every art medium requires a solution to suspend the pigments.
Are there paint particles on the Shroud? Yes. But they do not make up the image. They are randomly distributed over the whole cloth. How did they get there? Because over the course of hundreds of years, painted copies of the shroud or the face of Christ have been touched to the cloth thereby giving it greater value. Without question, particles from these paintings dislodged and fell onto the Shroud. Does that mean the Shroud is a painting? Obviously not. Unfortunately, a few people still try to make headlines by rehashing old theories.
The Blood of the Shroud
What about the blood? It’s real human blood. AB Positive and evidence for human DNA. The blood tests positive for the following components: Hemoglobin Heme Porphyrins Serum albumin Bile Bilirubin
The blood stains show the separation of blood and serum and also show where blood would have spurted from an artery or dribbled from a vein depending on the wound. The blood flows show the influence of gravity as if the body was alive and upright yet also shows post-mortem blood flows from when the body was lying down on the back. Evidence of rigor mortis is also visible. As gruesome as all this seems, it all represents medical knowledge totally unknown in the Middle Ages.
Rash Judgments Condemn the Shroud
To declare in a brash cavalier manner that the Shroud is the work of some medieval artist is to totally ignore nearly everything we know about the cloth. That is simply not a scientifically satisfactory answer. This is why many question the validity of the C-14 (carbon-14) dating tests and is also why we continue to search for new clues as to how this incredible image may have been formed.
The image shows up because something caused the rapid dehydration and oxidation of the linen fibers immediately surrounding a body. What caused it? Direct contact with a corpse only explains the blood images. Another process is at work to account for the image. Heat? Light? Radiation? A combination of the three? Dr. Gus Accetta’s experiments on emitted radiation may be an important clue.
STURP (Shroud of Turin Research Project) findings, published in 1981, contain the following results:
► "No pigments, paints, dyes, or stains have been found on the fibrils. X-ray fluorescence and microchemistry preclude the possibility of paint being used as a method for creating the image."
► "It is clear that there has been a direct contact of the Shroud with the body, which explains certain features such as the scourge marks, as well as the blood. However, while this type of contact might explain some features of the torso, it is totally incapable of explaining the image...there are no chemical or physical methods known which can account for the totality of the image..."
► "We can conclude for now that the Shroud image is that of a real human form of a scourged, crucified man. It is not the product of an artist. The blood stains are composed of hemoglobin and give a positive test for serum albumin."
TEXTILE ANALYSIS
► No similar material found from Medieval times.
► Threads hand woven - pre 12th Century
► Unique manufacture indicates a Middle East origin
► The cloth measures exactly 2 x 8 Syrian cubits, a Middle East measurement.
PARTICLE ANALYSIS:
► Travertine Aragonite limestone particles indigenous to caves surrounding Jerusalem
► Outside pollen are mineral coated whereas inside pollen are uncoated
► Suggests placement in damp tomb or cave
3-D ENCODING
► The image density corresponds to a mathematical gradient related to distance between body and cloth. “Confirmation that the Shroud covered a body shape at the time of image formation.” (Dr. John Jackson ).
THE BLOOD
► “The blood is, in fact, real blood.” Confirmed by presence of heme, porphyrins,bile pigments and serum albumin. Confirmed also by spectrographic analysis. (Dr. John Heller).
► “The blood marks seen on the shroud are consistent with a contact transfer to the cloth of blood clot exudates that would have resulted from major wounds inflicted on a man who died in the position of crucifixion.” (Dr. Al Alder & Dr. Gil Lavoie)
► “The stains have a central hollowness which probably results from the physical separation of red blood cells from serum.” (Dr. Robert Bucklin)
► “The remarkably fine detailing of the scourge marks revealed by ultraviolet fluorescence would be impossible to obtain by any other means than direct contact between a body and the linen.” (Dr. Sam Pellicori)
Article 3
THE MIRACLE OF THE SHROUD! SCOFFERS? PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS!
THE MIRACLE OF THE SHROUD! SCOFFERS? PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS!
The Shroud of Turin ― the alleged burial cloth of Jesus, which contains the faint image of a crucified man ― was the subject of intense scientific examination in the mid 1980s. Based on a Carbon-14 dating of the fibers, scientists dated the shroud to A.D. 1260-1390. For most, this was all the proof they needed to conclude that the shroud was a medieval forgery.
Other evidence, however, suggests that it is genuine. One theory put forward to explain the medieval date determined by Carbon-14 dating is that the fibers used for the test were either contaminated (from either the lab, or from the fire in 1532 that nearly destroyed the Shroud), or were not part of the original Shroud (the Shroud was patched by weaving new threads into the old threads).
Recently, a group of scientists in Italy conducted tests on the fibers using three different dating methods and concluded that the Shroud dates to 33 BC, ±250 years. These dating methods utilized infra-red light, Raman spectroscopy (“the measurement of radiation intensity through wavelengths”), and a mechanical process utilizing electricity.
I cannot speak to the accuracy of these dating methods, but given the fact that three different dating methods all arrived at dates more than a Millennium earlier than the Carbon-14 dates is quite interesting. It gives evidential backing to those who questioned the accuracy of the Carbon-14 tests. At the very least, the authenticity of the Shroud can no longer be dismissed out-of-hand based solely on the Carbon-14 tests. The new data fits perfectly with a first century dating of the Shroud. It will be interesting to see how other scholars respond to this new data.
Italian physicist Paolo Di Lazzaro concedes, in an April 2015 article for National Geographic, that every scientific attempt to replicate it in a lab has failed. “Its precise hue is highly unusual, and the color’s penetration into the fabric is extremely thin, less than 0.7 micrometers (0.000028 inches), one-thirtieth the diameter of an individual fiber in a single 200-fiber linen thread.”
Di Lazzaro and his colleagues at Italy’s National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) experimented for five years, using modern excimer lasers to train short bursts of ultraviolet light on raw linen, in an effort to simulate the image’s coloration.
They came tantalizingly close to replicating the image’s distinctive color on a few square centimeters of fabric. However, they were unable to match all the physical and chemical characteristics of the shroud image, and reproducing a whole human figure was far beyond them. De Lazzaro explained that the ultraviolet light necessary to reproduce the image of the crucified man “exceeds the maximum power released by all ultraviolet light sources available today.” The time for such a burst would be shorter than one forty-billionth of a second, and the intensity of the ultra violet light would have to be around several billion watts.
The scientists shrug and say the only explanation lies beyond the realm of twenty-first century technoscience. In other words, the extraordinary burst of ultra violet light is not only beyond the ability and technology of a medieval forger: It is beyond the ability and technology of the best twenty-first century scientists.
Consequently, I wonder why atheists who insist on “evidence for the existence of God” don’t take time to study the Shroud of Turin. If God does not exist, then the natural world has to be a closed system. If, however, just one miracle could be proven to have happened, then nature is not a closed system. If that miracle was intelligible then there has to be an intelligent force outside the system that is greater than the system. The resurrection of Jesus Christ would be that one necessary miracle. It is, after all, the miracle of miracles.
It is therefore ironic that it is only in this modern technoscientific age that the mysterious qualities of the Shroud of Turin have been unlocked. Ever since the photographer Secondo Pia discovered the shroud’s negative image in 1898 the forensic, archeological, documentary, cultural, chemical, physiological and physical evidence has accumulated. If there were ever any hard evidence for a miracle, this is it.
Therefore those who ask for evidence for the existence of God should take the time to examine the Shroud of Turin.
Here are some of the basic points shroud doubters have to answer:
● The image of the man on the cloth. The image is not a stain. It is not painted on the shroud. It is not burned on in a conventional manner. Instead it is an image seared on to the cloth with some technology that has yet to be explained. Not only can they not reproduce the image using medieval technologies, they can’t reproduce it with modern technology.
● The 3-D capabilities of the image. The image of the man on the shroud can be read by 3-D imaging technology. Paintings fail this test.
● The Positive-Negative Image. The image is a photographic negative. That means when a traditional photograph is taken what should be the negative appears as a positive image. If it is a medieval painting how did they do that and why?
