Shroud of Turin

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3: Coincidence with the Shroud

The sudarium alone has revealed sufficient information to suggest that it was in contact with the face of Jesus after the crucifixion. However, the really fascinating evidence comes to light when this cloth is compared to the Shroud of Turin.

The first and most obvious coincidence is that the blood on both cloths belongs to the same group, namely AB.

The length of the nose through which the pleural oedema fluid came onto the sudarium has been calculated at eight centimetres, just over three inches. This is exactly the same length as the nose on the image of the Shroud.

If the face of the image on the Shroud is placed over the stains on the sudarium, perhaps the most obvious coincidence is the exact fit of the stains with the beard on the face. As the sudarium was used to clean the man’s face, it appears that it was simply placed on the face to absorb all the blood, but not used in any kind of wiping movement.

A small stain is also visible proceeding from the right hand side of the man’s mouth. This stain is hardly visible on the Shroud, but Dr. John Jackson, using the VP-8 and photo enhancements has confirmed its presence.

The thorn wounds on the nape of the neck also coincide perfectly with the bloodstains on the Shroud.

Dr. Alan Whanger applied the Polarized Image Overlay Technique to the sudarium, comparing it to the image and bloodstains on the Shroud. The frontal stains on the sudarium show seventy points of coincidence with the Shroud, and the rear side shows fifty. The only possible conclusion is that the Oviedo sudarium covered the same face as the Turin Shroud.

4: The Temporal Aspect the sudarium before the Shroud

The sudarium has no image, and none of the facial stains of dried or drying blood visible on the Shroud, especially the stain on the forehead in the shape of an inverted three. The stains on the sudarium were made by a less viscous mixture.

This, together with the fact that the fingers which held the sudarium to Jesus’ nose have left their mark, point to a short temporal use of the cloth and eliminate the possibility of its contact with the body after burial.

Jewish tradition demands that if the face of a dead person was in any way disfigured, it should be covered with a cloth to avoid people seeing this unpleasant sight. This would certainly have been the case with Jesus, whose face was covered in blood from the injuries produced by the crown of thorns and swollen from falling and being struck.

It seems that the sudarium was first used before the dead body was taken down from the cross and discarded when it was buried.

This fits in with what we learn from John’s gospel, which tells us that the sudarium was rolled up in a place by itself.

5: Conclusions

The studies on the sudarium and the comparison of this cloth with the Shroud are just one of the many branches of science which point to both having covered the dead body of Jesus. The history of the Oviedo cloth is well documented, and the conclusions of this for the dating of the Shroud need no further comment.
 
BURIAL CONSISTENT WITH ANCIENT JEWISH BURIAL CUSTOM

The burial is consistent with ancient Jewish burial customs in all respects, including the use of cave-tombs, attitude of the body (hands folded over loins), and types of burial cloths. The Sindon (Shroud) enveloped the body. The Sudarium was a face-cloth used to cover the face out of respect, from removal from the cross to entombment. It was then removed and placed to one side. There was also a chin-band holding the mouth closed. The Othonia were bandages used to bind the wrists and legs. All are mentioned in the New Testament and evidenced on the Cloth. Such cloths are mentioned in the New Testament and are spoken of in the Misnah - oral traditions of the Rabbis written down in the second and third century. The Cave-Tombs were carved out of sides of limestone hills. The presence of Calcium Carbonate (limestone dust) was noted by Dr. Eugenia Nitowski (Utah archaeologist) in her studies of the cave tombs of Jerusalem on the Cloth. Optical Engineer Sam Pellicori noted in 1978 the presence of dirt particles on the nose as well as on the left knee and heel. Prof. Giovanni Riggi noted burial mites. Dr. Garza-Valdes discovered oak tubules (microscopic splinters) in the blood of the occipital area (back of the head) as well as natron salts. Traces of aloe and myrrh have also been identified on the Cloth. All of these are consistent with Jewish burial customs of antiquity.
frtommylane.com/homilies/pilgrimage/sudarium.htm

shroudstory.com/faq-sudarium.htm

crucifixion-shroud.com/Washed.htm

BBC News - link

A Jewish Burial Cloth
The Shroud of Turin is consistent with Jewish burial customs of Jesus’ time. The standard measure was the cubit, originally the distance from elbow to fingertips but by then standardized at 21.7 inches. The Shroud was woven to cubit measure, eight cubits long and two cubits wide. In English measure it is about 14 feet 3 inches long by 3 feet 7 inches wide.

During the first century one of every eight Egyptian residents was Jewish. In Alexandria more than half the population was Jewish. Consequently, many Jews were buried according to Egyptian customs. The ancient Egyptians believed that the deceased could take worldly possessions with them into the world to come; consequently they were buried with gold, silver, or precious stones in shrouds sewn with golden threads.

Wherever the Christian gospel is proclaimed demonic activity increases. When Jesus arrived on earth there was a whirlwind of demonic activity. In the entire Old Testament there is not even one exorcism, yet Mark’s Gospel records many exorcisms. One result of all this demonic disturbance was that many Romans began pillaging graves for gold. Since tampering with the body is abhorrent to Jews, the rabbis responded by emphasizing simple burial procedures that would remove the financial incentive for desecration. The tachrichim, wrappings, were to be of inexpensive white linen without pockets.

