The Shroud of Turin, thought by some to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ (Matthew 27:59) is a rectangular sheet (about 14 x 4 feet) which depicts the image of a crucified man. Reddish-brown stains are found on the cloth, correlating with the wounds in the biblical description of the crucifixion of Jesus. The faint, brownish image of both the front and back view is a “negative” that has defied explanation as to its formation. There is no means known to counterfeit such an image on cloth. Is this image that of the Lord?
In 1988, 14C radiometric testing indicated the cloth was only about 700 years old, so it could not be the image of the Lord. Now a new scientific method called “Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering” (WAXS) has revealed that the Shroud is about 2,000 years old, originating around the time of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, the Shroud contains mideast pollen, and scientists from the Institute of Crystallography have been able to determine from the blood serum that this person had been suffering before dying. Their conclusion: “…the Turin Shroud is not fake… it is certainly the funeral fabric that wrapped a tortured man.”
The author of the new study said his method is more conclusive than carbon-dating. Because it is non-destructive, it can be repeated on different locations of the Shroud to assure accuracy and consistency. It is not compromised by the contamination found on the Shroud as carbon-dating is.
On the other hand, Matteo Borrini, a forensic scientist at Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom, said that the bloodstains are not consistent with a dead person taken off the cross and wrapped in the Shroud. Instead, they suggest the person was standing. While the scientists said their results were founded in science and the methodology is sound, they advised caution since their results did not take into consideration if someone carried, cleaned, or prepared the body to be buried.
Does it really matter? Christians don’t need this particular physical evidence to prove Jesus’ crucifixion and burial. All four Gospels record it (Matthew 27:57-60; Mark 15:42-47; Luke 23:50-55; John 19:38-42). Yet its validity would provide further affirmation of the eyewitness truthfulness of the Scriptures to the unbelieving world.
Sources: CBN News: 04-23-2022, Andrea Morris, “New Scientific Test Dates Shroud of Turin to the Time of Christ’s Death”; CBN News: 07-22-2018, Mark Martin, “New Study Casts Doubt on the Shroud of Turin, Here’s Why”
