 |
Artists and scientists studied the Shroud of Turin, and used cutting-edge technology to create a computer-generated image of the face surrounded by the shroud. The revelation caused mixed reactions around the globe. While some people said the image was ...
Home Video Blogs News Politics Investigative Health Entertainment Money Tech Good Morning America 20/20 This Week Nightline World News ABC News Blogs:
A new study by Italian scientists may not be definitive on its origins, but it does refute the popular notion that it was faked during the Middle Ages.
Experts at Italy?s National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Development have concluded in a report that the famed purported burial cloth of Jesus Christ could not have been faked.
According to the Vatican Insider, a project by La Stampa newspaper that closely follows the Catholic church, the experts? report says, ?The double image (front and back) of a scourged and crucified man, barely visible on the linen cloth of the Shroud of Turin has many physical and chemical characteristics that are so particular that the staining which is identical in all its facets, would be impossible to obtain today in a laboratory ? This inability to repeat (and therefore falsify) the image on the Shroud makes it impossible to formulate a reliable hypothesis on how the impression was made.?
The centuries-old shroud contains a faint impression of the front and back of a human body, along with blood, dirt and water stains from age.
The Italian researchers, who conducted dozens of hours of tests with X-rays and ultraviolet lights, said that no laser existed to date that could replicate the singular nature of markings on the shroud. They also said that the kind of markings on the cloth could not have come from direct contact of the body with the linen.
The scientists haven?t offered an explanation for how they believe the marks were made, but believers have long thought the shroud was miraculously marked when Jesus rose from the dead following his crucifixion.
Just last year, the History Channel aired a special in which it revealed a 3D image of the face of Jesus, constructed from the markings left in the cloth. Artists and scientists studied the Shroud of Turin, and used cutting-edge technology to create a computer-generated image of the face surrounded by the shroud.
The revelation caused mixed reactions around the globe. While some people said the image was ?realistic? and what they imagined Christ looked like, others were not as certain.
The shroud is an obvious fake. Think about it. If you wrapped a sheet around a body and then removed it, any image of the body would NOT look like it does on the shroud. Case closed.
BUT, even if you?re a devout Christian and you think the image was made as his soul passed through the shroud, here are some interesting questions:
Personally, I don?t think this was ?faked.? I just don?t think it?s Jesus. It was some guy who was completely covered in some crap head to two, wrapped in this shroud for hundreds of years, and it left the stain.
There are plenty of ancient unsolved mysteries. Stonehenge, pyramids, etc. We don?t even know exactly how the ancient Egyptians were able to preserve their mummies so well. But I can tell you this ? it wasn?t through a divine process.
Ralph, in your state of disbelief, you simply don?t understand. No one unwrapped Jesus. He didn?t suddenly sit up and unwrap himself. In a flash, his dead body change alive again and he was no longer present in his shroud. They have also shown where it is just like a photo negative. Besides the bodily fluid stains, the image you see is from the supernatural (GOD) event that took place as Jesus was resurrected.
I can?t imagine Jesus would have wanted a regimented church, with inflexible dogma, oppressing and damning to an eternity of suffering, those that dared to hold a different point of view. I can?t imagine a a church whose emisaries violate their young male subjects and yet are protected from prosecution from the very top down. A church, rich beyond imagination with material wealth, yet does little more than ?pray? for the poor. Such utter hypocrac,y is it any wonder people are turning away from organized religion in record numbers?
WOE UNTO HIM WHO WOULD DENY,WITHOUT ANY PROOF, THE EXISTENCE OF GOD AND HIS POWER. THIS MIRACLE IS TO CLEAR THE AIR BEFORE GOD?S JUDGEMENT.
I don?t deny God exists, I know he does, all you have to do is look around and see His limitless wonders. God loves us all, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus Buddhists, Wiccans, Heathens, Athiests, et al. The real God does not have human limits and emotions. He is the God of the universe, not the select few that follow a specific dogma. He has sent us here for a purpose, he knows our hearts, our limitations, our abilities. There is no Hell, there is only growth to eventually merit greatness and progression into an infinite levels of spirituality. Based on what I have seen this level is most likely spiritual Kindergarten.