Matthew says Jesus’ body was wrapped “in a clean linen shroud.” (Mt 27:59) Mark says Joseph of Arimathea; bought “a linen shroud.” (Mk 15:46) Luke says Joseph “wrapped [Jesus] in a linen shroud.” (Lk 23:53) John, however, says that they “bound [Jesus’ body] in linen cloths.” (Jn 19:40) In Greek, the three synoptics use the word sindon, or shroud, but John uses othonia, which indicates the linen cloths used in a Jewish burial: the primary linen shroud, the linen bands used to tie hands and feet together, and the sudarion or jaw-band.

When Peter entered the empty tomb, “… he saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, which had been on [Jesus’] head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.” (Jn 20:6f) Lazarus emerged from his tomb, “…his hands and feet wrapped in bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth.” (Jn 11:44) Most scholars take the “napkin” to be the jaw-band prescribed in Mishna Shabbat 23:5.
 
A linen cloth called the Sudario, in Oviedo, Spain, venerated as the sudarion of Jesus since the ninth century, measures 2 feet 9 inches by 1 foot 9 inches. Dr. Alan Whanger and his wife Mary have observed sufficient correspondence between bloodstains on the Sudario and those on the Shroud to indicate that both covered the same bleeding body. However, there is no image on the Sudario, and the Sudario has bloodstains that do not appear on the Shroud. Alan and Mary Whanger believe that the Sudario was removed before enshroudment; it may have been used to cover the face of the Man of the Shroud while his body was carried from the cross to the tomb.
The Sudarium of Oviedo:
Its History and Relationship to the Shroud

Link to the actual Page

One of the relics held by the cathedral in the town of Oviedo, in the north of Spain, is a piece of cloth measuring approximately 84 x 53 cm. There is no image on this cloth. Only stains are visible to the naked eye, although more is visible under the microscope. The remarkable thing about this cloth is that both tradition and scientific studies claim that the cloth was used to cover and clean the face of Jesus after the crucifixion. We are going to present and look into these claims.

Such a cloth is known to have existed from the gospel of John, chapter 20, verses 6 and 7. These verses read as follows, “Simon Peter, following him, also came up, went into the tomb, saw the linen cloth lying on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloth but rolled up in a place by itself.” John clearly differentiates between this smaller face cloth, the sudarium, and the larger linen that had wrapped the body.

The history of the sudarium is well documented, and much more straightforward than that of the Shroud. Most of the information comes from the twelfth century bishop of Oviedo, Pelagius (or Pelayo), whose historical works are the Book of the Testaments of Oviedo, and the Chronicon Regum Legionensium.

According to this history, the sudarium was in Palestine until shortly before the year 614, when Jerusalem was attacked and conquered by Chosroes II, who was king of Persia from 590 to 628. It was taken away to avoid destruction in the invasion, first to Alexandria by the presbyter Philip, then across the north of Africa when Chosroes conquered Alexandria in 616. The sudarium entered Spain at Cartagena, along with people who were fleeing from the Persians. The bishop of Ecija, Fulgentius, welcomed the refugees and the relics, and surrendered the chest, or ark, to Leandro, bishop of Seville. He took it to Seville, where it spent some years
 
I think atheists are beginning to regret why they had to rely on “Science” to prove their case.

:o

Peace, BRING IT ON!
 
Shroud researcher has suggested the possibility that the body emitted x-rays. There is some indication of x-ray imagery in the area of the mouth and the fingers on the hands. Dr. Alan Whanger has identified teeth and carpal bones in the hands - As medical forensics reveals, the body that left the blood stains was removed without disturbing (pulling away) the stains. This, to those same experts, seems physically impossible.

http://home.pages.at/templer/shroud.jpghttp://www.turin-shroud.com/jps/Image_10.JPG

The image was formed when a high-energy particle struck the fiber and released radiation within the fiber at a speed greater that the local speed of light. Since the fiber acts as a light pipe, this energy moved out through the fiber until it encountered an optical discontinuity, then it slowed to the local speed of light and dispersed. The pixels don’t fluoresce suggests that the conversion to their now brittle dehydrated state occurred instantly and completely so no partial products remain to be activated by the ultraviolet light. This suggests a quantum event where a finite amount of energy transferred abruptly. The radiation pressure may also help explain why the blood was “lifted cleanly” from the body as it transformed to a resurrected state.

**

Is it possible to think that Jesus’ body, at the moment of resurrection, became mechanically transparent thus enabling a cloth to fall through it?​


(or the body to pass through the cloth).

This idea might be comfortable for some biblical exegetes who identify with passages in John’s Gospel. Historian and biblical scholar N. T. Wright in The Resurrection of the Son of God (London: SPCK, 2003) illustrates this thinking:
The beloved disciple came to his new belief, the text wants us to understand: not simply on the basis of the emptiness of the tomb (which had been explained by Mary in verse 2 in terms of the removal of the body to an unknown location), but on the basis of what he deduced both from the fact that the grave-clothes had been left behind and from the position in which they were lying. He, like Thomas at the end of the chapter, saw something which elicited faith. The fact that the grave-clothes were left behind showed that the body had not been carried off, whether by foes, friends or indeed a gardener (verse 15). Their positioning, carefully described in verse 7, suggest that they had not been unwrapped, but that the body had somehow passed through them, much as, later on, it would appear and disappear through locked doors (verse 19).

