New study traces Shroud of Turin to time of Jesus in first-century Middle East

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New study traces Shroud of Turin to time of Jesus in first-century Middle East
The new finding that the Shroud of Turin’s fabric is consistent with linens found in Israel during the first century is further evidence that it is the authentic burial shroud of Jesus Christ.



Shroud of Turin
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Aug 22, 2024
TURIN, Italy (LifeSiteNews) — Researchers have newly traced the Shroud of Turin – long believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ – to Israel during the time of Jesus, discrediting previous theories that the Shroud is only a medieval forgery.

Italian scientists used a wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) method to examine the shroud’s cellulose fibers, yielding data that is “compatible with the hypothesis that the Turin Shroud is a 2000-year-old relic,” the study concluded.

The research team, led by Dr. Liberato De Caro, found that the cellulose in the shroud had a breakdown pattern consistent with other linens from Israel that date back to the first century.

“The data profiles were fully compatible with analogous measurements obtained on a linen sample whose dating, according to historical records, is 55-74 AD, found at Masada, Israel [Herod’s famous fortress built on a limestone bedrock overlooking the Dead Sea],” reads the study, published in the journal Heritage.

According to the researchers, the nature of the cellulose breakdown suggested that the Shroud of Turin was likely kept at a temperature of about 72.5 degrees Fahrenheit and a relative humidity of 55 percent for about 13 centuries before it was brought to Europe.

Preserved in the royal chapel of the cathedral of San Giovanni Battista in Turin, Italy, since 1578, the shroud was thought by some to have been manufactured between 1260 and 1390 after researchers examined the cloth in 1988 using radiocarbon dating.

However, when the team compared the shroud with linens made between 1260 and 1390 AD, their X-ray determined aging did not match up.

In addition, particles of pollen that come from the Middle East were lodged in the linen fibers, appearing to exclude the possibility that the shroud originated in Europe, according to Dr. De Caro.

He said that the error of the 1988 dating is likely due to contamination of the fabric, which he said is a normal occurrence.

“Fabric samples are usually subject to all kinds of contamination, which cannot be completely removed from the dated specimen,” he said, according to the Daily Mail. “If the cleaning procedure of the sample is not thoroughly performed, carbon-14 dating is not reliable,” he added.

The research team dated the shroud’s fabric at Italy’s Institute of Crystallography of the National Research Council, where another group of experts said in 2017 they found evidence that the shroud bore the blood of a man who suffered intensely.

They had identified the substances creatinine and ferritin, found in the blood of victims who suffer severe traumas, such as torture.

It is noteworthy that the shroud’s bloodstains show a man who was scourged on his back, crowned with thorns, and stabbed in the side, all consistent with Scripture’s account of Jesus Christ’s Passion and death.

Scripture also describes how Joseph of Arimathea wrapped the body of Jesus in a linen cloth after he died, and placed him in a tomb: “And Joseph taking the body, wrapped it up in a clean linen cloth. And laid it in his own new monument, which he had hewed out in a rock. And he rolled a great stone to the door of the monument, and went his way.” (Matthew 27:59-60)

An image of Jesus Christ based on the Shroud of Turin, rendered by AI, has recently gone viral.