New Shroud of Turin Evidence - Messianic Literary Corner

John 19:38-42   After this Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away  the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave.  So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who had at first come to him by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight.   They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation,  as the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

John 20:1-10   Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb  early,  while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other   disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."   Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached  the  tomb first; and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin,  which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled  up in a  place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the  tomb first,  also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did  not know the  scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the  disciples went  back to their homes.

 The  Shroud of Turin has been venerated for centuries as the true  burial  shroud of Jesus of Nazareth.  A faint image of what appears to  be a  crucified man is present on the linen, but no evidence of the  image  being anything extraordinary could be seen with the naked eye.  There was  no way of understanding the image's uniqueness until 1898,  when the  Italian photographer, Secunda Pia, took the first photographs  of the  Shroud. During the development of the photographic print, Pia  noticed  the negative image on the Shroud looked like a photographic  positive.

This discovery raised scientific interest that has continued to the present day. In 1988  the Shroud was subjected to radiocarbon analysis and showed the cloth to be 14th  century in its origin.  The reason for the erroneous  radiocarbon dating  is due to a rewoven backing or patch added to the Shroud.  There is now conclusive evidence proving the sample used to date the Shroud was actually taken from an expertly done rewoven patch added in the middle ages.  More data from Los Alamos Laboratory in New  Mexico indicates the linen Shroud is actually much older than the published date from the 1988 carbon tests.

Much of the new scientific evidence has  risen from the"Shroud of Turin Research Project" or STURP,  a highly  respected group of scientists who have dedicated themselves to   uncovering the scientific mysteries of the Shroud.  STURP members are from these organizations:

Lockheed Corporation

U.S. Air Force Weapons Laboratories

Brooks Institute of Photography

Texas, Medical Examiner's Office

Oceanographic Services Inc

University of Colorado

Los Alamos National Scientific Laboratories

IBM

Western Connecticut State University

Nuclear Technology Corporation

Los Angeles County Museum

St. Agnes Medical Center

Oriel Corporation

Rocky Mountain Thermograph

New England Institute

U.S. Air Force Academy

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Sandia Laboratories

Santa Barbara Research Center

Barrie Schwortz Studios

The   STURP team has revealing astounding data that now has convinced many   scientists of the miraculous origin of the image.  No medieval artist or alchemist could have produced the results present in the Shroud.    

·         The Shroud behaves as a photographic negative.

·         The Shroud encodes three-dimensional (3-D) data which corresponds to a three-dimensional body.

·         The image is without substance (not painted on), but rather is due to a chemical change within the        linen itself.

·         The   image exhibits clear evidence of rigor mortis with no evidence of   decomposition of the body, suggesting the body image occurred no later   than 36 hours after death.

·         The   Shroud image exhibits anatomical structures clearly not in contact  with  the cloth and some skeletal structure, e.g., thus suggesting a  type of  autoradiograph (X-Ray image).

·         Medical   radiation imaging has, by far, come the closest to reproducing the   totality of the image. Yet, the Shroud image remains an unduplicatable   mystery.

Much of the recent research on  the Shroud of Turin has been focused on the determination of "how the  image could have formed on the linen" and of  "what type of radiation  could have formed the image"?  The answer to the  first question of how  the image formed on the linen was fairly evident.  In addressing the  second question of "what type of radiation formed the image", there are  various natural and supernatural theories that have risen in  attempting to solve this scientific mystery. Research indicates  the  unknown radiation is "biophysical" in its nature.  Knowledge of such "biophysical radiation" is currently beyond our scientific understanding.

The scientific  evidence  revealed in the image scorched on the Shroud of Turin certainly eludes  to the miraculous resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and provides  a  tremendous witness to Jew and Gentile alike of God's omnipotence and   Jesus divine nature.