**This is speculation. Yet it resonates with the collimated appearance of the images and the topographical spatial information that can be plotted as three-dimensional images.

**It is also consistent with something that forensic experts tell us. The body images show no visible signs of decomposition and the linen fabric is not damaged by any bodily decomposition products. It is also consistent with a baffling observation about the bloodstains. Dried blood, in acting like weak glue between body and cloth, should have cracked and broken apart if the body was unwrapped by convention physical means. Small fibers of blood-soaked linen should have pulled apart. Yet this not observed in the bloodstains.

A highly imaginative suggestion of how mechanical transparency might work is that somehow, no method known to science, the strong nuclear force that holds together the subatomic particles of the nucleus was turned off while electromagnetism and gravity remained in effect. When that happened the images were impressed on the cloth as it passed through the body, perhaps by the impact of elementary particles let loose in the process.

**http://www.connectionmagazine.org/archives_old/2001_04/images/shroud.jpg [/indent]
 
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. (John 12:32)
At Capernaum, they asked Jesus: *“What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you?”(*John 6:30). He answered, *“Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” **(*John 6:62).
**

Raymond Brown, a well-known commentator of the Gospel of John, tells us that being “lifted up” includes Jesus’* being lifted up in crucifixion, lifted up in resurrection and lifted up in ascension. Therefore, the imagery that Jesus speaks about regarding his resurrection, “W*hen I am lifted up from the earth…” is the very same imagery that we see on the shroud – that of a man being lifted up above the earth. We can only begin to understand the mystery of the upright man of the shroud, an image not made by hands, when we look to the Gospels and discover that the image of the upright man is the same imagery that Jesus uses to describe his resurrection.

Remember, the transfer of moist blood clots to cloth is a mechanical and physical event that we can all understand. The wounds on the man of the shroud are identical to those of Jesus but could belong to any man. However, the formation of the image of the upright man of the shroud is an event that defies a mechanical and physical explanation. The image of the man suspended above the earth does NOT belong to just any man. It is unique in the world and points to only one event – the resurrection of Jesus.
In the days of Jesus, the Gospels tell us that he performed signs so that the people would know who he was. The shroud image is one of Jesus’ last signs. It is the reflection of his greatest sign - the resurrection.

“Christian faith depends on believing the original witnesses of the Resurrection – the Shroud is another witness.”**
Gilbert R.Lavoie M.D.author

**http://shroudofjesus.com/page7.html

****

Carole Bevan Irby is coming soon**
**"And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began."John 17:5
 
http://www.skepticalspectacle.com/images/i8.jpg

**Forensic Evidence

Bucklin, deputy coroner of Los Angeles and a member of The Shroud of Turin Research Team, has voiced his professional opinion on the cause of death. Based on enhanced imagery, Bucklin is able to produce a disturbing image of the horrific injury inflicted on the man. He states that the image indicates a Caucasian man at least 5 foot 11 inches weighing about 180 pounds. There are blood flows around the top and back of the head typical of puncture wounds from the ‘crown of thorns’ as depicted in the Bible. Additional wounds on the man’s face indicate he may have been beaten and that he probably has a black eye. The nose is abraded indicating a fall and shows possible separation from the bone. There is definite wound on the left wrist (the right hand is covered by the left) and there appears to have been a spike of some sort driven through both of the man’s feet. The back and front of the man show lesions which indicate the man was beaten from both sides by two men (the angle of which indicates on of the men was significantly taller than the other). There is rough swelling on both shoulders indicative of the man bearing a heavy weight on his shoulders shortly before the time of this death. http://harvestrain0.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/jesus_shroud_cross.jpg.jpg On the man’s right side is a puncture wound, probably made by a narrow blade that was thrust in an upward direction after death (due to the separation of blood cells and a clear serum that drained from the wound and puddled near the small of the man’s back). There is an abrasion on one knee.

**
 
Accuracy of the Details

http://www.jesusisreal.org/shroudofturin/shroudback40%.jpgThe anotomical accuracy of the body, its wounds, and their blood flows is astonishing. The wounds correspond perfectly with the description in the gospels of Jesus’ suffering. There are over 30 small puncture wounds on the scalp, spike wounds on the feet and wrists, and a large oval shaped wound in the right side. Interestingly, medieval paintings of Christ always show spikes through the palms of his hands. Unfamiliar with cruxifixion as a punishment in their day, these artists are anotomicaly incorrect. Spikes through the palms will not support the weight of the body, but spikes through the bones of the wrist will support it. We now know that the Romans penetrated the wrist, just as the blood flow on the shroud indicates.

The largest number of wounds (over 100) appear in the shape of tiny knots or dumbbells. They occur in groups of twos and threes over the entire body, with most on the back.

