Be Ye Doers. . . Of The Word!

I remember first hearing about the Shroud of Turin (sometimes referred to as The Holy Shroud) when I was a teenager. I remember thinking how interesting it was that perhaps this shroud existed. Undoubtedly, I have read and heard of the Shroud often times since. However, even though I knew of its existence, it was not something of extreme interest to me. Recently I saw a segment on the television program Unsolved Mysteries concerning the Shroud of Turin. It told a little of its history and a little of the controversy as to its authenticity. The conclusion of the segment was basically that science has determined that it cannot be as old as 2000 years and therefore cannot be The Holy Shroud.

The scientific test which was supposedly the final nail in the coffin of the shroud was a test of its age via the Carbon 14 dating method. According to the test that was conducted on the shroud, it could not have existed prior to about 1400 AD. This "scientific conclusion" did spark my interest. As we will discuss in a future part of this series of articles on The Shroud Of Turin, the Carbon 14 Method of dating objects is not accurate. But before we get to that discussion, we must first go back and talk about the history of the shroud and how we got to the point of conducting this test.

First of all, what is The Shroud of Turin? After Jesus died on the cross, He was buried in a borrowed tomb which belonged to a man named Joseph of Arimathea. Matthew gives the account of Jesus' burial as follows: "Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then pilate commanded the body to be given to him. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed." (Matthew 27:57-60)

The Shroud of Turin is reported to be this very burial cloth mentioned in this passage. The Shroud is 14½ feet long by 3½ feet wide. As you can see from these dimensions, this Shroud is of sufficient size to completely cover a normal size man from head to foot, both front and back.

What makes The Shroud of Turin so interesting is not that the cloth is of sufficient size to have been the actual burial cloth of Jesus. The Shroud of Turin is much more than just a piece of lenin. On the cloth is the imprint of the full body (front and back) of a bearded man. The imprint itself is quite interesting, however we will deal with this later in this series. Also on the cloth are what appear to be several spillages of blood, and these blood spillages correspond to wounds afflicted to Jesus according to the Biblical account of His crucifixion.

The history of The Shroud of Turin is known – with any amount of certainty – only back to the year 1389. In that year, a bishop from the Roman Catholic Church sent the Pope a letter of complaint about a scandal which he had discovered in the town of Lirey near the French city of Troyes. The bishop, Pierre d'Arcis, told the Pope of a cloth (which he described as having been cunningly painted) that depicted the body of Christ. At this time, the cloth was owned by the De Charney family of France.

Prior to this point in history, there is no mention of a shroud or cloth which depicted the full body image of Christ. There is no Biblical record of what happened to the burial cloth of Jesus, nor is there any mention of a cloth or shroud which contained His image.

In 1453, Margaret de Charney gave the Shroud to Duke Louis of Savoy. It remained a possession of the Savoy family until 1983 when it was willed to the Vatican upon the death of Umberto of Savoy.

It should be noted that from 1389 until 1983 the Shroud was considered by many in the "religious world" to be a fake produced by some means of painting. It is true that once the Vatican came into possession of the Shroud, it began to loose the "official" stigma of a fraud. However, there are many written records that the Shroud was considered authentic by the Popes of the 1400 & 1500's. By the late 1500's, the Shroud was considered to be the Savoy family's sacred possession and was moved to the family's new capital, the city of Turin.

It is intriguing and fascinating to consider the possibility that the actual burial cloth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ still exists today. When one looks at the Shroud of Turin with this in mind, it is hard to NOT hope that this is truly His burial cloth. Adding to this natural desire for Christians to want to be able to see something of our Savior's, is the fascinating imprint on the cloth.
These two things make it difficult for those who love Christ to determine how they feel about the authenticity of the Shroud.

The imprints on the Shroud are very convincing. They are a uniform sepia (or yellow- brown) color and shadowy in character. The imprint of the face is that of a bearded man very similar to what we consider Christ to have looked like. The hands of the body are crossed over the loins. Also on the Shroud can be seen carmine-colored splashes which are apparently blood stains at the arms, feet, chest and across the back. These blood stain images correspond with what one would expect from a victim of a scourging and crucifixion as indicated in the Biblical account concerning Jesus.

Another intriguing fact is that when viewing the Shroud at close range, the images seem to disappear. When viewed under a magnifying glass, the areas of the cloth which contain the images are lacking of any substance such a paint or pigments. If the Shroud is indeed the work of an artist, he must have been one of the most extraordinary skill.

Until the late 1800's, there was little or no actual testing of the Shroud to determine its authenticity. In 1898 Secondo Pia was asked to make an official photograph of the Shroud. He took two exposures on large glass negative plates (customary for the photography of that time). What Pia discovered when he developed the negatives had a lasting affect on his life. To his surprise, when the negatives were developed they showed a well-proportioned and impressively built body. The blood stains were strikingly realistic as injuries to the hands, feet, chest and crown of the head. With this new evidence, the Shroud appears to be a negative image of the body which shows up positive on a photographic negative.

In 1931 Giuseppe Enrie, a professional photographer, took new and far more extensive photographs of the Shroud. His series of photographs included close-up of the face and the blood stains. In 1969, 1973 and 1978 more photographs were taken of the Shroud. Each set of photographs reinforce with more and more clarity the findings of Pia that the image of the body and face are realistic in proportion, detail and negative characteristic.

In 1978 a team of scientists went to Turin to do extensive testing on the Shroud. This team of scientists called themselves the Shroud of Turin Research Project or STURP for short. The team consisted of twenty-four scientific and technical personnel. The team conducted a wide variety of tests on the Shroud including photographic, X-ray and microscopic analysis of the Shroud. The discoveries of this group were intriguing and fascinating to say the least.

Is the Shroud of Turin the actual burial cloth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Is it possible that the burial cloth was cared for down through the ages and preserved for us even to this day? There are many scientists and researchers who believe that the Shroud of Turin is indeed the burial cloth of Jesus. However, there are those who are equally sure that it is not the actual burial cloth. If it is the actual burial cloth of Jesus, what significance does this have for Christian in the 1990's?

In future segments of this series of articles on the Shroud of Turin, I will be discussing the following topics:

1. What is the evidence for the antiquity and authenticity of the Shroud?

2. What is the evidence for the Shroud being a fraud and the product of an exceptional artist – and who was this artist?

3. Is there evidence that the Shroud existed prior to 1389?

All Scriptures quoted are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

Sources:
1. Wilson, Ian. The Mysterious Shroud Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1986.
2. Heller, John H. Report on The Shroud of Turin Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1983.

See: The Shroud of Turin - Part 2 and The Shroud of Turin - Part 3