● The anatomical accuracy. Not only is it an accurate image of a dead man but the image is distorted as it should be if it was lying over a real body and the body vanished from within it.
● The historical accuracy to crucifixion. The wounds are all consistent not only with Roman crucifixion, but the details of Jesus’ particular crucifixion like the crown of thorns, no broken bones the scourging and the wound in the side.
● Geographical accuracy. Pollen from the shroud is not only from the Jerusalem area, but from Turkey and the other places the shroud is supposed to have resided, dust from the area on the shroud by the knees and feet is from the area of Jerusalem
● The accuracy to Jewish burial customs. The shroud shows details perfectly consistent with first century Jewish burial customs. There are even microscopic traces of the flower that would have been used in the burial flowers that grew locally and were known to be used for burial.
● The blood and the image. The blood was on the shroud first. The image happened later. If it was painted (there is not evidence of paint anywhere) the two would be part of the same faked image
● The type of cloth. The cloth is consistent with fabrics from first century Israel, but not with medieval Europe. A forger would have had to not only forge the image in some as yet undiscovered way, but would have had to have detailed knowledge of linen weaves of the first century and then not only reproduce it, but age it convincingly.
● The age of the cloth. The 1987 carbon-14 tests are now believed to have been taken from an area of the cloth that was not simply patched in the middle ages but patched with a difficult to detect interweaving and the carbon-14 tests were therefore compromised. The latest technology and testing suggests a date for the shroud between 200 BC and AD 200. Go here for news of Professor Fanti’s test in 2013.
The only piece of evidence from the shroud which doesn’t match up is the 1987 carbon-14 testing. When considering evidence and you have nine items which fit with the known facts and fit with each other, but you have one piece of evidence which does not fit, it is common sense to challenge that one piece of evidence and reject it or try again to see why it doesn’t fit. This is what Fanti’s research has done and proven that the 1987 tests were faulty.
Other evidence, however, suggests that it is genuine. One theory put forward to explain the medieval date determined by Carbon-14 dating is that the fibers used for the test were either contaminated (from either the lab, or from the fire in 1532 that nearly destroyed the Shroud), or were not part of the original Shroud (the Shroud was patched by weaving new threads into the old threads).
Recently, a group of scientists in Italy conducted tests on the fibers using three different dating methods and concluded that the Shroud dates to 33 BC, ±250 years. These dating methods utilized infra-red light, Raman spectroscopy (“the measurement of radiation intensity through wavelengths”), and a mechanical process utilizing electricity.
I cannot speak to the accuracy of these dating methods, but given the fact that three different dating methods all arrived at dates more than a Millennium earlier than the Carbon-14 dates is quite interesting. It gives evidential backing to those who questioned the accuracy of the Carbon-14 tests. At the very least, the authenticity of the Shroud can no longer be dismissed out-of-hand based solely on the Carbon-14 tests. The new data fits perfectly with a first century dating of the Shroud. It will be interesting to see how other scholars respond to this new data.
Italian physicist Paolo Di Lazzaro concedes, in an April 2015 article for National Geographic, that every scientific attempt to replicate it in a lab has failed. “Its precise hue is highly unusual, and the color’s penetration into the fabric is extremely thin, less than 0.7 micrometers (0.000028 inches), one-thirtieth the diameter of an individual fiber in a single 200-fiber linen thread.”
Di Lazzaro and his colleagues at Italy’s National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) experimented for five years, using modern excimer lasers to train short bursts of ultraviolet light on raw linen, in an effort to simulate the image’s coloration.
They came tantalizingly close to replicating the image’s distinctive color on a few square centimeters of fabric. However, they were unable to match all the physical and chemical characteristics of the shroud image, and reproducing a whole human figure was far beyond them. De Lazzaro explained that the ultraviolet light necessary to reproduce the image of the crucified man “exceeds the maximum power released by all ultraviolet light sources available today.” The time for such a burst would be shorter than one forty-billionth of a second, and the intensity of the ultra violet light would have to be around several billion watts.
The scientists shrug and say the only explanation lies beyond the realm of twenty-first century technoscience. In other words, the extraordinary burst of ultra violet light is not only beyond the ability and technology of a medieval forger: It is beyond the ability and technology of the best twenty-first century scientists.
Consequently, I wonder why atheists who insist on “evidence for the existence of God” don’t take time to study the Shroud of Turin. If God does not exist, then the natural world has to be a closed system. If, however, just one miracle could be proven to have happened, then nature is not a closed system. If that miracle was intelligible then there has to be an intelligent force outside the system that is greater than the system. The resurrection of Jesus Christ would be that one necessary miracle. It is, after all, the miracle of miracles.
It is therefore ironic that it is only in this modern technoscientific age that the mysterious qualities of the Shroud of Turin have been unlocked. Ever since the photographer Secondo Pia discovered the shroud’s negative image in 1898 the forensic, archeological, documentary, cultural, chemical, physiological and physical evidence has accumulated. If there were ever any hard evidence for a miracle, this is it.
Therefore those who ask for evidence for the existence of God should take the time to examine the Shroud of Turin.
Here are some of the basic points shroud doubters have to answer:
● The image of the man on the cloth. The image is not a stain. It is not painted on the shroud. It is not burned on in a conventional manner. Instead it is an image seared on to the cloth with some technology that has yet to be explained. Not only can they not reproduce the image using medieval technologies, they can’t reproduce it with modern technology.
● The 3-D capabilities of the image. The image of the man on the shroud can be read by 3-D imaging technology. Paintings fail this test.
● The Positive-Negative Image. The image is a photographic negative. That means when a traditional photograph is taken what should be the negative appears as a positive image. If it is a medieval painting how did they do that and why?
● The anatomical accuracy. Not only is it an accurate image of a dead man but the image is distorted as it should be if it was lying over a real body and the body vanished from within it.
● The historical accuracy to crucifixion. The wounds are all consistent not only with Roman crucifixion, but the details of Jesus’ particular crucifixion like the crown of thorns, no broken bones the scourging and the wound in the side.
● Geographical accuracy. Pollen from the shroud is not only from the Jerusalem area, but from Turkey and the other places the shroud is supposed to have resided, dust from the area on the shroud by the knees and feet is from the area of Jerusalem
● The accuracy to Jewish burial customs. The shroud shows details perfectly consistent with first century Jewish burial customs. There are even microscopic traces of the flower that would have been used in the burial flowers that grew locally and were known to be used for burial.
● The blood and the image. The blood was on the shroud first. The image happened later. If it was painted (there is not evidence of paint anywhere) the two would be part of the same faked image
● The type of cloth. The cloth is consistent with fabrics from first century Israel, but not with medieval Europe. A forger would have had to not only forge the image in some as yet undiscovered way, but would have had to have detailed knowledge of linen weaves of the first century and then not only reproduce it, but age it convincingly.
● The age of the cloth. The 1987 carbon-14 tests are now believed to have been taken from an area of the cloth that was not simply patched in the middle ages but patched with a difficult to detect interweaving and the carbon-14 tests were therefore compromised. The latest technology and testing suggests a date for the shroud between 200 BC and AD 200. Go here for news of Professor Fanti’s test in 2013.
The only piece of evidence from the shroud which doesn’t match up is the 1987 carbon-14 testing. When considering evidence and you have nine items which fit with the known facts and fit with each other, but you have one piece of evidence which does not fit, it is common sense to challenge that one piece of evidence and reject it or try again to see why it doesn’t fit. This is what Fanti’s research has done and proven that the 1987 tests were faulty.
Article 4
OTHER SCIENTIFIC TESTS ON THE SHROUD
OTHER SCIENTIFIC TESTS ON THE SHROUD
New scientific tests conducted on the famous Shroud of Turin have revealed that the flax used to make the linen was grown in the Middle East. The results of isotope tests provide new evidence that the shroud is the actual garment that was used to cover the body of Jesus Christ following his crucifixion – and is not a forgery that was created in medieval Europe. Fragments of cloth taken from the shroud show that its flax originated in the western Levant, a swathe of land occupied today by Israel, Lebanon and western parts of Jordan and Syria.
