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The Story behind the Photograph of the Risen Christ
This story describes how a very special photograph of
the Risen Christ was manifested by Sri Sathya Sai Baba for a visitor
to one of his ashrams known as Prasanthi Nilayam - which means the
Abode of Peace - in Puttaparti, India, in 1985. I relay the details
to you as they were conveyed to me by Barbara McAlley, a friend who
I met 'quite by chance' amongst a throng of people at Bombay airport
in July 1987.
Introduction - Part 2
The shroud is wrapped in red silk and kept in a silver chest
in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud in the Cathedral of St. John
the Baptist in Turin, Italy since 1578. The shroud is unquestionably old. Its history is known from
the year 1357, when it surfaced in the tiny village of Lirey,
France. Until recent reports from San Antonio, most of the
scientific world accepted the findings of carbon dating
carried out in 1988. The results said the shroud dated back to
1260-1390, and thus is much too new to be Jesus' burial linen.
The following image shows the
most likely position in which Jesus died. This body
position is based on interpretation of the blood stains contained in the shroud.
COPYRIGHT 1931 GIUSEPPE ENRIE
position is based on interpretation of the blood stains contained in the shroud.
COPYRIGHT 1931 GIUSEPPE ENRIE
This frontal image (above) shows the forearms, wrist, and hands.
There appears to be a large puncture wound on the wrist. This is
significant because if nails were placed through the palms of the
hand, this would not provide sufficient support to hold the body to
the cross and tearing of the hands would occur. Only if the nails
were placed through the wrists would this provide sufficient support
to hold the body fixed to the cross.
We can also see a large blood stain and elliptical wound on the
person's right side (remember, in a negative imprint left and right
are reversed). From studying the size and shape of this wound and
historical records, we can deduce that this wound could have been
caused by a Roman Lancea. This lance is pictured in Slide 13.
In addition, by measuring the angle of dried blood on the wrist,
one can reconstruct the angle at which this person hung from the
cross. He mainly hung from a position 65 degrees from the
horizontal.
But there is another angle of dried blood at 55 degrees. This shows that this person tried to lift himself up by 10 degrees. Why? Medical studies show that if a person just hangs from a position of 65 degrees in would start to suffocate very quickly. Only if he could lift himself up by about 10 degrees would he be able to breathe.
Thus he would have to raise himself up by this 10 degrees by pushing down on his feet which would have to have been fixed to the cross. He would then become exhausted and fall down again to the 65 degree position. Thus, he would continue to shift from these two agonizing positions throughout crucifixion.
That is why the executioners of crucifixion would break the legs of their victims to speed up death.
If they could not lift themselves up to breathe, they would suffocate very quickly.
But there is another angle of dried blood at 55 degrees. This shows that this person tried to lift himself up by 10 degrees. Why? Medical studies show that if a person just hangs from a position of 65 degrees in would start to suffocate very quickly. Only if he could lift himself up by about 10 degrees would he be able to breathe.
Thus he would have to raise himself up by this 10 degrees by pushing down on his feet which would have to have been fixed to the cross. He would then become exhausted and fall down again to the 65 degree position. Thus, he would continue to shift from these two agonizing positions throughout crucifixion.
That is why the executioners of crucifixion would break the legs of their victims to speed up death.
If they could not lift themselves up to breathe, they would suffocate very quickly.
Image Formation Theories
© Dr. John DeSalvo
The Painting Theory
One theory is simply that the Shroud is a painting . It has been
proposed that it was painted using iron oxide in an animal protein
binder. The STURP scientists have concluded from their studies
that no paints, pigments, dyes or stains have been found to make up
the visible image. Small amounts of iron oxide have been found
on the Shroud but the iron oxide is evenly distributed all over the
Shroud. If it were painted using iron oxide you would expect its
concentration to be greater in the image areas verses the non-image
areas. This is not the case but the iron oxide is evenly distributed
all over the Shroud. Thus it is probably a containment caused by the
presence of the Shroud in artists studios throughout history who
were copying it. It is also possible that the copies may have been
touched to the Shroud to transfer its sacredness and this
contaminated the Shroud with iron oxide.
Also no painter has been able to reproduce all the different
qualities and characteristics of the Shroud. That is, its
negativity, 3D effect, no brush strokes or directionality, perfect
anatomical details from blood stains, scourging, etc. and the image
is a surface phenomena, that is the image only penetrates about
1/500 of an inch into the cloth. It was shown that the blood went on
first and than image. Try doing that and then painting the body
image. Thus up to now no one has been able to reproduce the
Shroud in all its characteristics. Most scientists reject the
painting theory.
The Radiation Theory
Could the image have been produced by a burst of radiation (heat
or light) acting over short period of time which would have scorched
the cloth? Scientists have not been able to duplicate the
characteristics of the Shroud using this method just like the
painting hypothesis. Also the color and ultraviolet characteristics
of the Shroud body image and a scorch are different. The shroud body
image does not fluoresce under UV light but scorches like the burns
from 1532 do fluoresce under UV light. Thus many scientists rule out
the radiation theory.
DeSalvo's Revised Vaporgraphic - Direct Contact Theory
There are other theories regarding vapors from the body diffusing
to the Shroud and producing the image. Another theory is a direct
contact process in which substances were directly transferred to the
cloth and produced the image. DeSalvo's Theory takes both of these into consideration.
Nature may have supplied us with a miniature example of how the Shroud body image was produced. It is known that when certain plant matter (such as leaves) are placed in a book and left undisturbed for many years, there develops on both the upper and lower sheets of paper a faint sepia colored imprint of the plant matter (called Volckringer patterns). Dr. Jean Volckringer in the 1940's noticed that these plant images closely resemble the body image on the Shroud of Turin. In fact the plant imprint also appears to be a negative image, just like the Shroud, and when photographed a positive imprint appears on the negative plate.
Nature may have supplied us with a miniature example of how the Shroud body image was produced. It is known that when certain plant matter (such as leaves) are placed in a book and left undisturbed for many years, there develops on both the upper and lower sheets of paper a faint sepia colored imprint of the plant matter (called Volckringer patterns). Dr. Jean Volckringer in the 1940's noticed that these plant images closely resemble the body image on the Shroud of Turin. In fact the plant imprint also appears to be a negative image, just like the Shroud, and when photographed a positive imprint appears on the negative plate.
Vockringer Patterns exhibiting
positive and negative characteristics
I decided to explore this similarity in more detail. I was hoping
that by understanding how Volckringer Patterns are produced, it
would give me some idea of how the Shroud body image was produced.
Using a spectrophotomer I did a color comparison between the
Volckringer patterns and the Shroud body image. Within experimental
error, I showed that the Volckringer patterns were identical in
color to the Shroud body image. I than compared the Shroud and
Volckringer patterns using UV Fluorescent studies. It was shown that
both the Volckringer patterns and the Shroud body image do not
fluoresce under UV light. Thus the Volckringer patterns and Shroud
body image also have identical UV fluorescent characteristics.
The most startling similarity was that the Volckringer patterns
could be reconstructed in 3D relief using a VP-8 analyizer, just
like the Shroud body image.
3-D Reconstruction of a
Volckringer pattern
In summary, Vockringer patterns resemble the Shroud body image in
negativity, visible color characteristics, UV fluorescence
properties, and 3D reconstruction.
Volckringer patterns are produced when acids from the plant are
transfered to the paper causing cellulose degradation (oxidation).
The most prominent plant acid in this process is lactic acid. Where
would lactic acid fit in with the Shroud body image formation
process? Human perspiration contains a certain amount of lactic
acid. A person who had been tortured and crucified would have
sweated profusely and medical studies have shown that this
perspiration would have very high concentrations of lactic acid.
Thus, this could have been the transferring agent involved in
producing the body image on the Shroud. The lactic acid would have
been transferred to the cloth by both direct contact and vertical
diffusion. Areas of the body like the nose that touched the cloth
would transfer the lactic acid by direct contact. In the areas
further away that did not touch the cloth, i.e the cheeks, the
lactic acid would travel to the cloth by diffusion. Thus two
processes, both direct contact and vertical diffusion would transfer
the lactic acid to the cloth. Than this acid would oxidize the
cellulose in the linen and produce the image over a period of time.
