As a child, when I wasn't a practicing Catholic or even much of a Christian, the Shroud of Turin always, always drew me in. I was a public school student all the way, but when we were asked to write research papers, I always wrote about the Shroud of Turin. I honestly didn't even think that I was doing some explicitly Christian. It's weird to look back on.
All that to say, I have been collecting details about the Shroud of Turin my whole life. It was my original research topic, dating back to 3rd grade or so. These are the highlights from my "Shroud Diary" ...
And speaking of "dating", a fascinating new study on the dating of the Shroud of Turin was just released!
Shroud of Turin Amazing Discoveries: Table of Contents
The Original Radiocarbon Dating of the Shroud Was a Sham
1988 radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin placed it in the Medieval period, between 1260 and 1390, so many just started assuming the Shroud of Turin was a Medieval forgery.[1]
Here's the problem. The Shroud of Turin was damaged by a fire in the Medieval period, and subsequently repaired with cloth from the Medieval period. The scientists dated cloth from the repaired sections!
Dr. Paolo Di Lazzaro and other scientists have subsequently demonstrated the shoddiness of the 1988 radiocarbon studies.[2]
See the Shroud of Turin Infographics below that include labels of the repaired and water-damaged areas from the fire.
Here is the photographic negative of the Shroud of Turin Infographic, including labels of the repaired and water-damaged areas from the fire.
The Shroud of Turin Dates to the First Century AD: NEW STUDY
Since the spurious 1988 study, many better methods of dating have been developed that have confirmed the first century dating of the Shroud of Turin. Sadly, the idea of "medieval forgery" is what sticks in the skeptic's head.
There's a new dating technique that measures the age of cloth by the breakdown of its linen fibers, i.e. the cloth's structural degradation.[3] Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering (WAXS) is used to create a decay profile of the specimen cloth, then this is compared to other cloths of a known date. The scientists compared the Shroud of Turin to a piece of linen known to date from 55-74AD that came from the Siege of Masada in Israel. The Shroud of Turin matched the First Century cloth's degradation profile.
Here is the full abstract from the new WAXS study of the Shroud of Turin:
On a sample of the Turin Shroud (TS), we applied a new method for dating ancient linen threads by inspecting their structural degradation by means of Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering (WAXS). The X-ray dating method was applied to a sample of the TS consisting of a thread taken in proximity of the 1988/radiocarbon area (corner of the TS corresponding to the feet area of the frontal image, near the so-called Raes sample). The size of the linen sample was about 0.5 mm × 1 mm. We obtained one-dimensional integrated WAXS data profiles for the TS sample, which were fully compatible with the analogous measurements obtained on a linen sample whose dating, according to historical records, is 55–74 AD, Siege of Masada (Israel). The degree of natural aging of the cellulose that constitutes the linen of the investigated sample, obtained by X-ray analysis, showed that the TS fabric is much older than the seven centuries proposed by the 1988 radiocarbon dating. The experimental results are compatible with the hypothesis that the TS is a 2000-year-old relic, as supposed by Christian tradition, under the condition that it was kept at suitable levels of average secular temperature—20.0–22.5 °C—and correlated relative humidity—75–55%—for 13 centuries of unknown history, in addition to the seven centuries of known history in Europe. To make the present result compatible with that of the 1988 radiocarbon test, the TS should have been conserved during its hypothetical seven centuries of life at a secular room temperature very close to the maximum values registered on the earth.
Here is the link to the new De Caro-Sibillano WAXS Study:
De Caro, L., Sibillano, T., Lassandro, R., Giannini, C., & Fanti, G. (2022). X-ray Dating of a Turin Shroud's Linen Sample. Heritage, 5(2), Link to Study: https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage5020047
The Shroud of Turin Codes as a 3D Image, Unlike Any Painting
"It's just a painting." This has always been the main Shroud of Turin forgery theory. Well, this next discovery demolishes any last shred of that theory. Which theory, by the way, was stupid to begin with -- why and how would a medieval forger paint a photographic negative? More on that later ...