William Meacham, the American archaeologist who commissioned the study, said: “With a probable near Eastern origin, new doubts must be raised about interpreting the shroud as simply a fake relic made in medieval Europe, and new questions arise about what the image on the cloth signifies. The possibility that this cloth is actually the burial shroud of Jesus is strengthened by this new evidence. In my view, that remains the best explanation for the shroud.”
As a member of the board of directors of the Shroud of Turin Education and Research Association (STERA), Meacham obtained permission to test five of seven threads in the possession of the group. The threads originated from a sample known as the “Raes piece” that was removed from the Shroud in 1973 for textile research. Fourteen threads were provided by the Archdiocese of Turin to the physicist Ray Rogers, a member of the American scientific team that had conducted an onsite study of the shroud in 1978. Testing was undertaken at the Stable Isotopes Laboratory of the University of Hong Kong, which is able to test very small samples of even less than 1mg.
Meacham said the Eastern origin of the shroud is important because “it reinforces other features that point in that direction. Most notable was the pollen. Even though many identifications have since been discounted, certain species taken together still indicate an Eastern Mediterranean presence. Similarly, the crown of thorns [on the shroud] in helmet style rather than Roman circlet is a feature characteristic of Asia Minor and the Levant. Another is the claim of coins on the eyes in the shroud image that matched a documented instance from a second century burial in Judea. This was an impressive confirmation of a hypothesis generated by computer 3D analysis in 1977, at a time when there was no known instance (outside of Israel) of such a practice in antiquity.”
The Shroud of Turin or Turin Shroud is a length of linen cloth bearing the image of a man who appears to have suffered physical trauma in a manner consistent with crucifixion. There is no consensus yet on exactly how the image was created. The shroud has been held in Turin, Italy since 1578, arriving from Chambery, France, where it had been kept since the 1350s.
It made a dramatic entrance on the European intellectual stage in 1898 when the first photographs were published, showing a lifelike facial image in the black and white photographic negative. The shroud was studied in the mid-20th century by the French surgeon Pierre Barbet, who went on to write a book about the injuries of Christ’s passion called A Doctor at Calvary.
In 1978, a team of American scientists was granted a week-long onsite direct examination of the cloth and allowed to take sticky tape samples. In the end, they were unable to explain what had caused the image, leaving a mystery that persists today, but their final report asserted that it had come from a human body.
In 1988, a sample was taken, divided into pieces and dated by three prominent laboratories to 1260-1390, results which cast grave doubt on the shroud’s authenticity. Further studies were not permitted by the Archdiocese of Turin.
Studies conducted in 2012 and 2015 on samples taken earlier found, however, that the linen sheet probably does date from the time of Jesus.
In 2017, a team from the Hospital University of Padua, Italy, led by Matteo Bevilacqua, conducted a forensic study of the imprint, and found it was of a person who suffered and died in exactly the same manner that Christ did as recorded in the Gospels. Writing in the Open Journal of Trauma, the team speculated that the cause of death was a heart attack complicated by heart rupture through hemoperricardium in a subject crucified with the nailing of hands and feet. They also saw signs of severe emotional stress and depression; severe hypovolemic-traumatic shock, acute respiratory failure at an early stage by crucifixion and causalgia [chronic pain in a limb]; blunt trauma following a fall, with paralysis of the entire right brachial plexus [shoulder nerves]; right shoulder dislocation, pulmonary contusion with hemothorax [lung injury], cardiac contusion [heart injury], probable left ulnar proximal paralysis and right foot dislocation from stretching during crucifixion.
The study inspired a 2022 paper by the Rev. Professor Patrick Pullicino, a priest in Southwark and formerly an NHS consultant neurologist, who proposed that the shoulder injury caused a huge internal bleed which resulted in the collapse of his circulatory system. Up to three pints of blood spilled out from the cavity where the blood accumulated, he wrote in the Catholic Medical Quarterly, when the side of Jesus was speared by a Roman lance, as recorded in the Gospel of St. John.
William Meacham, the American archaeologist who commissioned the study, said: “With a probable near Eastern origin, new doubts must be raised about interpreting the shroud as simply a fake relic made in medieval Europe, and new questions arise about what the image on the cloth signifies. The possibility that this cloth is actually the burial shroud of Jesus is strengthened by this new evidence. In my view, that remains the best explanation for the shroud.”
As a member of the board of directors of the Shroud of Turin Education and Research Association (STERA), Meacham obtained permission to test five of seven threads in the possession of the group. The threads originated from a sample known as the “Raes piece” that was removed from the Shroud in 1973 for textile research. Fourteen threads were provided by the Archdiocese of Turin to the physicist Ray Rogers, a member of the American scientific team that had conducted an onsite study of the shroud in 1978. Testing was undertaken at the Stable Isotopes Laboratory of the University of Hong Kong, which is able to test very small samples of even less than 1mg.
Meacham said the Eastern origin of the shroud is important because “it reinforces other features that point in that direction. Most notable was the pollen. Even though many identifications have since been discounted, certain species taken together still indicate an Eastern Mediterranean presence. Similarly, the crown of thorns [on the shroud] in helmet style rather than Roman circlet is a feature characteristic of Asia Minor and the Levant. Another is the claim of coins on the eyes in the shroud image that matched a documented instance from a second century burial in Judea. This was an impressive confirmation of a hypothesis generated by computer 3D analysis in 1977, at a time when there was no known instance (outside of Israel) of such a practice in antiquity.”
The Shroud of Turin or Turin Shroud is a length of linen cloth bearing the image of a man who appears to have suffered physical trauma in a manner consistent with crucifixion. There is no consensus yet on exactly how the image was created. The shroud has been held in Turin, Italy since 1578, arriving from Chambery, France, where it had been kept since the 1350s.
It made a dramatic entrance on the European intellectual stage in 1898 when the first photographs were published, showing a lifelike facial image in the black and white photographic negative. The shroud was studied in the mid-20th century by the French surgeon Pierre Barbet, who went on to write a book about the injuries of Christ’s passion called A Doctor at Calvary.
In 1978, a team of American scientists was granted a week-long onsite direct examination of the cloth and allowed to take sticky tape samples. In the end, they were unable to explain what had caused the image, leaving a mystery that persists today, but their final report asserted that it had come from a human body.
In 1988, a sample was taken, divided into pieces and dated by three prominent laboratories to 1260-1390, results which cast grave doubt on the shroud’s authenticity. Further studies were not permitted by the Archdiocese of Turin.
Studies conducted in 2012 and 2015 on samples taken earlier found, however, that the linen sheet probably does date from the time of Jesus.
In 2017, a team from the Hospital University of Padua, Italy, led by Matteo Bevilacqua, conducted a forensic study of the imprint, and found it was of a person who suffered and died in exactly the same manner that Christ did as recorded in the Gospels. Writing in the Open Journal of Trauma, the team speculated that the cause of death was a heart attack complicated by heart rupture through hemoperricardium in a subject crucified with the nailing of hands and feet. They also saw signs of severe emotional stress and depression; severe hypovolemic-traumatic shock, acute respiratory failure at an early stage by crucifixion and causalgia [chronic pain in a limb]; blunt trauma following a fall, with paralysis of the entire right brachial plexus [shoulder nerves]; right shoulder dislocation, pulmonary contusion with hemothorax [lung injury], cardiac contusion [heart injury], probable left ulnar proximal paralysis and right foot dislocation from stretching during crucifixion.
The study inspired a 2022 paper by the Rev. Professor Patrick Pullicino, a priest in Southwark and formerly an NHS consultant neurologist, who proposed that the shoulder injury caused a huge internal bleed which resulted in the collapse of his circulatory system. Up to three pints of blood spilled out from the cavity where the blood accumulated, he wrote in the Catholic Medical Quarterly, when the side of Jesus was speared by a Roman lance, as recorded in the Gospel of St. John.