It may be that originally there was no image on the cloth and after
many years the lactic acid working on the cloth eventually developed
the image. This is what occurs with the plant matter in books. My
theory does not answer all the questions. Some problems are that the
Shroud body image is a surface phenomena but the Volckringer
patterns are not. They penetrate into the paper. Also calculations
using diffusion of lactic acid would not produce the high resolution
of the image we see on the Shroud. Thus my theory does not explain
all the characteristics of the Shroud and more research needs to be
done. Thus no one theory to date can explain how the image on the
Shroud was produced.
A Living Man among the Dead
Why do you seek the living among the dead?
He is not here; he is risen.
Angels at the empty tomb to the women visitors (Luke 24:5–6).
He is not here; he is risen.
Angels at the empty tomb to the women visitors (Luke 24:5–6).
Signs of life are surely the last thing that one would expect to
find on a burial shroud. Who would suspect a living person among the
dead? Moreover, the circumstances would all indicate that the man
under the Shroud of Turin must have been dead: the brutal
mistreatment, the crucifixion, and the fact that a burial was indeed
carried out. No one could survive these serious wounds. Even if the
whipping and the crucifixion had not led to death, the lance thrust—
directly into the heart, as some believe—must at last have led to
death. And, indeed, a Roman execution squad cannot be deceived. It
is simply absurd to assume that this man made fools of almost all
witnesses to his crucifixion and his burial—a Houdini escape in the
history of crucifixions, so to speak.
Around 1950 a certain Hans Naber in post-war Germany expressed
the belief that Jesus did not die on the cross. Naber based this
belief on a direct message from Jesus Christ to himself, as well as
on observations of the Turin Shroud. He claimed too much blood was
present on the Shroud, whereas corpses no longer bleed—or at least
the large quantity of blood on the shroud does not correspond to the
blood emissions from a typical corpse.
Naber was very active and published a series of books. He was,
however, strongly attacked and even sentenced to two years in prison
for fraud. Both the German media, as well as the church authorities,
simply ignored him. Nevertheless, in 1969 the Turinese Cardinal
Pellegrino convened a commission of experts, unnoticed by the
public, to test Naber’s hypothesis with the Shroud at hand. The
result was as expected: “The Man under the Shroud had really been
dead, and Naber is wrong with his claim.” But the idea
had been launched into the modern world, and later authors came to
the same conclusion.* What is it about this idea that the
man on the Shroud was still alive in his tomb and that evidence from
the Shroud confirms this?
Basically, this question of life or death can be answered only by
developing two scenarios. First, what would be expected if the man
were dead, and second, what if the man were still alive? Especially
important here are the bloodstains, traces of rigor mortis, as well
as the question of whether this basic assumption can explain the
forming of the image on the shroud. Naturally, one must take into
consideration the “entire picture” when conclusively deciding the
validity of any hypothesis, as details leave some room open for
interpretation, and one can always speculate about circumstances
that would explain individual aspects of the Shroud, by which more
than one scenario becomes possible.
Bloodstains
It was found that blood flowed out of at least twenty-eight
wounds while the man was in the tomb. Most of the blood came out of
the side wound, yet a considerable amount of blood also flowed out
of the nail wounds in the hands and feet, as well as the thorn
wounds on the back of the head. Precisely this picture is to be
expected if the body were still alive. If this blood flow had not
occurred, it would be a certain indication that a corpse must have
lain upon the Shroud. But could it also be possible that so much
blood flowed out of a corpse?
Of course, corpses can also “bleed” out of large wounds on the
lower part of the body due to gravity. Also during transport of a
corpse, the emission of blood is possible if pressure occurs in
areas containing blood. Looking very carefully at the individual
bloodstains on the Shroud, one must differentiate the possible from
the impossible. The late Prof. Wolfgang Bonte, former head of the
Forensic Medicine Institute at the University of Dusseldorf and
president of the International Organization of Forensic Scientists (IAFS)
attempted to answer this question in the 1990s.3
First consider the bleeding from the wound on the side (the lance
thrust wound). The lower back must have lain in a puddle of blood
because bloodstains spread right and left six to eight inches beyond
the area covered by the image of the body.
Karl Herbst, a retired Catholic priest, wrote Professor Bonte
with this information without revealing to him that the Turin Shroud
was involved, in order that Bonte’s judgment would not be
prejudiced. Bonte wrote back to Herbst that, according to this
description, the opening of the wound on the right front chest wall
was placed rather precisely on the highest point on the body, and
he, Bonte, considered a spontaneous post-mortem blood flow
unthinkable because the blood level in the wound would have to have
been lower than the opening of the wound. In such a case, no blood
can flow out of a corpse.
On the contrary, a blood flow in the proportions described by
you, including the direction of the flow, would agree with the idea
that the individual involved was still alive at this time . . . this
applies especially then, when larger arterial vessels are opened and
when the blood pressure produces the necessary pressure against
gravity for the blood to leave the body.4
Herbst then revealed to Bonte that the matter involved was the
Shroud of Turin and provided photographs and specialist literature
for him in which the blood flows on the Shroud had been described in
connection with a corpse. Above all, Herbst made Bonte aware of the
argumentation of the Italian medical examiner Prof. Ballone, who had
declared that “the cause [of the exit of blood on the shroud]
is to be sought in the manipulation of the corpse during the
burial procedures.”
Professor Bonte, however, maintained his opinion and wrote back
to Herbst:
I will not repeat my earlier arguments. In my opinion, everything speaks to the fact that the blood circulation activity had not yet ended. Obviously I agree with Prof. Ballone that in the course of the transport of a corpse blood can flow almost passively out of such a stab wound to the chest. Yet one has to pose the question of whether the burial shroud was wrapped around the corpse already at the beginning of the transport. I believe that in this case no so-called statically stain-pattern would have been formed, which without exception permitted a direct, topographical assignment to a lying body. I would then far more have expected numerous traces of smears, whose locations would have been strewn more coincidental and irregularly. The pattern that is in fact recognizable indicates, in my opinion, that the person involved was only wrapped in the shroud during the placement in his grave, and indeed very probably in the form that at first the body was bedded on the shroud and the shroud’s other half was then drawn over the body. I cannot imagine that during this placement a considerable quantity of blood could have flowed out passively.5
I will not repeat my earlier arguments. In my opinion, everything speaks to the fact that the blood circulation activity had not yet ended. Obviously I agree with Prof. Ballone that in the course of the transport of a corpse blood can flow almost passively out of such a stab wound to the chest. Yet one has to pose the question of whether the burial shroud was wrapped around the corpse already at the beginning of the transport. I believe that in this case no so-called statically stain-pattern would have been formed, which without exception permitted a direct, topographical assignment to a lying body. I would then far more have expected numerous traces of smears, whose locations would have been strewn more coincidental and irregularly. The pattern that is in fact recognizable indicates, in my opinion, that the person involved was only wrapped in the shroud during the placement in his grave, and indeed very probably in the form that at first the body was bedded on the shroud and the shroud’s other half was then drawn over the body. I cannot imagine that during this placement a considerable quantity of blood could have flowed out passively.5
As further evidence for a dead body, it is often said that serum
areas would indicate post-mortem blood. To this claim, Professor
Bonte wrote:
In my opinion, a great deal of unqualified comments has been said about another phenomenon. I mean the differentiation between the actual bloodstains and the serum areas that surround them, and which are seen as proof of corpse blood. In general one can say that corpse blood does not differ from the blood of a living person at least in the first phase after death. In earlier times corpse blood was used for purposes of transfusion in great quantities. But if one cannot be differentiated from the other, it can not be concluded from any results that the one or the other type of blood is involved. It is correct that with bleeding in the chest cavity a reduction of blood corpuscles can result, and quasi serum can develop. If such an emulsion is brought to flow out by a passive movement of the body, it is possible that indeed serum can escape first. This blood corpuscle lowering can begin, depending on the circumstances, already during life. Having only the end result it can not be concluded whether the individual involved was already dead or still alive. I am therefore of the conviction that nothing at all can be determined from this particular evidence, that is, neither that it must have been corpse blood nor that it was the blood of a still living person
In my opinion, a great deal of unqualified comments has been said about another phenomenon. I mean the differentiation between the actual bloodstains and the serum areas that surround them, and which are seen as proof of corpse blood. In general one can say that corpse blood does not differ from the blood of a living person at least in the first phase after death. In earlier times corpse blood was used for purposes of transfusion in great quantities. But if one cannot be differentiated from the other, it can not be concluded from any results that the one or the other type of blood is involved. It is correct that with bleeding in the chest cavity a reduction of blood corpuscles can result, and quasi serum can develop. If such an emulsion is brought to flow out by a passive movement of the body, it is possible that indeed serum can escape first. This blood corpuscle lowering can begin, depending on the circumstances, already during life. Having only the end result it can not be concluded whether the individual involved was already dead or still alive. I am therefore of the conviction that nothing at all can be determined from this particular evidence, that is, neither that it must have been corpse blood nor that it was the blood of a still living person
Bloodstains from the crown of thorns and from the side wound (Enrie)
The Shroud was folded double under the feet, and both layers were
soaked through with fresh blood from the nail wound. This blood even
soaked the opposite side of the Shroud, as the top half of the
shroud was wrapped around the feet. So much blood flowed out of the
soles of the feet that a total of three Shroud layers were soaked.
