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Arguments
against the Shroud's authenticity are prima
facie, supported by the now discredited carbon 14 dating and a prevailing
view of
the way things are in the world. The case for
authenticity is a compelling
preponderance of scientific and historic
evidence. So daunting is the evidence that we can only wonder if, as postmodernists
suggest,
no such thing as truth exists, that history and
science are but negotiable perceptions. The alternative is to consider, as C.
S. Lewis contends that rare exceptions to nature are
possible.
 WHAT
IS IT, REALLY?
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 Until
1204 CE, when crusaders sacked Constantinople,
there was in that city, a picture of Jesus on a
piece of cloth. It had been moved there from the
city of Edessa in 944 where it was discovered in
the city walls in 544. Historians think that the Edessa
Cloth, also known as the Mandylion,
is what
we now call the Shroud of Turin. MORE
ON EDESSA |
 Since
the eighth century, there has been in Oviedo,
Spain, an ancient piece of linen known as the
Sudarium. Blood stains and forensic analysis
link it to the Shroud. MORE
ABOUT THE SUDARIUM |
 Scholars
have found an amazing connection between
the Shroud and depictions of Christ. These
depictions date
back as far as the sixth century. MORE
ON THE ART CONNECTION |
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If
the Shroud is indeed the Edessa Cloth, as most
Shroud scholars now believe, then what
happened to it after the sack of Constantinople?
MORE
ON THE MISSING YEARS |
The
Shroud was displayed in Lirey, France in the
1350's. Later, moved to Chambery,
France it was almost destroyed in a fire in
1532. It is now in Turin, Italy. Nothing in its
later history has been more significant than a
century of research since Secondo
Pia's amazing discovery of its negative image
properties in 1898. MORE
ON THE SHROUD'S LATER HISTORY
ANOTHER SITE WORTH
VISITING
|
 It
seems there is something over the eyes. It
is quite possible that coins were placed on the
eyelids to keep the man's eyes closed. This was a
common burial practice. There is some evidence
that these may be coins that were struck about 30
CE.
MORE
ON THE COINS |
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BREAKING NEWS FROM CNN:
MILAN, Italy
(Reuters, April 14, 2004) -- Italian scientists
have found a matching image of a man's face and
possibly his hands on the back of the Turin
shroud, believed by many to be the burial cloth
of Jesus Christ, one of the researchers said on
Thursday. SECOND
FACE
|
 The
work of Dr. Avinoam Danin, a botany professor at
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Dr. Uri
Baruch, a pollen specialist at the Israel
Antiquities Authority is highly significant. Pollen
grains and flower images show that
the cloth was at one time in the Jerusalem
environs as well as the
Anatolia area of Turkey that includes the cities of Constantinople and Edessa. MORE
ABOUT POLLEN AND FLOWERS
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TOUGH QUESTIONS
A
TIMELINE FOR THE SHROUD
WHAT IS IT, REALLY?
|
 The
Shroud is an old, blood-stained piece
of linen with traces of dirt. The historical
nature of the cloth, the
peculiarities of the blood stains, and the
particles of travertine aragonite limestone dirt
that suggest an origin in Jerusalem, are all
significant to understanding the Shroud's origins. MORE
ABOUT THE CLOTH |
 Twentieth
century forensic medicine tells us that the
image on the Shroud is an anatomically correct picture of
man
in a state of rigor mortis who was tortured and crucified. The blood stains
are realistic to the point that only
modern-day pathologists would know how to explain
them.MORE
ON FORENSICS
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.Scientist
do not know how the image was created. Having
ruled out a work of art, they also rule out most
natural causes known to science at this time. MORE
ON NATURAL CAUSE EXPLANATIONS
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Together,
a conspectus of its history and
valid scientific
evidence make a strong case that the Shroud is a
genuine burial cloth of a Roman-style crucifixion
victim. Valid is
emphasized because much that is reported in
polemic books and websites—by zealous believers
and skeptics alike—is junk science.
The Shroud has an image of a
much wounded, crucified man. Is it a picture of
Jesus?
WHAT IS IT, REALLY?
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Scientists,
who have examined the evidence, have completely
discredited the results 
of 1988 carbon 14 tests that determined that the
Shroud had a medieval origin. Contrary to popular
belief, carbon 14 testing is not always right.
Chemical analysis shows that what was tested is
not representative of the Shroud's fabric. It was
a medieval patch to repair a damaged edge. MORE
ABOUT THE CARBON 14 TESTS |
 The
image appears to be a 3D encoded chart of the front and back of a
man that also happens to have the important characteristics of a photographic
negative. This unique dual quality may help theoretical
physicists understand how the image was created.
MORE
ON 3D |
| The
image is very faint and composed of discolored lengths of
coated fibers that have been chemically
altered (dehydrated, oxidized and conjugated). Scientists call
the lengths
of discolored fibers: pixels. Different shades of
yellow in the image are achieved by the
number of pixels in an area in very much the
same way as half tone photographs are printed in
newspapers. Pixels are only to be found in the topmost
layers of the cloth. MORE
ON THE PIXELS |
 Chemists
and art scholars have ruled out the possibility
that the Shroud is a painting or any other known
form of art, including photography. MORE
ON IT NOT BEING A WORK OF ART |
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What was John Dominic Crossan thinking when he
wrote?
"My best understanding is that
the Shroud of Turin is a medieval
relic-forgery. I wonder whether it was done
from a crucified dead body or from a crucified
living body. That is the rather horrible
question once you accept it as a forgery."
JOHN DOMINIC
CROSSAN PARADOX
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For the latest
information, much of it news in 2004, visit
Shroud of Turin Facts
or return to Pictures of
Jesus at the home page for this site. |
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