Ian Wilson’s Summation

"No amount of experimental work can recreate for us the agony all of this must have caused, an agony which in the case of Jewish victims went on until a little before sundown, when the legs were broken to hasten death if death had not already intervened. Doctors have differed on the actual medical reasons for the breaking of legs bringing on death, some suggesting that because the victim would be unable to raise himself he would no longer be able to breathe; others that again because he would be unable to raise himself, his blood would sink to the lower part of his body, and death would ensue from orthostatic collapse. “At all events it appears that for the man of the Shroud death intervened, mercifully, at some earlier stage. There is no sign of breakage of the legs. Instead there is a clear wound in the side, which may be interpreted as the spear thrust specifically recorded in the Gospel of St. John as being administered to the body of Jesus Christ to check that he was actually dead. (Jn. 19:34).”

Get one thing clear

**It is Not a Painting! http://www.reu.org/public/iconholy/jesus/turina.jpg
Dr. Heller’s Summation

you cannot see the man in the Shroud unless you are one or two meters away. An artist cannot paint if he cannot see what effect his brush is producing.
 
Our putative artist, then, must have had a paintbrush one to two meters long. It must have consisted of a single bristle, since it painted single fibrils that were 10 to 15 microns in diameter. The finest paintbrush bristles I know of are sable, and a sable hair is vast in diameter compared with a linen fibril. In addition, the artist would have had to figure out a paint medium that had no oil or water, because there were no indications of capillarity. Now, to see what he was painting he would have needed a microscope with an enormous focal length that would permit the brush to operate under it. The physics of optics preclude such a device, unless it is attached to a television set. In this case, it would have had to be a color TV, for the straw-yellow is too faint to register on black and white.

"Another constraint the artist must have dealt with is the limit of the human nervous system. No one can hold so long a brush steady enough to paint the top of a fibril. One would need a twentieth-century micromanipulator, which would have to work hydraulically at a distance of one to two meters. It would have to be rigged to a device called a waldo, which is an invention of the atomic era. Also, the artist would have to know how many fibrils to paint quantitatively, and do the whole thing in reverse, like a negative.

“Our hypothetical artist obviously must have used blood - both pre-mortem and post-mortem. And he had to paint with serum albumin alongside the edges of the scourge marks. Since serum albumin is visible only under ultra-violet, not white light, he had to paint with an invisible medium.”

The stigmata on the body did not follow art or legend. They were of life. They were medically accurate evidence of a man who had been scourged with a flagrum-type device, both front and back, by two men; who had carried something rough and heavy across his shoulders, which had been bruised; who had had something placed on his head that had caused punctate bleeding wounds over the scalp and forehead; who had lesions on nose and knee commensurate with a fall; who had been beaten about the face; who had been crucified in the anatomically correct loci, the wrists; whose blood running down the arms had drips responding to gravity at the correct angles for the position of the arms in a crucifixion; whose legs appeared unbroken; who had an ellipsoid lesion in the side, whence cells and serum had come, and, lying on the cloth had post-mortem blood dribbling out of the wound and puddling along the small of the back; whose lacerating scourge marks were deep enough to be bloody, with serum albumin oozing at the margins; whose feet had been transfixed with a spike and bled; and on the soles of whose feet there was dirt.

“All in all, it is a startling medical documentary of what was described so briefly in the Gospels. Nor was there anything else on the Shroud that would negate the actual presence of a scourged, crucified man lying on that linen.”

The image is a 3-dimensional map in negative Free Inquiry

This is totally uncharacteristic of any art form. To create the image, an artist would have needed to “apply” microscopic dots or pixels to the linen in a single color. Areas closer to the observer such as the tip of the nose would have required more pixels (or longer pixels along a fiber’s length). Areas that are recessed such as the back of the knees would have required few or no pixels.

The image is anatomically consistent, to a modern day pathologist with 20th and 21st century technology, with someone who had been traumatized by scouring, wounded in the scalp as if by a cap or crown of thorns, and crucified. Death seems to have been by asphyxiation which is probable. The blood stains showing both artery and vein flow are pathologically correct. No medieval or pre-medieval artist would have had the knowledge to create such an image.

The image does not exist below blood stains. An artist would have needed to apply real blood first anticipating the exact placement of the image or to have created the image with reserved areas for the blood stains. The very idea of an artist doing so is preposterous
 
"We do know, however, that there are thousands of pieces of funerary linen going back to millenia before Christ, and another huge number of linens of Coptic Christian burials. On none of these is there any image of any kind. A few have some blood and stains on them, but no image.

“The Shroud bears the image of a man who has had incredible, violent damage done to his body, yet whose face is filled with serenity and peace.”

Jan. 25, 2005




Turin Shroud Older Than Thought
By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News
The Shroud, the piece of linen long believed to have been wrapped around Jesus’s body after the crucifixion,

is much older than the date

suggested by radiocarbon tests, according to new microchemical research.

Published in the current issue of Thermochimica Acta, a chemistry peer- reviewed scientific journal,

the study dismisses the results of the 1988 carbon-14 dating.

No matter what any one of us may believe about the Shroud’s authenticity, we can no longer say that carbon 14 dating proves medieval origins; for the tests in 1988 were botched.

For those who after 1988 continued to believe that the Shroud was the genuine burial cloth of Jesus, a winter of ridicule and doubts has ended.