That seems impossible in the case of a dead body with no circulation
of its blood. An interesting piece of evidence is also presented by
the bloodstains in the nail wound of the right hand. There are two
longer, narrow, clearly distinct courses of blood (called “Blutbahn”
in the image), which together form an angle of about twenty-two
degrees. Furthermore, there is a third, rather wide and almost round
flow of blood roughly at a right angle to the other two that is not
clearly delimited and must have formed when the body was in a
horizontal position.
Blood flows on the right hand ©Enrie, Kersten,
and Gruber
Click on images to enlarge.
Click on images to enlarge.
In experiments, imitation blood flows were painted on the arms of
a volunteer, who was then hanged on a cross. It was apparent that
one of the two longer blood flows must have been formed when the
body hung upright on the cross (Blutbahn 2 on the image). The other
blood flow must have been formed after the crucified man lost
consciousness and fell to one side (Blutbahn 1). Looking carefully,
one can see that blood flow 1 is narrower than blood flow 2 and is
also straight. This can be explained by the fact that the body hung
motionless on the cross at the time it formed, while with blood flow
2 the blood ran irregularly down the arm due to the movement of the
body.
The alternative interpretation, that the two blood flows arose
when the crucified man occasionally changed his position in order to
achieve some minor comfort, can be excluded, for in that case both
blood flows would have been smeared and would have overlapped each
other. “After extensive experimentation, this theory was recently
shown to be untenable.” * The width and irregularity of blood
flow 2 allows us to sense the pain and suffering that such movements
caused.
The formation of the straight blood flow 1 definitely requires
some blood pressure. The crucified man must in any case have still
been alive as he hung motionless on the cross. Had he been dead,
this blood flow would not have been produced, for it is impossible
that a corpse in this position, with arms outstretched and hands
positioned above the heart, could have bled so. Could it be that
these blood flows first formed after the removal of the body from
the cross as is sometimes claimed?9 The answer is that blood flow 2
is as expected if the body was still hanging on the cross. Such a
wound had to bleed, and the blood had to run down in exactly
that direction on the arm. It is also to be expected that the body,
upon loss of consciousness, shifted to one side, whereby the
position of the arms and thus the course of the blood would
automatically change. One blood flow, due to the movements of the
live body on the cross, is wider and more irregular, the other flow
narrow and straight. When a body is lying horizontally, only
bleeding as in blood flow 3 can be expected; and only if the body is
still alive.
The blood flows on the right hand, therefore, allow only one
conclusion: the man on the Shroud must have hung only
unconsciously until his body was removed from the cross.
Otherwise, bloodstain 1 could not have formed. Also found on the
Shroud is blood that flowed from many smaller wounds on the back of
the head. It comes from wounds that were caused by the crown of
thorns. When this crown was removed during the removal of the body
from the cross, the wounds, which until then had been plugged by the
thorns, opened. In the case of a corpse, no more blood would have
flowed here because the exterior blood vessels contract upon death.
Corpses, therefore, look empty of blood or “pale as a corpse.” Yet
the many distinct bloodstains on the back of the head here are
clearly recognizable as blood that could only have flowed in the
grave. Should the blood have come out of the (living) body on the
cross, it would have dried out and not soaked the shroud in the tomb
as it did.
Could the body perhaps have been washed during burial, whereby
blood can flow from wounds on a corpse? As the blood flows on the
arms show, the body was obviously not washed. Had the hair been
wetted, the blood would have mixed with the water and spread itself
around equally in the hair. There is no way that such clearly
delimited bloody spots, as are observable on the Turin Shroud, could
have come from a corpse.
Rigor Mortis
According to overwhelming scientific opinion, rigor mortis begins
about thirty minutes after death, forms completely within three to
six hours, and then dissipates after thirty-six to ninety hours. In
a case where a person has suffered greatly shortly before death,
rigor mortis can set in completely within an hour of death. Medical
examiners who have studied the Turin Shroud are— to the extent that
they assume the Shroud covered a dead body—unanimous in the opinion
that, at the time of the removal of the body from the cross, rigor
mortis must have been complete.
Rigor mortis is seen in the stiffness of the extremities, the
retraction of the thumbs and the distension of the feet. It has
frozen an attitude of death while hanging by the arms; the rib cage
is abnormally expanded, the large pectoral muscles are in an
attitude of extreme inspiration. [ William Meacham, The Rape of
the Shroud, 2005, p. 4.]
Yet Professor Bonte came to the following contrary result: “I want to clearly deny, whether one can read the beginnings of rigor mortis in any of the diagnostic findings on the burial shroud. The position as it can be seen on the Shroud can in my opinion also be taken by a living person, that is, a seemingly dead man.” [ Herbst, p. 100 ]
Yet Professor Bonte came to the following contrary result: “I want to clearly deny, whether one can read the beginnings of rigor mortis in any of the diagnostic findings on the burial shroud. The position as it can be seen on the Shroud can in my opinion also be taken by a living person, that is, a seemingly dead man.” [ Herbst, p. 100 ]
After the man of the Shroud hanging on the cross lost
consciousness, his body slumped from an upright position with his
arms widespread, his knees bent, and his head leaning forward and
down due to gravity. The body must have completely stiffened in this
position. One would have had to break the position of the arms with
considerable force and bind them together with a wrist band, though
no trace of this effort is visible in the image.
If one assumes that the body was laid in its grave in a stiffened
position, the following questions or problems appear:
• The arms were spread apart. The position of the arms in the
grave, however, could have been forced by means of breaking their
rigor mortis, but nothing indicates this. The arms seem to lie quite
relaxed on the front of the body.
• The position of the head raises larger questions. At the time
of death, or of loss of consciousness, the head must have fallen
forward and down due to gravity, whereby the chin must have almost
touched the chest (Ill. 17). The position of the head in
illustration 18 reflects the position of the head in the tomb. This
posture is very different from this posture on the cross. Muscular
strength would have been necessary to hold the head in the position
indicated by the shroud. This becomes immediately clear by turning
the illustration around ninety degrees. The position of the head
thus cannot be harmonized with rigor mortis. It may be that here,
too, the rigor was forcibly broken, but the question remains as to
why.
• At the back of the head and the nape of the neck, the Shroud
had direct contact with the body, and the image even follows the
curve of the nape. The Shroud was clearly not tied with bands around
the neck. Otherwise, the image would have been distorted. Therefore,
the head and back must have lain on a kind of pillow. This can be
deduced from the curious fact that the image of the back side of the
man is actually longer than that of his front side. The body must,
therefore, have lain slightly bent or hunched. Also, the hands would
not reach so far down and cover the genitalia on the image if the
body had lain flat, as anyone can immediately test on himself.
Furthermore, the image of the back of the head, as well as that of
the bloodstains from the crown of thorns, is spread over a larger
area. These point to a soft support of some kind on which the back
of the head was supported. If the head were instead elevated into
free space due to rigor mortis and the Shroud were wrapped around it
in that position, a completely different picture would have resulted
in this area.
