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The '''Shroud of Turin''' (in Italian, ''la Sacra Sindone'') is a long cloth presently kept the most studied artifact in the Cathedral history of Saint John the Baptist in world, causing some [[Turinagnostic]], Italy, which contains the image of a or [[crucifixion|crucifiedatheist]] man,[[scientist]]s to convert to [[Christianity]].<ref>[http://www.shroud.com/mrinobnf.pdf]</ref> with many believing it Other scientists who have not converted do consider the Shroud to be the actual authentic burial cloth of for [[Jesus Christ]]. The Shroud contains real blood stains consisting of human male DNA, and a blood type that is AB. The height of the man was 5' 11"; his weight, about 170 pounds.

There is overwhelming forensic evidence on the The Shroud indicating contains real blood stains consisting of human male [[DNA]], and a [[blood type]] that it is the image AB. The height of the man who was both scourged between 5'9" and crucified, yet (as described in the Bible) without the breaking of the victim5's leg as commonly done as part of the punishment11"; his weight, 168-180 pounds; his age, between 30 and 45 years old.<ref name="Forensics">http[https://www.shroudstoryshroud.com/forensicsmeacham2.htmExcellent scientific article about the Shroud]</ref> The bloodstains on Coins visible only to modern technology had been placed over the Shroud man's eyes, an ancient Roman tradition not known to historians until modern archaeological excavations revealed the practice;<ref>Coins over the eyes were formed before particularly necessary to keep the image was madeeyes shut if the person died with his eyes open. The image is scientifically precise in a way unknown to any medieval forgers: </ref> the thumbs are not visible because coin over the nails were through right eye was minted by [[Pontius Pilate]], and the wristcoin over the left eye was minted only in A.D. 29, not through merely a few years before the hands as mistakenly thought until estimated date of the 20th century[[Crucifixion]].<ref name="ForensicsCoins">http://www.shroudstory.com/faq-coins.htm</ref> The angle of the man's arms during the [[crucifixion]] can be inferred from the flow of blood seen on the Shroud: 65° for one arm; 55° for the other.

Scientists have devoted years There is overwhelming [[forensic]] evidence on the Shroud indicating that it is the image of work man who was both [[scourge]]d and crucified, yet (as described in analyzing the Shroud[[Bible]]) without the breaking of the victim's leg as commonly done as part of the punishment. <ref name="Forensics">http://www.shroudstory.com/forensics.htm</ref> Several of these scientists who have studied The bloodstains on the Shroud converted were formed before the image was made. The image is scientifically precise in a way unknown to any medieval forgers: the thumbs are not visible because the nails were through the wrist, not through the hands as mistakenly thought until the 20th century.<ref name="Forensics"/> The long cloth is presently kept in the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in [[ChristianityTurin]] as , [[Italy]], which contains the image of a resultcrucified man.<ref>[http://www.shroud.com/mrinobnf.pdf]</ref> An [[agnostic]] [[British]] scholar studied the ''Shroud of Turin'' and concluded in his book, ''The Sign'' (2012), that the Shroud is authentic and was even the basis of [[disciples]]' acceptance of the [[Resurrection]].<ref>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9162459/Mystery-solved-Turin-Shroud-linked-to-Resurrection-of-Christ.html</ref>

[[File:Shroud pos-neg.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The Shroud full-length, seen in positive (top) and negative (bottom).]]The Shroud is about 14 feet 3 inches long by 3 feet 7 inches wide, consisting of a single piece of fine [[linen ]] cloth made from fibers of the flax plant (''Linum usitatisismum''), and woven in a 3-over-1 herringbone twill.<refname="news.bbc.co.uk">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3624753.stm]</ref> Centered on the cloth is the front and back images of a man who is pictured as if in a burial repose; the man's estimated height is somewhere between 5'8" to 6'1".<ref>[http://www.shroudofturin4journalists.com/Details/howtall2.htm]</ref>. He is rather powerfully-built, with classical eastern Mediterranean features. The images of the feet are at both ends of the cloth, indicating that if it was a burial linen the body was placed on one end with the other end bought over the head to cover the body. On either side of the image is a series of triangular patches, covering much of the damage from a fire which took place in 1532.

The image of the body shows a man who had died a violent death. Upon both front and back are dumbbell-shaped markings; approximately 140 such marks were applied upon the back, chest, and legs. Roman soldiers involved in "[[Scourge|scourging]]" as a form of punishment for offenders employed a whip called a "[[flagrum]]",<ref>[http://www.shroudofturin4journalists.com/terms/flagrum.htm]</ref> which was studded with either bone or lead knobs, and when used it tore into flesh and muscle.