Full Story Here

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20050124/shroud.html

**"…the Shroud and its image have numerous characteristics that are entirely consistent with a Jewish burial of the First Century (Refs 13-15). For example, the Man of the Shroud appears to be of Jewish racial type and was buried according Jewish burial custom. In particular, the blood on the Man of the Shroud was not removed before burial, which is mandated by Jewish law for a Jew who dies a violent death. In addition, the fingers of the Man of the Shroud are extended, which the Jews of the First Century ensured in defiance of contemporary pagan burial practices (e.g. as seen in Egyptian mummy configurations and statuettes). **
**http://www.jesusisreal.org/shroudofturin/Jeffrey40%.JPG **

http://www.insearchofjesus.org/graphics/faces/shroud3.jpg
 
The dimensions of the Shroud can be expressed in the unit of the cubit used at the time of Christ. These and other indications of a Jewish character for the Shroud are consistent with the Jewish culture in which Jesus lived and died, and thus support the Shroud’s authenticity." from"Hasadeen Hakadosh: The Holy Shroud in Hebrew", “Jewish Burial Procedures at the Time of Christ - A Jewish Cultural Approach” "The Shroud of Turin in Light of First Century Jewish Culture"

**For years scholars have puzzled over a curious detail mentioned in the Gospel of John concerning Jewish burial practices in the first century. In describing the entombments of Jesus Christ (John 20:7) and His friend Lazarus (John 11:44), John writes of both men having had their bodies wrapped with a linen cloth for burial, but with a separate, smaller cloth wrapped around their heads.While archaeology has confirmed many details of the Gospels, ancient fabrics are very fragile and decay completely within a few decades unless preserved under extraordinary circumstances. However, in the spring of 2000, a set of extraordinary circumstances led to a once-in-a lifetime discovery for several archaeologists.That morning Israeli archaeologist Shimon Gibson and Professor James Tabor of the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, with some of Dr Tabor’s archaeology students, happened on a first-century Jewish tomb in Jerusalem’s Hinnom Valley that apparently had been plundered only the night before. They immediately notified the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) of the crime and, since Gibson worked for the IAA, they received permission to enter and examine the pillaged tomb.Most tombs in the Jerusalem area, of which more than a thousand are know, were plundered long ago. A few, however, have remained intact over the centuries. This had been one of the few. Now it had been broken into and pillaged for artifacts that could perhaps be sold on the antiquities market.Inside the multilevel tomb the group found the remains of several ossuaries, small limestone boxes that had held the bones of Jewish men and women who had been entombed there. Regrettably, they had been shattered by the thieves, who then stole fragments that apparently bore the names of those whose bones had been contained in the ossuaries.The most important find, however, remained undisturbed in one of the tomb’s small chambers. “In the third level [of the tomb], which is the lowest level, we found . . . the skeleton of a person with a burial shroud still over his shoulders,” reported Dr Tabor. But even more remarkable, the man’s body had been wrapped with two pieces of fabric—one around the body and a separate, smaller piece around the head, just as described in John’s Gospel.Small samples of the fabric were radiocarbon dated to the first century—the time during which Jesus lived. Clearly John had faithfully and accurately recorded this detail of Jewish burial practices from the first century.Due to the find’s importance, announcement of the discovery was postponed until scientific analysis could be completed and material prepared for publication.How had the fabric been preserved all those centuries? Through a geological fluke, a crack in the limestone from which the tomb had been carved had drained ground moisture away from that one particular chamber, leaving it dry and protected—and leaving us evidence that the Gospels indeed are an accurate historical record of real first-century events. **
 
Thomas , one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”

**A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” **

Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” --John 20

**

**

**Didn’t a French Bishop declare the Shroud a fake, in 1389 and a painter had confessed?

In 1389 Bishop Pierre D’Arcis of Troyes wrote to the Pope accusing a cleric in his diocese of presenting a cunningly painted phony shroud to the public for money. This letter is a mainstay of the skeptical argument that the shroud is a painted hoax, but the letter is not the whole story. D’Arcis was angry because the priest had not consulted him before displaying the shroud. He was also irritated because the shroud was not displayed at his cathedral, which could have used the income his entrepreneurial subordinate earned by turning the shroud into a tourist attraction.

**And, what are we to make of the d’Arcis Memorandum claiming that an artist painted it? Knowing that this was a time notorious for its unscrupulous market in fake relics, the bishop’s memorandum seems to have a whiff of truthfulness to it. But the relic marketplace may also be the basis for doubting the veracity of the memorandum. **

**Pilgrims were a source of revenue and people were flocking to Lirey to see the Shroud rather than nearby Troyes and its collection of relics. Pierre, interestingly, states that his intent was not competitive. Why? Did he realize that others were voicing suspicions about his motives? Pierre claimed that his predecessor, Bishop Henri de Poitiers of Troyes conducted an inquest in which a painter had confessed to painting the Shroud. Pierre did not have first hand knowledge of this artist; the artist is unnamed. There is no evidence of such an inquest in contemporaneous documents. Pierre stated that Henri had the Shroud removed from the church because it was a fake, yet other documents dispute this. According to other documents, it was removed from the church for safekeeping because of the war raging about the area. The memorandum must be understood and assessed in the light of several documents of the same period and in the context of the political situation in the region. At least eight documents challenge the veracity of the d’Arcis Memorandum. There are other problems as well. All existing copies of the memorandum are unsigned and undated drafts. The copy at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris includes a heading stating that it is a letter that Pierre intends to write. It is definitely a draft with Latin annotations in the margins. It is unlikely that it was ever sent to Clement as no properly signed or sealed copies of the document can be found in the Vatican or Avignon archives. No document of Clement refers to it, suggesting it was never received. Numerous classicist and historians find the document questionable. **

