A discovery made in 2022 has provided new evidence indicating that the Shroud of Turin is approximately 2000 years old. The Shroud is constructed from linen and is said to have been the burial garment of Jesus Christ.
The Holy Shroud bears a likeness of a serene man’s face with wounds on his body that appear to be from crucifixion, as well as lashes from floggings and bloodstains. “In contrast to the violence present elsewhere on the body, it appears remarkably peaceful,” noted Brian Hyland, the curator of the Museum of the Bible, in comments to CBN.
Although some individuals have doubted the legitimacy of the Shroud throughout history, many of these theories have since been debunked. This includes the major conspiracy theory that the Shroud was developed by Leonardo Da Vinci as one of the earliest photographs in history.
Barrie Schwortz, who took photographs of the Shroud in the 1970s, stated that “the Shroud was shown publicly 100 years before da Vinci was born” and that “he was a decent artist, but he wasn’t that good.” He also pointed out that previous studies had utilized samples taken from the Shroud, which suggested the cloth had been manipulated.
According to Hyland, the findings of a recent pollen study demonstrated the extensive worldwide travels of the Shroud. “The pollen samples that were gathered they, a lot of them are from plants that are native to not just the Middle East, but specifically the area around Judea, Palestine, and Syria and stay where it was in that time period,” Hyland told CBN. “There’s also pollen from the area around Constantinople. There’s a lot of pollen from Europe.”
Though more research is needed to conclusively establish the authenticity of the Shroud, its place in history as a religious relic will continue to be a topic of fascination. The fact that the Shroud exists at all is, according to one expert, “nothing short of a miracle,” as stated in CBN.