Back of the body on the Shroud
In illustration above, the wounds of the flogging to the calves
and thighs are clearly visible. Thus, the distance between the legs
and the Shroud could only have been very narrow. Due to gravity, the
Shroud must have lain flat on the surface under it as indicated in
illustration below.
This sixteenthcentury painting by Giovanni Battista shows how the body could have been wrapped
in a burial shroud in a position that would match the image on the Shroud of Turin
Otherwise, the Shroud—as in the case of a mummy—would have to
have been wrapped tightly around the body or tied up. This scenario
is excluded because images and bloodstains would then have been
visible on the side areas of the body, and the image itself would
have been distorted, which is not the case. Everything, therefore,
points to the assumption that both the Shroud and the legs laid flat
on the ground. This, too, is not in agreement with the body position
on the cross; the feet could not have become stiff in such a
straight position.
If all the features of the Shroud are looked at carefully, it is
obvious that it did not wrap a body in rigor. On the other hand,
everything fits exactly if we assume a living body. Here it may be
remarked that, in the case of the wounds of scourging, it is not
blood that we see (except for tiny isolated traces). Rather, these
wounds are a part of the body image, a subject we will examine
later.
Here is another important point: Nowhere on the Shroud has any
sign of the onset of bodily decay been discovered.*
In the recent past the Spanish pathologist Dr. Miguel Lorente
published a book in which he explains that from the evidence of
vitality and the absence of signs of death on the cloth, it has to
be concluded that the man under the Shroud must have still been
alive.*
The Formation of the Image
The image on the Shroud is not a contact print, for the image
bears details of places on the body that must have been up to two
inches away from the Shroud. Pure diffusion processes alone are thus
eliminated because an image of such photographic clarity could never
have formed that way.
There is, therefore, a broad consensus among Shroud researchers
that the formation of the image must have something to do with
energy. If a dead and thus relatively cold body is assumed, there is
no known process that would explain the formation of such an image.
How can the appearance of an appropriate form of energy in this
scenario be explained? Many Christian believers, therefore, assume a
kind of energy flash—perhaps resulting from high voltage—which was
generated at the resurrection and which somehow branded or singed
the image of the body onto the Shroud. But Rogers has found that “any
photon or particle with an energy above about 3 eV (e.g., light with
a shorter wavelength than green)” cause traces (defects) on the
fibers, which can be seen under a microscope. As image fibers do not
have more defects than nonimage fibers, he concluded that “the
image could not have involved energetic radiation of any kind;
photons, electrons, protons, alpha particles, and/or neutrons.”*
This is one of the reasons why theories like the
“corona-discharge hypothesis” are very controversial among Shroud
researchers.*
Science is no longer competent if a miracle is included as part
of the explanation. If a solution is to be found based on scientific
reasoning, doesn’t everything research found out about the
properties of the image have to be looked at very closely? Precise
examination of linen fibers that are found in the area of the image
has yielded the following information*:
• The yellowish chemical substance made up of doubly bound
saccharides is present only on the surface of the fibers, which seen
from a certain distance gives the impression of a body image.*
The fibers themselves are unchanged. Inside the fibers, neither
discoloration nor any other change can be discovered.
• Not all threads in the image area are affected by this
yellowish substance. Lying directly next to the threads affected by
the image substance are also threads whose surfaces are unchanged
and having no image-creating substance.
• The formation of the image must have occurred at a relatively
low temperature (air or body temperature). The image cannot have
been formed by heat scorching, because in that case the colors
reflected under ultraviolet radiation would have a different
spectrum than that found during the examination process. The image
areas differentiate themselves here significantly from the areas
that were scorched in the sixteenth-century fire at Chambery. We can
therefore also assume that the process of image formation required a
certain amount of time.
• The yellowish substance is found all around the affected
fibers/fibrils, including areas on the sides opposite to the body.
If the image had resulted from a direct energy effect, the energy
would have had to been so strong that it would have discolored the
interior of the fibers before it had caused a discoloration of the
opposite side of the fibers, which is not the case.
• In the case of the top half of the Shroud, that is, the half
that lay over the front of the body, a very faint image is also
recognizable on some areas of the opposite side, especially in the
face area. The body image was thus formed on both sides of the cloth
in some places.*
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Paul Vignon in his
book The Shroud of Christ argued that the image formation
process must have resulted from gases. [ Paul Vignon, Le linceul
du Christ, Paris, 1902.] Vignon assumed that the applied
substances of myrrh, aloes, and olive oil, as sensitizing agents,
dampened the linen material.
Experiments showed that chemical changes formed in connection
with the gas ammoniac, led to a gradual yellowing of a test cloth.
Ammoniac or amines form not only during the decay of corpses but
also during the decay of urea. Parents know the strong smell of urea
that arises from the changing of diapers. Admittedly, urea normally
does not occur on the skin. Vignon discovered, however, that urea
occurs abundantly in death perspiration, as well as in perspiration
produced by a person being brutally tortured [ Rodney Hoare, The
Turin Shroud is Genuine, 1998, p. 56 ff.]
The American chemist Raymond Rogers, who spent long years
investigating the Shroud, examined in detail the chemical mechanisms
that might have been responsible for the formation of the image on
it. He was thereby able to offer an explanation for why some fibers
contain the image-making substance, while some do not, even when
they lie directly adjacent. During the linen production in
antiquity, the spun linen fibers were individually moistened with a
paste made of crude starch so that the threads could be more easily
woven. Some fibers were moistened more than others. The finished
Shroud was washed in a solution of saponaria officinalis, a
soap-like plant solution, and then laid out to dry. On the surface
of the fibers, there remained a thin, irregular coating of residual
starch, which then reacted with the gases that arose from the body,
forming the yellowish substance that produced the image. This
explains why the yellowish substance is found only on the surface of
the fibers, and also why there are neighboring fibers that do not
contain this substance. Rogers could experimentally reproduce this
cause-andeffect process. Also, the fact that the image was formed in
some places of the exterior of the Shroud can thus be explained. A
portion of the gas diffused itself through the Shroud and reacted
with the coating on the surface of the fibers on the other side.
The hypothesis that gases caused the formation of the image seems
irrefutable, as only so is the effect through distance explicable.
It is clear that the image can not be a pure contact-image, because
parts of the body are visible, which must have had a distance of up
to 2 inches to the surface of the body.
Rogers assumed that the image was formed by means of a
complicated chemical process. He believed also that the man under
the Shroud was dead, but the body still had certain residual warmth.
The coating on the image-fibers was caused, according to this
hypothesis, mainly by amines, which exited the skin due to initial
decomposition processes. They reacted with the starch on the linen
fibers and thus formed the yellowish coating. Rogers explained that
the image substance is allocated on the Shroud in a way that gives
the impression of a photograph because of a differentiated
concentration of gases and possibly also differences of temperature,
among other things. In our e-mail exchanges he admitted that the
brilliance of the image cannot be explained by his hypothesis and
that therefore this problem is not yet completely solved.
There are indeed a whole series of problems in this approach. The
volume of the gas between the body and the Shroud was relatively
small. New ammoniac (or amines as a product of decomposition, if one
assumes a corpse) was permanently formed on the skin, which exited
into the surrounding air and then either diffused through the Shroud
or was used up during the formation of the image. It is, therefore,
to be expected that equilibrium was established underneath the
Shroud, where the amine gas concentration should have been rather
steady in the volume between body and cloth, regardless of the
distance from Shroud to skin.
A corpse would certainly have had residual warmth in the grave.
This warmth would have led to air movement. This in turn would have
led to a mixing of the gases and the hindering of the formation of
different gas concentrations in the precisely required amounts. Thus
a relatively even yellowing of the Shroud would be expected, like a
big yellow stain, but not a high-resolution, photograph-like image.
Objects are clearly recognizable, such as the upper lip, which must
have been up to five centimeters (two inches) from the Shroud.
In the Near East but also in other parts of the world, people
have been, and are, buried in shrouds or in cloth sacks. They are
laid to rest not only in the raw earth but in grave chambers and
catacombs. If it were so simple for a corpse and a shroud sprinkled
with starch to yield an image, many such images on grave shrouds
would have already been produced. Furthermore, it would be very
simple today to reproduce a shroud with such an image. One would
simply lay a shroud with such a preparation on the face of a corpse
and wait for two days. Yet the image on the Turin Shroud is unique.
