The Shroud of Turin, Authenticated Again

National Review ^ | 04/16/2016 | Myra Adams

[SeekAndFind]

A new study released last week included new evidence that links and further authenticates two holy relics that millions of Christians believe offer physical proof of the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But before we explore the research and the relics, let us recall a New Testament passage concerning faith in Christ and the need for physical evidence. I mean the familiar story of “doubting Thomas” (John 20:24–29).

The apostle Thomas was absent when the resurrected Christ appeared to some of the apostles. On hearing the astonishing news, Thomas declared, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hand and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” A week later, Jesus appeared, giving Thomas the physical proof he demanded. Then Jesus said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

If in your faith walk you identify with Doubting Thomas, keep reading.

Remarkably, two ancient pieces of cloth, the Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium of Oviedo, are extant today. Both are revered as relics, and each bears the name of the city where it currently resides.

First and foremost is the Shroud of Turin. Secured in a vault in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, the Shroud is believed by millions to be the burial cloth of Jesus. It is a fine linen cloth, measuring 14.5 feet by 3.5 feet, and mysteriously displays a finely detailed negative photographic image — front and back, head to toe, of an anatomically correct man who appears to have been tortured, beaten, and crucified. Note that, in their accounts of Christ’s suffering and death on the cross, all four Gospels mention a “fine linen cloth.”

Perhaps it is a coincidence, but clearly seen on the body of the crucified man in the Shroud are gruesome markings consistent with the Gospel accounts of Christ’s Passion. You can count over 100 whip marks, possibly from scourging by Roman flagra, and identify on his wrists and feet obvious wounds that could have been from large spikes. Other markings are compatible with what could have been a crown of thorns. On closer examination, you can spot bruises (from beatings?) on his face, knees (from falling?), and the back of his shoulders (from carrying a heavy cross?), and a large bloody mark (from a spear?) in his side. Like the crucified Jesus in Gospel accounts, the man in the Shroud had no broken bones.

The Shroud, the most studied, analyzed, and tested religious relic in the world, has spawned a vast, global field of scientific study, called “sindonology,” but still baffles scientists. Its mysteries are many and complex. For brevity’s sake, I will only scratch the surface (so to speak).

First among the major mysteries is how the image was made. Second, what is the substance constituting the image, which can be scraped away with a razor blade? The substance is undetermined — all man-made materials have been ruled out — and only rests on top of the cloth; it does not penetrate the cloth’s linen fibers. The third mystery is related to the second: Blood from the crucified man penetrated the cloth, as one would expect, but also preceded the impression of the man’s image. “Blood first, image second” is a mantra of Shroud researchers. This order is logical if the “man in the Shroud” was in fact Christ, who would have been wrapped in the linen Shroud days before the electrical event (see below) that accompanied his resurrection and resulted in the human image.

The only evidence that would conclusively authenticate the Shroud against naysayers and claims of forgery is Jesus’ DNA. It would be matched against the blood — type AB — found on the Shroud and considered rare.

Enter the Sudarium of Oviedo. It resides in the Cathedral of Oviedo, in Spain. The Sudarium is a piece of linen cloth, 34 by 21 inches, thought to have been used to cover the head of Jesus immediately after the crucifixion (John 20:7). Unlike the Shroud, the Sudarium does not display an image. The Sudarium contains male blood of type AB, however, which matches the blood on the Shroud. Moreover, the patterns of blood flow on the Sudarium are consistent with those of a crucified man.

Indeed, the Sudarium and the Shroud covered the same person, as Juan Manuel Miñarro, the author of a study sponsored by the Spanish Center of Sindonology, recently concluded. “We have come to a point where it seems absurd to suggest that ‘by happenstance’ all of the wounds, lesions and swelling coincides on both cloths,” said the center’s president, Jorge-Manuel Rodríguez. “Logic requires that we conclude that we are speaking of the same person.”

The study’s conclusion was no surprise to Sudarium expert Janice Bennett, author of Sacred Blood, Sacred Image: The Sudarium of Oviedo, New Evidence for the Authenticity of the Shroud of Turin (2001). Bennett, who has been studying the Sudarium since 1997, tells me that,

Although Miñarro stops short of linking the two cloths to Jesus, ample research has yielded staggering evidence. For example, both linens show bloodstains on the head, in approximately the same position, that were formed by sharp objects, similar to what thorns would produce. Jesus was the only person in recorded history to have been crowned with thorns before crucifixion.