The wrists and feet bear large bloodstains consistent with historical descriptions of [[crucifixion]]. The feet themselves are placed one on top of the other within the image; both front and dorsal images display a single large bloodstain, indicating one nail was driven through both feet upon the cross. The left wrist likewise displays a large bloodstain; however, the left hand covers the right, preventing a view of the wound there. Blood flows are present on both lower arms, displayed to flow in a direction as if the victim was hanging on a cross. A single large bloodstain is also present on the right side of the chest - nearly-obliterated by the 1532 burn damage - and appears to have been mixed with a clear liquid from the body. Blood stains are also present about the [[scalp]], and the marks of a severe beating are evident upon the face. == DNA Testing == DNA testing of material on the Shroud may prove to be the most reliable measure of its authenticity, and already preliminary results point to a legitimate Middle Eastern, rather than fake European, origin for the Shroud.<ref>http://www.livescience.com/52567-shroud-of-turin-dna.html</ref> == Dating the Shroud == Raymond N. Rogers, a retired [[chemist]] from the [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] in [[New Mexico]], studied the Shroud and declared, "The chemistry says it was a real shroud, the blood spots on it are real blood, and the technology that was used to make that piece of cloth was exactly what Pliny the Elder reported from his time," about A.D. 70. "It's a shroud from the right time, but you're never going to find out (through science) if it was used on a person named [[Jesus]]," Rogers said.<ref>http://bibleprobe.com/</ref> [[Carbon dating]] test results conflict with each other and thus are not credible. In 1988, a small snippet of the Shroud was performed, '''''but the "C-14 results of the three labs falls outside the bounds of the Pearson's chi-square test," illustrating a flaw in the dating''''' that was likely due to a repair seam that ran diagonally "through the area from which the sample was taken."<ref>http://www.juliantrubin.com/encyclopedia/bible/shroud_of_turin.html</ref> A peer-reviewed scientific paper later demonstrated the invalidity of those results, suggesting instead that the Shroud is between 1,300 and 3,000 years old,<ref>Rogers, Raymond N., "Studies on the radiocarbon sample from the Shroud of Turin". Thermochimica Acta, Volume 425 Issue 1–2, pp. 189-194 (Jan. 20, 2005)[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6THV-4DTBVHC-1&_user=10&_handle=B-WA-A-W-WE-MsSAYWA-UUA-AAUYYDZUYC-AAUZVCZYYC-YZEWAVVVC-WE-U&_fmt=full&_coverDate=01%2F20%2F2005&_rdoc=26&_orig=browse&_srch=%23toc%235292%232005%23995749998%23553672!&_cdi=5292&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=3d89246a5d4144616be7657f0d83b6cf]</ref><ref>Mark Antonacci "Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence"</ref> disproving the 1988 results that claimed that the Shroud originated between A.D. 1238 and 1430. Indeed, the sample for the 1988 analysis had actually been taken from cloth woven into the Shroud during the [[Middle Ages]], thereby giving a false result.<ref>[http://www.shroudcentersocal.com/]</ref> Moreover, "the 12th Century Hungarian 'Pray Manuscript' come to depict Jesus being wrapped in the shroud - with authentic herringbone pattern and burn marks - 100 years before carbon-dating says the material originated."<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk"/> The defect in the carbon dating was that the samples were "uniquely coated with a yellow–brown [[plant]] gum containing dye lakes. [[Pyrolysis-mass-spectrometry]] results from the sample area coupled with microscopic and microchemical observations prove that the radiocarbon sample was not part of the original cloth of the Shroud of Turin." Instead, [e]stimates of the kinetics constants for the loss of vanillin from lignin indicate a much older age for the cloth than the radiocarbon analyses."<ref>[http://bibleprobe.com/]</ref>

 Historians and authors of written works on the Shroud have generally divided its history into two periods of time: a first period, from the time of the [[Resurrection ]] ca. 33 A.D. to the fall of [[Constantinople ]] in 1204; and the second period from about 1349 to present. The first version is based on largely on circumstantial evidence.

The ''[[Gospel of John]]'' contains the first description of what is today regarded as the Shroud of Turin (the "linen clothes"), and the "napkin", a small head wrap which may be a relic known as the Sudarium of Oviedo, Spain.<ref>http://www.shroud.com/guscin.htm</ref>

:''On the first day of the week, [[Mary Magdalene ]] came early, while it was still dark, to the tomb, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.:''She ran and came to [[Saint Peter|Simon Peter]], and to the other student, whom Jesus loved, and told them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have laid Him!"

