The Shroud.
The team of scientists and experts were badly shaken when in 1988 a Carbon 14 dating at Oxford University put the age of the Shroud to the 14th Century. They approached the problem with professionalism however, if it was just anther Medieval Forgery they would quickly sort it out and if they could not then perhaps they would have to take a closer look at the Carbon Dating.
Now there were many forgeries in Medieval times but they were easy to sort out for the paint and brush strokes gave the artist away in many cases, there would not be any history prior to the historical find, and there was nothing of any note in the painting or artefact that really drew crowds of people to want to believe in it. So that was a measure. Many were drawn to the Shroud of Turin but at the same time it was just one of many relics in the Church in medieval times claiming to be the image of Christ because it was claimed that it was the Shroud that wrapped his body. Indeed Edward Hall who with some relish exposed the Shroud as a fraud in 1988 stated that you just in those days got yourself a canvass, did some work, and then flogged it. I think myself that Mr Hall in saying this insulted the scientists and professionals who had worked on the Shroud. Mr Hall must have known that what attracted to scientists and experts to the Shroud was the lack of evidence of forgery. Moder techniques and scientific progress were confounded when they examined the Shroud.
But these professionals did not moan or groan they just got on with their job. Was it forged? They were forced to the conclusion that it could not have been a Medieval Forgery. A team of American Air Force personnel came over to Italy and expected a quick holiday then back to work when they found the brush strokes. Not only did they find no bush strokes but they found no paint or pigment. They were astonished to find that the shroud was indeed a negative image which on being photographed gave a positive image of the Body of Christ. It was as incredible to them as to that photographer in 1898 who had taken a photograph for the first time of the image and saw the image of Christ starting at him when he looked on his plate. Then there was the VP-8 microscope machine which could study images minutely. It found a depth in the image and experienced a 3D image (from which the picture above is produced). They had studied many pictures and paintings but only the Shroud had ever produced a 3D effect.
So where did this lead the team? Looking for a forger who knew all about negative images 500 years before his time. And nobody even with all the aids of today has been able to match him in producing a perfect negative image. A forger who did not use paint nor a paint brush but produced a perfect image on a linen sheet of a man who was crucified and even had insight into things about the passion which were not appreciated in his time, such as the nails going through the wrist and the feet been nailed to the cross through the ankle.
Not surprisingly the team were unable to point to a forger, so they began to thing that if they could prove that the Shroud existed prior to the Carbon dating then they could give this as evidence that the dating was wrong. They visited many places on their quest but found that there was an image during the Crusades and people gathered to honour it when it was shown on a Friday. Descriptions of this sheet were found in Hungary of all places. and this cloth was eventually found it France where we have evidence of its existence there. But the 'piece de resistance' came with the study of what was called the Sodarium which had existed in Spain since the 5th century. This was the cloth that covered the face and head to soak up bleeding the Jewish body was placed in the tomb. It was also tied to keep the jaw in place. Imagine the delight when the team found the blood on the sudarium was the same rare type as on the shroud. But the most convincing proof was found when the scattered blood which came out of a wound on the back of the neck where the thorns were placed matched exactly in shape with the shape of the blood on the shroud. It was impossible for the two cloths never to have been together. The last crucial evidence came in Jerusalem where the team was shown the foot of someone who had been crucified. The nail was hammered through the heel and not the feet as Christians had held for centuries. Our would be forger even knew that. Only the Romans practiced crucifixion in this way
So where were the team now? The evidence that the Shroud went back to the time of Jesus was now overwhelming. But there still was the Carbon Dating. They got in touch with Oxford University and put forward their case that there was a conflict of evidence. The suggested that perhaps the Shroud had been subjected to Carbon Monoxide in the air
. The young man at Oxford was open and honest. He admitted that although he would have to support the first findings unless something compelling changed this he was always open to any evidence they had which could have brought about the wrong result. The team are now working on this providing of evidence. My own thoughts are that this shroud had been subject to an explosion of radiation when the Body of Jesus rose from the dead, it may never be subject to accurate carbon dating.
But on the assumption that the Shroud is genuine why did Jesus leave this image on the Shroud. It could be because he was pointing out that there is so much we have to understand beyond the realms of Science. But even more important as we examine the Shroud and it is brought to our notice just how much Jesus suffered for us, the story that the Shroud tells us, perhaps we can begin to understand how much Jesus loves us.
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