"…Unfortunately, the name of the apparent forger was never revealed, a fact that later led to the story being discredited by believers. Many asked, if the forger existed, why had they not revealed his name?
**
 
All modern researchers conclude that the image on the shroud is not paint, as D’Arcis claimed. Nevertheless, D’Arcis’s claim is the basis of Joe Nickell’s position that the shroud is a medieval fake.

Evidence that the image is not a painting includes chemical analyses and the fact that the image at a range close enough to paint it is too faint to see. In addition, the anatomy of the body in the image is that of an actual body, unlike the body images usually used by medieval artists, who knew little about anatomy. In addition, the image does not include two medieval cliches associated with images of Jesus, a loin cloth and a halo. Modern research can find no indication that brush strokes were used, which also suggests that it is not a painting as D’Arcis claimed

If We Wish to Think it is a Fake Picture of Jesus?​


If we want to believe that the Shroud is not genuine then we have to consider some basic questions. How did the faker of relics accomplish this.

**How did a faker of relics alter the chemical properties of the carbohydrate coating to create the color and how did he do so with such artistic precision – on both sides of the cloth? **

**The history of art is the story of the evolution of styles, techniques, methods and technology. Every work of art and fakery is no exception. Every form of art and craft has precedents. When a new technique is discovered it is exploited. Over time the technique is refined and improved. Where are the precedents for pictures such as those that we find on the Shroud? Where are the other works in this new-found technology? Are we to imagine that some genius invented a new way to create pictures, that a single picture was made and the technology was lost to history? **

How did he create a suitable negative picture hundreds of years before the discovery of photographic negativity? How did he know that he had it right? How, without a camera and film, could he test his work? The negativity is extraordinarily precise and correct. Was he simply lucky?

**The bigger question is why? What was his purpose? What was his motive? If we are to ask why he created an extraordinarily complex chemical picture, in negative, we must ask some other questions. **

**
  • Why a negative image when a positive image would be more convincing ?-- keep in mind that gradual tone negative images were unknown**
  • Why did he go against conventional expectations of his era? Why did he create a picture with wounds from nails that went through Jesus’ wrists? All art and all expectation throughout medieval Europe showed Jesus nailed to his cross through the palms of his hands.
**Despite many attempts to do so, no one has found or invented an artistic or crafty technique that can reproduce even a few of the characteristics of the images. But that does not mean, that in the future, someone will not find a method to create such images. But if someone does so, the tenacious question will remain: How likely is it that there would be such a one-of-a-kind work of art for which there are no known precedents; created by methods that were never again exploited? **

Any method that might be devised must be scientifically credulous, fit into the history of art and conform to the cultural expectations in which the technology was supposedly employed. If not, it will be seen as newly invented art designed to mimic an otherwise unexplained natural process or a supernatural event. The skeptic has a dilemma. To believe that the Shroud is fakery he or she must rely on an underlying belief that transcends scientific fact.

**The shroud could not possibly be the work of a forger for many reasons. Here are just a few of them.

There is no way a medieval forger could have known his work would eventually be put to the scientific scrutiny that the shroud is being put through today. Yet the shroud continues to yield authenticating information that has been indecipherable up until recently. A forger would have had to go to unimaginable lengths to incorporate this information into the shroud for no good reason whatsoever. **
 
For one thing, people of medieval times were generally illiterate gullible followers of the church and easily fooled into believing most anything the church told them to believe. A forger wouldn’t have had to incorporate even a tiny fraction the information found in the shroud to successfully dupe the masses for many hundreds of years. Of the hidden facts that no one could have known until the recent advent of high tech forensic science are these.
  1. The blood was placed on the cloth first, before the image was burned on it because the image of the man was burned on top of the blood! How difficult would that have been to accomplish and get the blood in exactly the right places, and more importantly, how could a forger have known anyone would ever be able to tell the difference? Wouldn’t it have been much easier to make the image first, and then strategically place blood in exactly the right spots?
  2. The blood on the cloth was saturated with excessive amounts of bilirubin. How could a forger know that the brutal scourging Yeshua endured from the Roman flagrum causes what medical science today calls erythrocyte hemolysis, and someone in the future would posses the technology to be able tell the difference?
  3. Dirt from the feet of the man in the shroud is consistent with that of the calcium carbonate soil of the Jerusalem area. How could a forger know there was difference… let alone know that someone in the future would be able to discern the difference?
  4. Many pollen grains imbedded in the shroud fibers are from plants that are indigenous exclusively to Israel. A forger in Europe would have had to obtain the pollen and intentionally salt the fabric with it. How could a forger have known the difference himself and that many hundreds of years later the pollen grains would still be there and someone would be able to identify them?
Then there are the more obvious facts concerning the man in the shroud that defy conventional medieval pictures of the crucifixion. The question is, why would a forger produce a picture that the masses would instantly be inclined to reject? Among these bold-face clashes with the conventional thinking of medieval times are these.
  1. The nails that held the man in the shroud to the cross went through his wrists. In medieval times, every painting of the crucifixion portrayed the nails going squarely through Yeshua’s palms. We now known that the Romans nailed their victims through the wrists.
  2. The man in the shroud is naked. This would have shocked and repulsed medieval Christians. This is unlike all artistic depictions everywhere throughout the history of Christianity?
  3. The head of the man in the shroud is situated too low on the body to look natural. How could an incredibly talented forger make such simple and obvious mistake?
  4. The face of the man in the shroud is so unnatural looking with his long nose and large eye sockets that no one would naturally want to believe their Lord looked like an alien from mars! Why would a forger do something like this? Even today, people can’t believe Yeshua actually looked the way he appears on the shroud. Those who publish pictures of his face regularly tweak the height to width aspect ratio of the pictures in an attempt to make him look a little more human. Below is an un-tweaked picture of the face in the shroud
 