The American military created a device for converting high-altitude (read: spy) photos of the ground into three-dimensional topographical maps. It's called the VP-8 Image Analyzer. If this machine analyzes a painting or even a normal photograph, it's just noise and confusion. However, when the VP-8 machine analyzes the Shroud of Turin, it codes as a perfect 3D image. See below:
Cool, right? Here's just the face being analyzed:
Here are some more details, if you're interested, from Shroud.com:
Designed in the 1970's for evaluating x-rays and for other imaging purposes, the VP-8 Image Analyzer is an analog device that converts image density (lights and darks) into vertical relief (shadows and highlights). When applied to normal photographs, the result was a distorted and inaccurate image. However, when it was applied to the Shroud, the result was an accurate, topographic image showing the correct, natural relief characteristics of a human form. These results are often referred to as "three-dimensional."In 1976, a group of scientists who were using a VP-8 at Sandia Laboratories to evaluate x-rays, put a 1931 Enrie photograph of the Shroud of Turin into the device and were able to visualize the three-dimensional properties that exist in the Shroud image. This particularly intrigued two of the researchers present at the test, Dr. Eric Jumper and Dr. John Jackson. Stimulated by their startling discovery, they decided to form a research team to investigate what might have formed the image on the cloth and within a few months, the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP) was born. Two years later, that same team would perform the first ever, in-depth scientific examination of the Shroud of Turin.When input to a VP-8, a normal photograph does not result in a properly formed dimensional image but in a rather distorted jumble of light and dark "shapes." That is because the lights and darks of a normal photograph result solely from the amount of light reflected by the subject onto the film. The image densities do not depend on the distance the subject was from the film. Yet the image on the Shroud of Turin yields a very accurate dimensional relief of a human form. One must conclude from this that the image density on the cloth is directly proportionate to the distance it was from the body it covered. In essence, the closer the cloth was to the body (tip of nose, cheekbone, etc.), the darker the image, and the further away (eye sockets, neck, etc.), the fainter the image. This spatial data encoded into the image actually eliminates photography and painting as the possible mechanism for its creation and allows us to conclude that the image was formed while the cloth was draped over an actual human body. So the VP-8 Image Analyzer not only revealed a very important characteristic of the Shroud image, but historically it also provided the actual motivation to form the team that would ultimately go and investigate it. Interestingly, only sixty VP-8 Image Analyzers were ever constructed and only two remain functional today.On May 1, 1997, I was fortunate to spend some time in North Carolina with my friend Kevin Moran, retired Senior Technology Specialist from Eastman Kodak's Estek Products Division and a Shroud researcher since 1978. Kevin owns one of the two functioning original VP-8 units and was kind enough to welcome me into his home and spend the next 14 straight hours working with me to videotape "new" VP-8 images. Actually, the real thanks should go to his dear wife Anne, who put up with the two of us working until 4:00am!To maximize the quality of the somewhat dated and temperamental imaging system, I replaced the existing camera and lens with a new high resolution CCD camera and lens and used first generation black & white prints made directly from my original 4x5" negatives as source images. I recorded the results off the VP-8's green screen monitor using a Sony BetaCam SP system. The image at the top of this page is a frame taken from the videotape we made during that "all-nighter". The Animated Gif file below shows only a brief sample of the VP-8 "Gain" control being applied to the Shroud facial area.
The Shroud of Turin Includes Jesus' Death Certificate Wrapped Around His Holy Face
"Okay, so maybe the Shroud of Turin wasn't painted and is from the First Century, that still doesn't mean it's Jesus. It could be anybody. Right?"
Wrong.
Analysis of the Shroud of Turin with a microdensitometer has revealed letters imprinted on the cloth from a paper wrapped around the face of Jesus. Research has found that these letters form Jesus' death certificate. The Shroud of Turin's death certificate provides details the specifically identify Jesus BY NAME.[4]
This death certificate states the following:
In the year 16 of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius Jesus the Nazarene, taken down in the early evening after having been condemned to death by a Roman judge because he was found guilty by a Hebrew authority, is hereby sent for burial with the obligation of being consigned to his family only after one full year.
The death certificate specifically states "Jesus the Nazarene". The death certificate also specifically identifies all of the following pieces of evidence: (1) the specific date of death, (2) that deceased was executed, (3) that the deceased was condemned by a Roman authority, (4) that the deceased was first indicted by a Hebrew authority.
This is amazing documentary evidence, not just for the Shroud of Turin's authenticity, but for the Gospels and the historical Jesus, as well.
Here's additional information, if you're interested from an America Magazine article by Fr. James Martin, of all places:[4]
Dr Barbara Frale, a researcher in the Vatican secret archives, said "I think I have managed to read the burial certificate of Jesus the Nazarene, or Jesus of Nazareth." She said that she had reconstructed it from fragments of Greek, Hebrew and Latin writing imprinted on the cloth together with the image of the crucified man. ...Like the image of the man himself the letters are in reverse and only make sense in negative photographs. Dr Frale told La Repubblica that under Jewish burial practices current at the time of Christ in a Roman colony such as Palestine, a body buried after a death sentence could only be returned to the family after a year in a common grave.A death certificate was therefore glued to the burial shroud to identify it for later retrieval, and was usually stuck to the cloth around the face. This had apparently been done in the case of Jesus even though he was buried not in a common grave but in the tomb offered by Joseph of Arimathea.Dr Frale said that many of the letters were missing, with Jesus for example referred to as "(I)esou(s) Nnazarennos" and only the "iber" of "Tiberiou" surviving. Her reconstruction, however, suggested that the certificate read: "In the year 16 of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius Jesus the Nazarene, taken down in the early evening after having been condemned to death by a Roman judge because he was found guilty by a Hebrew authority, is hereby sent for burial with the obligation of being consigned to his family only after one full year". It ends "signed by" but the signature has not survived.Dr Frale said that the use of three languages was consistent with the polyglot nature of a community of Greek-speaking Jews in a Roman colony. Best known for her studies of the Knights Templar, who she claims at one stage preserved the shroud, she said what she had deciphered was "the death sentence on a man called Jesus the Nazarene. If that man was also Christ the Son of God it is beyond my job to establish. I did not set out to demonstrate the truth of faith. I am a Catholic, but all my teachers have been atheists or agnostics, and the only believer among them was a Jew. I forced myself to work on this as I would have done on any other archaeological find."