On the third day after Christ was crucified, in a glorious burst of resurrection power, He arose from the dead and left behind something that modern science?with all its wonderful technology?cannot explain nor replicate, the Shroud of Turin. Praise the LORD!
Leslie, how the hell do you know, where you there? I love people who talk about their beliefs as if it is FACT just because THEY believe it. Gimme a break.
Praise be to the Pilsbury Dough Boy. For it was him who made a bisquit and it rose from the yeast on the tray of cooketh, and on the third hour it was removed from the oven. So be it for it is written in the book of cookery and it must be true, even if I didn?t see it, even if someone told me to believe it, I know because it is fact, I believe it so it must be fact. I can?t wait until Santa?s magic sack opens in my house too, and millions of dollars arise up out of it.
All ye people of faith, have a good time enjoying your faith ? WITHOUT IMPOSING YOUR FREE WILL INTO OURS. AND WAKE THE HELL UP, YOU HAVE NO IDEA, NO IDEA AT ALL ABOUT SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED OR NOT THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO IN A SHEET, SO SHUTUP.
? Then came Shimon Kepha following him, and went into the tomb, and saw the linen cloths lying, And the cloth, that was around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself.? YOCHANAN 20:
The odds are that this testimony are accurate even in their corrupted anglicized Babylonian published form, to reasonably invalidate the so called catholic shroud claim.
Mike, I had a friend who was a very devout Catholic as I am. She has sinced died from cancer. She told me one time,she was praying the Stations of the Cross and she felt Jesus?s arms around her. The next day when I knelt to pray some prayers, I thought, how come she gets that? She must be better than me. (she was a very popular well loved woman). Just after I said that, I felt, coming from behind me and enveloping me the most love I ever felt on earth from anyone, it was PURE love and it lasted just a second! I got my answer. I am so lucky.
There are a lot of artifacts that cannot be duplicated: Stonehenge, Chartres, the Pyramids, etc. We do not need to postulate a divine origin for something just because we can?t explain how it came about (except for those who need a ?sign? from God).
At noon on good Friday, Jesus was on the cross and darkness came over the land for 3 hours. This was no eclipse. At midday, God supernaturally suspended the light from the sun upon the earth. This was a byproduct of what was going on in the spiritual world. Jesus was the Passover Lamb, a perfect sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. He bore the brunt of God?s punishment for the sins of all mankind. Jesus bore the sins of you and me and everyone else?thank you Jesus!
Then in an epic moment for mankind, at 3:00 on Friday, Jesus said ?It is finished!? and gave up His spirit saying ?Father, into your hands I commit my spirit?! At that moment, the curtain in the Temple split in two from top to bottom, symbolizing that Jesus, in the New Covenant, opened up the way into the Most Holy of Holies for all mankind. There was also an earthquake and the tombs of many people broke open and they were raised to life. So on Friday, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords was crucified, died, and was buried in a tomb.
On Saturday, day 2, Jesus physical body lie dead in the tomb, but in the spiritual universe, He was down in the pits of hell in the bowels of the earth bearing the punishment for the sins of mankind?thank you Jesus I will praise you forever and ever!
And then in a dramatic turn of the most momentous kind, in the most glorious event for the Adamic race, on the morning of the 3rd day, Sunday, the boulder in front of the tomb was rolled away by angels and Jesus arose to life in a glorious burst of resurrection power, leaving behind the Shroud of Turin, which modern science?with all its wonderful technology?cannot explain nor replicate. The GOOD NEWS ladies and gentlemen is all can share in this same resurrection power in the age to come and live forever and ever! Hallelujah!
Having this examined by an expert who the Vatican chooses seems like a complete waste. No one knows who this is. It could be anyone. It could be Jesus, but who can say? Believe what you want but don?t be so gullible. The truth is that it?s probably not from him. That?s not to say he never existed or that he wasn?t the son of God, but not everything is a religious relic. Go to Jerusalem if you are looking for something holy.
i would be so much more willing to believe the veracity of these findings had they not been made by a group of italian (read catholic) scientists.
JOHNB said ?as long as you do good works and treat everyone with compassion, you will not be condemned. This is what Christ was trying to teach us.?
