Is the Shroud of Turin an authentic "Fifth gospel" left for us by Jesus Christ ?

Question

A proof of crucifixion, and of the subsequent resurrection ...

Scientists from the Russian Institute of Criminal Investigation have completed a series of analyses on the Shroud of Jesus Christ.

According to the tradition this piece of linen was the Savior’s burial cloth that miraculously preserved an impression of his body and face.

The image was reflected with such clarity that the scientists could point out traces of the horrible wounds.

FSS experts were able to use the cloth’s traces to determine the nature of Christ’s wounds inflicted prior to his death. Their discoveries helped them reconstruct the Savior’s passion.

“The clue we examined preserved some material evidence about the abused victim,” clarified Anatoliy Fesenko, “The long linen cloth measured 4.3 by 1.1 meters contains faintly showing yellow-brownish imprints of two projections of a nude male body - back and front. Careful examination of all imprints confirms that the man depicted there was beaten with five-tailed thongs that had plubum spikes attached to them.


The right shoulder bears a wide stripe indicating that the victim could have been carrying a heavy object, possibly a cross. The nasal bone is broken from a punch on the left-hand side. The left cheek is swollen – it was in contact with the shroud and left a much greater imprint than the right cheek. The chin is clearly marked, especially on the left side. On the right it has a stain produced by a stream of blood or by a deep wound. The image of the face in general is asymmetrical. The man must have suffered an agony because his facial features did not contract evenly after his death.

His arm right below the wrist contains a large stain from a wound. Hands and feet have the same type of wound. The shoulders are raised. The chest has a shape characteristic of those who died due to suffocation.

His chest also bears marks of a rib area wound whose circumference is 4.5 cm. The left arm also has a wound and small blood clot. The right arm cannot be seen because it was beneath the left one.

Both wrists are darkened by the rich blood amounts from the wounds that pierced them through. Nails were driven through the center of the wrists between the bones, not through the palms, as it is commonly believed. Both wounds are visible on the feet. Their contours are very clear because their blood had clotted long before it touched the fabric. In one place the edges of the blood stain are indented; by spreading further along the cloth’s threads some liquid made the edges lighter. This spot is from the ichors that spilled out of the wound once the body was taken down: a half-dried cut was disturbed again after the nail was pulled out.

Answer 1

The Holy Shroud of Turin may very well be a "Fifth Gospel". Read below how it was a sign to the Apostle John to understand what actually happened to Jesus while in the tomb.







The Gospel of John, Chapter 20, verses 1 through 10 tell us, Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” Peter therefore

went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and he believed.



For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again to their own homes.



To help us let this sink in lets look at Luke 18:31-34.



Gathering the twelve disciples around him, Jesus told them, "As you know, we are going to Jerusalem. And when we get there, all the predictions of the ancient prophets concerning the Son of Man willcome true. He will be handed over to the Romans to be mocked, treated shamefullyand spit upon. They will whip him and kill him, but on third day he will rise again."



But they didn't understand a thing he said. Its significance was hidden from them, andthey failed to grasp what he was talking about. (NLT) Not until John entered the tomb and saw the empty shroud did anyone understand what had actually happened.









Let’s tighten our focus on the Gospel of John 20:8. This is the breakdown of John

20:8 in the New Testament Greek - tote oun eisêlthen kai ho allos mathêtês ho elthôn prôtos eis to mnêmeion, kai eiden kai episteusen.

tote -- adverb; then -- then

oun -- particle; indeed -- ...

eisêlthen -- verb; 3rd person singular aorist of enter -- he entered

kai -- conjunction; and -- and

ho -- article; nominative singular masculine of the -- the

allos -- adjective; nominative singular masculine of other -- other

mathêtês -- noun; nominative singular masculine of disciple -- disciple

ho -- article; nominative singular masculine of the -- the

elthôn -- deponent verb; nominative singular masculine of aorist participle of come, go -- (one) having come

prôtos -- adjective; nominative singular masculine of first -- first

eis -- preposition; towards -- to

to -- article; accusative singular neuter of the -- the

mnêmeion -- noun; accusative singular neuter of tomb -- tomb

kai -- conjunction; and -- and

eiden -- verb; 3rd person singular aorist of see -- he saw

kai -- conjunction; and -- and

episteusen -- verb; 3rd person singular aorist of believe -- believed



The key word here is the last word. Episteusen which translates to Believed. This is a very simple translation that has only one meaning. It cannot be twisted, torn and turned to mean anything else.



It means Believed. When John entered the tomb, after Peter went in, he saw the burial cloths lying there and he believed.



The question can be posed... what did John see and what exactly was it that he believed because he saw it?



Remember in the following verse is where we see, For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again to their own homes. It is only speculation but seems quite likely John saw the shroud lying just as it had been left, only empty of a body. This alone would have been quite an unusual sight but then add to that an image on the material.



At this moment, knowing who Christ truly is and that He has truly resurrected, he gathers these burial linens to take to Mary.



Remember too that two days earlier Jesus entrusted Mary to John's care from the cross. A major issue of the day would have been the image left on the cloth. Jewish law strictly forbade any images of any kind so had it been learned there was an image of Jesus on a cloth, and it was venerated, it would have been confiscated and destroyed.



This element would explain the mystery of it for several centuries. What can be deduced from scripture is that when John entered the tomb he saw the empty burial shroud with the image of Christ on it.



