Was the Shroud’s First-Century Origin Really Debunked?

I believe it is the ‘receipt’ God has left for us, kind of like a store receipt proving a purchase has happened ... and He bought me for a price.

I didn’t say that I didn’t believe in Jesus, only that narratives written long after the fact are in conflict with one another

Do you believe the God Who created the UNioverse and you and me is unable to have His Wrod untainted in the form He intends for each generation? Is God so weak in your calculus that He cannot manage Truth for us over lies from the evil one?

"First off Jesus did not have long hair." The Bible does not describe the length of Jesus’ hair, nor anything about his description or appearance. Several Judaic sects of the period, such as the Essenes, wore their hair long, especially those of the priestly tribe. The tradition is that John the Baptist was an Essene and Jesus took on his cousin John’s traditions after his Baptism. There is a Biblical OT tradition that a man’s strength came from not cutting his hair, I.e. the story of Samson and Delilah with her cutting Samson’s hair supposedly to weaken his strength. Hasidic Jews to this day retain long forelocks in honor of that Jewish tradition.

The reference to a man not cutting his hair went along with those who took a Nazarite vow:

First, the individual enters into this vow voluntarily. The Bible says, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of separation to the LORD as a Nazirite’” (Numbers 6:2). This shows that it is individuals who take the initiative to consecrate themselves to the Lord. There is no divine command involved. While generally done by the individual by his own choice, two individuals in the Old Testament, and one in the New Testament, were presented to God by their parents. Samuel and Samson in the Old Testament (1 Samuel 2:8-28; Judges 13:1-5), and John the Baptist in the New Testament received the Nazirite vow from birth (Luke 1:13-17).

Second, both men and women could participate in this vow, as Numbers 6:2 indicates, “a man or woman.” The Nazirite vow was often taken by men and women alike purely for personal reasons, such as thanksgiving for recovery from illness or for the birth of a child. However, under the Mosaic law, the vow or oath of a single woman could be rescinded by her father, and that of a married woman by her husband (Numbers 30).

Third, the vow had a specific time frame, a beginning and an end as these two statements indicate: “Throughout the period of his separation he is consecrated to the LORD... Now this is the law for the Nazirite when the period of his separation is over” (Numbers 6:8, 13a). So, the Nazirite vow usually had both a beginning and an end.

Fourth, there were specific guidelines and restrictions involved with the Nazirite vow. Three guidelines are given to the Nazirite. Numbers 6:3-7 tells us that he/she was to abstain from wine or any fermented drink, nor was the Nazirite to drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins, not even the seeds or skins. Next, the Nazirite was not to cut his hair for the length of the vow. Last, he was not to go near a dead body, because that would make him ceremonially unclean. Even if a member of his immediate family died, he was not to go near the corpse.

Numbers 6:13-20 shows the procedure to follow to complete the vow. A sacrifice was made (vv.13-17), the candidate’s hair was cut and put on the altar, and the priest did the final task of completing the sacrificial process, which ended the vow (v. 20). This section concludes with the statement, “This is the law of the Nazirite who vows his offering to the LORD in accordance with his separation, in addition to whatever else he can afford. He must fulfill the vow he has made, according to the law of the Nazirite”(6:21). https://www.gotquestions.org/Nazirite-vow.html

John the Baptist was a Nazarite or Nazirite from birth. The angel Gabriel said to Zacharias his father, “For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15). At all times a Nazarite (Num. 6:2) was to control his appetite and passions to be in harmony with God’s moral law (Judges 13:5). (https://bibleask.org/was-john-the-baptist-a-nazarite/)

There is nothing in Scripture that indicates Jesus was also a Nazarite. He was called a Nazarene but that was because He was from Nazareth - not the same thing. Also, had Jesus been a Nazarite like His cousin John, He would not have drank wine nor touched the dead to bring them back to life as He did many times. As for long hair on a man, the custom in Jesus' day was that men had shortened hair and not worn like a woman's. Paul the Apostle even admonished believers that nature itself teaches that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him (I Corinthians 11:14).

Yeah...nobody could have walked away three days after going through that! The women who met up with Jesus that Sunday morning didn't expect that the fully recovered, glowingly healthy, robust man they were talking to was Jesus.

You’ve been most kind in your reply. I still balk at the notion carbon dating can distinguish between C-14 absorbed on the last day of an organisms life and C-14 present at the first day of creation. For example, the water absorbed in my body, should I die today, is certainly older than my body, no?

It dates from the time the flax (or cotton - I can’t remember what the shroud material is!) that was used to make the linen stop growing as a plant. When it was harvested it stopped absorbing Carbon and its isotopes. Well within measurement error from time of harvest to making of the cloth.