Article 5
HEALING MIRACLES OF THE SHROUD
HEALING MIRACLES OF THE SHROUD
From its earliest years there have been many stories around the Shroud of Turin, there have been many claims of miracles and healings. Four credible witnesses testified that in 544 when Edessa was threatened with a siege by the Persian army, the image was rushed to the top of the city wall and displayed to the enemy; the army retreated and abandoned the attack.
The Catholic Church historian, Eusebius, and others stated that King Agabar V of Edessa was terminally ill and was instantly healed after just gazing on the Shroud.
Another story relates that when the Shroud was in procession to Constantinople in 944, a man who had an evil spirit was delivered when he touched it.
In more recent years, in 1954, in Gloucestershire, England, 11-year-old girl, Josie Wollam, was in hospital dying of a severe bone disease, osteomyelitis, in both her hip and leg, she also had lung abscesses. The doctor told her mother that there was no hope for Josie, and she was given the Last Rites of the Church. However, Josie had heard that a retired RAF (Royal Air Force) Group Captain Leonard Cheshire was holding lectures on the Shroud of Turin quite close by, and she told her mother she felt sure that she would be able to walk again if she could just see the Shroud.
Josie urged her mother to help her achieve this, so her mother wrote to Captain Cheshire and he had a photograph of the Shroud Face sent to Josie. In just holding the photograph of the Shroud Face, Josie had a partial remission of the bone disease, and two weeks later, Josie came home from the hospital. She was still unable to walk, but continued to say that if she could just see the Shroud and be near it, she believed that she would be completely cured.
Cheshire was so impressed by Josie’s strong faith that he took her to Portugal to see former King Umberto II, the Shroud’s owner, to ask permission for her to see the Shroud. King Umberto agreed, and Cheshire and Josie went on to Turin where the Shroud was kept. Once there, the rolled up Shroud was placed across the arms of her wheelchair. Josie gently and respectfully placed her hand onto the Shroud – and she was healed!
In 1978, at a public exhibition of the Shroud, Josie, then aged 35, visited the cathedral at Turin, once again accompanied by Leonard Cheshire ― but with no wheelchair. Little Josie, who in 1954 had been given the Last Rites in preparation for death, had been totally healed by simply touching the Shroud. Whilst in Turin she told Father Peter Rinaldi that after her healing she had lived a normal working life, was married and had a daughter of her own.
The Catholic Church historian, Eusebius, and others stated that King Agabar V of Edessa was terminally ill and was instantly healed after just gazing on the Shroud.
Another story relates that when the Shroud was in procession to Constantinople in 944, a man who had an evil spirit was delivered when he touched it.
In more recent years, in 1954, in Gloucestershire, England, 11-year-old girl, Josie Wollam, was in hospital dying of a severe bone disease, osteomyelitis, in both her hip and leg, she also had lung abscesses. The doctor told her mother that there was no hope for Josie, and she was given the Last Rites of the Church. However, Josie had heard that a retired RAF (Royal Air Force) Group Captain Leonard Cheshire was holding lectures on the Shroud of Turin quite close by, and she told her mother she felt sure that she would be able to walk again if she could just see the Shroud.
Josie urged her mother to help her achieve this, so her mother wrote to Captain Cheshire and he had a photograph of the Shroud Face sent to Josie. In just holding the photograph of the Shroud Face, Josie had a partial remission of the bone disease, and two weeks later, Josie came home from the hospital. She was still unable to walk, but continued to say that if she could just see the Shroud and be near it, she believed that she would be completely cured.
Cheshire was so impressed by Josie’s strong faith that he took her to Portugal to see former King Umberto II, the Shroud’s owner, to ask permission for her to see the Shroud. King Umberto agreed, and Cheshire and Josie went on to Turin where the Shroud was kept. Once there, the rolled up Shroud was placed across the arms of her wheelchair. Josie gently and respectfully placed her hand onto the Shroud – and she was healed!
In 1978, at a public exhibition of the Shroud, Josie, then aged 35, visited the cathedral at Turin, once again accompanied by Leonard Cheshire ― but with no wheelchair. Little Josie, who in 1954 had been given the Last Rites in preparation for death, had been totally healed by simply touching the Shroud. Whilst in Turin she told Father Peter Rinaldi that after her healing she had lived a normal working life, was married and had a daughter of her own.
Article 6
WHAT THE SHROUD TELLS US OF THE FINAL HOURS OF THE LIFE OF JESUS
WHAT THE SHROUD TELLS US OF THE FINAL HOURS OF THE LIFE OF JESUS
Hundreds of thousands of hours have been spent on scientific examination of the Shroud of Turin in an attempt to explain its enigmatic markings. While many people claim it is a forgery, none of these skeptics seems to be able to explain how the forgery was done. And the overwhelming majority of the evidence falls in favor of the Shroud being the authentic burial cloth of a crucified man who happened to experience the same tortures Jesus endured, as described in the Gospels.
Let’s acknowledge right from the beginning “the elephant in the room”—the 1988 Carbon 14 test that dated the Shroud to around 1300 AD. This dating seemed to end the question of authenticity, but the accuracy of the testing has come into question for numerous scientific reasons, and today many scientists consider it flawed.
Further undermining the accuracy of the C14 dating is the overwhelming body of evidence strongly pointing to the Shroud’s authenticity. Here are just a few examples:
No pigment, no chemicals, no brush strokes, no clumping of fibers or threads, no cracking of the image along fold lines are present, so the image is not created by any paint, stain, dye, or chemical treatment. There’s simply no method known to medieval man or even to modern man to create an image with the amazing properties the Shroud has.
The discoloration that forms the image appears only on the very top one or two fibers of thread, not even the whole thread (as thread is made of many tiny fibers twisted together), and only penetrates 0.2 microns (0.2 microns is 127,000th of an inch) into the 15-20 micron-diameter fibers—yet it discolors 360 degrees around those fibers.
This phenomenon could only be caused by a rearrangement of electron bonding in the outer layer of the fibers, caused by a very brief but high-energy burst of radiation without the corresponding heat that would have disintegrated the fabric.
The image itself is barely visible, but when first photographed in 1898, the negative showed a very detailed image of a crucified man, with wounds corresponding to those of Christ. Thus the image is, in fact, a negative image of the man it wrapped. An instantaneous burst of light radiation emanated from the man and created a negative on the cloth.
The image has 3D information encoded in it. Using 3D technology, scientists created a detailed 3D statue of the man it wrapped. Paintings cannot create 3D images.
The Shroud hasn’t traveled out of Europe since the 1300s, and yet half of the pollen found on the Shroud is from the Near East (Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Syria). Most significantly, the largest quantity of pollen present is from three plants that only exist together in the area around Jerusalem.
Fragments of limestone unique to Jerusalem were on the cloth near the image’s nose, knee, and heel.
DNA has been identified on the Shroud from people touching it, including ethnic families found in Europe, Turkey, India, and the Near East. But the DNA in the largest quantity is the Druze ethnicity, very rare in Europe but very common throughout the areas of Jerusalem, Palestine, and Jordan.
The Sudarium of Orviedo, which can be traced definitively to at least the fifth century, if not earlier, is said to be the head covering of Jesus in the tomb, mentioned in John 20:7. There are twenty points of correlation between the Sudarium and the Shroud, including an additional 124 exact matches to wounds, the same blood type, and the same shapes of stains on both the Sudarium and the Shroud. Forensic scientists agree that there’s no question that both the Sudarium and the Shroud covered the same body.
The blood on the Shroud is identical to the blood found on the Sudarium, as well as in all the Eucharistic miracles that have been tested by science. In every case, it is from a male with AB blood type, which is considered rare, but is common among the Jews of Palestine. In addition, the blood shows high levels of creatinine and ferritin, evidence of severe, multiple traumas. The blood from the Shroud, the Sudarium, and the Eucharistic miracles, all come from a tortured man.
The Sudarium and the Shroud both show post-mortem blood separated into red blood and clear serum, which is mentioned in John 19:34, when the soldier pierced Jesus’ side.
