Shroud of Turin:The Shroud is a piece of linen that bears the faint image of a man, which has been venerated as the image of Christ for centuries.
It however likely isn't authentic, but it doesn't matter if it is. Belief in Christ doesn't depend on the authenticity of a piece of linen.
A brief known history:—1354: Exhibited in new collegiate church of Lirey, France.
—1389: Denounced as a forgery by Pierre d'Arcis, the bishop of Troyes (claiming he knew the author).
—1453: Acquired by the House of Savoy and deposited in a chapel in Chambéry.
—1532: Damaged by fire.
—1578: Moved to the House of Savoy's new capital Turin.
—1683: Moved to the Chapel of the Holy Shroud (chapel built for the shroud).
—1978: Microscopist Walter McCrone from STURP took samples and demonstrated the image was painted onto the Shroud with pigments produced from red ochre and collagen tempera, and the blood was not blood, but a pigment produced from vermilion.
—1983: Ownership transferred to Catholic Church after former House of Savoy king Umberto II passed away.
—1988: Three radiocarbon laboratories (U-Oxford, U-Arizona, ETH-Zurich) demonstrated the linen was produced between the years 1260 and 1390, coinciding with it's first known historical appearance.
—2022: X-ray dating of the Shroud demonstrated the linen was produced between AD55-74.
Study Abstract:https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/5/2/47
On a sample of the Turin Shroud (TS), we applied a new method for dating ancient linen threads by inspecting their structural degradation by means of Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering (WAXS). The X-ray dating method was applied to a sample of the TS consisting of a thread taken in proximity of the 1988/radiocarbon area (corner of the TS corresponding to the feet area of the frontal image, near the so-called Raes sample). The size of the linen sample was about 0.5 mm × 1 mm. We obtained one-dimensional integrated WAXS data profiles for the TS sample, which were fully compatible with the analogous measurements obtained on a linen sample whose dating, according to historical records, is 55–74 AD, Siege of Masada (Israel). The degree of natural aging of the cellulose that constitutes the linen of the investigated sample, obtained by X-ray analysis, showed that the TS fabric is much older than the seven centuries proposed by the 1988 radiocarbon dating. The experimental results are compatible with the hypothesis that the TS is a 2000-year-old relic, as supposed by Christian tradition, under the condition that it was kept at suitable levels of average secular temperature—20.0–22.5 °C—and correlated relative humidity—75–55%—for 13 centuries of unknown history, in addition to the seven centuries of known history in Europe. To make the present result compatible with that of the 1988 radiocarbon test, the TS should have been conserved...
Summary:The study published in 2022 (
the study is 2 years old, why is everyone acting like it's a breakthrough from last week?) may prove the linen was produced much earlier than the previous 1988 study, proving the linen was produced around AD50-70 (still not early enough for crucifixion: ~AD33); however this doesn't prove it's authentic, just that the canvas used was already old.
Previous studies already demonstrated
the image was created with pigments, and even the
blood is a pigment not actual blood; as well as a bishop contemporary to it's first known historical appearance claiming it to be a forgery and claiming to know the artist responsible.
During mediaeval times, many fraudulent relics were produced and sold, so this is not uncommon.
Regardless, this doesn't mean that portrayal of Jesus as a Neanderthal by Israeli "scientists" is authentic; not even modern SSA admixed Levantines look like that, and
we have actual evidence of what He looked like.Lastly it's still a nice relic that should be preserved and held as a traditional icon, like any historical artistic painting of Christ.
But it is art and not an authentic image of Christ.
