The Shroud of Turin
The following information about the Shroud of Turin comes from my own study. It was not copied and pasted from any article online. Facts about the Shroud strongly indicate that it is the burial garment of Christ.
1. Medical experts have no doubt that the man of the Shroud was crucified. One of the indicators is that he has a swollen abdomen, which indicates asphyxiation, the usual cause of death in crucifixion. This medical fact, along with others were unknown in the fourteenth century. Physicians who have examined the Shroud image are unanimous that the man was dead before being placed in the Shroud. And that he died by crucifixion and the tortures that preceded it. They also agree that the man was already dead when the spear pierced his side.
2. The beard, hair, and facial features are consistent with a Jewish or Semitic racial grouping. We know that the man of the Shroud is definitely not of Greco-Roman culture. The man of the Shroud has a long streak of hair which goes from the head to the shoulder blade. It looks like an unbound pigtail. The British historian Ian Wilson called it "the most striking Jewish feature" on the Shroud. Pigtails were very common for first century Jewish men.
3. The head has blood stains and puncture wounds consistent with a crown of thorns.
4. It has many scourge wounds from two Roman flagrum with dumbbells on ends. This is the instrument the Gospel of John says was used on Christ.
5. The knees reveal cuts and bruises, with a large one on the left knee cap, indicating that the man fell. It is traditionally believed that Jesus fell when on the way to Golgotha, and this is why Simon of Cyrene was instructed to carry the cross.
6. Thumbs are not visible on the image, but research with computer enhanced photographs reveal that thumbs are present, but drawn tightly to the hand. A nail driven though what is known as the space of Destot will sever or damage the median nerve which flexes the thumbs, causing the thumbs to draw tightly to the hand. What forger would have known about the space of Destot? Many anatomists who have studied the Shroud consider this fact and other facts convincing evidence that the Shroud is authentic.
7. The back has a large abrasion across both shoulders, consistent with bearing a cross.
8. The man in the Shroud was pierced in his side, probably with a spear, consistent with the Gospel of John. The side wound is oval shape, and measures 1 3/4 inches by 7/16 of an inch. This matches the shape of the Roman lancia.
9. It correctly has the nails through the wrists. Medieval paintings of Christ incorrectly put the nails through the palms.
10. The legs of the man of the Shroud were not broken, consistent with Scripture.
11. The man in the Shroud is nude. A hypothetical artists would have been daring to depart from Christian tradition by depicting Jesus nude and nailed through his wrists.
12. The burial is compatible with Jewish custom, and the wrapping is consistent with first-century custom. The Shroud is consistent with Essenes and the Code of Jewish Law.
13. A mixture of blood and water is ascertainable on the Shroud, consistent with Scripture.
14. The man of the Shroud was not washed. There are good reasons to think Jesus wasn't washed.
15. The gospels says Jesus' hands were nailed. The Greek word for hand can also refer to the wrist.
16. The carbon-14 dating was flawed, because there was newer material of a different chemical composition interwoven with the older Shroud material.
17. According to one Shroud scholar, there is dirt from Palestine on the feet.
18. Some Shroud researchers believe that there are leptons of Pontius Pilate on the eyes. We know from first century Jewish cemeteries that Jews put coins over the eyes of the dead.
19. Modern science has produced independent evidence that the Shroud dates from the first century A.D.
20. Pollen is on the Shroud that is unique to the area around Jerusalem. Pollen from a plant with long thorns was found around his head. Max Frei, a Swiss criminologist stated that the overlay of the pollen grains convinced him of a first century date.
21. The process that formed the image operated in a non-directional fashion. It was not generated according to any directional pattern as it would have been if applied by hand.
22. Gilbert Raes, a professor at the Ghent Institute of Textile Technology in Belgium concluded that the weave of the linen was a type common in the Middle East in the first century A.D.
23. Gilbert Rae's finding was supported by Silvio Curto, associate professor of Egyptology at the University of Turin. Curto was also a member of the commission of Italian scientists who examined the Shroud in 1973.
24. The three-inch wide side strip is sown on with a unique stitch nearly identical to that found only at Masada which was destroyed in 73-74 AD. This is evidence that the Shroud was made in the first century.
