Remember Jezebel's priests of Baal, that cut themselves to try and get their god's attention? Wounding one’s self to make a ‘shroud’ is not very far fetched. Especially if the result could get one’s self a nice payday/news worthy attention. Imagine: Jerusalem 100A.D., town crier shouting “Man looking in cave finds blood stained cloth with resemblence of a man that had been crucified!”.
Through the centuries, there have been (mentally unsound) people that have willingly been crucified, to be like Jesus Christ. How many were wrapped in a big cloth to further duplicate the event?
Is it also possible that some sicko disabled some poor soul, then wounded him in the same locations as described by the Christ's crucifiction, then rolled him up in the cloth?
Scammers have been around a long time, even before Rebekah briefly ‘transformed’ Jacob into Esau.
One thing is certain, the shroud has been a money maker. We shouldn't declare it a fraud, for fear of possibly offending those that have profited from it. (think the ‘silversmiths of Diana’)
God chose the foolishness of preaching to save the lost. If a piece of blood stained cloth pricks the heart of a soul, creating a desire to hear the word of God, then that's a positive.
The two pieces; linen wrapped around the body, and the cloth that was wrapped around the head, would seem to make the whole matter more complex. Where is the cloth that was wrapped around his head? Don't tell me that your dog ate it. If the entire body was wrapped with one big cloth, then why was the separate cloth for the head even needed? was it wrapped around the head after the big cloth was wrapped over the body? If so, why?
I'm trying to wrap my head around all this so-called expert/scientific analysis, but will believe the Lord regardless.
disclaimer: I am not a wrapper.
Is it also possible that some sicko disabled some poor soul, then wounded him in the same locations as described by the Christ's crucifiction, then rolled him up in the cloth?
Scammers have been around a long time, even before Rebekah briefly ‘transformed’ Jacob into Esau.
One thing is certain, the shroud has been a money maker. We shouldn't declare it a fraud, for fear of possibly offending those that have profited from it. (think the ‘silversmiths of Diana’)
More blind denial without evaluating the evidence. I wish at least one skeptic would address the scientific evidence before speculating the Shroud might be fake, or offer that it should not be declared a fake because it is a moneymaker, thereby implying that there is good evidence it is fake but that evidence is being covered up for monetary reasons.
None of the scenarios you propose would imprint an image of a man on the cloth, let alone the irradiated image found on the Shroud. The scenarios you propose would just show the blood stains. Plus they would have needed microscopic pollen from Jerusalem and not only understood the need for it in order to fool scientists several hundred years in the future, but actually gone out and gotten it and put it on the Shroud. Then there is the issue of matching the blood stains on the suderium
As far as it being a moneymaker, that has no bearing at all on its legitimacy. As far as the 75 pounds of spice, this idea implies that there should be traces of the spice on the cloth. I don't know if that has even been looked at but if there is none, and someone wants to propose that is an indicator that it is not the image of Christ on the Shroud, then we need to ponder who's image it is? It would have to the image of someone crucified exactly like Christ, about the same time and place, who somehow irradiated his image onto the cloth.
If that scenario is true, how does that affect Christianity?
The Shroud has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt to not be a fake, therefore it is either the image of Christ or someone else. The chance of it being someone else is extremely small.
See post 35, about the cloth of Suderium or whatever it is called. Has blood in the same patterns as the shroud. They have also done analysis of the blood (both rare type AB - although I have read where ALL old blood gets typed as AB, so...)
But physicians have also done studies on where the blood pooled, etc. and describe that it makes sense with regard to contracting muscles, etc. after death. So not just some scammer cutting himself and splattering blood all over.
Oh - the cloth head wrap. In the Bible it does talk about the two seperate piles of cloth (interesting detail in itself). I’m not sure if they are postive, or conjecture, but I have heard that the head cloth was wrapped around the head first - below the jaw and over the crown of the head, to keep the mouth closed. And then they placed the body on top of the long shroud and then draped the remainder of the shroud over the body (with the “fold” at the top of the head).