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.

[Titanites]

The Vatican has **secret** archives? Huh?

"Secret" as used here means private. Have a look at this reference for an explantion.

They are private archives now open to public researchers.

[NYer]

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.

:-) And that is precisely how a snippet of the shroud, sent for analysis, came back with a medieval date. As you pointed out, it was a caretaker who approached the task centuries ago to reweave frayed fabric and did such an excellent job that it was not visible to the naked eye.

You can read more here.

[getitright]

Ironic- on the drive to work this morning I was pondering the Vatican Secret Archives.

Imagine! 600 years at least of an uninterrupted seat of power. The Vatican has no need to sway with public opinion, answers to no government, pays tax to no one, more or less has access to the leaders of all nations, controls an empire of churches which cover the globe... I suppose they have some veeeery interesting items in their collection. I wanna see!!

[Alberta's Child]

Good points.

I would also point out that many skeptics point out all this alleged "evidence" that the Shroud is a medieval forgery . . . but can't ever explain how someone in medieval times could possibly have created it.

This would be the equivalent of finding bones of some unknown creature buried in a shallow grave that dates back to the 1400s -- and then determining that the only rational explanation based on "evidence" we have today was that it was created through a genetic modification process in a Merck or Johnson & Johnson labratory.

[Lion Den Dan]

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.

Bureaucrats were the same then as now.

[sassy steel magnolia]

agree! God grins at our determination to prove/disprove Him. I love it when more Biblical things are scientifically studied and God still, as always, is the answer.

Let ‘em pick apart the Bible...God is in the pieces and in the whole. They cannot destroy Him!

[org.whodat]

Made in China?.............

BINGO!!!

[Political Junkie Too]

"Inspected by #12"

-PJ

[RGSpincich]

Eat at Luigi’s.

[Joe 6-pack]

"Bureaucrats were the same then as now."

No doubt...and I'm sure the Romans were as clumsily bureucratic as any other empire...It's just that most Gospel accounts suggest that the body was deposed and entombed rather hurriedly due to the onset of Passover. I could see the titulus crucis perhaps being taken off the cross and interred with the body. While most artwork suggests that it was a carved inscription, I'd think it probably more likely that it had been a written proclomation.

[edcoil]

Should have used my /sarc.

[Titanites]

I suppose they have some veeeery interesting items in their collection. I wanna see!!

You can start here.

[Wpin]

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

She obviously translated the text so that lay people, could understand the meaning.

[mnehring]

I was just being a jerk. :->

[concerned about politics]

As you pointed out, it was a caretaker who approached the task centuries ago to reweave frayed fabric and did such an excellent job that it was not visible to the naked eye.

The shroud was in a fire. It was burnt, but they managed to get it out of the building before it was totally destroyed. The burnt parts were probably rewoven. Otherwise, there would still be burn marks in it.

[cookcounty]

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

Bing-o!

[getitright]

“The oldest document dates back to the end of the VIII Century, while the archives have an almost uninterrupted documentation starting from 1198.”

Cool

[Buck W.]

Not sure, but is was definitely “Mostly Harmless”.

[kidd]

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

With 2000 years of handling, it could have happened at any time. Perhaps it was a clerk/investigator who cataloged the contents of the tomb AFTER Jesus had risen from the dead. Or maybe a 13th century monk who was preparing the cloth for storage.

This is an interesting find. Needs further investigation.

[svcw]

Thanks. It is interesting information to be sure. I need to do some reading in the NT this afternoon, am having trouble remembering the details of the burial.

When I said towel in response to "42", it was actually a movie reference.

Thanks again.