As fresh evidence pointing to the authenticity of The Shroud of Turin gains momentum, a few seemingly obvious, but largely unexplored questions come to the fore.
Does The Shroud appear anywhere in the Bible, and if so when it is first mentioned? Do the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection make any palpable references?
Any answers in the affirmative lead to more questions. Here are some:
What key passages involving the resurrection might provide further evidence of The Shroud’s place in history? Aside from the Apostles, who are some of the key figures who may have taken and protected The Shroud for the benefit of posterity? And finally, what is The Shroud?
The 14-foot linen cloth housed in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, that bears the image of a crucified man, is perhaps the most “studied artifact in human history.” Researchers have come to definitive conclusions about what it is not. But they can’t say exactly what it is.
Robert Orlando, an author and filmmaker immersed in biblical studies, believes The Shroud is first mentioned in the Gospels in the context of Jesus’s burial. Orlando’s new film, “The Shroud: Face to Face”, goes into detail explaining why The Shroud cannot possibly be a painting or elaborate reenactment. The book that precedes the film includes some additional material that goes a long way toward debunking carbon dating techniques that were once viewed as sacrosanct. Orlando is no outlier. Most recently, the Institute of Crystallography in Italy employed dating techniques indicating The Shroud is more than 2,000 years old. These findings from the Italian scientists provide further impetus to the view that The Shroud is in fact old enough to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ.
Orlando has upcoming screening events for the film planned for this fall and into next year for Boston, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., and parts of Florida and California. Details will be announced at TheShroudFilm.com.
Two key figures who may serve as witnesses to clothes and linen that became The Shroud are Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who were both members of the Sanhedrin, a court for Palestinian Jews operating under Roman Rule. The Gospels describe how Joseph and Nicodemus were drawn to the teachings of Jesus.
“While none of the Gospels provide definitive evidence about The Shroud of Turin, they describe burial practices that align with its characteristics,” Orlando said in an interview. “The mention of linen clothes in the Gospels of John and Matthew, and the detailed burial process in Luke and Mark bear witness to the modern view of what we consider The Should today. However, the Gospels do not explicitly state what happened to these burial cloths after the resurrection.”
Some of the key passages Orlando cites are: John 19:40, Matthew 27:59, Luke 23:53, and Mark (15:46). He’s hardly alone in pinpointing where The Shroud is likely mentioned in the Gospels.
Bishop Robert Barron, the founder of the Word on Fire ministries, discussed the probable relationship between the burial clothes and The Shroud during his Easter sermon earlier this year. The Gospel accounts indicate that the linen burial clothes were found in the tomb after Jesus’s body was no longer there. The linen strips and the separate face cloth were left behind. As Barron explains, this is significant because thieves would not bother to neatly roll up the head cloth and place it in a different spot. Barron also tells listeners that thieves, who would want to get in and out of the tomb fairly quickly, would not bother unraveling the corpse.
“There was something obviously very peculiar about these clothes…” Barron said, that drew the attention of the Apostles. “I wonder whether they saw something on those clothes,” Barron continued, “I wonder whether there were markings on those clothes. And I wonder, furthermore, whether we can see them to the present day. So that the very burial clothes that signal to these first disciples the fact of the resurrection might play the same role for us today. Now, undoubtedly you know I’m talking about the most famous relic in Christendom — The Shroud of Turin…”
Given the abrupt transformation of the apostles, Orlando is very open to the idea that they experienced or saw something that led them to believe in the resurrection. But the author and filmmaker is also quick to note that the Gospel is silent when it comes to the possibility of any markings that would be identified with The Shroud.
“It’s fair to say that the apostles who saw the burial clothes in the tomb had a unique and immediate experience of Jesus’s resurrection,” Orlando said. “According to John 20:6-7, Peter and the beloved disciple saw the linen clothes lying there and the cloth on Jesus rolled up separately. This direct encounter likely came as a shock that served to bolster their convictions over time.”
Orlando continued:
The Gospel accounts do not elaborate on the details of the clothes, so while the apostles had the advantage in witnessing the empty tomb, they may not have fully understood the significance of the clothes in the same way we analyze The Shroud today.
Orlando’s book and film pull in key findings from a group known as the Shroud of Turin Research Project or STURP. The team includes more than a dozen physicists, chemists, photographers, and other researchers.
STURP investigators performed an X-Ray analysis of the bloodstains that showed they were not created by lead paint meaning they could not have been the byproduct of an artist’s rendition. And, what about that carbon dating? STURP investigators found that different parts of the shroud are of different ages. That’s at least partly because The Shroud was burned in 1532 in a fire that broke out in a chapel where it was being kept at the time in Chambéry, France. A group of nuns made repairs to The Shroud that were obviously made from cotton fiber. Samples taken from one end of the linen therefore cannot be representative of the entire fabric.
While the Apostles certainly recognized the significance of the burial clothes, Orlando doubts they would have ultimately been the ones who removed the clothes and hid them.
“The apostles were constantly in danger at the time and knew the clothes would not be safe with them,” Orlando said. “Possibly Joseph of Arimathea is the one we should look to since he was a man of means. He is the one who took responsibility for Jesus’s body, procured the linen shroud, and provided the tomb for Jesus’s burial. His actions ensured that Jesus’s body was treated with respect and care, and the linen clothes he used are the same ones found in the empty tomb, adding to the significance of his role in this pivotal event.”
Orlando also has an answer for that last question — what exactly is The Shroud if it’s not a painting or forgery?
He views it as “the natural effect of a supernatural event.”
Kevin Mooney is an investigative researcher with Restoration News.
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