25. The Shroud was probably made in the Middle East, since cotton is not grown in Europe.
26. Experts agree that the facial features of the man of the Shroud identify him as Caucasian. Carlton Coon, a leading ethnologist says the man has physical features of a Jew or Arab.
27. The body left the cloth before it decomposed. We know Jesus' body did not undergo corruption (see Acts 2:22-32).
28. Studies of art history, ancient textiles, botany, and numismatics indicates that the Shroud probably dates to the first century.
29. Yves Delage, an agnostic and professor of anatomy at the Sorbonne in Paris concluded that it was highly probable that the Shroud was the burial garment of Jesus.
30. The man of the Shroud is bending forward. We know from Scripture that Jesus was leaning out from the cross. After death his body was stuck in that position. The Gospel of John 19:30 states that Christ bowed his head forward at death.
31. The man of the Shroud was apparently wrapped in strips around the head, wrists, and feet, which agrees with the description in the Gospel of John 11:44.
32. The head wounds are pre-mortem, and the chest wound is post-mortem. This is Consistent with Scripture.
33. The body of the Shroud was separated from the material after a comparatively short period of time.
34. The blood stains are intact, and this militates against the body being removed by any human means. If the cloth had been removed from the body, the blood clots would have smeared or broken. The contact blood stains indicate that the body was not moved, rewrapped, or unwrapped.
35. The age of the man of the Shroud is estimated to be 30-35 years old.
36. The Christ Pantocrator icon of 550 A.D. might be based on the shroud image. There are about 180 points of congruence. If true, then the Shroud was identified as the burial cloth of Christ. This image was then repeatedly copied in Byzantium.
37. Around the year 1464 Pope Sixtus IV regarded the Shroud as an authentic relic.
38. The image on the Shroud is a negative. The concept of negativity was unknown until the nineteenth century, when photography was invented.
39. Secondo Pia's photographs of the Shroud led medical experts to the conclusion that the image contains a degree of anatomical detail that far surpasses the medical knowledge of the fourteenth century.
40. In 1902, Yves Delage, an agnostic and professor of comparative anatomy at the Sorbonne came to the conclusion after a detailed study that the medical evidence convinced him that the man of the Shroud is Jesus. Other physicians agree. Robert Bucklin, deputy medical examiner of Los Angeles County stated that the medical facts cited by Delage are still "beyond dispute."
41. Scientists on the investigating team are unanimous that the Shroud is an actual archaeological artifact.
42. Barrie Schwortz is perhaps the best known expert on the Shroud. He is a non-Christian Jew and believes the Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus. He said his belief is based on the science, not on emotion. He also believes that the resurrection is a possible explanation for the image.
43. According to the nuclear engineer Robert Rucker, the major Shroud researchers agree that the image was caused by radiation.
44. The Shroud of Turin was proven not to be a painting or a forgery. See peer reviewed papers here: https://www.shroud.com/78papers.htm
45. The odds of the Shroud of Turin not belonging to Jesus Christ were calculated to range from 1 in 225 billion up to 1 in 10 to the 26th power. Dr. Gary Habermas deliberately used skeptical and conservative estimates, and came to 1 chance in 82,944,000 that the man buried in the Shroud is not Jesus. Dr. John Heller estimated that the chances of the Shroud being fraudulent as 1 in 10 million.
MY RESPONSE TO CRITICS: You were not on the STURP research team. You do not have complete knowledge of all the scientific, medical, historical, archaeological and biblical data. You reject the Shroud out of ignorance or bias. It challenges your worldview and/or religion. You may even appeal to propaganda or conspiracy theories to support your case. My advise is to be honest, objective and engage the evidence.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS ON THE SHROUD OF TURIN
Test the Shroud, by Antonacci;
Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence, by Antonacci;
The Shroud of Turin: An Adventure of Discovery, by Mary and Alan Whanger;
The Turin Shroud: The Illustrated Evidence, by Wilson Ian and Barrie Schwortz;
The Shroud and the Controversy, by Stevenson and Habermas
RECOMMENDED WEBSITES
What is The Shroud of Turin?
https://www.shroudresearch.net/
Barrie Schwortz' website
https://www.shroud.com/