A second such image of a corpse on a shroud has not been found, nor
has it been possible to reproduce such an image experimentally.
This does not necessarily mean that the image was formed by
supernatural forces. Nevertheless, a unique constellation of events
must have arisen in the grave and led to a unique process.
Every body that is warmer than its surrounding temperature
radiates energy in the form of infrared radiation. Poor conductors
like the human body radiate this energy primarily in a vertical
direction.
[ Rogers, p. 11.]
[ Rogers, p. 11.]
The energy radiation of a body decreases with distance. Rodney
Hoare carried out the following experiment. A cloth was laid for
some time on a man wearing only a swimming suit. Afterward, the
cloth was held up and photographed with a temperature-sensitive
camera. The photograph clearly showed a picture of heat on the
shroud that the body had projected earlier. The less distance
between body and shroud, the higher the temperature of the shroud on
that spot.
The speed of the chemical process that produced the image
substance (Maillard reaction) depends largely on the temperature.
Between air temperature and body temperature, a rise of ten degrees
Celsius can mean a doubling or even a tripling of the speed of the
process [ Ibid., p. 12.].
The chemical reaction can, therefore, cause a “heat picture“ to
materialize. The higher the temperature was on a certain spot on the
shroud, the more image-producing substance formed, an effect
directly related to the distance of the shroud to the body. As
already shown, this effect leads to the impression of a
photograph-like image, from which even a 3-D image can be produced.
If one assumes a corpse, it must be accepted that this body had
certain residual warmth, which according to the described effect
mechanism could also cause an image. Nevertheless, the depth of
staining over the length of the front and back of the body
[image on the shroud] is fairly constant, so the temperature of
the cloth must also have been approximately uniform. This could only
happen if the blood were still circulating, the heart just beating.
The body must have been in a coma, therefore, and not clinically
dead by twentieth-century standards.
As soon as a body dies, its heart stops beating, and the blood
is no longer forced round the body keeping the temperature nearly
even. Very soon the extremities—feet, hands, nose—which have a large
surface area compared with the matter they hold, cool down to the
outside temperature. The trunk of the body and the head hold a
very great deal of heat and will retain this for many hours. Not
only that, but the blood no longer kept circulating, will naturally
fall through gravity, causing lividity on the bottom surface. Some
of these places, the buttocks and shoulder blades in a prone body,
for instance, would therefore stay warm even longer, so that the
signs of that warmth should have been visible as darker areas on the
Shroud. Had it covered a dead body, the forensic experts would have
expected no stain at all towards the feet, and the hands and nose
would also have shown much less stain than they do. [ Hoare, p.
69. Result of the examination of the image by forensic scientists ].
In connection with the image, there are three further
observations that point to a living organism under the Shroud:
• The nose and the region under the nose belong to the darkest
areas of the image. In the case of a corpse, the opposite would be
expected, since the nose area cools down more quickly than other
parts of the body. Warm air from the lungs would result in stronger
discoloration.
• The image in the area of the head is darker than elsewhere. In
the case of a corpse, there is no explanation for such a thing. A
living organism, however, under heavy loss of blood, directs more
blood into the brain and inner organs, which results in relative
temperature differences, and thus differences of lightness in the
image.
• The wounds of the flogging are a part of the body image and are
not bloodstains. This, too, is easily explicable. Skin wounds lead
to a light rising of the skin temperature in the area of the wounds
(about one or two degrees Celsius). As with the rest of the image, a
higher temperature causes the formation of more image substance, and
thus the areas in question appear darker, which precisely matches
the observations.
However, nobody has yet succeeded in producing a comparable image
experimentally. The reason is that a test person would have to be
treated the same way as the man under the Shroud. He would also have
to lay under a cloth motionless for a while. We also do not know
which substances (ointments, oils, spices, and so on) were used
during the burial or during the production of the cloth. Therefore,
we do not know the exact chemical situation under the shroud. An
important step for an experimental verification is, therefore, to
analyze the image formation process in several parts.
One question is, for instance, whether a warm body can project a
temperature image onto a cloth laid upon it.
In order to test this, I laid a piece of cloth over a rubber
glove filled with warm water for a short time, then put the cloth
aside, and photographed it immediately with a temperature-sensitive
camera.
A thermo-camera converses temperatures in colors or brightness
(the warmer, the brighter). A warm body indeed projects a
temperature image on a cloth laid upon it. That a chemical process
follows this temperature distribution and thus materializes a
temperature image can be assumed. The characteristic of the
allocation of the image substance on the Shroud corresponds with the
characteristics of the temperature allocation on a cloth laid on a
warm body. As the image substance darkens the surface of the Shroud,
a point on the image becomes darker when the temperature is higher,
which happens in places where the distance to the body is shorter.
Therefore, the thermo image has to be compared with the negative of
the Shroud image.
In 1981 in a Liverpool hospital, a mattress was found that bore
the image of one hand and the buttocks of a just-deceased cancer
patient. This image had similarities to the image on the Shroud of
Turin. [Google:” Jospice mattress”, result, e.g.,
http://www.shroud.com/pdfs/mattress.pdf ]
Thus, under certain chemical circumstances, it is entirely possible that a warm, living body can cause an image to form.
Thus, under certain chemical circumstances, it is entirely possible that a warm, living body can cause an image to form.
That the Turin Shroud bears a photograph-like image, as well as
its fresh blood and the lack of rigor mortis on the man in the
image is further indication that the man under the Shroud must have
been alive.
Granted, almost all Shroud researchers assume the Shroud
contained a dead body. [ This refers also to the members of the
shroud science group ]. In general, most of these researchers are
traditional Christians who strictly reject any argument that could
suggest that Jesus survived the cross. Such a thought is even
considered a kind of heresy. Much is at stake here. From their
perspective, it must be a tragedy that the object that appears to
lend credibility to their faith should instead become proof that the
central belief of their faith might have no historical basis.
True scientific research has always to be without fixed
expectations regarding the results. Unfortunately, what is often
lacking here is the required scientific neutrality. At present,
these matters seem utterly polemical. Dr. Frederick Zugibe, an
American medical examiner, writes in his book:
In general, the Swoon Theory is completely unfounded and is
refuted by the following facts: First, Jesus' physical condition was
grave. The extent and severity of His injuries dictate that He would
not have survived the crucifixion. Second, no medications or drugs
of the time would have been able to stop the excruciating pains
Jesus was undoubtedly experiencing, and no drugs of the time were
capable of placing Him into a deep sleep to feign death given His
condition. . . . Those authors who used the Shroud as evidence that
Jesus was alive after removal from the cross were either ignorant of
or disregarded medical and scientific evidence to the contrary.
Moreover, the presence of rigor mortis, noted on the Shroud and
acknowledged by well-known forensic and general pathologists,
attests to this.
[ 27 Frederick Zugibe, The Crucifixion of Jesus—A Forensic Inquiry, p. 161f. ]
[ 27 Frederick Zugibe, The Crucifixion of Jesus—A Forensic Inquiry, p. 161f. ]
The conviction that the man on the Shroud must have been dead is
sustained by two major arguments:
1. Jesus, so badly wounded after the crucifixion, could not have
acted as is reported of him.
2. It is impossible to survive the type of injuries Jesus sustained.
2. It is impossible to survive the type of injuries Jesus sustained.
The first case involves in an unacceptable confusion of religion
and science. On this point, it must be a question exclusively of the
Shroud. In order to eliminate bias as much as possible, it is even
required to leave the possibility that it could involve the
historical Jesus. Thus, only the information taken from the Shroud
may be evaluated because the information on the Shroud is far more
objective than texts that were written decades after the events.
The second point reveals the poor relationship between what is
seen and what would normally be accepted as certain. Of course, it
is absolutely improbable to sustain such wounds and thereafter be
entombed while still alive and survive the ordeal. On the other
hand, if a person is still breathing and the pupils react to light,
no one would come to the conclusion that the person is dead, no
matter how serious the injuries might be. The direct evidence for
life thus takes priority over general observations such as the
severity of the wounds, pain suffered, and so on.
