Researcher says she found text on Shroud of Turin

AP ^ | November 20, 2009

[NYer]

ROME — A Vatican researcher claims she has found a nearly invisible text on the Shroud of Turin and says the discovery proves the authenticity of the artifact revered as Jesus' burial cloth.

The claim made in a new book by historian Barbara Frale drew immediate skepticism from some scientists, who maintain the shroud is a medieval forgery.

Frale, a researcher at the Vatican archives, says the faint writing emerged through computer analysis of photos of the shroud, which is not normally accessible for study.

Frale says the jumble of Greek, Latin and Aramaic includes the words "Jesus Nazarene" and mentions he was sentenced to death. She believes the text was written on a document by a clerk to identify the body and the ink then seeped into the cloth.

[BertWheeler]

I’m not taking sides here and I’m not advocating one side or the other.

But...

A big but!

I’m a little disappointed in the knee jerk reaction of “some scientists” who immediately declare it a medieval forgery.

Here’s why.

Let’s assume that you have a piece of furniture that was handed down to you from your Great (x5) Grandfather. It’s a nice wooden table and, as family legend goes, the table is 225 years old. Ok. So far so good.

Fifty years from now, your own grandson decides to have the table professionally restored. So some high end, true mastercraftsman comes and takes the table to his shop and spends six months really doing a kick butt job on restoring the table. This was done in 2048.

Your family gets its precious heirloom back and the thing looks great and is guaranteed to last a couple hundred more years before another restoration job is done on it.

Your grandson’s great great grandson tells his son that this table is 400 years old but the great (x3) grandson is the sneering type and will put that to the test by using “science”.

He talks to a “scientist” who tells him to scrape the wood somewhere inconspicuous and bring it to him. The “scientist” then tests it and - wala - the table was built in 2048 and not sometime in the late 1700’s.

The great(x3) grandson goes home and boisterously calls everyone a liar and that the table is a fake!

Lucky for the family and the family heirloom, there was a great (x3) granddaughter who wasn’t a jackazz and she passed the table on to her sons and daughters and the revered tradition was sustained.

As for the foolish great (x3) grandson, well, he started using drugs and hanging around democrats and decided to have himself neutered because of his fears of global warming and, in the end, he blew his brains out but nobody really missed him.

My point? People who are caretakers of priceless heirlooms sometimes have them restored and repaired over and over and over again. So, through the decades and centuries, the actual original material is largely replaced. The object remains the same and is kept in good condition because the caretakers have reverence for it.

[antiRepublicrat]

The ink could also be from the earlier days after the shroud’s creation, basically an ad describing the newly-forged relic.

[svcw]

But was there a towel?

[CholeraJoe]

Hecho en Mexico?

[IGOTMINE]

“BE SURE TO EAT YOUR OVALTINE”.

[agere_contra]

There is a "towel" or rather, facecloth. It is an item called the Sudarium of Olviedo. And here's the thing: the bloodstains and other markings on it match those on the Shroud.

And the Sudarium has a provenance that is well attested back to the 1st century.

[Walkingfeather]

If there is ink, it should be able to be analyzed to see if it is from what ever time period it came from.

[concerned about politics]

I'm not sure why a scribe would feel the need, or even be directed to generate what amounts to the 1st century equivalent of a toe tag for the corpse.

There weren't tomb stones back then, and it was another mans grave site. I can understand putting an identification on the body. They expected the body to stay there.

[ArrogantBustard]

NOT Guilty.

[SoothingDave]

“This bag is not a toy.”

[Joe 6-pack]

"The ink could also be from the earlier days after the shroud’s creation, basically an ad describing the newly-forged relic."

If, as many theororize, the shroud is a medieval European forgery made for a European audience, the Aramaic script would seem a little over the top, don't you think?

[catfish1957]

...”Dan Brown is a twit”?

[catfish1957]

...”Dry clean only”?

[reagan_fanatic]

Not guilty after a tequila sunrise or two.

[ravingnutter]

duplicated the cloth and impression...

Ummmm...not really...more info at the links:

[Shroud of Turin] Comments About the Recent Experiment of Professor Luigi Garlaschelli

Science by Press Release? An Editorial Response to the latest Shroud of Turin announcement

Experts question scientist’s claim of reproducing Shroud of Turin

Atheist-Funded Researcher: Shroud of Turin Is a Fraud (follow the money trail)

[jwparkerjr]

re: God is like that

I have always suspected He has a great sense of humor and especially likes using it to mess with those who refuse to believe in Him!

[mnehring]

Jesus, not Yeshua (Joshua)? Also, would the standard name be Yeshua ben Yosef, not Jesus Nazarene?

[sr4402]

Any Pictures yet of this “Writing”?

[jwparkerjr]

My family had a living room table that was made sometime around 1910. In 1955 they decided to have it refinished. The refinisher told them they should have its original date of manufacture on it and a note that it was refinished by the our family 1955. So it's not uncommon for those with really old artifacts to make a note on them to let others years and years later know of the history.

I would not find it hard to believe that at some time someone felt it necessary to make a notation on the shroud as to its origin.

Turns out the guy who had ‘duplicated’ it recently had produced a crude replica, lacking many of the mysterious qualities the true Shroud displays.

[Joe 6-pack]

"There weren't tomb stones back then, and it was another mans grave site."

If the grave had been prepared for anyone else, it would have been Joseph of Arimathea himself...

"And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a good man, and a just: (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. - Luke 23:50-54

"When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed." - Matthew 27:57-60