Posted on 03/30/2012 1:16:09 AM PDT by Swordmaker
The Turin Shroud has baffled scholars through the ages but in his new book, The Sign, Thomas de Wesselow reveals a new theory linking the cloth to the Resurrection.
For centuries the Turin Shroud, regarded by some as the burial cloth of Jesus, by others as the most elaborate hoax in history, has inspired extraordinary and conflicting passions. Popes, princes and paupers have for 700 years been making pilgrimages the length of Europe to stand in its presence while scientists have dedicated their whole working lives to trying to explain rationally how the ghostly image on the cloth, even more striking when seen as a photographic negative, and matching in every last detail the crucifixion narrative, could have been created. And still a final, commonly agreed answer remains elusive, despite carbon-dating in 1988 having pronounced it a forgery.
“That’s what first attracted me,” says Thomas de Wesselow, an engagingly serious 40-year-old Cambridge academic. “I’ve always loved a mystery ever since I was a boy.” And so he became the latest in a long line to abandon everything to try to solve the riddle of the Shroud. Eight years ago, de Wesselow was a successful art historian, based at King’s College, making a name for himself in scholarly circles by taking a fresh look at centuries-old disputes over the attribution of masterpieces of Renaissance painting. Today, he still lives in the university city – we are sitting in its Fitzwilliam Museum café – but de Wesselow has thrown up his conventional career and any hopes of a professorial chair to join the ranks of what he laughingly calls “shrouds”.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I didn’t read the book, but I have heard that it was Judas wearing the sheet (he didn’t jump off the cliff, he just ran away).
And to try to repay his betrayal after the huge remorse he felt, he grabbed the sheet, and wore it around town once-in-awhile to help prove that Jesus was risen. I think he would put his hand over his mouth and disguise his voice.
This is in fact how Halloween got started. But instead of saying “Give me something to eat” you say “Trick or Treat”.
And then, after being seen by so many people over the many days (weeks?), he was afraid he might get found out, so Judas put some helium balloons under the sheet and let it fly up into the sky. (The disciples saw it and called it “The Ascension”)
The balloons finally popped over Italy and the shroud fell to the ground in Turin. The story gets pretty weird after that though, and pretty hard to believe.
“This Article refers to a new book that claims the Shroud of Turin is the REAL DEAL... and more importantly, IS THE BASIS for the claim that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead... because The IMAGE ON THE SHROUD is what the apostles saw and mistook for the risen Jesus!”
I think that the evidence provided by the Shroud itself, as well as its history, makes it more likely than not that it is, indeed, Jesus Christ’s burial shroud (and it is pretty much *impossible* for it to be a hoax as most people believe). But the auhor’s theory that the image on the Shroud is the basis for the “claim” (a word that no Christian would use to describe the Resurrection) that Jesus Christ rose from the dead is absolutely ridiculous.
I have this picture in my mind of the apostles, gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem, being inspired to go out on missionary journeys that resulted in a Church that now numbers a third of the planet in its ranks. And they are looking not at the astonishing sight of Jesus himself, back from the dead, but at a cloth.
Both Greece and Rome has an elaborate visual arts culture that sets examples for serious artists today. Granted, not so much the Jewish culture, but the Greeks were all over the place, met with Jesus and joined the disciples. St. Luke was Greek and he described the supper at Emmaus. Were the Emmaus disciples sitting at supper with an optical illusion?
Besides, people buried other people, some of them bloodied, in burial cloths whether they had taken art appreciation classes or not. Then one particular burial cloth gave them a conversion experience?
This "academic" is sure good at selling books.
:)
In the Maronite Catholic Church, the week following Easter is called the Week of Appearances. During this week, we read the gospel accounts of the various appearances of the Lord: to Mary Magdalene, the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, to Peter, the disciples on the road to Emmaus and the disciples gathered in the upper room. In overcoming the hesitation of Thomas, as you pointed out, the Lord revealed to the apostles the truth of the resurrection. Christ has risen, truly risen.
this was proven to be a fake 20 years ago, and then again ten years ago
You are very much mistaken.
How? The now invalidated C-14 tests done in 1988 that was proved in 2005 in three peer-reviewed research studies to have been an accurate test of a mixture of original shroud material and a 16th Century PATCH??? And NO science was done in 2002 that proved anything.
If it was "proven" to be a fake 20 years ago and then again 10 years ago, show us the science that did it. You can't find it.
...and carries a clipboard.
eh, ok three years ago:
The weave of the Tomb of the Shroud fabric, the new study says, casts further doubt on the Shroud of Turin as Jesus’ burial cloth.
The newfound shroud was something of a patchwork of simply woven linen and wool textiles, the study found. The Shroud of Turin, by contrast, is made of a single textile woven in a complex twill pattern, a type of cloth not known to have been available in the region until medieval times, Gibson said.
Both the tomb’s location and the textile offer evidence for the apparently elite status of the corpse, he added. The way the wool in the shroud was spun indicates it had been imported from elsewhere in the Mediterranean—something a wealthy Jerusalem family from this period would likely have done.
Assuming the new shroud typifies those used in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus, the researchers maintain that the Shroud of Turin could not have originated in the city.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091216-shroud-of-turin-jesus-jerusalem-leprosy.html
No human on this Earth can replicate the Shroud image. I sincerely suggest you read a few books on the Shroud. It would be very eye opening.
As for National Geographic, they are totally and almost completely dominated by anti-religious leftists. They go out of their way to propose very weak theories to try and discredit the Shroud.
We quite the NG many years ago -- their anti-human, anti-capitalist slant got to be too repulsive. Their 100% rabid support of AGW was the last straw.
As a simple point of logic, how does this disprove anything? The original source of the fabric says nothing about what was done with it after its manufacture.
Furthermore, the fact that Jesus was buried in a rich man's tomb should tell anyone with any kind of sense that assuming the shroud is typical for the area borders on being willfully obtuse.
The simple point of logic is that the shroud of the rich guy is made of probably the best (i.e. expensive) material of the time, and the “Shroud of Turin” is made of material so much more advanced that it couldn’t be from that time.
The shroud does have blood on it. And being Jewish, and dead things or things associated with dead things being unclean, I pretty much doubt they would have had the shroud nearby. Also recall that the image is not easily seen by the naked eye. It wasn’t until that guy took a photo of it and saw the negative that the image was really seen for what it was.
Obviously it would have been a relic even without seeing an image, which is why someone grabbed it (along with the head cloth - I forget what that is called, but it is at some other church, and has similar pattern of blood stains, etc.)
However, regarding the Jew’s aversion to things associated with the dead - I wonder who grabbed the clothes?
RE: Without a resurrection (not just viewing an image on a burial cloth), there IS no Christianity.
Exactly!!
“so much more advanced that it couldn’t be from that time.”
From what I have read, it was not common in Cannan, but was in use in Europe at the time. And not hard to believe that some rich guy might have some. And if he was a believer that Christ was the King, then would probably give the body the royal treatment with the fanciest stuff.
I just learned that the spices and stuff were only reserved for the burial of VIP’s back then. Most folks just got wrapped up and buried (no ceremonies, no waiting, just get them in the ground before they start to stink).
And because they were so spooked, they didn't notice Judas hiding behind it giving voiceover...
Re: Ok, where is this “proof”
That is neither a point of logic, nor what your post stated.
But now I see this is not an academic exercise for you....
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