Bennett explains as well that the Shroud and the Sudarium are consistent with Jewish burial customs of Jesus’ day:

Another important matter is that the cadaver that was wrapped by both the Sudarium and the Shroud suffered death by crucifixion, but was afforded a Jewish burial. This is highly unusual because most crucifixion victims were left on the cross for days and the bones were later deposited in common graves.

Bennett adds that the “new research establishes approximately 20 points of correlation [between the Shroud and the Sudarium], which more than satisfies the standards of proof used by most judicial systems around the world, which require only 8 to10.”

My own keen interest in the Shroud led me to visit Turin in 2010 and again in 2015, the last two occasions when the Shroud was on public display. Having written about it for years, I have forged relationships with some of the most renowned experts, including Russ Breault, president of the Shroud of Turin Education Project Inc., and Barrie Schwortz, who founded Shroud.com, the first and most comprehensive Shroud site.

Topping my list is Giulio Fanti of Padua University. In 2012, Fanti concluded that an electrical charge in the form of radiation is what likely caused the man’s image to be imprinted on the Shroud. He has also dated the Shroud to the time of Jesus, debunking the flawed carbon-14 testing conducted in 1988.

“While the Shroud of Turin shows both a double body image [the body’s front and back, as the cloth was wrapped around the body] and human bloodstains, the Sudarium of Oviedo only shows human bloodstains consistent with the blood principally coming out from the mouth and nose,” Fanti tells me. He elaborates:

There are many coincidences between Shroud and Sudarium that lead one to think that both sheets were used for the same person: Jesus Christ. Both have been used for a bearded man with moustache and long hair who was crucified. A significant match has been found when overlapping the Sudarium bloodstains on the Shroud face: Even the two bloodstains caused by the crown of thorns on the forehead of the Shroud man show a correspondence with the bloodstains of the Sudarium.

If you have read this far but, like Doubting Thomas, still need physical proof to accept the resurrection of Christ, I recommend that you research first the Shroud and then the Sudarium. Both have survived centuries. Their markings are consistent with Scripture accounts of Christ’s torture and execution. Both contain not only the same rare blood type but also pollen of a kind found only in ancient Israel. The Shroud and the Sudarium authenticate each other.

Blood stains on the Shroud of Turin are located where Christ’s crown of thorns would have been.

“Traditionally, the Sudarium has been considered a living testimony of Jesus’ passion and death on the cross, while the Shroud’s mysteriously formed image was hailed as a proclamation of his Resurrection,” Jane Bennett explains, in her beautiful description of this meeting of faith and science. “In the studies conducted on the Sudarium and the Shroud, science has served to corroborate eyewitness accounts that have always been considered by many as a mere profession of faith. In this case, science and faith — so often mistakenly believed to be incompatible — have only served to enrich each another and, in the process, bring the world closer to the actual truth of the events that transpired two thousand years ago.”

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (John 8:32).

— Myra Adams is a media producer and political writer.

[AnalogReigns]

“Long” hair at the time, would be considered by Paul as down her back to her knees kind of long. NOT shaggy, shoulder length, as the shroud shows. Hair dressing was(is) expensive, and not something done well by the very poor.

[odawg]

I hope you are trying to be funny.

Otherwise, hat is insanity. In context, he was referring to a woman’s length hair.

Samson had long hair because he was a Nazarite, and it was braided up. As was Absalom’s. It got him killed.

[AnalogReigns]

My point is that the long hair that Paul spoke of would be REALLY long. Not simply shaggy--as you'd find at the time, with a poor man--as Jesus was.

There's a world of difference between hair like this:

and hair like this:

Point being, just because he didn't have a modern Western crew cut, by the cultural standards of the day, Jesus did not have "long hair."

[dfwgator]

That looks like Kenny Loggins.

[odawg]

Do you really, honestly, believe that man has ever in world history worn hair like that?

I mean, should there not be some examples of that in a painting, carving, etc.

How would a man work with hair like that?

Rome was in control of the world at that time. Rome set the cultural standards. The Romans wore their hair very short. Have you ever seen a Roman emperor represented with long hair.

I Cor 11:13 —

13 Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God uncovered? 14 Does even nature itself not teach you that if a man has long hair it is a shame to him? 15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering. 16 But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor have the churches of God.

The long hair Paul was talking about was the long hair on a woman.

The outline of the hair on the shroud is much longer than what you have depicted.

[Swordmaker]

Has that been established? I know one of the critical issues is obtaining samples for analysis and the SOT Church officials are very, very reluctant to allow a lot of sampling.

