Rants & Raves
(Don Chance)
The Shroud of Turin
When I wrote this document first the first itme, it
was Friday, April 10,
2020, a special day in Christianity.
Good Friday.
Now, I always wondered what was so good about
it.
It was the day an angry mob engaged the Romans to kill
Jesus.
But I guess that’s a different issue.
So I have some things to say about the Shroud of Turin.
What an appropriate subject for an Easter
weekend.
In October of 2018, I had the opportunity to
attend an academic conference in finance in Turin, Italy, known there as Torino.
It is a beautiful city, providing a view of the
Alps, and it was the site of the 2006 Winter Olympics.
There are about 900,000 people in Turin.
You can have a very enjoyable visit even if you
don’t check out the Shroud.
But if you do, it is an incredibly powerful
experience.
The Shroud is the alleged burial cloth that may have
been draped over the body of Jesus for his interment in the cave on land owned
by Joseph of Arimathea .
It is a piece of high-quality linen, about 14 ½
feet long and three feet wide, and is in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist,
also known as Turin Cathedral.
The Shroud is not displayed.
It resides in a box off to the side near the
altar, with the area blocked off by glass.
Nonetheless, you can get to within a few feet
of the box, separated of course by the glass.
There are seats in front where you can sit and
pray or whatever.
I mostly took pictures.
What you see is the box and a photograph of the
Shroud.
It has been in this Cathedral since the 16th
century (1578).
Even under those conditions, ,it has still continued
to deteriorate, and the image has faded.
The Shroud itself, if it were displayed, is very
difficult to see.
As noted, it
has faded over the years, one reason why it
is kept inside a hermetically sealed aluminum and glass box that pumps out the
air and replaces it with argon, an inert gas, where it has been kept since 1998.
In 1898, an amateur Italian photographer named
Secondo Pia made a photograph of the Shroud but noted that the negative of the
photograph was far more fascinating.
It revealed incredible detail.
I urge you to Google the photograph and the
negative.
There has been much research and debate over whether
the Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus. I happen to believe it is, and I will
share my opinion as to why I hold this belief.
It is not based on faith, though I consider
myself a faithful person.
(I am Catholic.)
My belief is based on the evidence.. There
simply is no scientific explanation that doesn’t defy logic.
Even economic logic.
Many people say the debate is over.
In 1988, a small piece of one corner was
clipped and taken for carbon dating tests at Oxford University in the UK.
It revealed that the Shroud dated back to a
range of 1260 – 1390 AD.
So, there in October, 1988 at the British
Museum in London, scientists declared the object a medieval fake.
Case closed, right?
Not so fast.
I have read a great deal about the Shroud.
In fact, the study of the Shroud has generated
its own term – sindonology, a sindon being a piece of linen or other cloth.
The primary research on this project has been
part of an effprt called the Shroud of Turin Research Project or STURP, a
consortium of American scientists started in 1978.
Here are the main facts that I found.
Carbon Dating Accuracy
First off, carbon dating is not always accurate.
For example, while examining another object, a
team of scientistw sent samples from the object to two different labs for carbon
dating.
The answers came back with a 500-year difference.
Another carbon dating test was once done on a
mummy.
A piece of the mummy and a piece of the cloth in which
the mummy was wrapped were sent to a lab.
The cloth wrapped around the mummy proved to be
500 years older than the mummy.
While not impossible, it does seem unlikely
that Egyptians would wrap a mummy in a 500-year old cloth.
Wouldn’t they have used a more contemporary
one?
Imagine what bad condition a 500-year old cloth would
have been?
I cannot believe they would have used one.
Well, this was probably not the case.
The mummy and its cloth were probably of the
same era.
The carbon dating was what was wrong.
In addition there are three other facts that can bias
carbon dating.
One is exposure to fire.
It is known that the Shroud has been in at
least two fires, one in 1532 and another in 1997.
In addition, carbon dating can be biased by
having been touched by humans.
Since the sample that was dated came from one
of the four edges, the likelihood that the Shroud was held on its corners by
human hands over the years can add further noise into the carbon dating process,
a result of bacteria from human hands.
Third, experts have now determined that the section
from which the sample was taken is of a slightly different color than the rest
of the cloth.
This has been confirmed with ultraviolet
photography.
It appears to have been from restorative
effort,,possibly from fire damage.
But in any case, the repair was probably done
during the Middle Ages.
It is generally agreed that the section that
was clipped in 1988 was probably the worst choice that could have been made.
