Believers in Shroud of Turin claim ‘new evidence proves it DID cover Jesus’ – after cloth dated to just 800 years ago
'SHROUDIES' who believe that the Shroud of Turin is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ are calling for a retest of the artefact.
The linen cloth appears to bear the image of the body of a man but scientists have struggled to agree on how old it is despite expert analysis.
Jesus's death is thought to have taken place around 30-36AD.
The first certain historical records of the Shroud date back to 13th-14th century in France and a local bishop in 1390 called it fake.
In 1988, the shroud was radiocarbon-dated to 1260-1390AD but in 2013 an Italian researcher claimed to date Shroud fibres to 300-400AD.
If the in depth results from 1988 are correct then that would make the Shroud around 800 years old and not old enough to have been around when Jesus is thought to have lived.
The shroud was moved to Turin in Italy in 1578.
The revelation that you can make out a bloodied and bruised man on the shroud if you develop a negative image of it was only discovered in 1898.
It was last shown in public in 2015 but hasn't been able to avoid more claims of being fake.
In 2018, researchers claimed the blood flow on the shroud was not consistent with that of what a bleeding body would produce.
Some sceptics even think the linen is a clever medieval fake.
Supporters on either side of the argument are claiming they have evidence which backs them up.
Pope Francis has referred to the Shroud as an "icon of a man scourged and crucified."
However, it has not been labelled as a relic and relics are artefacts that the Church believes to be real.
Pam Moon, a 'Shroudie' from the UK, told CNN: "If it was fake, it illuminates what the [Bible] says in such a profound way that it would still be valuable to me.
"It's not essential to anyone's faith. But I believe in its authenticity because today we can't even begin to copy it, let alone create one.
"I personally believe that this is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, and the cloth from which he rose from the dead."
Pollen samples from the Shroud have also been taken and one researcher has said that three quarters of the plants were indigenous to a region in Palestine so theorise that the Shroud was there before it went to France.
This research has also been heavily disputed.
Professor Christopher Ramsey, a carbon dating specialist who supported the idea that the Shroud results could have been contaminated, has said he would be happy for a re-test to get an answer once and for all.
He previously told Chemistry World: "I don't think it's very healthy for people to go around in circles wishing various things to be true... I would quite like to see [the date] either corroborated or not."
There are also researchers who have argued that turning the markings on the Shroud into 3D gives a realistic body shape.
An image that had been drawn on and not imprinted is more likely to give a distorted result.
Many experts agree that the Shroud did contain the body of a man who was crucified but the age of the linen is what really needs to be cracked before they can determine who that man was.
Over the years it has been touched, kissed and sweated on, meaning it may be covered in a bacterial film that is causing the radiocarbon dating to be incorrect.
As archaeological dating technology advances we may be drawing closer to getting a final answer.
For now though, the Shroud remains one of the most important artefacts in the world.
What are the theories about the Shroud of Turin?
SCHOLARS have wondered what caused the image on the Shroud of Turin for centuries. Here are some of the main theories.
- It's a painting - Some believe that the Shroud was painted but investigations into this theory haven't shown any signs of paint being present on the cloth
- It's a natural procesess - Raymond Rogers of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, argued in 2002 that a chemical transformation could cause it. He suggested that even moderate heat of around 40C or so, a temperature that post-mortem physicians told him a dead body could briefly attain if the person died from hyperthermia or dehydration - could be enough to discolour the sugary carbohydrate compounds that might be found on the surface of cotton fibres.
- It's a photo - Scholars have concluded that the image is a "negative" meaning that it is dark where it should be light. This has led to some scholars suggesting it could be a form of primative photography. The key to the idea is the light-sensitive compound silver nitrate which was known in the 8th Century but no evidence has been found that they could use it in this manner.
- It was caused by the Resurrection - The final theory is that the image was caused by the divine process that brought Jesus back to life. Some Christians belive that the picture on the cloth was caused by energy relesed when Christ was revived on the first Easter Sunday.
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