It is not just the Cathedral in Turin. The Shroud itself is considered the personal property of the current Pope, who ever that may be. . . and the Pope has to sign off on any thing done to or on it. The Last three popes have only allowed the ill-advised "restoration" of the Shroud in 2002, which did far more damage to the cloth than any preservation. The restoration probably also did more damage to the DNA that is present.

All the blood and sera that has been examined so far has shown very damaged DNA with broken, fragmented strands.

The status of DNA studies from the FAQ on Shroud.com says:

Q: Has DNA testing ever been performed on the Shroud, assuming the blood stains still have traces of DNA?

A: Several years ago, some Texas researchers did a DNA study of supposed Shroud bloodstains, but the provenance of the samples they used was questionable and their results have not been officially recognized. Nonetheless, their findings concluded that the blood on the Shroud is from a male human. They also stated that the blood is so old and degraded that very few DNA segments were found, eliminating any possibility of "cloning" anything from the blood found on the cloth. Other DNA experts argue however, that so much contamination exists on the Shroud that no DNA test, no matter how carefully done, could ever be considered definitive. During the 1978 exhibition and scientific examination, the cloth was handled by many people, including most members of STURP, the Church authorities who prepared it for display, the Poor Clare nuns who unstitched portions of it, visiting dignitaries (including the Archbishop of Turin and the emissary of King Umberto) and countless others. During the five days and nights of the 1978 examination, the Shroud was continuously exposed to contamination as it lay unprotected on the support table. Every member of our research team, including myself, left DNA on the cloth. And remember, the cloth has been displayed and handled thousands of times throughout its history. Once again, the Shroud presents us with an enigma that even DNA evidence may not definitively unravel.

On the other hand, DNA evidence does little if anything to help determine the mechanism that formed the image on the cloth. I am not sure that it has much other value, except perhaps, to satisfy someone's curiosity. I personally see little merit in pursuing it and expect the Church will not allow any formal DNA testing in the forseeable future anyway. The authorities have already officially stated that any future research efforts will concentrate exclusively on the preservation and conservation of the Shroud.

[Swordmaker]

Rome was in control of the world at that time. Rome set the cultural standards. The Romans wore their hair very short. Have you ever seen a Roman emperor represented with long hair.

You again assume too much.

Rome may have been the rulers of the outlying provinces, but that did not mean they were setting the styles, especially hairstyles like such are set today is not what happened in the ancient world. Local religion had a lot more to do with it than the mores of someone a thousand miles away. Romans were still a minority in the area and the people, especially the Jews, would NOT be likely to adopt their styles.

For example, Romans were almost invariably clean shaven. . . were the Jewish men going to shave their beards? I sincerely doubt it. Yet early iconography of Jesus showed him as a clean shaven man carrying a sheep, yet there is no evidence Jesus was ever a shepherd.

[grey_whiskers]

Why are you insisting on American 21st century cultural standards of the definition of long, without trying to find out what was historically done by Jews?

Looking at Roman customs doesn't tell us much. If you bother reading (even for example, Daniel, or Maccabees) you find that the Jews tended to get in trouble by resisting the cultural norms of whoever was occupying Israel at the time.

[Swordmaker]

Incidentally, in 2014 the Manoppellp Veronica image was submitted to the German Police Forensic Laboratory for computerized comparison with the Shroud of Turin image. The software is used to do feature comparison for criminal identification and is amazingly accurate in finding individuals in different photos, even in disguises. The Software reported that not only could no match be found, but the Manoppello image was not a human photo image but rather a work of human artifice, a painting, with which it could not do any comparisons. There were too many errors in anatomy to be comparable with any human face.

On the other hand, the image on the Shroud, after algorithmically removing the cloth artifacting, was recognized as human, the equivalent of a photograph, and was ready to be compared, but since the exemplar from the Manoppello Veronica was not usable, the software aborted.

"I have sent the image of the face from the Shroud and the image of Manoppello to Mr. Kinn, a criminal inspector and expert at LKA Mainz/Germany (German State Police). I had asked him about the possibility of using biometry to compare the Shroud face and the Manoppello face. In the case of the Manoppello he said that the computer would throw this out as a painting. In the case of the Turin face the computer would recognize it as a real face, if the pattern of the cloth were removed by algorithmical mathematics. Then the face recognition software would be able to make a biometrical scan. With the face of Manopello it is not possible, because the software would identify this not as a photo of a face but as an artwork. And there are too many anatomical mistakes on the face of Manoppello, whereas the Shroud of Turin face is anatomically correct. With your research into the Shroud of Turin, could you also bring light to the Manoppello image? This would be a great help."

