The Shroud of Turin

By Editor |

Monday, April 19, 2010

Over the years I have learned a lot about the Shroud of Turin.  It is pretty obvious that it is a fake.  I thought that I would summarize the most notable facts in one post, including some observations of my own.

• Carbon-dating has shown it to be about 700 years old, which would date it to the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, there was a big trade in fake religious artifacts.  Even the Catholic church was in on the fake relic business because it brought money to the church. This fact -- that the Shroud is 700 years old -- is in itself conclusive proof that it is a fake.  

• Microscopic examination of the blood stains on the Shroud has shown that they are crystallized red ocher.  Red crystals can be seen clinging to the linen fibers, whereas blood would have soaked into the fibers.  Blood does not crystallize.

• The face of the Shroud has a two-dimensional quality, like a painting.  True shrouds are wrapped around the head; so if an imprint of the body were to occur on the shroud, the head portion would look rather strange, with the face appearing distorted and the ears sticking off to the sides, etc.  Some investigators believe that a bas-relief sculpture was used to create the image of the face.  Actually, the body also does not look as it should.  The shroud would have been wrapped around the body, showing Jesus' sides in addition to his front and back, so the image of the body would also appear distorted.  Instead, we have a perfectly proportionate two-dimensional representation of the front and back of a human body (with the hands strategically placed over the crotch!).  For such perfectly proportionate images to appear, Jesus' body would have to have been wrapped in a highly unusual manner, with his body placed perfectly between the folded cloth, like a sandwich.  Bodies are not wrapped in such a manner.

• The man in the shroud appears to be a representation of the ideal man that was prevalent in Europe in the Middle Ages.  This seems to confirm the carbon-dating of the shroud to that time period.

• Several investigators have managed to duplicate the Shroud, including its three-dimensional qualities (as seen under ultraviolet light). One method is to apply metallic paint to a cloth covering a body (but using a bas-relief sculpture for the head), and then baking the cloth for a few hours. Another method involves painting an image on glass, then placing the glass over a cloth, and then leaving the glass-covered cloth exposed to the sun for a week (the portions of the cloth that are not covered by the image will lighten, while the portions covered by the image will remain dark).  The former method was probably used since paint can be seen on portions of the Shroud.

Those are the main facts.  A lot has been written about the Shroud over the centuries, so perhaps I don't need to add my two cents.  But isn't it time that we put this debate to rest?  The Shroud of Turin is a fake.