Posted on 04/01/2018 9:30:09 AM PDT by Kaslin
Coinciding with the Easter celebration of Jesus Christ’s resurrection — the foundational basis of Christianity — is the annual controversy over whether there exists physical proof of this miraculous event.
The “evidence” is a 14.5' by 3.5' linen cloth known as the Shroud of Turin, believed by millions of Christians to be the authentic burial shroud of Jesus Christ. The cloth is preserved in an underground vault in the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, where it has resided since 1578.
Visible on the cloth in a faint yellowed color is a full front and back body image of a tortured adult male bearing the wounds of crucifixion. Additionally, every mark on the body image is consistent with the biblical accounts of Christ’s suffering. For example, there are over 100 scourge marks, while bloodstain patterns on his scalp and forehead suggest the painful “crown of thorns.” A large blood stain on his side is compatible with a spear wound. His knees are bruised, but his legs are not broken.
Does the “Man of the Shroud” reflect how Jesus looked the second before his resurrection? Answering that question is precisely why the Shroud’s mysterious yet scientifically proven properties have baffled generations of scientists and researchers. Also the reason why the Shroud continues to be the most analyzed artifact in the world.
Let’s explore the Shroud’s top five mysteries:
Mystery #1: The Shroud photographs as a photo-negative image.
In 1898 an Italian photographer named Secondo Pia obtained permission to apply the “new” technology of photography to the Shroud. When developing his photos, Pia was astonished to discover the Shroud’s first “modern” unexplained mystery – the Shroud photographs as a photo-negative image. That means the Shroud is a negative image that shows up positive when seen in a photographic negative. 
Photo-negative image of Shroud of Turin front and back side by side. Credit: © 1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA. Inc. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted to author.
Mystery #2: “The Shroud is not the product of an artist.”
Fast forward to 1978 when 40 distinguished scientists, famously known as STURP -- Shroud of Turin Research Project, obtained permission to perform what was then state of the art optical and chemical tests on the Shroud. The key objective of STURP was to determine the nature of the cloth’s image and bloodstains.
In 1981 STURP issued their comprehensive report. The last paragraph of the summary stated: “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 also give a positive test for serum albumin. The image is an ongoing mystery and until further chemical studies are made, perhaps by this group of scientists, or perhaps by some scientists in the future, the problem remains unsolved.”
The Shroud of Turin (vertical position) how it looks to the naked eye. Marks running the length of the Shroud on both sides of the image are from a fire in 1532 that almost destroyed the Shroud. Credit: Giorgio Bracaglia / Holy Shroud Guild PPF. Permission granted to author.
Mystery #3: How was the image formed?
STURP’s mission to solve the mystery of the substance used to form the image only deepened when their summary concluded:
“No pigments, paints, dyes or stains have been found on the fibrils. X-ray, fluorescence, and microchemistry on the fibrils preclude the possibility of paint being used as a method for creating the image. Ultra Violet and infrared evaluation confirm these studies.”
Mystery #4: The Shroud is encoded with 3D distance information.
Again, from STURP’s final report summary:
“Computer image enhancement and analysis by a device known as a VP-8 image analyzer show that the image has unique, three-dimensional information encoded in it.”
This 3D encoded information first visualized by STURP on a primitive image analyzer in 1978, was updated in 2010 and served as the basis for the History Channel’s documentary, “The Real Face of Jesus?” Seen by millions, the popular documentary aired annually on Easter weekend between the years 2010 – 2017.
I asked Ray Downing, the 3D artist who starred in the documentary and produced a life-portrait of Jesus based on the Shroud’s 3D information, to further explain this phenomenon. Downing said:
“What the Shroud mysteriously seems to retain is information about the distance the cloth was from parts of the body it presumably rested on, as well as parts of the body it was not in direct contact with.”
Mystery #5: Shroud image is uniform in intensity across both frontal and dorsal images.