The Amount of Focused Energy Needed to Create the Shroud of Turin Exceeds the Modern World's Maximum UV Radiation Production Capacity
The Shroud of Turin image was formed on only the uppermost surface of the cloth's fibers. Right off, this eliminates the possibility of the image being formed by chemicals. Chemicals penetrate beyond the surface of fabric. Chemicals soak into the fibers. This just didn't happen.
So, what could have formed such an image?
Researcher John Jackson and other scientists have deduced that vacuum UV radiation is the only possible explanation for the image’s formation. There are two important reasons for this theory. First, light radiation is needed to turn linen into a perfectly photographically sensitive material. Second, this process cannot be accompanied by heat radiation, or you'll burn the cloth.
Using UV light radiation to form the Shroud’s image would take a massive amount of power. It would take several billion watts of light radiation. This completely exceeds the maximum output of any source of UV radiation known today, during the Medieval period (if it were a 13th century forgery), or certainly during the time of Christ.
Again, there can be no accompanying heat radiation. If the heat energy accompanying that many gigawatts had been present, the cloth would have vaporized in less than 1/40 billionth of a second.
This theory was validated in 2010 by Dr. Paoli DiLazzaro and his team who concluded the following:[5]
In particular, vacuum ultraviolet photons account for the very thin coloration depth, the hue of color and the presence of image in linen parts not in contact with the body. Obviously, it does not mean the image was produced by a laser. Rather, the laser is a powerful tool to test and obtain the light parameters suitable for a shroud-like coloration.
For more on this, here is an article from Fr. Spitzer and the Magis Center.
The Shroud of Turin is the First Photograph
This is one of those obvious details that is often overlooked. The Shroud of Turin is a photographic negative. A photographic negative. Long before Kodak and Eastman and even tintypes, God used a piece of linen as the first photographic film. God invented photography, thank you very much.
If the Shroud of Turin was a medieval forgery, why would it be created as a photographic negative?
Pollen Data and Additional Fascinating Details
Pollen collected from the fibers of the Shroud of Turin also demonstrate that the Shroud journeyed from the Holy Land to Turin, Italy. Read more about that here.
There are more important Shroud of Turin discoveries which I will add. There are just too many to list right now.
Here is another article and video I made of all the other times that science has confirmed the Bible. Check it out:
Footnotes: Shroud of Turin
[1] Damon, P. E.; Donahue, D. J.; Gore, B. H.; Hatheway, A. L.; Jull, A. J. T.; Linick, T. W.; Sercel, P. J.; Toolin, L. J.; Bronk, C. R.; Hall, E. T.; Hedges, R. E. M.; Housley, R.; Law, I. A.; Perry, C.; Bonani, G.; Trumbore, S.; Woelfli, W.; Ambers, J. C.; Bowman, S. G. E.; Leese, M. N.; Tite, M. S. (16 February 1989). "Radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin" (PDF). Nature. 337 (6208): 611–615. Bibcode:1989Natur.337..611D. doi:10.1038/337611a0. S2CID 27686437.
[2] Di Lazzaro P, Atkinson AC, Iacomussi P, Riani M, Ricci M, Wadhams P., "Statistical and Proactive Analysis of an Inter-Laboratory Comparison: The Radiocarbon Dating of the Shroud of Turin." Entropy (Basel). 2020 Aug 24;22(9):926. doi: 10.3390/e22090926. PMID: 33286695; PMCID: PMC7597180. LINK.
[3] De Caro, L., Sibillano, T., Lassandro, R., Giannini, C., & Fanti, G. (2022). X-ray Dating of a Turin Shroud's Linen Sample. Heritage, 5(2), Link to Study: https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage5020047
[4] "Vatican scholar finds text on Shroud of Turin", James Martin, S.J., November 20, 2009
[5] Paolo Di Lazzaro, Daniele Murra and Antonino Santoni, ENEA, Department of Physical Technologies and New Materials, Frascati Research Center; Giulio Fanti, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Padua; Enrico Nichelatti, ENEA, Department of Physical Technologies and New Materials, Casaccia Research Center; Giuseppe Baldacchini; Deep Ultraviolet Radiation Simulates the Turin Shroud Image; Journal of Imaging Science and Technology, 54(4): 040302–040302-6, 2010; Society for Imaging Science and Technology 2010; PDF download
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