There are records of the cloth we now know as the Turin Shroud since the middle ages – but its authenticity has been questioned throughout that time. Those who believe it is genuine argue that there have been records of Jesus’ burial cloth throughout church history. But they have to admit there’s just not much historical evidence that this particular shroud is the same as the one referred to in the earlier records.
A cloth is mentioned as significant in all four gospel accounts – the wrapping of the body by Joseph of Arimathea, and the disciples finding the cloths after the resurrection (Matthew 27:57-59; Luke 24:12). If you think about it, the first believers at the tomb would likely have kept the cloth they found. But it’s hard to prove whether this particular cloth is it.
The shroud first emerged historically in 1354, when it is recorded in the hands of a famed knight, Geoffroi de Charnay, seigneur de Lirey. In 1389, when it went on exhibition, it was denounced as false by the local bishop of Troyes, who declared it “cunningly painted, the truth being attested by the artist who painted it.” The Avignon antipope Clement VII (reigned 1378–94), although he refrained from expressing his opinion on the shroud’s authenticity, sanctioned its use as an object of devotion provided that it be exhibited as an “image or representation” of the true shroud.
The Shroud of Turin is a 14-foot linen cloth that bears a faint image of the front and back of a man. It has been venerated for centuries, especially by members of the Catholic Church, as the actual burial shroud used to wrap the body of Jesus of Nazareth after his crucifixion, and upon which Jesus’s bodily image is miraculously imprinted. Its authenticity as a holy relic has been disputed even within the Catholic Church, and radiocarbon dating has shown it to be a medieval artefact.
It has been preserved since 1578 in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of San Giovanni Battista in Turin, Italy. Measuring 4.3 meters (14 feet 3 inches) long and 1.1 meters (3 feet 7 inches) wide, it seems to portray two faint brownish images, those of the back and front of a gaunt, sunken-eyed, 5-foot 7-inch man—as if a body had been laid lengthwise along one half of the shroud while the other half had been doubled over the head to cover the whole front of the body from face to feet.
The images contain markings that allegedly correspond to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus, including thorn marks on the head, lacerations (as if from flogging) on the back, bruises on the shoulders, and various stains of what is presumed to be
In 1988, the British Museum used the relatively new method of radiocarbon dating to test the Turin Shroud and declared it to be a forgery that was created in the middle ages.
The man of the shroud was beaten before his death. Some swelling is visible on the
face, especially on the right cheek. There are signs of lacerations and bruising, especially above the right eye. The nasal bridge is also deviated, possibly by a fracture.
There are over 30 small puncture wounds on the scalp and numerous blood flows on the forehead, the nape of the neck, and along the hairline. These wounds go radially around the head and reach the top of the occipital bone (the one at the base of the skull). They appear to have been made by something looking more like a cap of thorns rather than a crown of thorns because the wounds are all over the head.
In 1973, and again in 1978, Swiss criminologist Dr Max Frei took particle samples from the shroud. Frei identified 58 different pollens, many of which established that the cloth had been in the Jerusalem area as well as parts of the Middle East which include Constantinople and Edessa. 50% of the grains of pollen are found to belong to the flower of Turnafort’s guideline (Gundelia tournefortii). This plant is a thorn that exists only in Israel, the Sinai Peninsula, and Jordan. Israeli botanists have confirmed that these pollens are not transferred from plant to plant by the wind but rather by bees. They conclude that the only explanation for the large quantity of pollen found on the shroud is that the cloth originated in Israel and that the pollens got there after direct contact with the cloth.
What’s more, in the forehead area there are allegedly imprints of this flower on the cloth. The guideline flower blooms around March and April and it takes a day to bloom. The imprints show a flower that would have been picked around four in the afternoon, and its state of decomposition shows that it was picked about 30 hours before the imprint was made. Because the guideline flower is a thorn and the imprint is found near the forehead, many people have concluded that this was the plant that was used to fashion the crown of thorns.
Carbon-14 testing
In 1988, a small sample of the shroud’s linen fabric was tested using carbon-14 dating methods. The conclusions of the tests suggest that the linen was produced between AD 1260 and 1390. However, in 1994, further experiments suggested that the fire of 1532, when the shroud was preserved at the Sainte Chapelle of Chambery in France, could have altered the carbon-14 testing results. The scientific community itself now questions both of these results, and more recent experimental studies have reopened the debate.
On the shroud can be seen several triangular shapes. These are patches that were used to repair damage caused to the shroud during that fire of 1532. The patches are very visible because their fabric is different from the fabric of the shroud. During this fire, the shroud was also damaged by water. The seven rhomboidal areas that we can still see on the shroud are the few parts that remained dry. These imprints, as well as the burn damage, can be seen repeated along the sheet because of the folding pattern. After the fire, the Poor Clare sisters at the monastery stitched the shroud on a piece of Holland cloth.
If this is the burial cloth of Jesus, how did it end up in Turin? There are records from the Crusade to Constantinople in the year 1204, indicating that there was in that city a picture of Jesus on a piece of cloth. It had been moved there from the city of Edessa in 944, where it had been discovered in the city walls in 544. Historians think that the Edessa Cloth is what we now call the Shroud of Turin.
Is the man of the shroud Jesus Christ?
We can only conclude with certainty that the shroud image is that of a corpse of a man who was beaten and crucified. We also know that the body was taken out of the cloth without the cloth being unfolded. The answer to the question of how the image was produced or what produced the image remains, now, as it has in the past, a mystery.
The Church does not officially say whether or not the man of the shroud was Jesus. But for those of us who believe in Christ, St. John Paul II said this during his visit to Turin in May 1998:
“The Shroud is a truly unique sign that points to Jesus, the true Word of the Father, and invites us to pattern our lives on the life of the One who gave himself for us.”
