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Shroud of Turin
Science is causing a global stir bringing state-of-the-art tourniquets to verify what many Christians have believed for a long time. 3D is in with movies like Alice in Wonderland and Avatar. Now one of the most famous Christian artefacts has got the 3D treatment and is set for a revival.
Jesus shroud, the Shroud of Turin is making a comeback. In 1988, scientists said the shroud was not old enough after dating its age with carbon-14 analysis. This was controversial as some claimed the part that was cut off for the analysis contained newer thread as the shroud had been repaired. Now that old, stained shroud has been shown to be imprinted with the image of Jesus Christ.
For the first time in a decade, the Shroud Turin, believed to be Jesus Christ’s burial cloth, is going on display to the public on April 10, in Turin Cathedral in northern Italy. It will be on display for six weeks and it is expected that over four million people will see it during that time. Already more than one million people have booked to see it.
This time the display itself is controversial. With special 3D glasses, just like those used at the 3D movies, are to be sold to the Turin Cathedral visitors.
The glasses will enable pilgrims to see details invisible to the naked eye. They allow a three-level perception, although only two filters are employed. Viewers can first detect the blood traces, then the body outline. Finally, a third image, which integrates the previous two, emerges. The Turin Shroud is a bloodstained linen cloth measuring 14ft 5ins by 3ft 11ins (4.4m by 1.2m) with an image on it of a bearded man covered in injuries consistent with crucifixion. While many believe the image is that of Jesus, sceptics argue it is a medieval fake.
In time for the display in Turin the History Channel is going to air a program on the Turin Shroud. They asked a computer graphics expert, Ray Downing, to produce a 3-dimensional image from the shroud. Downing and his team have worked on the project for a year.
Attempts to date the Shroud of Turin have been inconclusive. In 1978 a study found no evidence that the shroud was a fake and concluded it was “a mystery.” But it was condemned as a forgery in 1988 after carbon-dating tests, which estimated it was made between 1260 and 1390.
In 1999, another group put a 7th century date on it. And in the same year a Jerusalem botanist reported that pollen grains on the shroud were from plants found only in the Holy Land.
In 2005, the American chemist Raymond Rogers, considered a shroud authority, claimed it was between 1,300 and 3,000 years old and argued earlier tests were inaccurate because they were carried out on patches of material added to the sheet by nuns in the Middle Ages.
In 2000, Pope Benedict XVI, when he was still a cardinal wrote that it was “a truly mysterious image, which no human artistry was capable of producing.”
Last year Vatican scholar Dr Barbara Frale claimed she had deciphered confirmation that it is Christ's burial shroud from words written on the shroud. Dr Frale says she found the words “Jesus Nazarene” on the cloth.
According to Dr Frale's reconstruction, the inscription reads: “In the year 16 of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, Jesus the Nazarene, taken down in the early evening after having been condemned to death by a Roman judge because he was found guilty by a Hebrew authority, is hereby sent for burial with the obligation of being consigned to his family only after one full year.”
Gian Maria Zaccone, scientific director of Turin's Shroud Museum, says whether it is real or not is irrelevant: “Scientists can't explain how the image was formed, and we should leave it at that. It's not important whether or not it's a fake - the important thing is it encourages faith.”
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