New Study Casts Doubt on Shroud of Turin

A new scientific study on the Shroud of Turin is questioning the claims that the shroud could have been the burial cloth of Jesus Christ.

The study, published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, essentially states that all the evidence from the shroud indicates the person who was wrapped with the cloth was standing up at the time. 

The biblical account of Christ's crucifixion makes it clear that Jesus had died when he was wrapped with burial cloths, so he couldn't have been standing.

The abstract of the study entitled, "A BPA Approach to the Shroud of Turin," states that a living volunteer was used in the "investigation into the arm and body position required to obtain the blood pattern visible in the image of the Shroud of Turin." BPA stands for "bloodstain pattern analysis" in forensic sciences. 

Studying the blood stains on the shroud, the research declares the stain markings at the back "are totally unrealistic" if they're supposed to have come from a body that was lying flat.

"The two short rivulets on the back of the left hand of the Shroud are only consistent with a standing subject with arms at a ca 45° angle," the investigation abstract states. "This angle is different from that necessary for the forearm stains, which require nearly vertical arms for a standing subject."

"The BPA of blood visible on the frontal side of the chest (the lance wound) shows that the shroud represents the bleeding in a realistic manner for a standing position while the stains at the back – of a supposed postmortem bleeding from the same wound for a supine corpse – are totally unrealistic," the study abstract continues.

The investigation says the results from simulating the "bleeding from the nail wounds contacting wood surfaces" were not clear.  

Christians accept the death, burial and resurrection of Christ by faith – based on the biblical account of the many eyewitnesses who observed those historical events – whether or not the shroud is real.

(Martin, “New Study Casts Doubt on the Shroud of Turin, Here's Why,” CBN News, 7/22/18).

[Regarding the Shroud of Turin, Dave Hunt noted that, "It’s much to do about very little, in my opinion. We know that Jesus was enshrouded in a long cloth - they wound it around Him. We know that He died for our sins, we know that He rose from the dead. We have eye witnesses to that fact, okay? We’re in touch with Jesus - we talk to Him, we’ve met Him, He’s our Savior, He’s risen from the dead."

He went on to say, “my major proof of the Bible is prophecy and the fulfillment of it. When you have a prophecy that the Messiah would ride into Jerusalem on April 6th 32 AD, 69 weeks of years after the command to rebuild Jerusalem, we have the date in Nehemiah 2. It was the 20th year of Artaxerses Longimanus in the month Nisan. So there we have it. Now, how many candidates are there—how many people rode into Jerusalem on that very day? We know that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that very day. So we have so many prophecies, it couldn’t happen by chance. We have a prophecy of a crucifixion 500 years before crucifixion was ever practiced on this earth. So we have so many details and prophecies fulfilled, I have 100 percent proof. I don’t have any doubt.”]