for hundreds of years the shroud of turin has remained mysterious
is it really a miracle representation of the body of jesus or is it a fake
has the real shroud been hidden in the vatican for the last 800 years or could the shroud actually be
the world's oldest photograph in recent decades radiocarbon dating and other forms of analysis
have tried to identify just how the person who may or may not be jesus appeared on the shroud
all that they have done is deepen the mystery here are some of the major questions relating
to the shroud that no one knows the answer to what was the first shroud and where is it now
radiocarbon dating upon the shroud as conducted by the university of oxford the university of
arizona and the swiss federal institute of technology has identified that the shroud
of turin was created in the year 1260 a.d at the latest this is a fact so what happened
to a similar shroud that was the prized possession of a number of byzantine emperors
this other shroud was first recorded in the year 944 a.d over 300 years before the creation of
the current shroud and yes a number of records state that this earlier shroud featured a head
and body just like the current one it appears to have disappeared in 1204 when christian crusaders
sacked the city of constantinople now called istanbul where the first shroud was kept it's
unlikely that a christian army would willingly destroy a religious artifact so where did it go
potentially the shroud could have been covertly taken to the vatican and hidden deep within its
secret archives some christian works of art such as the bronze sculpture of the horses
of saint mark were taken from the city back to italy or it could have been accidentally
destroyed during the siege which did burn down significant portions of constantinople and further
mysteries exist in regard to the relationship between the first shroud and the current shroud
could what we all think as the shroud of turin be a reproduction of the first before it was sealed
away forever or if it really is an image of jesus could it be that the shroud resurrected itself
the reason that we can assure that it was a crucified man is due to the fact that we have
a lot of sign connected with the crucifixion crucifixion in particular we can see these
wounds on the wrist which is a characteristic of the nail used for the crucifixion we can see
a lot of blood the blood coming down from the wounds of the wrist and going along the arms
there is a very very strong probability that this two man jesus of nazareth as written in
the gospel and the men of the shroud as we can see in this cloth are the same person where did
the shroud of turin come from the artifact that we call the shroud of turin which currently hangs
in the cathedral of saint john the baptist in northern italy comes from an unknown origin
some sources believe that it was exhibited in lire france for some time between 1353-1357
during this time it appears to have been originally owned by a knight named jeffrey charney
who participated in two crusades and who died in 1356 in a battle against the army of edward the
black prince the knight definitely appears to have owned the shroud by the time of his death
as his granddaughter inherited it and gave it away in the year 1453 the first certifiable record of
the shroud does come from leeray in france in the year 1390 the bishop of lerae wrote to the
anti-pope clement vii in his letter he stated that the shroud was a fake and that he had caught the
fortune but the identity of this forger has been lost to history and it's possible that the bishop
was making this person up to stop people in the religious world from paying the shroud attention
so where did the shroud come from before it was exhibited in lyrie
if the current shroud is the same one that was hanging in lire then it would have been
made in the year 1260 at the earliest which is almost 100 years older than its leery exhibition
jeffrey charney could have picked up the shroud during his time crusading
or perhaps he acquired it through some other secret means during his service to the pope
is an organization trying to burn it on april 11 1997 a mysterious fire broke out within the
cathedral that houses the shroud of turin the cathedral of saint john the baptist the fire
reached through the structure and the shroud which was being kept in a silver urn seemed certain to
be caught up in the blaze but as the flames crept closer to the shroud firefighters hacked their
way inside determined to save the relic to reach the shroud the firefighters had to hack through
four layers of bulletproof glass the firefighters finally got through the barrier just in time and
managed to get the shroud out of harm's way the chapel that had housed the shroud was devastated
a number of experts extensively investigated the cause of the fire for more than a year
in the end these experts could not agree whether or not the fire had been started deliberately
the chief firefighter of turin michel ferraro was convinced that the fire was the work of arsonists
but three others believed that a lamp could have accidentally
ignited flammable solvents that were being used to restore the chapel
the experts all agreed that the security and fire hazard systems of the cathedral were inadequate
does this mean that someone with insider knowledge was able to take advantage of the poor security
sabotage the fire hazard system and start the fire what makes this event even stranger is
the fact that this was not the first time the shroud almost got burned to a crisp
in 1532 when the shroud was being kept in chambery france it also narrowly avoided destruction in
this instance the shroud was damaged with molten silver burning through one section of the cloth
could it have been a single organization that was behind both attempted burnings
just how was the image made true believers in the shroud of turin believe that it may
have been the actual shroud used to cover jesus's body or that the image was created by god himself
the multiple radiocarbon dating analyses proved that the shroud was created at the earliest
1230 years after jesus died meaning that jesus himself could not have lane within the shroud
so how did the image which clearly looks a lot like jesus end up on the shroud some say that
the shroud was made with a special kind of paint tempura paint others state that an artist placed
a blank shroud over a person and rubbed an acidic pigment over the parts of the shroud that touched
the person but the most interesting plausible theory to the shroud's origin is that it was
created with a medieval form of photography that was not recorded in the history books
the photograph theory does not come from some crazy crackpot instead it comes from professor
nicholas allen who is the director of global engagement of northwest university in south africa
professor allen has pointed out that the raw materials for producing primitive photographs
were definitely available in medieval europe he also points out that existing
books such as the arabic book of optics describe how to create a camera obscura
therefore it isn't a huge leap to believe that an artist between 1260 and 1390 took
the principles outlined in the book of optics and used them to create a photo negative on the shroud
the professor even attempted to recreate a photographic image of a person on a piece of
linen using only materials that would have been available in medieval europe and this final image
does look a lot like the image on the shroud of turin people will continue to debate exactly what
the shroud of turin is for decades to come who knows perhaps one day technology will be able to
solve many of the mysteries surrounding the shroud or perhaps it will just create more questions
question if jesus was not real why would so many people try to burn and destroy the shroud