:''Then that other student went in also, the one who had come to the tomb first. He saw, and believed. For they still did not know the Scripture that said that He must rise again from the dead.'' - [[John 15-21 (Translated)#Chapter 20|John 20:1-9]]; [[CBP]] (retrieved: May 25, 2010)''

The Mandylion would surface again around 525 when Edessa was flooded by the Daisan River. Workmen repairing one of the city's gates discovered a niche with the cloth inside; the mandylion was declared to be ''Acheiropoietos'' (Greek: Αχειροποίητος), "not made by hands", meaning that it was a miraculous image created supernaturally and not by man. The Mandylion stayed in Edessa as a means of protection for the city from harm until forcibly taken to [[Constantinople]] in 944, where it was received with great fanfare by Emperor Romanus I. Placed within the church of Saint Mary of Blachernae, it stayed there as a Christian relic until disappearing in the sack of the city during the [[Fourth Crusade ]] in 1204. One of the knights who participated in the sacking of Constantinople, Robert de Clari, left a detailed letter of what he observed at the time, and he referred to this relic as being more than a facial image:

Little is known of Geoffroi de Charney. He participated in the sack of Constantinople in 1204, and may have been a witness with Robert de Clari when he first saw the shroud at the Blachernae Church. He certainly could have been well-placed to have taken the Shroud back to France for veneration. On March 19, 1314, he was burned at the stake, along with the leader of his order.<ref>141.—Stemler, Contingent zur Geschichte der Tcmplcr, pp. 20-1.—Raynouard,pp. 213-4, 233-5.—Wilcke, II. 236, 240.—Anton, Vcrsuch, p. 142</ref><ref>A History of the Inquisition of the Middle ages, Vol III by Henry Charles Lea, NY: Hamper & Bros, Franklin Sq. 1888 p.324. Not in copyright. </ref>

According to a paper by Dr. Petrus Soons scientific research of some of the photographs of the shroud show an oval object under the beard of the image. After much research three cursive letters were identified and translated from the Hebrew. The meaning of the translation was, "The Lamb," a name in which Jesus was referred to in the New Testament.<ref>Dr. Soons Paper [http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache%3ACtDFWbA8AfIJ%3Awww.ohioshroudconference.com%2Fpapers%2Fp24.pdf+THE+SHROUD+OF+TURIN%2C+THE+HOLOGRAPHIC+EXPERIENCE+By+DR.+PETRUS+SOONS&hl=en&gl=usDr. Soons Paper]</ref> This finding now makes the person on the shroud exclusively identified with Christ.

 Many of the arguments by modern skeptics against the authenticity of the Shroud have been debunked and disproven. For example, some claimed that a misspelling on one of the coins over an eye could not be authentic, but in fact several other coins having the same misspelling have since been found.<ref name="Coins"/> Over the centuries there have been critics and doubters of the Shroud being the authentic burial cloth of Jesus. One of the earliest unbelievers was Pierre d'Arcis, Bishop of Troyes who wrote a scathing letter to the pope in 1389 claiming that the Shroud was a "cunning" painting and that the artist had been discovered.<ref>The Shroud, Ian Wilson, 2010, page 102.</ref> An enemy A harsh critic of the Catholic Church, [[John Calvin]], would repeatedly rant ranted against relics and he wrote against the Shroud in 1543:

The flaw in Calvin's argument, of course, is that the disciples had no reason to study the Shroud at the time, and no access to modern photographic equipment; they had far greater concerns during the chaotic period after Christ's Resurrection.  Another critic was the scientist [[Walter McCrone]] (1906-2002) , who insisted that it was a painting despite all ; this possibility has been thoroughly disproven.<ref>[http://www.shroud.com/piczek.htm Disproof that the evidence against it being Shroud is a painting., as explained by a professional artist]</ref>

Luigi Garlaschelli, professor of organic chemistry at the University of Pavia, announced that he had made a full size reproduction of the Shroud of Turin using only medieval technologies on October 5th5, 2009. Garlaschelli placed a linen sheet over a volunteer and then rubbed it with an acidic pigment. The shroud was then aged in an oven before being washed to remove the pigment. He then added blood stains, scorches and water stains to replicate the original. The image on the reproduction would closely match that of the Turin Shroud with differences explained as the result of natural fading over the centuries.<ref>Italian scientist reproduces Shroud of Turin [http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5943HL20091005Italian scientist reproduces Shroud of Turin]</ref> But according to noted sindonologist Giulio Fanti, "the image in discussion does not match the main fundamental properties of the Shroud image, in particular at thread and fiber level but also at macroscopic level."<ref>[http://www.acheiropoietos.info/abstracts/talks-image_formation.html]</ref> Further criticism of Garlaschelli's replica has come from shroud scholars Peter Soons <ref>[http://shroudofturin.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/why-the-italian-fake-does-not-reproduce-the-shroud-of-turin/]</ref> and Thibault Heimburger.<ref>[http://www.shroud.com/pdfs/thibault-lg.pdf]</ref>