What is on the Shroud?
One thing we know for sure. The Shroud contains an image of a man who is aproxomately five feet, ten inches. Some have said that this height is too tall for a man of that era. Now, anthropologists really do not know much about the heights of people of that era, but some bones have been found and the estimated heights have varied. They know a lot more about the heights of people in the middle ages, and five feet, ten inches wuold have been unsuaully tall. I have my own completely unprovable theory that Jesuis was taller than most men. I believe God would have made him that way so that he would stand out. He neded to be noticed in a crowd. Height would have been a good way to do it.
Several facts about the Shroud are indisputable.
The image on the Shroud is not paint, as found
by the STURP group using modern technology.
The image is only on the surface.
It did not sink into the fibers, as would
paint.
The Shroud does contain male blood, type AB, and the
blood is in the appropriate locations for a man who was scourged and crucified.
The image contains evidence of swelling,
whipmarks and cuts and bruises on the face, knees (Jesus fell down carrying the
cross), and upper back. There is no evidence of broken bones, which is
consistent with stories of the crucifixion.
Jesus’ legs were not broken, as was common when
finishing off a person being crucified.
The image portrayed by the Shroud is completely
consistent with a man who underwent what Jesus did.
If it was a fake, someone gave it incredible
detail.
But of course, that is possible.
There were many talented people at that time.
Also, the Shroud also contains pollen from plant
that are known to grow in the Jerusalem area.
In the modern restoration project, a Swiss expert
determined that the herringbone stitching style was unique and not associated with any style
used in the middle ages.
In fact, it was the same style found in cloth
in the Masada, a first century fortress of Jews that was besieged by Romans.
So How Could it Have Been Faked?
But if it was a fake, how was it done, with the state
of knowledge of that time?
One scientific theory that has been replicated
is that it is a very primitive photograph.
Yes, a photograph.
Photography did not come along until the 19th
century.
Could it have been done earlier?
Yes, it could have.
A camera obscura is a box with a pinhole that can be
used to create an image using simply light shining through the pinhole.
It is sometimes known as a pinhole camera.
I have done it.
One of my children had a science fair project,
and I helped her make a pinhole camera.
We took some Kodak film and projected the image
onto the film.
It was amazingly good.
This would be harder to do today with film
being virtually non-existent.
But the point is that you can make the camera
itself quite easily.
And to take a picture, all you need is the right
chemical, specifically silver sulfate, and paper or cloth, and that would have
been possible in the 12th
and `13th
centuries.
A camera obscura, some cloth, and silver
sulfate.
You can soak the cloth in the silver sulfate and it
becomes light-sensitive can absorb the rays of light created by the primitive
camera.
Now, all you need is a pretty beat up body.
Perhaps the forger could have gotten a cadaver.
There is general agreement that the image is of
a man who was dead.
If it were a photograph, a live person probably
could not have stayed still as long as would be needed for the exposure to work,
around eight hours.
It has been argued that further chemical
analysis of the cloth could be done to look for silver residue, the presence of
which had not previously been tested.
That is what scientists say, but there is a
problem.
It is known that molten silver got onto the Shroud in
the fire of 1532, and that would almost surely contaminate any such results.
Now, let’s be clear.
This alleged replica didn’t have to necessarily
be intended as a fake, that is, to
fool people.
It could have been merely a work of art that
would have been displayed.
A fake would have been like something a
traveling carnival huckster would have done.
“Step right up folks.
Just two ducats is all it’ll cost to see an
original image of Jesus.”
Whether it was a work of art or a hoax, it is
certainly possible.
But think about it.
What followed makes no sense.
Suppose it is 1300 AD and you have just faked
or created n image of the most important event in Christianity.
But that isn’t all you did.
You did something else that was really big.
You just created the first photograph.
Imagine the commercial potential of creating a
photograph as early as 1300 AD.
Why did you keep this quiet?
Even traveling around charging admission
showing a replica to people wouldn’t have had the money-making potential of
photography.
But, the earliest known photograph was taken in
1826, roughly a half millennium later. It simply makes no sense that someone
would have made one of the most remarkable scientific discoveries – that you can
project an image onto cloth – and not developed the idea into a hugely
profitable business.
Why did it take 500 years for someone to figure
out how to really do it and make money?
The only other explanation is that the person
died almost immediately and took the secret to his grave.
Yeah, that’s probably it, you say.
But surely someone else would have figured out
in less than 500 years that you can take a picture
According to experts, it’s not that difficult.
