In the first edition of this article I had written about how the Shroud of Turin which was suspected to be a medieval forgery for centuries has finally been accepted by many to be the actual burial cloth of Christ due to the enormous degree of evidences that have surfaced in the last 130 years or so. I concluded the previous article by writing that I too believe the shroud to be the actual authentic burial cloth of Jesus through which his body emanated when he rose from the death.
However, what was presented in the previous article was just the tip of the iceberg as far as the circumstantial evidences are concerned. These evidences unequivocally support the arguments that the Shroud of Turin is supernatural and that it had to be the handiwork of the divine itself to leave such an imprint on a piece of cloth which science cannot even explain let alone replicate even in this 21st century age of information technology and Artificial Intelligence. So, today, I have come up with this sequel to further emphasize that the Shroud of Turin is probably science’s proof of the greatest event that took place in human history 2000 years ago.
To begin with, blood stains have been found in the shroud. Upon examining the blood, scientists confirmed that it was not animal blood but pure human blood. And the amazing thing about the blood on the shroud is that it is still red despite the shroud being centuries old. Scientists argue that human blood usually turn dark brown or black over time. So what could be the reason the blood on the shroud is still red. Scientists explain that severe trauma, extreme stress, and shock can lead to the breakdown of red blood cells, releasing hemoglobin and creating excess bilirubin. This biochemical combination, combined with the cloth’s environment, can retain a reddish hue.
Researchers who studied the shroud also say the blood preceded the image on the fabric. In other words, the blood was already on the cloth before the image. And scientists and researchers argue that this is another proof that the shroud was not created by artists or painters because if it was the handiwork of humans the blood would have to be put after the image was first imprinted. This again corresponds perfectly with Jesus’ story because his corpse was already full of blood before it was wrapped with the linen. So it is no surprise that the blood was already in the linen before the resurrection.
The blood on the shroud has been found to be type AB which is not only one of the rarest blood types but also the universal recipient blood.
Another interesting fact has surfaced about the origin and fabric of the shroud of Turin. Botanists who examined the shroud say that the shroud is made up of pollen grains and plant imprints that are specific to the region between Jerusalem and Jericho. Moreover, these plants bloom in the spring, typically in March and April, which aligns directly with the biblical timeline of Passover and the crucifixion of Jesus.
In 1988, carbon dating was done on the shroud by three universities independently. These universities were Oxford, Arizona and Zurich and their findings declared that the shroud dated back to the period 1260 - 1390. The results of these findings were carried in newspapers all over the world and it was like the last nail on the coffin of the shroud. Many people at last thought that there was nothing mystical or divine about the shroud.
But the 1988 carbon dating could not bury the matter and interests and fascinations on the shroud continued unabated even after 1988. And researches and studies done after 1988 now seem to suggest that the 1988 carbon dating results cannot be relied upon - the main reason being that the three universities examined only adulterated parts of the edges of the fabric which were added much later to the fabric during repair works done on the shroud.
Early Christian art-works had always depicted Christ’s crucifixion with nails passing through the palms. But now medical experts say that the tissues of the human hand are so soft that they cannot support or hold on the weight of a human body on the cross and they say that the body of a crucified man can be left attached to the cross only if the man is nailed through the wrist bones. And the image of the crucified man on the shroud clearly depicts that the nails were pierced through his wrists and not his palms as only four fingers in each hands (without the thumbs) are visible. And experts say that the thumbs are not visible because they are retracted and folded inward, hidden under the rest of the hands. Experts attribute this positioning to the physiological effects of crucifixion and natural muscle relaxation.
The gospel also mentions about the crown of thorns that was put on Jesus’ head by the Roman soldiers when they mocked him. And all early Christian art-works also depicted Christ wearing a crown of thorn. But historians and experts who studied the image on the shroud now say that what was put on Christ’s head was probably much worse and severe than a crown of thorns as the image on the shroud exhibits multiple puncture wounds on the head which suggests that it was a helmet of thorns rather than a crown of thorns. And it has also been established that the thorn that was used to make the helmet would have been abundantly available in Jerusalem during the Passover festival.
The image on the shroud is about 5 feet 10-11 inches which is quite tall when compared to men of that era who were normally of 5 feet 4-5 inches. And again this should come as no surprise when we consider that Jesus Christ was a teacher who preached to multitudes of people. So given his divine assignment, he naturally had to have tall stature.
Researchers also say the crucified man on the shroud seems to have elongated arms i.e. his arms are visibly longer than it should have been. And the New Testament scholar Dr. Jeremiah J Johnstone says that Jesus’ arms got dislocated from his shoulders when he fell down under the weight of the cross.
The image of the crucified man also exhibits a broken nose and a pulled beard. Here again, Dr. Jeremiah J Johnstone says that when Jesus fell down under the weight of the cross, he fell flat on his face thereby breaking his nose. And his beard was probably pulled by the soldiers when they were mocking and torturing him.
Then there are the scourge marks visible all over the image on the shroud. It was normal for Roman soldiers to scourge condemned men before crucifixion. And they did it with the flagrum – a multi-tailed whip often featuring leather thongs embedded with metal or bone fragments. And the image on the shroud exhibits scourging marks all over his body from head to toe including his groin. Dr. Jeremiah J Johnstone says that no person in history was crucified the way Jesus was and all the telltale signs of the shroud image corresponds perfectly to the gospel accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion.
A photographer named Barrie Schwortz was among a group of about 33 scientists and researchers called to examine the shroud of Turin in 1978. Barrie was a Jew and a photographer par excellence. Barrie had no interest in God, religion, faith and certainly not in the shroud or any other religious relic. He considered the shroud of Turin to be nonsense. But he accompanied the scientists to Turin in 1978 hoping to debunk the whole thing in a matter of a few minutes. But after examining the shroud with all his expertise he was convinced that it was not nonsense after all and he spent the rest of his life studying, researching and lecturing on the shroud fully convinced that the shroud was a genuine, unexplained burial cloth which wrapped the body of a scourged crucified man during the times of Jesus. But he did not consider it proof of resurrection.
Photography was invented only in the 1820s and mobile phones became a regular feature of our lives only in this 21st century. Before mobile phones, terms like “selfie” were not existent. Only after mobile phones became a daily part of our lives, dictionaries added the word “selfie”. But I can believe that long before any human clicked any picture with a camera and much long before any person took any selfie with his mobile phone, the Creator of the Universe and the sustainer of our lives himself took the first photographic record of the greatest event in human history and left its imprint on a simple linen cloth for science and future generations.