Nevertheless, it is repeatedly stated that, at the latest, the
thrust with the lance into the side of Jesus, as seen imaged
on the Shroud, must have led to his death because it went directly
into his heart. However, no exit wound is visible. The lance only
entered the body partially, and therefore one can determine nothing
about the direction and the deepness of the lance thrust. In other
words, if the man was still alive thereafter, as a series of
indications clearly show, the lance could not have hit the heart.
How dangerous was that side wound? The English researcher Rodney
Hoare, while chairman of the British Society of the Turin Shroud,
wrote in his book how he visited a team of medical examiners with
enlarged photographs of the Shroud of Turin. His intention was to
let such experts explain the cause of death. To the question of the
severity of the lance thrust into the chest, he received the
following surprising answer:
“That would have done little damage. Put your hand where the
point entered as on the Shroud photograph, and then lift your arms
to the side in the crucifixion position, and it was too high to
damage anything if the wound came from below. It would have bled, as
we can see, and it might have allowed water between the lung and its
cavity to come out at the same time. That water, the pleural
effusion, would have been formed when the body was scourged. The
lung would have been forced back, but even if the weapon had entered
the lungs they can localise the injury." Then I asked, if the
chest wound could not have been fatal, what did the man die of?
For perhaps thirty minutes they discussed this before I had a
consensus report. It was this: “If he lived before the seventeenth
century, he would have been dead. He may have been unconscious on
the cross and barely breathing, so he would have been dead to the
onlookers. That's what they looked for. After Harvey they would have
tested his pulse which would have been beating weakly. If he had
lived in the twentieth century he would have been certified as in a
coma.” [ Hoare, p. 68. ]
The lance thrust was not intended to kill the crucifixion victim
here. His death should have followed from the crucifixion itself. It
was assumed that Jesus was already dead. The heart area would have
been the most appropriate place for a deadly lance thrust. The
reason for this lance thrust was far more to find out if the victim
still showed any reaction to additional pains. The wound in the side
was certainly a serious wound, but it occurred on a place of the
body that would not lead to fatal injury.
Of course, you must decide for yourself which conclusions you
would like to draw from all the facts and interpretations presented
here. This book, however, assumes the theory of the natural survival
of the man under the Turin Shroud, for the research results show
that it is sufficiently plausible. The whole story is in itself
incredible, but everything speaks for a natural course of events.
There is thus no gap in the explanation needing the assumption of a
supernatural event. If, however, the assumption is that there was a
corpse under the Shroud, a gap develops in the explanation of the
image formation because no satisfactory natural explanation for the
formation of the image based on this scenario has been found, even
after one hundred years of Shroud research. This is also the reason
why many people prefer to believe the Shroud to be a forgery. The
argument usually goes something like this*:
- Science has more or less proven that a corpse cannot produce such an image.
- Miracles are only in the heads of people and do not occur in actual historical events.
- Therefore, there is strong evidence that the image on the Shroud must be man-made.
The problem for shroud skeptics is that the Shroud is simply too
good to have been forged. As Einstein said, if a problem cannot be
solved within a certain paradigm, it is necessary to change the
paradigm and look for a solution then.
* See, for example, David Roemer’s “Why the Turin
Shroud Is Not Authentic” at
http://www.dkroemer.com/shroud.html
Read all 3 chapters of the book here:
www.shroud.info/A_Living_Among_the_dead.pdf
© 2008 Dr. Helmut Felzmann - All rights
reserved -
Presented with permission of the author
Official website of the author: http://www.shourd.info
Official website of the author: http://www.shourd.info
 |
New Light on Jesus:
Research on the Turin Shroud Yields Surprising Knowledge by Helmut Felzmann The Turin Shroud is it ... a fraud, a mystery, the witness of a miracle? Bit by bit, the investigation into the Turin Shroud becomes an explosive historical controversy. Medical examiners say that the man under the shroud must have still been alive! Was it Jesus, who survived his crucifixion? This would turn the resurrection into a matter of science, not only faith. This book presents scientific evidence so you can decide for yourself whether Christians will have to confront the idea that some of their central beliefs have no historical basis. Christianity beyond sacrificial death and supernatural resurrection is not its end but the dawn of a new beginning. This is the message of this book. A radical book for spiritual pioneers. |
Leonardo da Vinci: Photo-image Theory
Is it possible that the Shroud had been created by
Leonardo da Vinci?
Leonardo was authorized or allowed to dissect
corpses. Leonardo, being religious was aware of everything written
about Jesus from the New Testament. Leonardo was a pioneer if not
the inventor of the camera obscura and he was knowledgeable about
photographic chemicals. Acquiring an old cloth should not have been
difficult for Leonardo. The body on the Shroud has unusual
dimensions due, obviously, to distortions based on the camera
obscura method. The head on the Shroud does not join the body. This
is simply explained as follows: the head on the Shroud is that of
Leonardo!
Shroud of Turin or Carbon 14
This article was contributed to World-Mysteries.com by Doug
Yurchey
Pick one! One is true, the other is false.
It is either the Shroud of Turin is a fraud and Carbon 14 is an accurate time-measuring instrument.....or, the Shroud of Turin is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ and Carbon 14 is NOT an accurate time-measuring device.
Everything about the Shroud rings true: It is the material used
for burial shrouds 2000 years ago in the area of the Holy Land.
There is a wound indicated in the chest area. There is the exact
number of lashes from a whipping on the back as stated in the Bible.
Religious portraits of stigmata are not accurate when they show
wounds in the palm of the hands. Nails, creating the wounds in the
palms, could not hold the body on the cross. Tests on cadavers prove
that bones in the hand are not strong enough to sustain a body's
weight. Nails rip through hand bones and the body falls. On the
Shroud, the wounds are at the wrist which can sustain the weight of
a body. A religious forger, making a fraudulent Shroud would have
placed the wounds in the palms...not at the wrists. The crown of
thorns was not a round wreath as we also see in religious
portrayals, but a hat of thorns. The trails of blood on Turin's
burial cloth are sensible; they conform to the flow of gravity.
Also...why is there blood at all when the body was cleaned, then
wrapped and the fact that no blood flows from a corpse?
The most amazing evidence to the reality of the Shroud is that it
is a PHOTOGRAPHIC NEGATIVE.
Secondo Pia was the Shroud's first photographer. The Italian photographed this
faint image on a light-colored material. To his great surprise, when Pia examined his negatives, there was a positive image! By photographing the negative, you have created a positive. The faint image became a light image on a black background. Details emerged that astounded viewers and enlarged the Shroud's controversy.
Secondo Pia was the Shroud's first photographer. The Italian photographed this
faint image on a light-colored material. To his great surprise, when Pia examined his negatives, there was a positive image! By photographing the negative, you have created a positive. The faint image became a light image on a black background. Details emerged that astounded viewers and enlarged the Shroud's controversy.
What could have formed this negative? It certainly was not a 1000
year old artist faking a holy relic. Some say the image
captures the moment of Christ's resurrection. Others say that the
image was a scorching emanating out due to RADIATION. There were
reports that after the Hiroshima blast, pieces of glass were found
with negative images of people's faces. These were people who had
their faces near windows when the atomic bomb exploded. Radiation
does cause negative imprinting.
What is it that tells scientists that the Shroud of TURIN is a
fake? Answer: Carbon 14. Are you so sure that Carbon 14 is accurate?
Science needs an UNDER-estimate for many ancient mysteries that
baffle us and do not fit the traditional picture. In the same way,
Science needs a Rosetta Stone (which also is untrue)...so they can
think they understand something that is not understandable.
Mysterious artifacts are much older than what Carbon 14 indicates.
Traditional scientists say there was a smooth progression of
knowledge and technology; in the past, it was primitive and in
modern times...it is advanced. Anything that disturbs this
narrow (flat-Earth) view is not accepted. Carbon 14 is perfect for
this agenda.
The truth is the mysterious relics of the past are even more
mysterious. The truth is you have to take the date Carbon 14 gives
you and multiply it by at least a factor of 3.
[This writer knew this back in the 1970s. When I heard that they
were going to date the Shroud with Carbon 14, I thought to myself:
NO! My sources told me exactly what is stated in the above
paragraph.]
The Shroud was tested with Carbon 14 and the rest is history.
Now, the scientific world does not believe in the Turin relic
because their holy measuring device said it was only 6-700 years
old.
Scientists are supposed to be open-minded, not stuck to a canon of unchanging principles.