Here to explain this unexplainable uniform intensity is Russ Breault, a world renowned Shroud expert who also starred in “The Real Face of Jesus?” Breault says:
“The image appears because something caused the accelerated dehydration and oxidation of the cellulose fibers comprising the linen—NOT because of any substance applied to the cloth. The image is only two micro-fibers deep—about 1% of a single thread and is uniform in intensity throughout the cloth--with no deviation -- a feat impossible with human hands!”
There are many more Shroud mysteries, but the previous five are the most baffling to scientists. Now the stage is set for what I call “Controversy #1” — the 1988 carbon-14 dating.
In 1988 the Shroud underwent a process known as carbon-14 dating. The test dated the Shroud between the years 1260 –1390. Immediately headlines around the globe screamed that the Shroud was a “medieval forgery” Today that moniker is still prevalent among Shroud naysayers, but those dates do not address or negate the five mysteries.
Subsequently, during last 30 years, the carbon -14 dating has been continually questioned and criticized. Again, here is Russ Breault to elaborate on this lingering controversy:
“The carbon dating controversy centers around tiny samples of the Shroud cut from an outer corner of the cloth. The area cut is from the most held and handled section thought to have been added during the Middle Ages as a repair or a re-weave. Then, in 2005, evidence for the repair was published in a peer-reviewed journal by chemist Ray Rogers, a STURP team member. Furthermore, a new Shroud dating analysis method originating at Padua University in Italy was published in 2013. That research dated the Shroud between 280 BC - AD 220, a 500-year timeframe that includes AD 33, the year traditionally associated with Christ’s crucifixion.”
Unfortunately, the Vatican has yet to authorize any new comprehensive 21st century scientific examinations of the Shroud guaranteeing that it will remain one of the world’s greatest mysteries.
Finally, Easter Sunday is the time to focus on the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus.
Still, the question remains, “Does the Shroud provide physical proof?”
Meanwhile, the Shroud’s very existence causes us all to ask the same question Jesus asked Peter, “Who do you say that I am?”
Contemplate that question and have a Happy Easter!
Not only 500 hundred eyewitnesses, but 500 eyewitnesses who were willing to die for their testimony!
God did not at all forbid the veneration of objects associated with His saving acts. In fact, He ordered it.
This one?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shroud_of_Turin#Material_chemical_analysis
In 2013, Giulio Fanti performed new dating studies on fragments obtained from the shroud. He performed three different tests including ATR-FTIR and Raman spectroscopy (absorption of light of different colors). The date range from these tests date the shroud between 300 BC and 400 AD.[ These studies have been publicly disregarded by Cesare Nosiglia, archbishop of Turin and custodian of the shroud. Cardinal Nosiglia stated that "as it is not possible to be certain that the analysed material was taken from the fabric of the shroud no serious value can be recognized to the results of such experiments".
I'm not sure you quite understood my point.
I'm a technical man and I just luv learning about the features of our universe that give hints of the divine. One example is the rare earth hypothesis, that validates (can't prove, but validates) that it took a universe as vast as ours, with so many trillions of suns and rocky planets, to have a single one with the right conditions such that God could create life.
Another example is the background microwave radiation that proves there was a big bang. Until the 1950s who would have thought for even a single minute that there would be scientific evidence of the moment of creation?
Back to my point. Jesus was a man, right? Flesh and blood, right? So did he have DNA? If he did, was it DNA from a man and a spirit? Or all from his mother? Or something else entirely?
If his dead face was resting underneath that shroud, perhaps enough cells wore away to leave some DNA.
Would that DNA be truly human or would it be divine? That's my point. And if the DNA that was found, and analyzed, and proved to be some kind of "perfect" DNA, that would most surely be a little clue about just who the man was!
As for worshiping the DNA, well ... I don't know about that. But it can't be much different than worshiping a piece of cloth. By itself, the cloth means nothing to me. But if it contains a hint, or a clue, to the man's whose dead face was resting underneath it, now that is fascinating.
None of those was a depiction.