Picture of Christ on 6th Century icon at St. Catherines in the Sinai

http://harvestrain0.tripod.com/site.../.pond/6th_century_art_jesus.jpg.w300h428.jpg
Historical Picture - The Jesus of History

Could pictures of Jesus on a burial cloth offer new clues about why Christianity exploded? Could a picture of Jesus on his cloth explain some of the early liturgy, some of the theology, some of the unanswered questions such as what it was that the Beloved Disciple saw when he peered into the tomb. Might it even give new meaning to the appearance stories?

Starting in the sixth century, pictures of Jesus seem inspired or even copied from a single source.

What did Jesus look like? Amazingly, there is no description of Him in the New Testament or in any contemporary source. Yet, in hundreds of pictures, icons, paintings, mosaics, drawings and coins, there is a common quality that enables us to identify Jesus in works of art. Shroud scholar and historian Ian Wilson theorizes that a common set of facial characteristics became the norm following the discovery of the Edessa Cloth concealed in the city’s walls in 544 CE.

Apparent Shroud-inspired pictures of Christ are noticeable on coins struck in 692 CE during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian II. The distinctive front-facing appearance of Jesus on the Shroud is also found on numerous icons, mosaics and frescos from the sixth century on. The most startling example is the Christ Pantocrator icon at Saint Catherine’s Monastery, reliably dated to 550 CE.

http://www.shroudstory.com/spacer.g...acer.gifhttp://www.shroudstory.com/spacer.gif http://www.shroudstory.com/pano1.jpg

http://www.shroudstory.com/spacer.gifComputerized overlay of the Shroud of Turin facial picture and the Christ Pantocrator icon from St. Catherine’s Monastery (550 CE). Images were scaled to the same size and shifted horizontally and vertically for alignment. No changes were made in the vertical to horizontal ratios.

http://www.shroudstory.com/pcut2.jpgIn the 1930’s, French Shroud scholar Paul Vignon described a series of common characteristics visible in many early artistic pictures of Jesus. The Vignon markings, as they are known, all appear on the Shroud suggesting that it is the source of later pictures of Jesus.
  • A square U-shape between the eyebrows.
  • A downward pointing triangle or V-shape just below the U-shape, on the bridge of the nose.
  • Two wisps of hair going downward and then to the right.
  • A raised right eyebrow.
  • Large, seemingly “owlish” eyes. This may be the result of coins placed over the eyes.
  • An accent on the left cheek and an accent on the right cheek that is somewhat lower.
  • A forked beard. Dr. Whanger (see below) has suggested that this may the result of a chin band tied around the head to keep the mouth closed.
  • An enlarged left nostril.
  • An accent line below the nose and a dark line just below the lower lip.
  • A gap in the beard below the lower lip.
  • Hair on one side of the head that is shorter than on the other side.
 
The Second Face on the Back

**Comparing Blue Backside to B&W Front Side **

See Crosshair Analysis

http://www.shroudstory.com/Filtered/s-comp0.jpg

Notice in particular:

Hairline corresponds. This is particularly noticeable on the left side of the face (your left).

Eyebrows curve visibly. Eyebrow on left side of face is higher than eyebrow on the right.
Right side of face is darker. The darker region extends downward from the hairline, along the nose on the left, to the top of the mustache. Correspondingly the left side of the face is lighter.
In the blue backside image, a bright cross-like shape is visible midway horizontally and about two-thirds of the way down from the top. This cross corresponds exactly with the tip of the nose in the front side image.
The bright spot in the middle of the backside image (filtered out in figure 5 above), corresponds with an apparent protrusion on the nose just below eye level.
In the backside image the crease that passed through the beard is barely visible on the bottom edge. In the front image a forked beard that starts just above the crease is very evident. There is some indication of the fork in the backside image exactly where it is expected.

See Crosshair Analysis

Shroud of Turin Story - Guide to the Facts Home Page

© 2004, 2005 Daniel R. Porter, Bronxville, New York

**

CARBON 14 NEWS​


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Why No One Can Fully Explain the Pictures on the Shroud of Turin: Why nothing makes sense.
 