Finally, the Shroud shows details of the tortures that the man endured, some of which differ from medieval iconography but are anatomically or historically accurate. For instance, the nails appear in the wrists, not in the hands as depicted in most Christian art. Hand bones cannot support a person’s weight. The thumbs are invisible, due to automatic contraction from the nailing of tendons in the wrists. The victim is covered with many hundreds of wounds, consistent with Roman flagrums of multiple strips of leather, tipped with heavy or sharp objects.
The scientific evidence points to the impossibility that the Shroud is a medieval forgery. This was enough to convince me. But it’s the anatomical evidence preserved on the Shroud that moved me deeply. Rather than listing what the details show, I’d like to provide you with a brief meditation of what the Shroud tells us about the hours before Jesus was laid in the tomb.
Before being taken to die, Jesus was stripped and flogged, the flagrums tipped with blunt and sharp objects, bruising His flesh and then tearing it into shreds. Every inch of His Body was battered and covered in wounds. Then His beaten and battered head was covered with a helmet of thorns. The soldiers did not want to handle those sharp thorns long, so a quick twist of some branches, and it was placed on His head and embedded deeply into His scalp by beating Him over the head with rods (Mark 15:17-19).
Placing His clothing back on Him after the flogging, they forced Him to carry the entire 150-pound Cross Himself. Standing as erect as He could under the weight of the Cross and the loss of blood, He struggled forward. The heavy wood dug into His shoulder, rubbing the fabric of His tunic deeply into the wounds from the flogging and banging against the thorny crown, sending stabs of pain into His head. Once, tripping and falling on His face with the Cross on top of Him, His chest struck the ground hard and His arm twisted, entangled in the cross, wrenching it severely out of its socket. The Cross crushed the back of His neck and shoulders, shocking and partially paralyzing them so that His head now sagged to the right and His right side was useless. Heartless soldiers pulled Him up by His dislocated arm and forced Him to carry the Cross now on His left shoulder. Bent over now with pain and weakness, His right arm swinging helplessly by His side, He staggered on.
Finally on Golgotha, Jesus’s clothes were ripped off Him, tearing open the wounds that had begun to cling to the fabric. Throwing Him down on the Cross, the soldiers nailed His helpless right arm, already stretched and distorted from the damage to the nerves and ligaments of severe dislocation. Jerking His other arm violently, they pulled it tightly against the beam and nailed it in place, again severing nerves and sending excruciating shock waves through His bloodied Body. With arms in place, they turned their attention to the feet.
Grabbing His right foot, they twisted it violently, dislocating the ankle to make His foot lie flat sideways against the wood, then nailed through the ankle bone. Then they placed the left foot on top and sent another nail through both feet into the wood of the Cross.
Raising the Cross with ropes, they slid it into the premade hole in the ground and it landed with a jolt, stretching the holes in Jesus’s wrists and sending waves of agonizing pain through His tormented Body.
Jesus’s head, now completely covered with blood, sagged to the right. The agony of the severed nerves, the dislocation, the nails, and the thorns were magnified by His excruciating struggle for each breath. After several hours of gasping for air, He had a massive heart attack—Jesus died of a broken heart.
The spear that pierced Jesus’ heart proved He was already dead, and by the time they took Him down from the Cross, rigor mortis had begun to set in. His head slumped onto His chest and His knees were bent. Great effort was needed to break the rigor of His arms to fold them over His body and straighten His head. Pulling out the nails began a new flow of whatever blood remained in the veins, puddling as it dribbled down His elbows and onto the cloth they had laid him on. Removing the crown, those who were burying Jesus covered His head with a cloth, which absorbed much of blood on His battered face, but since they could not touch post-mortem blood, they had to leave on His body whatever had flowed out after He died.
When they reached the tomb, Jesus’s body was placed on a bed of perfumed spices, the head cloth removed, and the shroud folded over Him and loosely wrapped with a thin strip of linen. This gentle but hurried burial was needed because the Sabbath was upon them. They left His stiff, dead corpse, wrapped in pure linen, and rolled the stone over the entrance.
As we know, this was not the end of the story. Jesus is risen! After the agony of His Passion and Death, in His risen state, all His wounds were healed but those on His hands, feet, and heart, so that His disciples would recognize Him and believe (John 20:20).
The Shroud of Turin is evidence of Jesus’ resurrection to a doubting world (John 20:6-9). People of Faith do not need relics in order to believe. But the Lord, in His mercy, knows that sometimes we could use a little help. The Shroud of Turin, like the Eucharistic miracles, is a reminder of God’s infinite love for each one of us and a proof of that through His Passion and Death in order to redeem us from sin and Satan.
Let’s acknowledge right from the beginning “the elephant in the room”—the 1988 Carbon 14 test that dated the Shroud to around 1300 AD. This dating seemed to end the question of authenticity, but the accuracy of the testing has come into question for numerous scientific reasons, and today many scientists consider it flawed.
Further undermining the accuracy of the C14 dating is the overwhelming body of evidence strongly pointing to the Shroud’s authenticity. Here are just a few examples:
No pigment, no chemicals, no brush strokes, no clumping of fibers or threads, no cracking of the image along fold lines are present, so the image is not created by any paint, stain, dye, or chemical treatment. There’s simply no method known to medieval man or even to modern man to create an image with the amazing properties the Shroud has.
The discoloration that forms the image appears only on the very top one or two fibers of thread, not even the whole thread (as thread is made of many tiny fibers twisted together), and only penetrates 0.2 microns (0.2 microns is 127,000th of an inch) into the 15-20 micron-diameter fibers—yet it discolors 360 degrees around those fibers.
This phenomenon could only be caused by a rearrangement of electron bonding in the outer layer of the fibers, caused by a very brief but high-energy burst of radiation without the corresponding heat that would have disintegrated the fabric.
The image itself is barely visible, but when first photographed in 1898, the negative showed a very detailed image of a crucified man, with wounds corresponding to those of Christ. Thus the image is, in fact, a negative image of the man it wrapped. An instantaneous burst of light radiation emanated from the man and created a negative on the cloth.
The image has 3D information encoded in it. Using 3D technology, scientists created a detailed 3D statue of the man it wrapped. Paintings cannot create 3D images.
The Shroud hasn’t traveled out of Europe since the 1300s, and yet half of the pollen found on the Shroud is from the Near East (Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Syria). Most significantly, the largest quantity of pollen present is from three plants that only exist together in the area around Jerusalem.
Fragments of limestone unique to Jerusalem were on the cloth near the image’s nose, knee, and heel.
DNA has been identified on the Shroud from people touching it, including ethnic families found in Europe, Turkey, India, and the Near East. But the DNA in the largest quantity is the Druze ethnicity, very rare in Europe but very common throughout the areas of Jerusalem, Palestine, and Jordan.
The Sudarium of Orviedo, which can be traced definitively to at least the fifth century, if not earlier, is said to be the head covering of Jesus in the tomb, mentioned in John 20:7. There are twenty points of correlation between the Sudarium and the Shroud, including an additional 124 exact matches to wounds, the same blood type, and the same shapes of stains on both the Sudarium and the Shroud. Forensic scientists agree that there’s no question that both the Sudarium and the Shroud covered the same body.
The blood on the Shroud is identical to the blood found on the Sudarium, as well as in all the Eucharistic miracles that have been tested by science. In every case, it is from a male with AB blood type, which is considered rare, but is common among the Jews of Palestine. In addition, the blood shows high levels of creatinine and ferritin, evidence of severe, multiple traumas. The blood from the Shroud, the Sudarium, and the Eucharistic miracles, all come from a tortured man.
The Sudarium and the Shroud both show post-mortem blood separated into red blood and clear serum, which is mentioned in John 19:34, when the soldier pierced Jesus’ side.
Finally, the Shroud shows details of the tortures that the man endured, some of which differ from medieval iconography but are anatomically or historically accurate. For instance, the nails appear in the wrists, not in the hands as depicted in most Christian art. Hand bones cannot support a person’s weight. The thumbs are invisible, due to automatic contraction from the nailing of tendons in the wrists. The victim is covered with many hundreds of wounds, consistent with Roman flagrums of multiple strips of leather, tipped with heavy or sharp objects.