And none of the things you mention could be viewed by the people because they were specifically put in the ark where they could not be seen. And even the ark was covered by cloths and skins when transported so nobody could look at that. One item not placed in he ark was the bronze serpent Moses put on a pole - and why was that later destroyed by King Hezikiah?
The latter. Read the Byzantine history of the Mandylion and you'll see just where I'm coming from. I believe the Image of Edessa wasn't a cloth (which would have decayed very quickly) but a piece of statuary. Cloth and statuary were supposedly discovered in Edessa five centuries after they had been hidden from view. The cloth was considered miraculous, not the statuary, which was referred to as the Keramion (tile) and subsequently became lost to history.
Incidentally, I'm not sure that the actual shroud depicts anything of crucifixion, in and of itself. The evidence of crucifixion is based on the bloodstains, which I'm not convinced were part of the original.
I bandied this hypothesis about, many years ago, but didn't get much support for it. The problem is that no one, but no one will look at the Shroud objectively. It's either the burial shroud of Christ or it's an utter hoax ... nothing in-between.
I understood your point exactly. You think it would be real cool if God left tangible, empirical evidence (from the cloth) to substantiate the diety of Christ. Yes, God could have done that in a thousand different ways but so far as we know he didn’t. There’s got to be a reason for that. I believe the reason is that the evidence, or the medium it came from, would end up being worshiped as an icon. Just as happened to the bronze serpent which is why King Hezikiah had it destroyed.
God never ordered the veneration of the items you listed. In fact he hid them from people so they could not be seen and venerated.
Really?! Well, what were the names of those 500 eyewitnesses?
No, I didn't think so.
Well, where are the 500 separate sworn dispositions (testimony) of those 500 eyewitnesses?
No, I didn't think so.
Well, then at least show me the Death Certificates of those 500 eyewitnesses who were willing to die for their testimony.
Again, I didn't think so.
Regards,
God never ordered the veneration of the items you listed. In fact he hid them from people so they could not be seen and venerated.
Ok there smart guy
So do you think the Shroud of Turin is bogus? Because God wouldn’t have left something to be worshipped?
Making a gold-covered chest with a golden lid, which is covered with 2 golden cherubim, is in itself an act of veneration. Veiling it from sight and forbidding people to touch it, is also an act of veneration.<
The Jews would not only bow down, but prostrate themselves before the Ark of the Covenant when they were praying to and adoring God.<
Joshua 7:6-7
Then Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust upon their heads.
Yeah je didnt say he who needs to see is cursed dumb dumb. That one mode of belief is more meritorious says nothing about the shroud
I think that creates the strong probability it is bogus.
(2) The Shroud is NOT a depiction (in the sense of an artist's rendition.) It is a biochemical result, a physical evidence.
(3) Our faith does not rest on this physical evidence. It rests on the Word of God. However, Christ spent 40 days after His Resurrection giving people physical evidence: His own physical body alive. <
St. John starts his Gospel with something utterly transcendent (the Word which was from the beginning), but begins his first Epistle with his testimony that this Word is "what we have seen with our eyes, what we have heard, what we have looked upon and touched with our hands." (1 John 1:1.)
Veiling the Ark is itself an act of veneration.
Yet by the time of Solomon the only thing left in the ark was the tablets and not long after the ark itself was gone. Guess they weren’t treated with that much reverence.
One does not need a sworn deposition and/or a death certificate to be a credible eyewitness to a historic fact.
Saul who was persecuting and killing Christians, became a witness himself on the way to Damascus. He later became a martyr for his testimony.
Many of the witnesses became martyrs-- is that a good enough "death certificate" for you?
May the God grant you the grace to see the Way, the Truth and the Life.
God Bless!
Further adding to the physical evidence is the Sudarium of Oviedo (https://www.shroud.com/guscin.htm) whose known history is better documented, and centuries older, than that of the Shroud.
Chemical, biological, physical, and botanical examinations of the Sudarium offer support for the Crucifixion, and as an aside, for the authenticity of the Shroud itself.
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