Shroud of Turin: Latest study strengthens belief in authenticity!

Shroud of Turin: Latest study strengthens belief in authenticity!

The Shroud of Turin excites minds and sparks heated debates: Is it an authentic image of Jesus after his crucifixion or is it a clever forgery? These questions are being discussed more intensively than ever in current research. A new study by Italian researchers is now causing a stir and suggests that the cloth could actually date back to the time of Jesus. That reports Stuttgart newspaper.

The Shroud of Turin measures an impressive 4.40 meters long and 1.13 meters wide and shows the image of a man with bloody wounds that are inextricably linked to the crucifixion of Jesus. It has been kept in Turin Cathedral since 1578 and has rarely been made available to the public since then. The Catholic Church has never officially commented on the authenticity of the Shroud. It remains unclear whether Jesus' body was actually wrapped in the cloth.

Complex history of the Shroud

The Shroud first came to attention in the early 14th century, and its creation is dated to around 1325. There is no question that this artifact has high artistic value. With artists like Leonardo da Vinci, who was inspired by the portrait, it also shaped art history. An ARTE documentary produced by Florian Höllerl highlights the adventurous search for traces of the cloth from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem via France and Istanbul to the cathedral chapel in Turin Swyrl reported.

However, the scientists are on different fronts: While the chemist Luigi Garlaschelli believes in the ingenious forgery and describes the shroud as a “black hole” full of questions, the private researcher Joe Marino from Ohio believes it is authentic. This diversity of opinion shows how much research continues to be interested in this ancient and mysterious textile.

New evidence of authenticity?

The latest results of the Italian researchers, published in the “Heritage Journal”, have acquired further relevance. They used a special X-ray technique to determine the age of the fabric and are confident that the Shroud's threads can be dated to more than 2,000 years ago. This finding could refute the earlier hypothesis of the 1980s that placed the cloth in the Middle Ages, which would mean a period of more than 700 years after Jesus' time. The researchers also found striking matches to a piece of linen from Masada dated to 55 to 74 AD, and noted that impurities in earlier samples may have confounded the results.

In addition, the scientists used AI to try to reconstruct Jesus' face and began further X-ray examinations to corroborate the previous results. The pollen in the linen comes from plants that are only native to the Middle East, which casts doubt on the idea of ​​a European counterfeit. Catholic popular piety, which relies heavily on relics, also plays an important role in this context. In contrast to the Protestant Church, which does not have this custom, the veneration of relics is deeply rooted in the Catholic tradition.

The Shroud of Turin will remain a controversial topic as scientists continue to discover new things and believers fear whether the artifact truly depicts the image of Jesus that has so touched world religions. The doors to new insights and exciting discussions are wide open and it remains to be seen where the journey of the Shroud will take us.