Maybe there are some things that we have to take on a little bit of faith.
Scientists are supposed to be open-minded, not stuck to a canon of unchanging principles.
Maybe there are some things that we have to take on a little bit of faith.
News Articles
Tests Show Shroud Of Turin Much Older Than Carbon-14 Date
October 6, 2000 - Sightings - Oviedo, Spain
October 6, 2000 - Sightings - Oviedo, Spain
Scientists and forensic specialists gathered in Oviedo, Spain,
this week to examine an obscure relic that many have claimed
authenticates the Shroud of Turin - believed by many to be the
burial cloth of Jesus Christ.
The Sudarium of Oviedo is reportedly the other linen cloth found in the tomb of Christ, as described in the Gospel of John.
The relic, whose dramatic history is intertwined with the Knights Templar, Moors, El Cid, saints and bishops, has been in Spain since 631 A.D.
Meanwhile, in Turin, Italy, the last pilgrims of the Jubilee Year are winding their way past the Shroud of Turin before the exhibit closes on October 23.
Verses 5-8 of the 20th chapter of "The Gospel According to St. John" records, "... he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths, but rolled up in a separate place."
This head cloth, the sudarium, has become the focus of increasing debates over the validity of the carbon-14 tests on the Shroud of Turin.
The carbon-dating tests set the age of the shroud in the 13th century, which would make the Shroud of Turin a pious icon at best, a clever fraud at worst.
However, the scientific community is divided over the shroud dates because -- with the exception of the carbon dating tests -- medical, artistic, forensic and botanical evidence favors the authenticity of the shroud of Turin as the burial cloth of Jesus.
One example of microscopic testing that supports the Shroud as authentic is the 1978 sample of dirt taken from the foot region of the burial linen. The dirt was analyzed at the Hercules Aerospace Laboratory in Salt Lake, Utah, where experts identified crystals of travertine argonite, a relatively rare form of calcite found near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem.
It is a stretch, say researchers, that a 13th century forger would have known to take the trouble to impregnate the linen with marble dust found near Golgotha in order to fool scientists six hundred years later.
The debate over the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin is elevated by the new discoveries resulting from the studies on the Sudarium of Oviedo.
Unlike the Shroud, the Sudarium, which covered the face of Christ for a short time before the body was wrapped in the longer burial cloth, does not carry an image of a man. Instead, the cloth, held against a face of a man who had been beaten about the head, shows a distinct facial impression and pattern of stains.
The cloth is impregnated with blood and lymph stains that match the blood type on the Shroud of Turin. The pattern and measurements of stains indicate the placement of the cloth over the face.
These patterns have been extensively mapped to enable researchers to compare the markings and measurements with those of the Shroud of Turin.
These measurements and calculations, digitized videos and other forensic evidence indicate that the Sudarium of Oviedo covered the same head whose image is found on the Shroud of Turin.
Part of Jewish burial custom was to cover the face of the dead, sparing the family further distress. The sudarium, from the Latin for "face cloth," would have been wrapped over the head of the crucified Christ awaiting permission from Pontius Pilate to remove the body.
Stains made at that time indicate a vertical position with the head at an angle. There are stains from deep puncture wounds on the portion of the cloth covering the back of the head, consistent with those puncture marks found on the Shroud of Turin, theoretically made by the caplet of thorns.
A separate set of stains, superimposed upon the first set, was made when the crucified man was laid horizontally and lymph flowed out from the nostrils.
The composition of the stains, say the Investigation Team from the Spanish Centre for Sindology, who began the first sudarium studies in 1989, is one part blood -- type AB -- and six parts pulmonary oedema fluid.
This fluid is significant, say researchers, because it indicates that the man died from asphyxiation, the cause of death for victims of crucifixion.
Recently, Dr. Alan Whanger, professor emeritus of Duke University, employed his Polarized Image Overlay Technique to study correlations between the Shroud and the Sudarium. Dr. Whanger found 70 points of correlation on the front of the sudarium and 50 on the back.
"The only reasonable conclusion," says Mark Guscin, author of "The Oviedo Cloth," "is that the Sudarium of Oviedo covered the same head as that found on the Shroud of Turin." Guscin, a British scholar whose study is the only English language book on the Sudarium, told WorldNetDaily, "This can be uncomfortable for scientists with a predetermined viewpoint; I mean, the evidence grows that this cloth and the Shroud covered the same tortured man."
Guscin also points to pollen studies done by Max Frei of Switzerland.
Specific pollens from Palestine are found in both relics, while the Sudarium has pollen from Egypt and Spain that is not found on the Shroud.
Conversely, pollen grains from plant species indigenous to Turkey are imbedded in the Shroud, but not the Sudarium, supporting the theory of their different histories after leaving Jerusalem.
The significance of the Sudarium to the Shroud, in addition to the forensic evidence, is that the history of the Sudarium is undisputed. While the history of the Shroud is veiled in the mists of the Middle Ages, the Sudarium was a revered relic preserved from the days of the crucifixion.
A simple cloth of little value, other than that it contained the Blood of Christ, the Sudarium accompanied a presbyter named Philip and other Christians fleeing Palestine in 616 A.D. ahead of the Persian invasion.
Passing through Alexandria, Egypt, and into Spain at Cartegena, the oak chest containing the Sudarium was entrusted to Leandro, bishop of Seville. In 657 it was moved to Toledo, then in 718 on to northern Spain to escape the advancing Moors.
The Sudarium was hidden in the mountains of Asturias in a cave known as Montesacro until king Alfonso II, having battled back the Moors, built a chapel in Oviedo to house it in 840 AD.
The most riveting date in the Sudarium's history is March 14, 1075. On this date, King Alfonso VI, his sister and Rodrigo Diaz Vivar (El Cid) opened the chest after days of fasting. This official act of the king was recorded and the document is preserved in the Capitular Archives at the Cathedral of San Salvador in Oviedo. The King had the oak chest covered in silver and an inscription added which reads, "The Sacred Sudarium of Our Lord Jesus Christ."
Juan Ignacio Moreno, a Spanish magistrate based in Burgos, Spain, asks the critical question. "The scientific and medical studies on the Sudarium prove that it was the covering for the same man whose image is [on] the Shroud of Turin.
We know that the Sudarium has been in Spain since the 600s. How, then, can the radio carbon dating claiming the Shroud is only from the 13th century be accurate?"
The Sudarium of Oviedo is reportedly the other linen cloth found in the tomb of Christ, as described in the Gospel of John.
The relic, whose dramatic history is intertwined with the Knights Templar, Moors, El Cid, saints and bishops, has been in Spain since 631 A.D.
Meanwhile, in Turin, Italy, the last pilgrims of the Jubilee Year are winding their way past the Shroud of Turin before the exhibit closes on October 23.
Verses 5-8 of the 20th chapter of "The Gospel According to St. John" records, "... he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths, but rolled up in a separate place."
This head cloth, the sudarium, has become the focus of increasing debates over the validity of the carbon-14 tests on the Shroud of Turin.
The carbon-dating tests set the age of the shroud in the 13th century, which would make the Shroud of Turin a pious icon at best, a clever fraud at worst.
However, the scientific community is divided over the shroud dates because -- with the exception of the carbon dating tests -- medical, artistic, forensic and botanical evidence favors the authenticity of the shroud of Turin as the burial cloth of Jesus.
One example of microscopic testing that supports the Shroud as authentic is the 1978 sample of dirt taken from the foot region of the burial linen. The dirt was analyzed at the Hercules Aerospace Laboratory in Salt Lake, Utah, where experts identified crystals of travertine argonite, a relatively rare form of calcite found near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem.
It is a stretch, say researchers, that a 13th century forger would have known to take the trouble to impregnate the linen with marble dust found near Golgotha in order to fool scientists six hundred years later.
The debate over the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin is elevated by the new discoveries resulting from the studies on the Sudarium of Oviedo.
Unlike the Shroud, the Sudarium, which covered the face of Christ for a short time before the body was wrapped in the longer burial cloth, does not carry an image of a man. Instead, the cloth, held against a face of a man who had been beaten about the head, shows a distinct facial impression and pattern of stains.
