Posted on 10/10/2002 2:14:50 AM PDT by SteveH
Edited on 07/12/2004 3:57:54 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
GURAT, France, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- The Turin Shroud bearing the features of a crucified man may well be the cloth that enveloped the body of Christ, a renowned textile historian told United Press International Tuesday.
Disputing inconclusive carbon-dating tests suggesting the shroud hailed from medieval times, Swiss specialist Mechthild Flury-Lemberg said it could be almost 2,000 years old.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
The real link is here:
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20020924-122802-9689r
The real link is here:
The fact that the Shroud of Turin really has no proper authentication, in the form of history is a problem as well. If Mary took the shroud, it was recorded, and it passed from one hand to the next, it would be much easier to be believed that this is the shroud that Jesus was buried in.
It, of course, is all a matter of faith.
I've often wondered that since the shroud was involved in a fire in the 1500's, that resulted in burning portions of the cloth, whether the carbon based smoke from the building materials involved in the fire could have permeanated the shroud with a few hundred year old wood carbon tracings, thus masking the true date of the underlying cloth.
If, as this article states, spoonfuls of soot were removed from the surface, my thoughts may have some validity.
A notable claim with nothing to support it, or even describe it. I hate articles like that.
Does not normal Corbon dating sampling take off the surface material before doing a dating - such as taking material from the inside of a tooth, or inside a skull, or from the center of a piece of wood?
This is certainly a circular argument on the part of the speaker...as the image on the shroud was well known enought that painters have certainly long used the image to derive their view of Christ from it.
Let's suppose that the Shroud of Turin as it exists now is made up of two components: a shroud dating to 35 A.D. and contaminants of very recent origin. Let's suppose the worst-case scenario, and assume that the contaminants were dumped in just before the dating. The question is, how much contamination would we need to make the Shroud look as if it were made in 1275?
Let's define Ms = mass of Shroud, M1 = original mass, M2 = Mass of contaminants. Thus:
M = M1 + M2
But if we assume a natural C14 concentration of C, and know that the half-life of C14 is 5568 years, we also know that:
C*Ms*(-727/5568) = C*M1*2^(-1967/5568) + C*M2
0.9135*Ms = 0.7828*M1 + M2
Solving for the M1 gives
M1 = 0.3983 Ms, which means that
M2 = 1.51*M1, i.e. that the amount of contaminants in the Shroud outweighs the original Shroud by a factor of one and a half.
If we posit that the contaminants date to the fire of 1532, which the Shroud survived, the contaminants must outweigh the original Shroud by a factor of almost four and a half.
'Nuff said.
Of course, this is supposed to be C*Ms*2^(-727/5568). I performed the calculation correctly, even if I didn't write it down correctly.
And their baseline for what Jesus actually looked like is...?
A carpenter before power tools were invented would tend toward the burly side, methinks, and not much resemble the rather willowy traditional representations.
Not necessarily. Poor nutrition, constant fasting, tremendous self disipline.
We don't know if this is the image of Christ, but all images of Christ dipected for centuries have been referenced to the Shroud.
The biblical description of the wounds JC received. The scourge marks, thorny crown blood spots (not typical of an ordinary crucifixion), unbroken legs (also atypical), nail holes, wound in side.
Other than that he must have had a very ordinary appearance for people of that time and place, Otherwise Judas wouldn't have needed to betray him with a kiss, he coulda just said "Go get the really tall guy with the big nose, blond hair, small ears, and a limp."
In other words, the shroud shows an image of a corpse that matches what little the Bible describes about his physical appearance. (If we were supposed to worship his image he would be described in vivid detail)...
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