And don’t forget the blood serum halo at the chest wound that can only be seen in ultraviolet light. Make sure the image is only a few microns deep and only in the upper fibrils in the linen cloth that you use. Good luck finding AB positive blood with a high bilirubin count.
In before the atheists and Anerican Fundie trolls.
“We can conclude for now that the Shroud image is that of a real human form of a scourged, crucified man. It is not the product of an artist.” [emphasis added]
I’ve read every major work available in English on the shroud. There have been all kinds of efforts made to replicate the image through various processes including placing the cloth on heated surfaces and exposing it to certain chemicals, etc. none of them worked. And it’s true that the carbon 14 test was performed on a contaminated and partially restored area of the cloth. It’s also true that, while it is continuously documented since the 1300’s, it appears to be depicted in the “Pray Manuscript,” circa 1200. Also some very early Christian art appears to depict the man in the shroud per the hair and beard style and one eye larger than the other —- on the shroud image that would be because the eye is swollen from the beating. It’s also true that the weave of the cloth is consistent with high quality cloth from first century Palestine, and that many samples of pollen have been lifted from it from plants that grew in Judea, but not in Europe.
Some of my Protestant brothers and sisters think that only faith matters and this physical proof is not important. Fine, but I think the only reasonable conclusion is that the shroud is exactly what its proponents claim it is. At the very least, the passage from the article I posted at the beginning is pretty incontrovertibly true
In the Basilica Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome there is a full-scale computer reproduction of the Shroud. Let’s just say is very impressive. In the same church one can see the alleged: finger of St. Thomas that he put into Jesus’ wounds, part of the crown of thorns, part of the Cross, part of the Cross of the Good Thief, nails from the Cross and half of the wooden INRI nameplate from the Cross.
The nameplate was found hundreds of years ago hidden in a wall of the church during renovation. The original columns of the Church, will still stand inside, date back to 400 A.D. Worth a visit for those with an interest.
Also, Santa Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major): Located on the Esquiline Hill, this church holds several precious relics:
The Holy Crib.
Shards from the Holy Manger.
A piece of the True Cross.
The church known as St. Peter in Chains holds the alleged chains used on St. Peter before his execution. Also in this church is the incredible statue of Moses by Michelangelo.
The advanced technology that existed in the first century AD has been lost forever.
You cannot replicate something done by God’s hand.
This reminds me of one of those challenges in which a huge amount is offered to show where in the New Testament is a verse saying the Sabbath was changed to Sunday.
Much like a bet on who cut off Samson’s hair. Most will fail this.
Maybe like the monks in THE NAME OF THE ROSE who were debating on “Did Christ, or did he not, own the clothes that he wore?”
As for the shroud:
The old way was to drape a statue with a sheet, then use a powder puff of charcoal to imprint the features of the statue onto the cloth. Then sell it as a Holy Relic.
Back around 1969 I believe it was Esquire Magazine that had a mocking article about the Shroud. “Were You There When They Photographed Our Lord?”
And the debate goes on....
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The shroud shows Jesus with long hair. Jesus wasn’t a hippie.