God is a holy God and a consuming fire. In God?s holy presence, sin is consumed in the fire. And so on the Day of Judgment, God?s presence will burn up all that are unholy and unrighteous. And everyone of their own accord is unholy and unrighteous. None of us are perfect and righteous and holy. Our ?good works? are nothing but filthy rags in the sight of a perfect and holy God (see Isaiah 64:6). Sin separates men from God. So men who rest on their own merits cannot exist in the presence of a holy God without being consumed in the fire of His holy presence on the Day of Judgment. But the GOOD NEWS is this: we have a mediator for us between us and God. His name is Jesus, the High Priest that meets our needs. For all those that accept Jesus, the Lamb of God, as the sacrifice for their sins and makes Him their Lord and Savior, they in effect ?put on? the righteousness and holiness of Jesus Christ. So when God looks at them, He sees not their own righteous (or lack thereof) or holiness (or lack thereof), but He sees the perfect holiness and righteousness of Jesus Christ. And such a person will be able to stand in the presence of God on the Day of Judgment without be burned in the consuming fire.
?Justly? loosely translated from the Hebrew ?Tzedakah?, is charity, but charity is not the true meaning, To do ?Justly? is to give of your self financially to insure the well being of others. The rest of the verse should be obvious.
You will only go to heaven if you believe Jesus is God. You want to get scared??? Google someone who saw hell., Sr. Faustina. she is a saint who died in a convent in Poland. God allowed her to see hell and she tells about it. Very scary.
You do realize that the majority of Italians aren?t Catholics right? (36% active which is close to the US number) I know its rather misleading since since the Vatican is there.
This is supposed to be the creator of the universe. It?s beyond comprehension why the creator of the universe would come to earth and play such absurd little games with small groups of people. It makes no sense.
On the other hand, small groups of people making this stuff up and trying to force their preconceived conclusions on people makes perfect sense.
There are a lot more details that can be seen in the NG special. They found tiny remains of pollen from a tree that is only found in a certain area of the Mediterranean where Jesus lived. Like any discover there will always be people who believe and those who don?t. People with faith don?t need proof like this, we see it in our own lives. You can?t see the wind but you know it exists..why? Because you can feel it. We Christians can feel the Holy Spirit in our lives and it is something that is difficult to explain to those who have not experienced His amazing power and grace.
The problem is, during the time Christ was purported to live, the inhabitants of that part of the world were moorish ?that is to say, black. they did not have modern looking European features. So it?s really unlikely the Shroud of Turin would show a white guy. The shroud shows what we all think Christ looked like based on renaissance paintings. These are not realistic depictions of the people of that time.
It is unlikely anyone named Jesus Chist who was a carpenter and the purported son of God even ever lived. There is no contemporaneous account of such a person ?and there were historians and scribes at work in that part of the world at that time. None of them mention this guy names Jesus who can perform miracles.
The proportion is wrong, human eyes are about half-way between the top of our head and the bottom of our jaw. Its a common mistake for students to draw the face too big.
Say the shroud is genuine and watch the tourists flock to Italy, money in hand. On another note, lots of people were crucified; where are their shrouds?
Let?s see, Jesus of Nazareth is referred to in hundreds, if not thousands, of texts other than the bible. To say that he never existed is, well, ignorant. The church gave him the name Christ, it was not his actual last name. To all the people critiquing little details of the shroud, if you had paid attention while reading the article of watching the History Channel or other shows, you would have read or heard actual, impartial scientists contradicting your claims. Maybe you should try to master spelling and punctuation before showing off your lack of scientific knowledge. And, to the other atheists criticizing religious peoples faith, how about your faith in the THEORIES of science and the universe, yes, THEORIES, which are unproven ideas. How is your atheist FAITH, any different than a religious persons FAITH in God. I?m not even a Christian, I?m just not ignorant enough to close my mind to the fact that I do not know all the secrets of the universe.
In Islam, Issa, Jesus, was not crucifed. Allah, God, raised him up to heaven prior to being crucified. Another mans face was placed on the body, presumably Judas, and it was he who was put on the cross. God would have never harmed any of his prophets. Therefore it may be someone, but not Jesus.
Most of you are just plain dumb. You believe in fairy tales, the supernatural, superstitious nonsense. Any historian will tell you that Jewish men at that time did not look like that. That man looks to be European and was most likely just some guy wrapped in a shroud. Anyone who believes in burning, talking bushes can?t even think in the same league as me because you lack reason and logic. Two things you need to have to be an intelligent human being. Grow up and get your head out of the clouds you bunch of sheep!
