New Evidence that the Shroud of Turin Is Not What Millions May Think

“New Forensic Evidence” seen by 200,000+ on YouTube is debatable. The video offers testimony by some scientists who came to believe the shroud was that which wrapped the Savior after the crucifixion.

On the other hand, some scientists, as with the carbon-14 dating, showed it came from the 14^th century, but the sample used was flawed because it came from an area of the shroud that had been fire-damaged and it had been re-woven with cotton.

Subsequent re-testing supports the shroud as ancient, but that doesn’t prove it to be the burial cloth of Christ.

Crucixion was common in the Roman Empire as a brutal way to execute criminals and enemies of Caesar. The chances of this being genuine seems very slim and several facts of history don’t add up.

1. “Nicodemus, which at the first [John 3] came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.” John 19:39,40.

Myrrh was a resin from gum trees in the Middle East, but scientists mention only “trace” amounts. This casts doubt on the shroud that for Christ, had such a large amount of myrrh, while they seem able to get so much detail on the fabric (and re-fabrication) of the cloth.

The fact that people are moved to tears or have changed lives is not an evidence of authenticity, but only an evidence that their belief is real.

2. The video mentioned the crown of thorns and the evidence of blood “drops” but failed to grasp the picture foretold by Isaiah 50, “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.”

Men know how painful it is to pluck even one hair from the face. Christ was a Nazirite according to Numbers 6. They did not cut their hair or beard, but it was permissible to poll or pluck hair out by its roots.

The Jews, in mocking him, plucked his beard and it must have cause excruciating pain and his face was probably a blood mass that scabbed. That may be why Mary Magdalene did not recognize Him until He called her name on Sunday morning, John 20.

3. Disciples on the road to Emmaus also did not recogize Him until He broke bread and blessed it that night. Luke 24.

Shouldn’t we expect researchers to find evidence supporting a bloody face, and large amounts of myrrh resin and not offer a picture of what a man with a beard (graphic above) since His was plucked off?

Without that, the shroud could be one from any of thousands crucified by the Romans.

Speaking of Rome, they have historically used relics and artifacts to monetary advantage, selling a splinter supposedly from the cross or a piece of Peter’s garment, as a good luck charm or token of some spiritual power.

This is baloney. The special power that all Christians should have, comes from the Word of God, and not some enchanting item sold by an apostate church foretold in the imagery of Revelation 17 as the harlot.

Dr. Richard Ruhling is author of God Bless America? that offers insight to impending events from a biblical view. It’s available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075896HPD and a short video offers a summary–