Finding Jesus: the Shroud of Turin Episode There Is No Record of What Jesus Looked Like in the New Testament. There Are No Conte
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Finding Jesus: The Shroud of Turin Episode There is no record of what Jesus looked like in the New Testament. There are no contemporary descriptions at all. However, the Bible does record how Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish council and a sympathizer with Jesus, wrapped his dead body in expensive linen, and buried it in his own family tomb. In the 14th Century a shroud, bearing the image of a crucified man, surfaces in France, before eventually finding a home in Turin. Is this the very shroud that Joseph wrapped Jesus in? Is the image of the man Jesus Christ? The shroud appears to tell the whole story of Jesus’ Passion in one image – the scourging; the Crown of Thorns; carrying the cross; the Crucifixion; the spear in his side. For centuries, the shroud is a source of great controversy – many Christians believe it is genuine, but others have their doubts. In 1978 a team of scientists lead by former US Navy physicist Dr. John Jackson spend five days intensively studying the shroud, before ultimately concluding it is genuine. It isn’t a forgery or the work of an artist. But a decade later, in 1988, the shroud is subject to Radiocarbon 14 dating – scientists at three separate laboratories date the samples of the Shroud to some point between AD1260–1390. This strongly suggests the shroud is a medieval fake after all. In a final twist, the film visits the Cathedral of San Salvador, in Oviedo, Spain, where there is another burial cloth venerated as having covered the face of Jesus. Could it undermine the carbon dating of the Turin Shroud and throw current archaeological thinking back in to doubt? Artifact The Shroud of Turin is a linen cloth that bears the image of a crucified man. No one denies it is centuries old – but how many centuries, exactly, is hotly debated. Millions of Christians venerate it as the true burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth. The cloth was provided by Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish Council, after Jesus’ death on the cross. It seems to tell the whole story of Jesus’ Passion in one image – the scourging; the Crown of Thorns; carrying the cross; the Crucifixion; and the spear in his side. In 1978 a team of scientists lead by former US Navy physicist Dr John Jackson spend five days intensively studying the shroud, before concluding that he Shroud is genuine. But many sceptics say that the Shroud is nothing more than a medieval fake. They point to a letter from a 14th century Bishop denouncing it as a forgery, and to the results of Radiocarbon 14 dating testing carried out in 1988. Scientists at three separate laboratories dated samples from the Shroud to a range of AD1260–1390. But many refuse to accept these results. They point to the stains on a smaller burial cloth venerated by some as having covered Jesus’ face, the Sudarium of Oviedo. The Sudarium first appears in the historical record in the sixth century, and yet its blood stains match the stains on the Shroud completely. How could this be possible if the Turin Shroud were a medieval forgery? .