 
What did the body of Jesus of Nazareth actually endure during those hours of torture?

**…a study of the practice of crucifixion…torture and execution by fixation to a cross. **

Apparently, the first known practice of crucifixion was by the Persians. Alexander and his generals brought it back to the Mediterranean world — to Egypt and to Carthage. The Romans apparently learned the practice from the Carthaginians and (as with almost everything the Romans did) rapidly developed a very high degree of efficiency and skill at it. A number of Roman authors (Livy, Cicer, Tacitus) comment on crucifixion, and several innovations, modifications, and variations are described in the ancient literature. For instance, the upright portion of the cross (or stipes) could have the cross-arm (or patibulum) attached two or three feet below its top in what we commonly think of as the Latin cross. The most common form used in our Lord’s day, however, was the Tau cross, shaped like our T.

In this cross, the patibulum was placed in a notch at the top of the stipes. There is archeological evidence that it was on this type of cross that Jesus was crucified. Without any historical or biblical proof, Medieval and Renaissance painters have given us our picture of Christ carrying the entire cross. But the upright post, or stipes, was generally fixed permanently in the ground at the site of execution and the condemned man was forced to carry the patibulum, weighing about 110 pounds, from the prison to the place of execution.

Many of the painters and most of the sculptors of crucifixion, also show the nails through the palms. Historical Roman accounts and experimental work have established that the nails were driven between the small bones of the wrists (radial and ulna) and not through the palms. Nails driven through the palms will strip out between the fingers when made to support the weight of the human body. The misconception may have come about through a misunderstanding of Jesus’ words to Thomas, “Observe my hands.” Anatomists, both modern and ancient, have always considered the wrist as part of the hand.

A titulus, or small sign, stating the victim’s crime was usually placed on a staff, carried at the front of the procession from the prison, and later nailed to the cross so that it extended above the head. This sign with its staff nailed to the top of the cross would have given it somewhat the characteristic form of the Latin cross.

But, of course, the physical passion of the Christ began in Gethsemane. Of the many aspects of this initial suffering, the one of greatest physiological interest is the bloody sweat. It is interesting that St. Luke, the physician, is the only one to mention this. He says, “And being in agony, He prayed the longer. And His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground.” Every ruse (trick) imaginable has been used by modern scholars to explain away this description, apparently under the mistaken impression that this just doesn’t happen. A great deal of effort could have been saved had the doubters consulted the medical literature. Though very rare, the phenomenon of Hematidrosis, or bloody sweat, is well documented. Under great emotional stress of the kind our Lord suffered, tiny capillaries in the sweat glands can break, thus mixing blood with sweat. This process might well have produced marked weakness and possible shock.

After the arrest in the middle of the night, Jesus was next brought before the Sanhedrin and Caiphus, the High Priest; it is here that the first physical trauma was inflicted. A soldier struck Jesus across the face for remaining silent when questioned by Caiphus. The palace guards then blind-folded Him and mockingly taunted Him to identify them as they each passed by, spat upon Him, and struck Him in the face.
 
In the early morning, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and exhausted from a sleepless night, Jesus is taken across the Praetorium of the Fortress Antonia, the seat of government of the Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. You are, of course, familiar with Pilate’s action in attempting to pass responsibility to Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Judea. Jesus apparently suffered no physical mistreatment at the hands of Herod and was returned to Pilate.

It was then, in response to the cries of the mob, that Pilate ordered Bar-Abbas released and condemned Jesus to scourging and crucifixion. There is much disagreement among authorities about the unusual scourging as a prelude to crucifixion. Most Roman writers from this period do not associate the two. Many scholars believe that Pilate originally ordered Jesus scourged as his full punishment and that the death sentence by crucifixion came only in response to the taunt by the mob that the Procurator was not properly defending Caesar against this pretender who allegedly claimed to be the King of the Jews. Preparations for the scourging were carried out when the Prisoner was stripped of His clothing and His hands tied to a post above His head. It is doubtful the Romans would have made any attempt to follow the Jewish law in this matter, but the Jews had an ancient law prohibiting more than forty lashes. The Roman legionnaire steps forward with the flagrum (or flagellum) in his hand. This is a short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near the ends of each. The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and again across Jesus’ shoulders, back, and legs.

At first the thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continue, they cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles. The small balls of lead first produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When it is determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped. The half-fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump to the stone pavement, wet with His own blood.

The Roman soldiers see a great joke in this provincial Jew claiming to be king. They throw a robe across His shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a scepter. They still need a crown to make their travesty complete. Flexible branches covered with long thorns (commonly used in bundles for firewood) are plaited into the shape of a crown and this is pressed into His scalp. Again there is copious bleeding, the scalp being one of the most vascular areas of the body.

After mocking Him and striking Him across the face, the soldiers take the stick from His hand and strike Him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp. Finally, they tire of their sadistic sport and the robe is torn from His back. Already having adhered to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, its removal causes excruciating pain just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage, and almost as though He were again being whipped the wounds once more begin to bleed. In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans return His garments. The heavy patibulum of the cross is tied across His shoulders, and the procession of the condemned Christ, two thieves, and the execution detail of Roman soldiers headed by a centurion begins its slow journey along the Via Dolorosa.
 
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