The Turin Shroud

There were reports over the last few days about Italian researchers supposedly proved that the Turin Shroud originated from the first century.

To readers who do not know about the Turin Shroud, it was claimed that the Shroud is the burial cloth of our Lord. The Shroud contains an image of a man (maybe visible only through certain types of camera) and was discovered in the middle of the fourteenth century.

I do not believe the claim that the Shroud is the burial cloth of our Lord.

First, the Gospels do not record whatsoever happened to the burial cloth after the Resurrection of our Lord other than:

Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.

(Luke 24:12)

And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.

Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,

And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.

(John 20:5-7)

Second, there is also no certain and proven explanation of whatsoever happened to the Shroud between the first and fourteenth centuries. Even the Italian researchers who somehow proved the Shroud to originate from the first century cannot explain whatsoever happened to the Shroud in the 1,300 years before its discovery.

Third, the authenticity of the Shroud was doubted by a bishop not long after its discovery in the fourteenth century while carbon dating done by scientists in the twentieth century suggested that the Shroud originated from about the time of its discovery.

Fourth, according to the same Italian researchers, for the conclusion that the Shroud originated from the first century to be true, certain specific conditions such as some temperature over 1,300 years prior to the Shroud’s discovery is required. In my opinion, the same Italian researchers are only suggesting a possibility (with very low probability) and not proving the Shroud to originate from the first century.

Therefore, with these four reasons, I do not believe about the claims concerning the Turin Shroud.