Ed, I?m an atheist and I believe this MAN existed. He was one of dozens of so-called prophets running around the middle east at the time in an era of uncertainty and fear hoping to bring people hope. That does not make him god, or anything other than a good man. The catholic church needed to make it sound like he was devine so that they could make their unholy government around it. Good man, that was it.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Odd conclusion. It could not have been faked in the middle ages because the technology didn?t exist. Well the technology also didn?t exist in the time of Christ either. The scientists don?t know how it was done, yet it exists. You can?t draw a conclusion about the time frame if you have no scientific idea how it was done. Pointless article with bs conclusions. Article should read ?after extensive testing, Italian scientists still baffled?
If Jesus existed, and I?m not here to argue that he did or didn?t, but the Bible is an accurate depiction of his birth, life and death, then Jesus had two fathers and a surrogate mother. You would think the Catholic church would be more accepting of gay couples adopting children in need of a family.
If you believe this you will believe anything. Then again, it?s religious people we?re talking about, who literally will believe anything.
?Many Christians believe that the radiation that is described was from Jesus?s ressurection. So the radiation caused something similar to a photographic negative onto the cloth. That?s plausible?
It does not fit the description of the burial cloths in the bible. They did not use shrouds, but strips of cloth wrapped around the body. Besides if it was the resurrected glorified body of jesus, it would be perfect right? So why would it retain the destruction caused by roman soldiers, I mean when he appeared to his disciples and lived with them for the 40 days afterwards he supposedly had his glorified body, not a scarred one. So why would the glorified image on the shroud show one? It wouldn?t!!!!!!!
People, your comments do show how many people lack ?faith?. In short, if the non-believers are right, than it is irrelevant for those believers to have ?faith? (no harm done). At least the non-believers will not be able to say ?I told you so? after the fact. On the other hand, if the non-believers are wrong, well, we all will just say a prayer for you when you back peddle in front of your maker.
I am always amazed at how skeptics act like we who believe are just uneducated, gullable dim whitts. I am logical and educated, I have found that logic cannot explain all things. Back before Gallieo, it was ?Logical? to believe the earth was flat. You are no more intelligent than I who believe. I could argue that I am MORE logical, because I logically understand that logic does not explain everything, indeed, perhaps not even most things. Fact- the shroud of Turin cannot be reproduced with technology from ANY age including today?s. The shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus and bears the image of his body as it was when he was resurected, the evidence presented by the most researched artifact in the history of mankind (shroud of turin) is more than compelling that it is indeed geniune. I am sorry if that offends your infantile ?Logic? but I will leave you to believe that you are a hunk of bio-matter being articulated by a bio-computer, enjoy your shallow existence.
This article is so incomplete. In a documentary on the shroud, a researcher was able to reproduce it by heating a copper statue and placing a fine linen over it. When removed the linen was marked like the shroud.
Why doesn?t the scientific community just do a carbon dating of the shroud and finally settle all this nonsense and prove that it is a fake and that it?s not dated back to the time of Jesus?s death.
for those of you that believe it?s a fake?you should possibly do more research other than reading this article. this shroud has existed for hundreds of years, well into a couple thousand years. This has been studied for decades. up unto the how the image was actually burned into the cloth. Perhaps the italians described it in such a way that may leave room for doubt. but even your ordinary athiest must begin to ask questions. and not questions of real or fake. there is nothing that can really debunk the findings at this point. seeing that it?s dated to be in the area, geographically, given the soil attached to it. and it?s dated to be of around the time. whether you believe or not, evidence is there. stop being stubborn and actually take it for what it is instead of trying to debunk every theory presented to you.
Put it this way: Some people go to a magic show and believe the magician has magical powers. Some people go and are entertained by the creativity, cunning and skill of the magician.
If you?re religious, ask yourself why the Catholic church (and many other branches of Christianity) are worth billions, yet there is so much pain and poverty in the world. ?Oh, because God gives us free will.? Such a cop-out answer.
External links are provided for reference purposes. ABC News is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites. Copyright © 2011 ABC News Internet Ventures.