Quite by chance I watched a video about the Turin Shroud, thinking it was a very interesting medieval forgery. Well, it is not! There is no evidence of any paint, dyes at all on the cloth. Indeed, the image of a crucified man cannot be replicated by any scientist even today. The image is located on the top fibrils of a herringbone weave; this is approximately a tenth of the size of a human hair. The image when photographed has a unique quality, it is in 3D! The image shows a man with thorn wounds in his skull, over 300 whipping wounds across most of his body, nail wounds in his wrists and feet and a deep lance puncture wound on his side. There was no sign of body decomposition, so it could not have been in the shroud for long. Pollen taken from the linen originated from Jerusalem, Edessa, Constantinople and France reflecting its ‘journey’ over the centuries. The Jerusalem pollen includes those from a thorn plant native to Jerusalem. They also found dirt around the nose and knees of the man. This originated from the Jerusalem too.  The blood is AB type, typical of a Semitic person. The blood was very red caused by Bilirubin which separates out when the body is under extreme stress and pain. The blood beneath the lance wound also has a colourless serum, like water which occurs when the heart is punctured and is under extreme stress. The shoulders demonstrated that the man had carried something quite heavy. The man had a pony tail indicative of a holy man. He was also tall (approx. 5’ 11”).

Three scientific tests indicated the shroud was approximately 2 thousand years old. A carbon dating test indicated an age of between 1260 and 1390. However, this has now been debunked as it was made on a medieval repair which had cotton threads, an anomaly, as the rest of the shroud has no cotton but is made of flax. A separate head cloth, called the Sudarium of Oviedo had blood marks, pollen and dirt totally similar to the shroud. The shroud is 8 by 2 cubitts, a traditional Jewish size for burial coverings in the 1^st century (approximately 14 foot by 4ft). The shroud is also high quality, usually reserved for a Jewish  priest doing an important service. From the evidence, the scientists involved in the examinations deemed the man in the shroud to be Jesus.

The evidence they found matches the descriptions in the gospels. I seek evidence about most things, so the meaning and implications of their findings is extremely unnerving and has preoccupied me for days now. The shroud is unique and it yields scientific evidence that is tantalisingly close to corroborating the resurrection: not yet but it certainly triggers lots of questions.

The best factual and evidence- based explanations are found on www.shroud.com