The scientific evidence points to the impossibility that the Shroud is a medieval forgery. This was enough to convince me. But it’s the anatomical evidence preserved on the Shroud that moved me deeply. Rather than listing what the details show, I’d like to provide you with a brief meditation of what the Shroud tells us about the hours before Jesus was laid in the tomb.
Before being taken to die, Jesus was stripped and flogged, the flagrums tipped with blunt and sharp objects, bruising His flesh and then tearing it into shreds. Every inch of His Body was battered and covered in wounds. Then His beaten and battered head was covered with a helmet of thorns. The soldiers did not want to handle those sharp thorns long, so a quick twist of some branches, and it was placed on His head and embedded deeply into His scalp by beating Him over the head with rods (Mark 15:17-19).
Placing His clothing back on Him after the flogging, they forced Him to carry the entire 150-pound Cross Himself. Standing as erect as He could under the weight of the Cross and the loss of blood, He struggled forward. The heavy wood dug into His shoulder, rubbing the fabric of His tunic deeply into the wounds from the flogging and banging against the thorny crown, sending stabs of pain into His head. Once, tripping and falling on His face with the Cross on top of Him, His chest struck the ground hard and His arm twisted, entangled in the cross, wrenching it severely out of its socket. The Cross crushed the back of His neck and shoulders, shocking and partially paralyzing them so that His head now sagged to the right and His right side was useless. Heartless soldiers pulled Him up by His dislocated arm and forced Him to carry the Cross now on His left shoulder. Bent over now with pain and weakness, His right arm swinging helplessly by His side, He staggered on.
Finally on Golgotha, Jesus’s clothes were ripped off Him, tearing open the wounds that had begun to cling to the fabric. Throwing Him down on the Cross, the soldiers nailed His helpless right arm, already stretched and distorted from the damage to the nerves and ligaments of severe dislocation. Jerking His other arm violently, they pulled it tightly against the beam and nailed it in place, again severing nerves and sending excruciating shock waves through His bloodied Body. With arms in place, they turned their attention to the feet.
Grabbing His right foot, they twisted it violently, dislocating the ankle to make His foot lie flat sideways against the wood, then nailed through the ankle bone. Then they placed the left foot on top and sent another nail through both feet into the wood of the Cross.
Raising the Cross with ropes, they slid it into the premade hole in the ground and it landed with a jolt, stretching the holes in Jesus’s wrists and sending waves of agonizing pain through His tormented Body.
Jesus’s head, now completely covered with blood, sagged to the right. The agony of the severed nerves, the dislocation, the nails, and the thorns were magnified by His excruciating struggle for each breath. After several hours of gasping for air, He had a massive heart attack—Jesus died of a broken heart.
The spear that pierced Jesus’ heart proved He was already dead, and by the time they took Him down from the Cross, rigor mortis had begun to set in. His head slumped onto His chest and His knees were bent. Great effort was needed to break the rigor of His arms to fold them over His body and straighten His head. Pulling out the nails began a new flow of whatever blood remained in the veins, puddling as it dribbled down His elbows and onto the cloth they had laid him on. Removing the crown, those who were burying Jesus covered His head with a cloth, which absorbed much of blood on His battered face, but since they could not touch post-mortem blood, they had to leave on His body whatever had flowed out after He died.
When they reached the tomb, Jesus’s body was placed on a bed of perfumed spices, the head cloth removed, and the shroud folded over Him and loosely wrapped with a thin strip of linen. This gentle but hurried burial was needed because the Sabbath was upon them. They left His stiff, dead corpse, wrapped in pure linen, and rolled the stone over the entrance.
As we know, this was not the end of the story. Jesus is risen! After the agony of His Passion and Death, in His risen state, all His wounds were healed but those on His hands, feet, and heart, so that His disciples would recognize Him and believe (John 20:20).
The Shroud of Turin is evidence of Jesus’ resurrection to a doubting world (John 20:6-9). People of Faith do not need relics in order to believe. But the Lord, in His mercy, knows that sometimes we could use a little help. The Shroud of Turin, like the Eucharistic miracles, is a reminder of God’s infinite love for each one of us and a proof of that through His Passion and Death in order to redeem us from sin and Satan.
Article 7
EVIDENCE FOR THE CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION
EVIDENCE FOR THE CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION
The Shroud of Turin is a burial shroud (a linen cloth woven in a 3-over-1 [3:1] herringbone pattern) measuring 14 feet 3 inches in length by 3 feet 7 inches in width. It apparently covered a man who suffered the wounds of crucifixion in a way very similar to that recorded for Jesus of Nazareth.
The cloth has a certifiable history from 1349, when it surfaced in Lirey, France, in the hands of a French nobleman — Geoffrey de Charny. It also has a somewhat sketchy traceable history from Jerusalem to Lirey — through Edessa, Turkey and Constantinople. This history is confirmed by the pollen grains found by Max Frei, the coincidences between the Shroud and the Sudarium (facecloth) of Oviedo, and the coincidences between the Shroud’s seven unique facial features and those attributed to the Mandylion — the Holy Image of Edessa.
The Shroud has undergone considerably more scientific testing than any other relic in human history. The 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP) investigation and subsequent investigations were remarkably thorough, and with the exception of the questionable 1988 carbon dating, all the evidence points to it being the burial cloth of Jesus, including the following:
1. Four Contemporary Dating Tests
The vanillin dating test of Dr. Raymond Rogers, the two spectroscopic analyses (of professor Giulio Fanti, et al.), and the compressibility and breaking strength tests (of Fanti, et al.) date the Shroud to a time commensurate with the life and crucifixion of Jesus.
2. Three Kinds of Extrinsic Dating Evidence
(A) Testing of pollen samples by Dr. Max Frei who collected dust samples from the Shroud during the 1978 STURP investigation and later classified 58 pollen grains by comparing them to pollen grains in the largest botanical museums around the world. His conclusion was that the majority (45) were from the region of Israel (specifically from sedimentary layers from 2,000 years ago near the area of the Sea of Galilee), with six grains from the eastern Middle East (two grains from Edessa, Turkey, and one growing exclusively in Istanbul/Constantinople). The remaining grains came from France and Italy. Importantly, 13 of the pollen grains are unique to Israel and are found at the bottom of both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.
(B) Roman coins on the eyes of the image on the Shroud, which give evidence that it’s highly probable that the image of the man on the Shroud of Turin has two Jewish lepta, minted in A.D. 29 by Pontius Pilate in Judea at the time of Jesus, on his eyelids.
(C) One-hundred twenty coincidences of blood and fluid stains between the Shroud and the Sudarium of Oviedo give evidence of a date and location of the Shroud’s origin similar to that of Jesus.
3. The Blood Stains on the Shroud
The blood stains tell a story very similar to the highly unusual crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth — they were imprinted on the Shroud before the image was made (the opposite of what would need to be done by a forger). The Shroud has deposits of real human blood, according to the experts who studied the blood flecks gathered on the STURP tapes in 1978. They determined that the blood on the Shroud is real. Some researchers have found that male DNA and an AB blood type are also present on the cloth. Though genetic testing confirms these findings, there is no guarantee that they belong to the man on the Shroud.
4. Formation of the Image on the Shroud
The image was not formed by dyes, chemicals, vapors or scorching. The only known explanation for the formation of the image is an intense burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation (equivalent to the output of 14,000 excimer lasers) emitted from every three-dimensional point of the body in the Shroud.
The combination of the above evidence is exceedingly difficult to explain in any way other than the burial cloth is that of Jesus of Nazareth. Moreover, the formation of the image by an intense outburst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation is suggestive of a resurrection event similar to that described in the Gospels. The above scientific evidence requires that a new carbon-dating test be done which observes the standard protocols for sampling. When these protocols are observed, it would be surprising if the result was not similar to the results of the four new dating methods mentioned above — approximately A.D. 50. If this result is obtained, it would indicate that the Shroud of Turin is very likely the burial shroud of Jesus Christ with evidence suggestive of His resurrection in light.