The cloth is impregnated with blood and lymph stains that match the blood type on the Shroud of Turin. The pattern and measurements of stains indicate the placement of the cloth over the face.
These patterns have been extensively mapped to enable researchers to compare the markings and measurements with those of the Shroud of Turin.
These measurements and calculations, digitized videos and other forensic evidence indicate that the Sudarium of Oviedo covered the same head whose image is found on the Shroud of Turin.
Part of Jewish burial custom was to cover the face of the dead, sparing the family further distress. The sudarium, from the Latin for "face cloth," would have been wrapped over the head of the crucified Christ awaiting permission from Pontius Pilate to remove the body.
Stains made at that time indicate a vertical position with the head at an angle. There are stains from deep puncture wounds on the portion of the cloth covering the back of the head, consistent with those puncture marks found on the Shroud of Turin, theoretically made by the caplet of thorns.
A separate set of stains, superimposed upon the first set, was made when the crucified man was laid horizontally and lymph flowed out from the nostrils.
The composition of the stains, say the Investigation Team from the Spanish Centre for Sindology, who began the first sudarium studies in 1989, is one part blood -- type AB -- and six parts pulmonary oedema fluid.
This fluid is significant, say researchers, because it indicates that the man died from asphyxiation, the cause of death for victims of crucifixion.
Recently, Dr. Alan Whanger, professor emeritus of Duke University, employed his Polarized Image Overlay Technique to study correlations between the Shroud and the Sudarium. Dr. Whanger found 70 points of correlation on the front of the sudarium and 50 on the back.
"The only reasonable conclusion," says Mark Guscin, author of "The Oviedo Cloth," "is that the Sudarium of Oviedo covered the same head as that found on the Shroud of Turin." Guscin, a British scholar whose study is the only English language book on the Sudarium, told WorldNetDaily, "This can be uncomfortable for scientists with a predetermined viewpoint; I mean, the evidence grows that this cloth and the Shroud covered the same tortured man."
Guscin also points to pollen studies done by Max Frei of Switzerland.
Specific pollens from Palestine are found in both relics, while the Sudarium has pollen from Egypt and Spain that is not found on the Shroud.
Conversely, pollen grains from plant species indigenous to Turkey are imbedded in the Shroud, but not the Sudarium, supporting the theory of their different histories after leaving Jerusalem.
The significance of the Sudarium to the Shroud, in addition to the forensic evidence, is that the history of the Sudarium is undisputed. While the history of the Shroud is veiled in the mists of the Middle Ages, the Sudarium was a revered relic preserved from the days of the crucifixion.
A simple cloth of little value, other than that it contained the Blood of Christ, the Sudarium accompanied a presbyter named Philip and other Christians fleeing Palestine in 616 A.D. ahead of the Persian invasion.
Passing through Alexandria, Egypt, and into Spain at Cartegena, the oak chest containing the Sudarium was entrusted to Leandro, bishop of Seville. In 657 it was moved to Toledo, then in 718 on to northern Spain to escape the advancing Moors.
The Sudarium was hidden in the mountains of Asturias in a cave known as Montesacro until king Alfonso II, having battled back the Moors, built a chapel in Oviedo to house it in 840 AD.
The most riveting date in the Sudarium's history is March 14, 1075. On this date, King Alfonso VI, his sister and Rodrigo Diaz Vivar (El Cid) opened the chest after days of fasting. This official act of the king was recorded and the document is preserved in the Capitular Archives at the Cathedral of San Salvador in Oviedo. The King had the oak chest covered in silver and an inscription added which reads, "The Sacred Sudarium of Our Lord Jesus Christ."
Juan Ignacio Moreno, a Spanish magistrate based in Burgos, Spain, asks the critical question. "The scientific and medical studies on the Sudarium prove that it was the covering for the same man whose image is [on] the Shroud of Turin.
We know that the Sudarium has been in Spain since the 600s. How, then, can the radio carbon dating claiming the Shroud is only from the 13th century be accurate?"
Pollen traces suggest that Shroud of Turin originated before
eighth century, near Jerusalem
July 3, 1999 - AP
July 3, 1999 - AP
A new analysis of pollen grains and plant images on the Shroud of
Turin places its origin to Jerusalem before the eighth century,
giving a boost to those who believe the shroud is the burial cloth
of Jesus and refuting a 1988 examination by scientists that
concluded the shroud was made between 1260 and 1390.
The earlier study also indicated the shroud came from Europe rather than the Holy Land.
"We have identified by images and by pollen grains species on the shroud restricted to the vicinity of Jerusalem," botany professor Avinoam Danin of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem said Monday during the International Botanical Congress here. "The sayings that the shroud is from European origin can't hold."
More than 4,000 scientists from 100 countries are taking part in the botanical conference, which focuses on a wide range of issues related to plants.
The shroud contains pollen grains and the image of a crucified man, as well as faint images of plants.
Analysis of the floral images, and a separate analysis of the pollen grains by another botanist, Uri Baruch, identified a combination of plant species that could be found only in March and April in the region of Jerusalem, Danin said.
Danin identified a high density of pollen of the tumbleweed Gundelia tournefortii. The analysis also found the bean caper Zygophyllum dumosum. The two species coexist in a limited area, Danin said.
"This combination of flowers can be found in only one region of the world," he said. "The evidence clearly points to a floral grouping from the area surrounding Jerusalem."
An image of the Gundelia tournefortii can be seen near the image of the man's shoulder. Some experts have suggested that the plant was used for the "crown of thorns."
Two pollen grains of the species were also found on the Sudarium of Oviedo, believed to be the burial face cloth of Jesus.
Danin, who has done extensive study on plants in Jerusalem, said the pollen grains are native to the Gaza Strip.
Since the Sudarium of Oviedo has resided in the Cathedral of Oviedo in Spain since the 8th century, Danin said that the matchup of pollen grains pushes the shroud's date to a similar age. Both cloths also carry type AB blood stains in similar patterns, Danin said.
"The pollen association and the similarities in the blood stains in the two cloths provide clear evidence that the shroud originated before the 8th Century," Danin said.
The location of the Sudarium of Oviedo has been documented since the first century.
If it is found that the two cloths are linked, then the shroud could date back even further, Danin said.
The 1988 study used carbon-14 dating tests. Danin noted that the earlier study looked at only a single sample, while he used the entire piece of fabric.
The earlier study also indicated the shroud came from Europe rather than the Holy Land.
"We have identified by images and by pollen grains species on the shroud restricted to the vicinity of Jerusalem," botany professor Avinoam Danin of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem said Monday during the International Botanical Congress here. "The sayings that the shroud is from European origin can't hold."
More than 4,000 scientists from 100 countries are taking part in the botanical conference, which focuses on a wide range of issues related to plants.
The shroud contains pollen grains and the image of a crucified man, as well as faint images of plants.
Analysis of the floral images, and a separate analysis of the pollen grains by another botanist, Uri Baruch, identified a combination of plant species that could be found only in March and April in the region of Jerusalem, Danin said.
Danin identified a high density of pollen of the tumbleweed Gundelia tournefortii. The analysis also found the bean caper Zygophyllum dumosum. The two species coexist in a limited area, Danin said.
"This combination of flowers can be found in only one region of the world," he said. "The evidence clearly points to a floral grouping from the area surrounding Jerusalem."
An image of the Gundelia tournefortii can be seen near the image of the man's shoulder. Some experts have suggested that the plant was used for the "crown of thorns."
Two pollen grains of the species were also found on the Sudarium of Oviedo, believed to be the burial face cloth of Jesus.
Danin, who has done extensive study on plants in Jerusalem, said the pollen grains are native to the Gaza Strip.
Since the Sudarium of Oviedo has resided in the Cathedral of Oviedo in Spain since the 8th century, Danin said that the matchup of pollen grains pushes the shroud's date to a similar age. Both cloths also carry type AB blood stains in similar patterns, Danin said.
"The pollen association and the similarities in the blood stains in the two cloths provide clear evidence that the shroud originated before the 8th Century," Danin said.
The location of the Sudarium of Oviedo has been documented since the first century.
If it is found that the two cloths are linked, then the shroud could date back even further, Danin said.
The 1988 study used carbon-14 dating tests. Danin noted that the earlier study looked at only a single sample, while he used the entire piece of fabric.
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