It also stands to reason that upon seeing this, and as scripture tells us later they did not know the scripture that he must rise again from the dead, that he then believed Jesus had risen from the dead and would return. When John saw the empty shroud he became the first person to understand... to put it all together, so to speak. That would make the Holy Shroud the first sign of the coming of the Son of Man.



It would also seem that the Holy Shroud has never ceased being a sign of the return of Jesus. It was a sign to John that day and has continued as a signpost to the rest of us over the centuries through all of the other noteworthy events taking place around it. It’s a sign but we have to learn how to read it.

Answer 2

Sorry guy, the shroud does not match that of a person who died in the manner that Jesus did. So if it was Jesus' shroud, he did not die in the manner described in the bible. Or, more likely, it was not Jesus' shroud.



There are several flaws in your logic.



The biggest flaw - Dead bodies don't bleed. The position that Jesus died in would have left no blood in his arms, and since he was dead, no blood would have exited a wrist wound after his death. If any blood did exit, it would have been minimal and only from the lowest point on the body when he died, in this case, his legs. Biblical references indicate that when the romans stabbed him in the ribs, no blood came out, only water. So all the fresh blood wounds caused after they removed the nails would not occur.



The wounds on the feet are in the wrong place. The romans nailed feet through the side of the foot, inside the achilles tendon. Otherwise, the foot tears off the nail.



There would be no blood left ON the body. Besides the fact that the blood would have been smeared, diluted with dirt, dried for hours but smudged by the rain that the bible said came down after his death, Jewish tradition would have included cleansing and annointing the body before burial. The bible confirms this ritual for Jesus, because thats the task the women were returning to the crypt for when they found that Jesus was no longer in the tomb. And since he was dead, no new blood would have come out. Most of the wounds would have been blood-free when the body was put in the shroud, and would have remained so in the days thereafter.



His face wouldn't be in agony, because they would have cleaned his face before burying him. If they did leave his face as he died, his mouth would have been open (explaining why would be gruesome, take my word for it).



Other burials from that time period showed that the corpses were placed with their arms at their sides, so the position is wrong. And they are usually dressed in a simple cloak or robe. But the position used for the shroud both allows a convenient exhibition of the biblically-inspired wounds and still provides an appropriate amount of modesty for the depiction of a God.



By the way, why do we see his hair in the front image? It was very long, and it would have fallen back if he was in the prone position. You'd never see hair in that position on a prone body.



And I don't rememer any mention of Jesus being a foot taller than the average person of that age, since the body in the shroud would have to be six feet tall, and the average jew of that day rarely exceeded five feet.



Oh yeah, the Russians were never part of any team that examined the shroud. In fact, except for your reference in the Russian equivalent to the "national enquirer" article, the "Russian Institute of Criminal Investigation" doesn't even show up in a google search.



This is an easy one. There are so many reasons why this is clearly not the shroud. Even if only one is proven valid, then this is not the shroud. And there are MANY valid reasons to indicate this is not what you want it to be.

Answer 3

No, there is no mention of a Shroud in the Bible and the wrappings were rolled up and left behind. There was and is no reason to have a Shroud. Faith does not rely on symbolism, but on the heart. If one does not have faith in the heart, than no symbol will change that, just as it didn't change for the Jews when they created a symbol of God at the foot of Mount Sinai.

Answer 4

Shroud of Turin is nonsense. Who knows who that guy is. And who knows whether Jesus was even crucified. Every second dude was called Jesus in those days, maybe they crucified the wrong guy? Banned gnostic scriptures say Jesus wasn't crucified at all, no wonder the Catholic mob outlawed those heresies (since it challeneged their Roman Mythos).

Answer 5

Uhhh... the Shroud of Turin was proven a fake many years ago.

It is not Christ's robe but was produced many years later and presented as that.

Scientific analysis showed it not authentic.

Answer 6

The Shroud of Turin is bogus. Now, The Cloak of Cleveland...that's the real thing!

Answer 7

Wow, I didnt read your whole story, but I have some faith in the fact that the shroud may have been authentic, the arguments are quite genuine. Check out www.shroud.com & www.shroudstory.com.

Answer 8

Funny, it's already been refuted, multiple times, by multiple institutions of higher learning & research.



The shroud dates 1200, no earlier.



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And I suddenly believe in the Apocalypse. whysnotaskdon and atheists in agreement on something?! This has to be a sign.

Answer 9

your source has since been debunked an fallen back into

disputable controversy sorry not proven at all watch history channel for the entire story

Answer 10

The Shroud has nothing to do with Christ.

Answer 11

I personally DO NOT BELIEVE IT!



Anything that takes our eyes of Jesus is a NEGATIVE.





What gospel =GOOD WORD = can a stain on a cloth be.

There is enough proof HE existed in the History books.

Answer 12

Absolutely bogus but a good money earner for the Vatican.

Answer 13

God wants us to walk to faith not by sight. I believe that God would not allow something to exist that I could hold in my hands and wave in front of people saying " see, I have proof". That's why noone will ever locate the ark.

Answer 14

The shroud is a fake. The "blood" is red ochre paint.

Answer 15

It is no more authentic than the alleged original gospels....It's just another example of people reaching out for something to believe in....

Answer 16

Wow; you are really "into this." Each to his own...it makes the world go 'round!

Answer 17

It's a 14th century fraud.