Evidence?
While we currently do not have a definitive explanation for how this unique and mysterious image was created from the body of a deceased man, the most plausible current hypothesis comes from a combination of two teams of researchers.
Dr. John Jackson’s team studied the Shroud and proposed the vacuum ultraviolet radiation hypothesis in 2008.
According to Jackson, an intense burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation produced a discoloration on the uppermost surface of the Shroud’s fibrils (without scorching it), which gave rise to a perfect three-dimensional negative image of both the frontal and dorsal parts of the body wrapped in it.
Currently, we know of no natural explanation for the seemingly unique occurrence of such a burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation from either a decomposing body or the geological/atmospheric conditions within a tomb. Though this is suggestive of a possible supernatural origin of the radiation — perhaps as a part of Jesus’ resurrection — we cannot prove this scientifically, because we cannot construct a scientific test for a supernatural cause — all we can do is eliminate every known natural cause of this seemingly unique radiation. The uniqueness and current inexplicability of this phenomenon gives us reason to believe that God has given us evidence of Jesus’ resurrection. This belief can be strengthened by further understanding of the light phenomenon that seems to be the source of the image as well as the continued elimination of natural causes for it. The most convincing seems to be the hypothesis of Jackson.
Research
The research of the 1978 STURP investigation, as well as subsequent research of Jackson, Fanti, Paolo Di Lazzaro and their teams, shows the likelihood that sometime after the blood deposits had dried on the Shroud the decomposing body in the Shroud emitted a short intense burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation that led to a dehydration and discoloration of the frontal and dorsal parts of the Shroud, giving rise to a perfect photographic negative image. Jackson’s research also suggests that the body inside the Shroud became mechanically transparent and emitted light evenly from every three-dimensional point within it. This allowed the frontal part of the Shroud to collapse — creating an image (of both the inside and outside of the hands) as well as a double image on the frontal part of the Shroud.
Currently, the known laws of physics cannot explain how a decomposing body can emit an intense burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation. Furthermore, they cannot explain how such a body could become mechanically transparent and emit light from every three-dimensional point within it.
So, where does that leave us? If Jackson’s explanation continues to be the only one to explain away the enigmas, and if future articulations of the laws of physics cannot explain how a decomposing body could become mechanically transparent and evenly emit vacuum ultraviolet radiation from every three-dimensional point within it, then we are left at the brink of a trans-physical or metaphysical explanation. Under these conditions, it would be both reasonable and responsible to believe that a trans-physical cause interacted with the decomposing body to transform it into an intense burst of light.
Evidently, we cannot scientifically prove a trans-physical cause, because science is restricted to the domain of physical causation. However, if the above conditions hold, we can reasonably infer the possibility and perhaps the likelihood of such a trans-physical cause. This is sufficient for reasonable and responsible belief.
Does this trans-physical explanation of the Shroud’s image point to the resurrection of Jesus? Jesus’ resurrection was not a resuscitation of a material corpse but rather a transforming event which gave rise to what St. Paul called a “spiritual body” — a body transformed in glory, spirit and power. Could this transformation of a material body into a burst of intense light signify a beginning point of the transformation of Jesus’ body from a physical one to a spiritual-glorified one? Though there can be no scientific proof of this, it is a reasonable inference from the parallels between the explanation of the Shroud’s enigmatic image and the testimony of St. Paul and the Gospel writers. In this sense, we might say that the image on the Shroud presents a clue — even a relic — of Jesus’ resurrection.
Conclusion
Why would we think the body in the Shroud was that of Jesus? As explained above, it is exceedingly improbable that the Shroud is a medieval forgery. First, there are no paints, dyes or other pigments on the Shroud (except for the small flecks coming from the sanctification of icons and paintings which touched it).
Second, the anatomical precision of the blood stains — which are real human blood that congealed on the Shroud before the formation of the image — are in precise anatomical correlation to the image itself. How could a medieval forger have accomplished this?
Third, it is exceedingly difficult to explain how pollen grains indigenous to Palestine appeared in abundance on a shroud of probable Semitic origin (if it originated in medieval Europe) and how coins minted in A.D. 29 in Palestine appeared on the eyes of the man on the Shroud. How could a medieval forger have duplicated these first-century Palestinian characteristics of the Shroud?
Fourth, the five enigmas of the image on the Shroud almost certainly preclude a forgery. How could a medieval forger have used vacuum ultraviolet radiation to discolor the cloth on the uppermost surface of the fibrils? How could he have created a perfect photographic negative image? How could he have created a double image on the frontal part of the Shroud? And how could he have known how to duplicate the interior and exterior of the hands in perfect proportion to each other? Thus it does not seem reasonable or responsible to believe that the Shroud is a medieval forgery.
Three Last Points
Beyond this, there are three probative kinds of evidence pointing specifically to Jesus’ place and time of origin and to His unique crucifixion and resurrection:
The material of the Shroud, the pollen grains on it and the coins on the man’s eyes all have their origin in first-century Palestine — the place where Jesus was purported to have died.
The blood stains come from a crucifixion event identical to the one described in the four Gospels — which was very unusual, if not unique, in many respects — such as being crowned with thorns, being flogged and being pierced with a Roman pilum (spear).
The five enigmas of the Shroud’s image point to a trans-physically caused burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation from a mechanically transparent body. This is suggestive of the transformation of Jesus’ body from a physical one to a spiritual-glorified one (as reported by St. Paul and the four Gospels).
The spiritual-glorified transformation of Jesus’ body was unique to the Christian view of resurrection. It was not known in Judaism (which held to a resuscitation of the flesh) or pagan cults (which held to ethereal or ghostlike views of immortality). Thus the enigmas on the Shroud’s image point to the uniquely Christian view of resurrection implied by Jesus’ risen appearance.
The odds of this first-century Palestinian burial shroud — with the unique features of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection — being that of anyone else is exceedingly remote. Inasmuch as the image is not a forgery, and that it originated from a real person living at the time of Jesus, crucified in the unique way of Jesus, and producing a burst of intense vacuum ultraviolet radiation from his decomposing body, who else would it be? Given all this, we might reasonably infer that the Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus, which contains not only a relic of His crucifixion but also His resurrection in glory. If so, it shows both the truth of the most significant event in human history as well as the accuracy of the Gospel accounts of it.
The cloth has a certifiable history from 1349, when it surfaced in Lirey, France, in the hands of a French nobleman — Geoffrey de Charny. It also has a somewhat sketchy traceable history from Jerusalem to Lirey — through Edessa, Turkey and Constantinople. This history is confirmed by the pollen grains found by Max Frei, the coincidences between the Shroud and the Sudarium (facecloth) of Oviedo, and the coincidences between the Shroud’s seven unique facial features and those attributed to the Mandylion — the Holy Image of Edessa.
The Shroud has undergone considerably more scientific testing than any other relic in human history. The 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP) investigation and subsequent investigations were remarkably thorough, and with the exception of the questionable 1988 carbon dating, all the evidence points to it being the burial cloth of Jesus, including the following:
1. Four Contemporary Dating Tests
The vanillin dating test of Dr. Raymond Rogers, the two spectroscopic analyses (of professor Giulio Fanti, et al.), and the compressibility and breaking strength tests (of Fanti, et al.) date the Shroud to a time commensurate with the life and crucifixion of Jesus.
2. Three Kinds of Extrinsic Dating Evidence
(A) Testing of pollen samples by Dr. Max Frei who collected dust samples from the Shroud during the 1978 STURP investigation and later classified 58 pollen grains by comparing them to pollen grains in the largest botanical museums around the world. His conclusion was that the majority (45) were from the region of Israel (specifically from sedimentary layers from 2,000 years ago near the area of the Sea of Galilee), with six grains from the eastern Middle East (two grains from Edessa, Turkey, and one growing exclusively in Istanbul/Constantinople). The remaining grains came from France and Italy. Importantly, 13 of the pollen grains are unique to Israel and are found at the bottom of both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.