[odawg]

1. Josephus shows that the Jews were known, as Eusebius renders it, for “their close-cropped hair” (Preparation for the Gospel, IX.9, sect 412b).

2. Leviticus 10:6 —

Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and Ithamar his sons, “Do not let your hair be loosely disheveled,

3. Ezek. 44:20 —

Nor shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long. They shall only trim the hair of their heads.

[odawg]

1. Josephus shows that the Jews were known, as Eusebius renders it, for “their close-cropped hair” (Preparation for the Gospel, IX.9, sect 412b).

2. Leviticus 10:6 —

Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and Ithamar his sons, “Do not let your hair be loosely disheveled,

3. Ezek. 44:20 —

Nor shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long. They shall only trim the hair of their heads.

[grey_whiskers]

1. Josephus shows that the Jews were known, as Eusebius renders it, for “their close-cropped hair” (Preparation for the Gospel, IX.9, sect 412b).

You're quoting a survey work written in the 300s? Mmmmmkay. 2. Leviticus 10:6 — Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and Ithamar his sons, “Do not let your hair be loosely disheveled,

This was topical, and was a reaction to the episode of Nadab taking it upon themselves to offer burnt incense. The full quote is :

1Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. 2And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 3Then Moses said to Aaron, "It is what the LORD spoke, saying, 'By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.'" So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.4Moses called also to Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron's uncle Uzziel, and said to them, "Come forward, carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to the outside of the camp." 6Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, "Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, so that you will not die and that He will not become wrathful against all the congregation. But your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, shall bewail the burning which the LORD has brought about.

Note the following:

a) as noted before this is TOPICAL, not a general command.

b) other translations say "uncover" as opposed to "unkempt".

Ergo, you are WRONG.

3. Ezek. 44:20 — Nor shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long. They shall only trim the hair of their heads.

Again, this is topical. The full quote is

15“ ‘But the Levitical priests, who are descendants of Zadok and who guarded my sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from me, are to come near to minister before me; they are to stand before me to offer sacrifices of fat and blood, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16They alone are to enter my sanctuary; they alone are to come near my table to minister before me and serve me as guards. 17“ ‘When they enter the gates of the inner court, they are to wear linen clothes; they must not wear any woolen garment while ministering at the gates of the inner court or inside the temple. 18They are to wear linen turbans on their heads and linen undergarments around their waists. They must not wear anything that makes them perspire. 19When they go out into the outer court where the people are, they are to take off the clothes they have been ministering in and are to leave them in the sacred rooms, and put on other clothes, so that the people are not consecrated through contact with their garments. 20“ ‘They must not shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but they are to keep the hair of their heads trimmed. 21No priest is to drink wine when he enters the inner court. 22They must not marry widows or divorced women; they may marry only virgins of Israelite descent or widows of priests.

Note again:

a) this refers to the descendants of Zadok (Levites, whereas Jesus was tribe of Judah)

b) did Jesus wear a turban on his head? Did he wear linen undergarments? (His tunic was of one piece, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled, for my garments they cast lots).

c) Jesus drank wine - Heavens, he turned water INTO wine,and liked to hang around with winebibbers and sinners, and drank wine at the Last Supper.

d) Last I heard, Jesus never got married, neither.

Ergo, you are WRONG.

I conclude that you are a dishonest TROLL.

[odawg]

“I conclude that you are a dishonest TROLL.”

And I conclude you are a POS. Screw off. I never dreamed anyone could latch on to something like this.

I am done with this nonsense.

[Dajjal]

I'm surprised no one has posted this image yet, which is part of the "new evidence" upon which this whole thread is based.

From:
New Study: The Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium of Oviedo Covered the Same Person
Researcher finds complete correspondence in the points where blood flow started

See also NYer's thread on that article:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3420011/posts.

[Bellflower]

It sounds to me like rigor mortis requires the breaking down of tissue or decomposition. It appears that according to the evidence per the shroud Jesus’ body was still in rigor mortis when He rose from the dead. It is very interesting to me that in a normal body in three days rigor mortis would likely be gone due to the normal processes of decomposition. Remember Lazerus who they said that in four days he would already be smelling very badly. Well I think that this phenomenon of Jesus still being in the state of rigor mortis shows that even in death His body did not go through the normal decay process. Amazingly the fact that he was still in rigor mortis verifies again that this man on this cloth was/is The Christ of The Bible. I believe that this is very Scriptural per these verses:

Psa 16:10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Act 2:27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Act 2:31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.