The Shroud of Turin is a hoax!

By Cecile Vizcaya

Philippines - Eliseo F. Soriano, the Presiding Minister of the Church of God International, said the Shroud of Turin is one of those religious inventions around.

In a particular thanksgiving session this year before the congregation of the Church of God, International, Bro. Eli Soriano disproved the claim of the Shroud’s believers. What was needed was only a single Biblical citation.

John 20:5 -7 states, “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 sepulcher, 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.”

Bro. Eli Soriano said the shroud is a fraud. The Shroud, as being shown to the public, is a single sheet of cloth. In contrast, the Bible mentions multiple cloth pieces – which were “linens” and a “napkin.”

In the verse, the napkin was wrapped about the Lord’s head. The so-called Shroud of Turin does not have a napkin with it. In the shroud, the image of the head is also seen where the image of the body is projected. But the Bible mentions that there was a napkin “about his head.” What was used to wrap the head was a different piece of cloth from what was used to wrap the body.

Since its discovery, the Shroud of Turin had been a popular object of worship of the Roman Catholic Church. The devout would even pray to it. Many faithful Catholics have an overwhelming respect for this artifact because they believe it to be the burial shroud of Christ. It will offend them if someone speaks maliciously about it.

However, an intelligent talk about the Shroud of Turin must be welcomed. Discussing and examining it objectively would fan a critical view of faith, therefore treating religious topics as things that require careful study and investigation. Whether the discussion upsets or esteems various religious systems, it is important that issues of faith are approached with an academic mindset and confidence that these religious concerns are addressed. For this, the Biblical perspective, supported by scientific proofs, are the most satisfying methods to realize the objective of this worthwhile investigation.

Forensic science and radio carbon dating technology exacts the physical qualities of the shroud. Primarily, it is a woven cloth that is 14 feet long and 3.5 feet wide with an image of a man on it. It has two images, one frontal and one rear. It is kept in the cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy. Carbon-dating has shown that the cloth, which has been kept in Turin 1587, was made between 1260 and 1390. (http://skepdic.com/times.html)

The first historical mention of the shroud as the "Shroud of Turin" is in the late 16th century when it was brought to the cathedral in that city, though it allegedly was discovered in Turkey during one of the supposedly "Holy" Crusades in the Middle Ages, a historical period of confusion. Three centuries later, in 1988, the Vatican allowed it to be dated by three independent sources – Oxford University, the University of Arizona, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – and all dated the cloth as originating in medieval times, around 1350.

Historical records say that the shroud caught fire during the early part of the 16th century and, according to believers in the shroud's authenticity, that is what accounts for the carbon dating of the shroud as being no more than 650 years old. Dr. Walter McCrone, a famed microscopy expert, said that “the suggestion of the 1532 Chambery fire changed the date of the cloth is absurd. Samples for carbon dating are routinely and completely burned to carbon dioxide as part of a well-tested purification procedure. The suggestions that modern biological contaminants were sufficient to modernize the date are also ridiculous. A weight of 20th century carbon equaling nearly two times the weight of the Shroud carbon itself would be required to change a 1st century date to the 14th century. Besides this, the linen cloth samples were very carefully cleaned before analysis at each of the carbon dating laboratories.”

Dr. McCrone had another interesting discovery. After subjecting the Shroud to other several tests and analyzing it, he found traces of pigments commonly used by Italian artists of the 14th century, which were red ochre and vermillion tempera paints. This was supported by forensic analyst John E. Fischer and publicized by Joe Nickell. How did 14th century paints reach the ‘supposedly 2, 000 year old’ cloth? If the cloth is of Christ, why would someone ‘bastardize’ it, and why did the Catholic Church tolerate that?

Another verse in the book of John tells how the Lord Jesus Christ was exactly buried. In John 19:40, it reads, “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.” Note the word ‘wound’, the past participle of ‘wind’, taken as a verb. Comparatively, the Shroud of Turin projects an image of a body that was draped in cloths. There is a lexical difference between draping and winding. Draping is covering not involving the joints. Winding is coiling the entire surface of something, extended to the joints (in this case, a corpse). Ancient Egyptians practiced it, and they would literally coil a body with several linens, since the human body is jointed. Further, British and American syntax tells that the word “linens” is plural. This supports Bro. Eli Soriano’s statement on the falsity of the Shroud.

If a single sheet of linen was used to cover the entire body, there should be a space where the halves of the face and the body meet because the Shroud has dorsal and frontal images. If the wrapping was done at the dorsal side or frontal side first, there must be a space in the dorsal or frontal view of it. This is not true in the case of the Shroud of Turin which projects a perfect, whole image of both frontal and dorsal images. (http://skepdic.com/shroud.html)

A close-up look of the Shroud at the head will lead to another ‘misrepresentation of Christ’ as it projects a hippie. According to Bro. Soriano, one of the basic doctrines for Christian males is to keep their hair short. I Corinthians 11:14 clarifies this: “Doth not even nature itself teach you, that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?” Why would Christ violate this teaching?

The believers of the Shroud reason out that the man in the image suffered brutally by whipping. It is true that Christ was scourged, but it doesn’t mean that the man on the Shroud is Christ. Flagellation or whipping was a common form of torture, especially in early Rome. Many authors call it “half death” because the number of victims who died from it due to infection, loss of blood, or organ damage, was significant. Excessive whipping would result in the eruption of the skin, leading to profuse bleeding. (http://www.medievality.com/flagellation.html)

Research and history unveils that there were at least forty-three shrouds in Middle Age Europe. This fact could make one ask if the Turin cloth is authentic. There were many copy-cats, so to speak.

An interesting and controversial account of a religious scandal involving the Shroud of Turin was recorded in a bishop’s report written by Pierre d’ Arcis and presented to Pope Clement VII, in 1389. It recounts that the Shroud was used as part of a faith-healing scam to draw money. The dean of the diocese at Lirey in Northern France deceitfully used the garment and hired men to pretend that they were healed by the ‘miraculous cloth’ at the moment it was shown. Investigations led that it was human skill and not miracle that brought the cloth, that an artist painted it. Even the pope himself, Clement VII, after reading the report, declared that the Shroud is just a representation, not the true Shroud of Christ. However, this does not say that the Roman Catholic world accepted the decree of Clement VII. But if the Catholics respect Clement VII as a pope, just like the late Pope John Paul II, they would readily accept his statement and stop believing that the shroud of Turin is of Jesus Christ.

These evidences ‘shroud’ the Shroud of Turin with religious controversy and heresy.

It is always wise to use the Bible and science in examining religious issues and bringing out the truth in them. In these times of exponential increase in knowledge, misinformation is also prevalent. Being Biblical and scientific are essential to avoid getting swayed with inventions and unscrupulous artifice that endanger one’s belief, and ultimately, salvation. As Bro. Eli Soriano has said many times, “You can always retrieve things that have been stolen, or have been lost to fire. But once you lose your soul, there’s no getting it back.”