(B) Roman coins on the eyes of the image on the Shroud, which give evidence that it’s highly probable that the image of the man on the Shroud of Turin has two Jewish lepta, minted in A.D. 29 by Pontius Pilate in Judea at the time of Jesus, on his eyelids.
(C) One-hundred twenty coincidences of blood and fluid stains between the Shroud and the Sudarium of Oviedo give evidence of a date and location of the Shroud’s origin similar to that of Jesus.
3. The Blood Stains on the Shroud
The blood stains tell a story very similar to the highly unusual crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth — they were imprinted on the Shroud before the image was made (the opposite of what would need to be done by a forger). The Shroud has deposits of real human blood, according to the experts who studied the blood flecks gathered on the STURP tapes in 1978. They determined that the blood on the Shroud is real. Some researchers have found that male DNA and an AB blood type are also present on the cloth. Though genetic testing confirms these findings, there is no guarantee that they belong to the man on the Shroud.
4. Formation of the Image on the Shroud
The image was not formed by dyes, chemicals, vapors or scorching. The only known explanation for the formation of the image is an intense burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation (equivalent to the output of 14,000 excimer lasers) emitted from every three-dimensional point of the body in the Shroud.
The combination of the above evidence is exceedingly difficult to explain in any way other than the burial cloth is that of Jesus of Nazareth. Moreover, the formation of the image by an intense outburst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation is suggestive of a resurrection event similar to that described in the Gospels. The above scientific evidence requires that a new carbon-dating test be done which observes the standard protocols for sampling. When these protocols are observed, it would be surprising if the result was not similar to the results of the four new dating methods mentioned above — approximately A.D. 50. If this result is obtained, it would indicate that the Shroud of Turin is very likely the burial shroud of Jesus Christ with evidence suggestive of His resurrection in light.
Evidence?
While we currently do not have a definitive explanation for how this unique and mysterious image was created from the body of a deceased man, the most plausible current hypothesis comes from a combination of two teams of researchers.
Dr. John Jackson’s team studied the Shroud and proposed the vacuum ultraviolet radiation hypothesis in 2008.
According to Jackson, an intense burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation produced a discoloration on the uppermost surface of the Shroud’s fibrils (without scorching it), which gave rise to a perfect three-dimensional negative image of both the frontal and dorsal parts of the body wrapped in it.
Currently, we know of no natural explanation for the seemingly unique occurrence of such a burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation from either a decomposing body or the geological/atmospheric conditions within a tomb. Though this is suggestive of a possible supernatural origin of the radiation — perhaps as a part of Jesus’ resurrection — we cannot prove this scientifically, because we cannot construct a scientific test for a supernatural cause — all we can do is eliminate every known natural cause of this seemingly unique radiation. The uniqueness and current inexplicability of this phenomenon gives us reason to believe that God has given us evidence of Jesus’ resurrection. This belief can be strengthened by further understanding of the light phenomenon that seems to be the source of the image as well as the continued elimination of natural causes for it. The most convincing seems to be the hypothesis of Jackson.
Research
The research of the 1978 STURP investigation, as well as subsequent research of Jackson, Fanti, Paolo Di Lazzaro and their teams, shows the likelihood that sometime after the blood deposits had dried on the Shroud the decomposing body in the Shroud emitted a short intense burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation that led to a dehydration and discoloration of the frontal and dorsal parts of the Shroud, giving rise to a perfect photographic negative image. Jackson’s research also suggests that the body inside the Shroud became mechanically transparent and emitted light evenly from every three-dimensional point within it. This allowed the frontal part of the Shroud to collapse — creating an image (of both the inside and outside of the hands) as well as a double image on the frontal part of the Shroud.
Currently, the known laws of physics cannot explain how a decomposing body can emit an intense burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation. Furthermore, they cannot explain how such a body could become mechanically transparent and emit light from every three-dimensional point within it.
So, where does that leave us? If Jackson’s explanation continues to be the only one to explain away the enigmas, and if future articulations of the laws of physics cannot explain how a decomposing body could become mechanically transparent and evenly emit vacuum ultraviolet radiation from every three-dimensional point within it, then we are left at the brink of a trans-physical or metaphysical explanation. Under these conditions, it would be both reasonable and responsible to believe that a trans-physical cause interacted with the decomposing body to transform it into an intense burst of light.
Evidently, we cannot scientifically prove a trans-physical cause, because science is restricted to the domain of physical causation. However, if the above conditions hold, we can reasonably infer the possibility and perhaps the likelihood of such a trans-physical cause. This is sufficient for reasonable and responsible belief.
Does this trans-physical explanation of the Shroud’s image point to the resurrection of Jesus? Jesus’ resurrection was not a resuscitation of a material corpse but rather a transforming event which gave rise to what St. Paul called a “spiritual body” — a body transformed in glory, spirit and power. Could this transformation of a material body into a burst of intense light signify a beginning point of the transformation of Jesus’ body from a physical one to a spiritual-glorified one? Though there can be no scientific proof of this, it is a reasonable inference from the parallels between the explanation of the Shroud’s enigmatic image and the testimony of St. Paul and the Gospel writers. In this sense, we might say that the image on the Shroud presents a clue — even a relic — of Jesus’ resurrection.
Conclusion
Why would we think the body in the Shroud was that of Jesus? As explained above, it is exceedingly improbable that the Shroud is a medieval forgery. First, there are no paints, dyes or other pigments on the Shroud (except for the small flecks coming from the sanctification of icons and paintings which touched it).
Second, the anatomical precision of the blood stains — which are real human blood that congealed on the Shroud before the formation of the image — are in precise anatomical correlation to the image itself. How could a medieval forger have accomplished this?
Third, it is exceedingly difficult to explain how pollen grains indigenous to Palestine appeared in abundance on a shroud of probable Semitic origin (if it originated in medieval Europe) and how coins minted in A.D. 29 in Palestine appeared on the eyes of the man on the Shroud. How could a medieval forger have duplicated these first-century Palestinian characteristics of the Shroud?
Fourth, the five enigmas of the image on the Shroud almost certainly preclude a forgery. How could a medieval forger have used vacuum ultraviolet radiation to discolor the cloth on the uppermost surface of the fibrils? How could he have created a perfect photographic negative image? How could he have created a double image on the frontal part of the Shroud? And how could he have known how to duplicate the interior and exterior of the hands in perfect proportion to each other? Thus it does not seem reasonable or responsible to believe that the Shroud is a medieval forgery.
Three Last Points
Beyond this, there are three probative kinds of evidence pointing specifically to Jesus’ place and time of origin and to His unique crucifixion and resurrection:
The material of the Shroud, the pollen grains on it and the coins on the man’s eyes all have their origin in first-century Palestine — the place where Jesus was purported to have died.
The blood stains come from a crucifixion event identical to the one described in the four Gospels — which was very unusual, if not unique, in many respects — such as being crowned with thorns, being flogged and being pierced with a Roman pilum (spear).
The five enigmas of the Shroud’s image point to a trans-physically caused burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation from a mechanically transparent body. This is suggestive of the transformation of Jesus’ body from a physical one to a spiritual-glorified one (as reported by St. Paul and the four Gospels).
The spiritual-glorified transformation of Jesus’ body was unique to the Christian view of resurrection. It was not known in Judaism (which held to a resuscitation of the flesh) or pagan cults (which held to ethereal or ghostlike views of immortality). Thus the enigmas on the Shroud’s image point to the uniquely Christian view of resurrection implied by Jesus’ risen appearance.
The odds of this first-century Palestinian burial shroud — with the unique features of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection — being that of anyone else is exceedingly remote. Inasmuch as the image is not a forgery, and that it originated from a real person living at the time of Jesus, crucified in the unique way of Jesus, and producing a burst of intense vacuum ultraviolet radiation from his decomposing body, who else would it be? Given all this, we might reasonably infer that the Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus, which contains not only a relic of His crucifixion but also His resurrection in glory. If so, it shows both the truth of the most significant event in human history as well as the accuracy of the Gospel accounts of it.