A Natural Response
What about the possibility that the image got on the
cloth naturally?
Indeed, there is a scientific theory, back by
experimental evidence, that bacterial microorganisms could have caused an image
to transfer to the cloth.
Blood and sweat are known to be a fertile
breeding ground for bacteria.
It is similar to what happens when a white
shirt turns slightly yellow over time.
But if this happened, it doesn’t invalidate the
authenticity of the Shroud.
And if it did happen, why is it that this is
the only cloth in the world we know of where it did happen?
Well, says the skeptic, this is the only one
because everyone else was buried, either in a grave or a cave.
Setting aside the fact that many other bodies
have been disinterred and yet no one found such a cloth with an image, the only
explanation is that this person didn’t stay buried.
Which is exactly what Christians believe.
The Nails
Another piece of evidence points toward the
authenticity of the Shroud.
As you have probably observed, most paintings
of the crucifixion have shown the nails driven into the palms of the hands.
Scientists now know that the nails could not
have been driven into the palms of the hands, as there is not enough muscle
tissue to support the body weight.
The nails would have to have gone through the
wrists.
This is exactly where the nail wounds are in the
Shroud.
So, in spite of most artwork of the time showing the
nail wounds in the wrong place, the Shroud shows them in the right place.
The Sudarium of Oviedo
Most people who are aware of the Shroud do not know of
the Sudarium of Oviedo, which provides some additional evidence of the Shroud’s
authenticity.
A sudarium is a piece of cloth, which among
other uses, is wrapped around the face of a dead person who has suffered a
violent death.
It is more or less, a handkerchief.
The Sudarium of Oviedo has been documented as
having been in Jerusalem in the sixth century.
The Sudarium of Oviedo has been carbon dated
back to about 700 AD but there is written historical evidence that it is at
least as old as 570 AD, and there is evidence of contamination that can
influence the carbon dating.
It is located in Oviedo, near the northern
coast of Spain.
The Sudarium is also documented in manuscripts
in various countries.
This Sudarium is blood-stained but shows no image,
though the stain patterns are consistent with various facial wounds.
It has been mentioned in the book of John.
The blood patterns on this Sudarium of Oviedo
match very closely to those of the Shroud.
The blood type is also male AB.
Coincidence?
Could be, but AB is found in less than 5% of
the population.
If the Shroud was faked, then the Sudarium was
almost surely faked at the same time, because the markings so closely match.
So, did the forger make two objects?
Yes, it seems possible, but that might push the
date further back, since the Sudarium is clearly older than the Shroud, carbon
dating-wise.
The Veil of Veronica
The veil of Veronica is another alleged relic,
representing what was thought to be an image of Jesus’ face ona
cloth used by Veronica to wipe his face as he
was carrying the cross.
This event is depicted as the 6th
Station of the Cross in most Catholic Churches.
It is not documented in the Gospels, however,
but there is documentation elsewhere.
Supposedly, the image was left on the veil.
The veil is in the Vatican.
It has not been studied much, and I do not have
an opinion on it, but I may form one later.
Anomalous Evidence
There is one moderately troubling piece of anomalous
evidence for believers.
Recall that I said that the wounds had to be in
the wrists.
The Apostle Thomas supposedly said, “Except I
shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print
of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
So it sounds like Thomas believed the nails
were driven into his hands, just as we said wouldn’t support his body.
I
am troubled a bit by this, but there are explanations.
The Gospels were written 60-90 years after
Jesus died.
Perhaps the exact location of the nail wounds
wasn’t remembered by the writer.
It is also known that while the nails were
driven into his wrists, they were done so at an angle toward his hands, so there
would have been wounds on the backs of his hands.
In addition, there is no indication in the
Gospels that either Thomas or any other of the other apostles were at the
crucifixion.
Maybe Thomas just made an assumption.
My Conclusions
Science always expects hard evidence, but scientific tests are not without flaws, as I have pointed out here. These are not my ideas. They are those of learned scholars who have examined the Shroud. The evidence points overwhelmingly to there being no scientific explanation that isn’t cast with a tremendous amount of doubt. Even the notion that someone made the first photograph around 1300 AD defies economic logic. Surely the successful making of a photograph would lead to commercial development of this new technology. The amount of money to be made would have been astounding. And even if the person chose to keep his achievement a secret, why did it take a half-millennium for the next person to figure it out? There is no scientific explanation that is not loaded with irrationality. And that leaves us with the only explanation: that there is no earthly explanation.