Sunday June 15th. 2008

The Enigma of the Shroud of Turin

Recently Pope Benedict announced that the Shroud of Turin would be on view to the public in 2010, and he himself hoped to visit the Shroud. The Church has not expressed any view about the authenticity of the Shroud, but it has baffled the greatest forensic minds for many years, and even more recently with their sophisticated scientific instruments which are available.

The carbon 14 dating conducted in 1988 seemed conclusive: the Shroud of Turin was not, as millions of people believed, the authentic burial Shroud of Jesus. The results of radiocarbon measurements at Arizona, Oxford and Zurich yield a calibrated calendar age range of the Shroud of Turin from AD 1260 - 1390.  First of all, these results  provide conclusive evidence that the linen of the Shroud of Turin is mediaeval! However, there was a  serious error for it seems that what was tested was nothing more than a mixture of old thread and new thread from a medieval patch  of a repair may have been made sometime between 1530 or 1531, which is well documented. This was corroborated by some of the greatest textile experts in the world.

The striking negative image was first observed on the evening of May 28, 1898 on the reverse photographic plate of amateur photographer Secondo Pia who was allowed to photograph it while it was being exhibited in the Turin Cathedral. According to Pia, he almost dropped and broke the photographic plate from the shock of seeing an image of a person on it, for the camera had produced a positive from the negative, something unknown in photography until that moment.

The flax that was used to wove the Shroud can only be found in a region  around Jerusalem, and nowhere else. This is also true of the grains pollen detected by electronic microscope, which belonged to a wild flower in the same area. Every facet of the Shroud points to its origin at the time of Christ. The image on the Shroud is not painted, but is as thought it was almost burned on to the fabric by a powerful burst of light (the glory of the resurrection?).

The  scourge marks on the body show two different types of scourges used by the Romans, one more fierce than the other, to make the victims suffer for their crime. The face shows someone who has suffered great pain and distress.

Over the page is a more complete pathologist report on the Shroud, and it shows how closely the findings identify themselves to the  detailed sufferings of Our Lord that we already know from the Gospels.

The majestic face on the Shroud