Many thought the Turin Shroud was a fabrication, but scientific study shows it’s more likely to be the real deal, revealing the image of Jesus.
“And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.” (Matthew 27:59-60)
For many years, it was believed that the Shroud of Turin was a Medieval flight of fancy, an elaborate hoax, but there have been indications for some time now that this couldn’t be the case. New research indicates that the material is far older than that, dating back to the time of Jesus, and pointing to the strong probability that it really was the actual burial cloth mentioned in the gospel accounts. Now that we have Artificial Intelligence with all of the ramifications that it may bring, we also have the ability to invert the negative image and see what has been hidden in that shroud.
New study shows Turin Shroud is from the time of Jesus
The breakthrough research was outlined in a peer-reviewed article entitled “X-Ray dating of Turin Shroud’s Linen Sample” 1. The abstract from the paper suggests that there were flaws in previous research which had dated the Turin Shroud to the mid thirteenth or fourteenth century, and that it was more likely from the time of Jesus:
“The experimental results are compatible with the hypothesis that the TS [Turin Shroud] is a 2000-year-old relic”
“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.”
Using cutting edge wide-angle, X-ray scattering (WAXS) technology which measures the aging of flax cellulose, the ancient cloth has been re-examined. Unlike carbon dating, this new technology is not affected by carbon-14 contamination, which can give misleading results. All studies of the cloth have confirmed signs of torture that match exactly with the biblical account, including the pierced hands and feet, the wound in the side, evidence of laceration from whipping and injuries to the head consistent with the description of the crown of thorns. Researchers have even been able to observe that the way the blood had congealed suggests that the person had borne a great weight on their back after the bleeding had started. The fact that none of the markings have smudged at all is remarkable and indeed unfeasible if it were faked or wrapped around a regular dead body.
Pollen grains found on the cloth have been identified as coming from the region of Israel, and the matching facecloth2 mentioned in John 20 also has the same pollen grains as well as the same blood patterns 3.
Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. (John 20:6-7)
Doubters thrown into new doubt
Two years ago William West wrote the book,
“Scientists can’t work it out. For more than a century, the Shroud of Turin, with its mysterious image of Jesus in death, has been asking unanswerable questions. No one can explain, let alone replicate it. It looks like a smudge on a bit of old cloth, but it is a negative, 3D, high-resolution image made from the tiny discolored fibers of a cloth covered in blood, along with an image of a body stiff with rigor mortis. Despite a controversial carbon dating in the 1980s, the Shroud has now been dated four times to the first century… Historians have found that before its sudden appearance in the Western world seven centuries ago, it had a long history in Eastern Europe, revealed by icons, coins and other evidence.” 4
West explains that when the first photo of the Turin Shroud was taken in 1898, the world was amazed to hear that the image on the linen cloth was a negative “photographic” type image that had existed for hundreds of years before photography was invented. He adds that apart from the image’s photo-negative features, the Shroud has no traces of paint, pigment, ink or dye, but is inexplicably made from a microscopic layer of discolored linen microfibers, found only on the microscopic surface of the cloth.
“The image could not have been caused by a fluid or even gas, both of which would have penetrated much deeper into the cloth. Many scientists have concluded it is an image that could only have been produced by a burst of radiation from the body.” ~William West
A photo of Jesus?
Most remarkably, the image we have is an inversion of the image of the crucified man, and is in essence a negative caused by a sudden burst of light making an impression on the material like a photograph.
The first documented appearance of the Turin Shroud emerged in the middle of the twelfth century and was dismissed as a forgery within a few decades. But it didn’t go away. Back in the time of the reformation, John Calvin pooh-poohed the shroud in his work, A Treatise on Relics in 1543, considering all claims to artifacts from the time of Jesus as exploitative and absurd. Similarly, the results of research from the 1980s suggesting that the shroud was from the late thirteenth or fourteenth century led many to assume the case was closed. As is often the case, the more we probe scientifically, the more we find it’s the debunkers of our faith that get debunked!
Many times truth is revealed, archeological relics discovered, just at critical moments.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered just before the reestablishment of Israel, when opponents accused the Jewish people of making the entire Bible up in the 1800’s. The perfectly preserved text of Leviticus was found in the throes of everyone debating whether God really meant what He said about homosexuality. The Magdala synagogue was found beside the Sea of Galilee, a meeting point between Jesus and ancient Judaism, while the validity of the growing movement of Messianic Jews was gathering pace in Israel. And now this image of Jesus has appeared just after the scene of the Last Supper was inverted and globally mocked at the Olympics. Through the double-edged sword of AI, the inverted picture from the Turin Shroud reveals what could be a true image of Yeshua the Messiah—a photograph taken in the moment He defeated death.
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together… He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1:15-20)
- See Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI) – a site which hosts academic journals including Heritage, the journal in which the article was published.
- Known as the Sudarium of Oviedo, see Mark Guscin, B.A. M.Phil., The Sudarium of Oviedo: Its History and Relationship to the Shroud of Turin
- Giulio Fanti, New Insights on Blood Evidence from the Turin Shroud Consistent with Jesus Christ’s Tortures, Archives of Hematology Case Reports and Reviews, July 19, 2024
- William West, New Evidence for the Shroud of Turin Casts Doubt on the Skeptic, September 5, 2024
