Is the Shroud of Turin a fake or a forgery as many say? Or is it truly the cloth that covered the body of Jesus Christ by Joseph of Arimathaea?

Is the Shroud of Turin a fake or a forgery as many say?

You can watch the videos below by clicking on the Image.

Barrie Schwortz Presentation on the Shroud of Turin to the Muslim faith part 1

Muslim lady believes the Shroud of Turin is genuine Part 3.

MORE PHOTOS AND VIDEOS HERE

BEST COMMENT.

Marie Devine states:

 There are only two authorities God and the devil. God does all things with evidence from two or three witnesses; the shroud would be another witness to the Bible account. The devil's purpose is to lie, deceive, kill and destroy. The devil would not create the Shroud of Turin with so many evidences in agreement with the crucifixion story that could validate the Bible. The devil turns people away from the Bible, discredits it and says we don't have to follow God's word anymore. The devil would keep it hidden, which it was. Now that the Shroud of Turin comes forward, the devil can only call it a fake and hope that people think that the Bible also is fake. Christ told me to pray as though he were in the room. I asked how I should picture him; he said to consider the Shroud of Turin

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Please Note. I Simon Brown do not worship Religious Relics. Do not bow down to Religious Relics.

Do not pray to saints, Mary or any Man. Do not worship or bow down to the Turin Shroud. I pray, confess, repent ONLY to Jesus Christ of Nazareth (YESHUA) The Shroud of Turn as told in John 19:40. And the Sudarium of Oviedo as told in John 20:7. Is used ONLY to testify AND PROVE the Father God's DIVINE LOVE FOR THE WORLD. The CRUCIFIXION, DEATH, AND RESURRECTION of Jesus Christ who is the Messiah for the millions of Doubting Thomas just as Jesus demonstrated with St Thomas who NEED to SEE to BELIEVE to gain FAITH to be SAVED. I also believe The Holy Spirit is using The Shroud of Turn as told in John 19:40. And the Sudarium of Oviedo as told in John 20:7. TO CALL ALL TO REPENTANCE. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh. Acts 2:17.

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Watch Video here:
 The Evidence and The True Face of The Shroud film.
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WARNING. Also read: Shroud of Turin and the Antichrist. Believe NOT anyone who claims to be Jesus Christ on the Shroud of Turin. CLICK HERE 

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DID YOU KNOW? A group of 26 scientists performed an in-depth examination on the Shroud of Turin with the most advanced technology in human history. What did they discover?

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DO NOT BE DECEIVED. ‘Seek and you will find’ said Jesus.

©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc., All Rights Reserved

Here you can read information and watch the film with the most up-to-date evidence on the most important event in the history of man-kind:

The Evidence and The True Face of The Shroud Book and film.

We are in the last days. Now the scoffers have been and gone. It is Time.

Discover the TRUTH here for FREE.

Here you can learn what scientists have now discovered.

Sit down and fasten your seatbelts. What I am going to tell you is that, according to scientists:

The absolute proof that the Shroud could not be a forgery.

Here you will learn scientists claimed that the corner from which the radiocarbon sample had been taken was in fact a re-woven, patched, or repaired corner. 

You will also learn about Marino Benford’s and Sue Benford’s brilliant bit of detective work. They found clear indications of a discrete repair to the Shroud.

Here you will learn about Ray Rogers who was an explosives research expert and thermal analyst. He discovered Madder root dye and gum on the fibres of the Shroud. This is clear evidence of the careful mending of the Shroud that was intended to be imperceptible and of a thread indicating a medieval repair.

Here you will learn about Peter Shumacher, the inventor of the NASA VP-8 Image Analyser describing the discovery of the 3D image. He states; ‘I had never heard of the Shroud of Turin before that moment. I had no idea what I was looking at. However, the results were unlike anything I have ever seen’.

Script By Matthew Tulloch Produced By Simon Brown

The crucifixion is the most significant event in the history of man, when God’s son Jesus Christ died so that we may be saved. Since that day, people have struggled to prove to themselves and others that the events described in the Bible really happened. Yet there remains only one real piece of concrete physical evidence for us to look to in order to discover the true face of Jesus. 

The Shroud of Turin is said to be the burial cloth of Jesus, and it is at once the most controversial and talked about artifact on the planet.

Analyzed for hundreds of years by scholars and scientists, many believe that the Shroud holds the key to proving once and for all that Jesus died for our sins just as described in The Bible. 

Now we believe we can do just that, with the help of some skeptical scientists...

©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc., All Rights Reserved

©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc., All Rights Reserved

A brilliant chemist 

And the man who photographed the Shroud over thirty years ago, and was so touched by the experience that he rededicated the rest of his life to spreading the message of the Shroud as far and wide as possible. Barrie SCHWORTZ states ...and he said, "Well look Barrie, let me give you some advice. Go over to Turin, do the best job you can and one day you'll know why.

Because God doesn't tell you in advance what the plan is.

Join us as we embark on a journey to uncover the truth about the Shroud of Turin and the true face of Jesus Christ.

Unless I see the scars of the nails in his hands, and put my finger on those scars, and my hand in his side, I will not believe. John 20:25

The world is full of Doubting Thomases, people who need to see with their own eyes the physical proof of things that others are willing to believe on faith alone. Seek and ye shall find, said Jesus, and it was in this spirit that the Shroud of Turin Research Project set out in 1978 to try to uncover the truth about the Shroud.

©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc., All Rights Reserved

Dozens of the world’s best scientists from the Los Alamos National Scientific Laboratories, the U.S. Air Force Academy and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, amongst others, converged on Turin, where they spent 120 hours running over 1,000 tests and taking over 30,000 photographs of the cloth in which Jesus was buried. Amongst them was expert photographer Barrie Schwortz.

©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc., All Rights Reserved

BARRIE SCHWORTZ INTERVIEW

I founded shroud.com over 15 years ago in 1996, and that web site has grown to become the largest, and the oldest, and probably the most relevant web site on the Shroud of Turin on the whole Internet. And the reason for that simply is that I have no bias from a Christian or non-Christian point of view. I can stick to the science, I can stick to the facts... Barrie Schwortz, like many of the

scientists on the Shroud Research Team, was a sceptic. He was in Turin as a professional just doing his job. But what the team found when they got there it was to change their lives forever.

BARRIE SCHWORTZ states ...there were hundreds of tests taken in 1978 that indicated the shroud was not a painting, was not a photograph, it was not the kind of thing that one would expect to be a manufactured relic.

©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc., All Rights Reserved

BARRIE states ...a wealth of other evidence gathered by our team and others indicated that Shroud was not a fake, that it was not a medieval painting, forgery, hoax, photograph, rubbing, etching, dust painting... these are all things that had been basically used to describe the shroud and what it might have been.

So the first thing that the scientists found, much to their surprise and delight, was that the Shroud was not a fake. At least in so far as it was not created by any artistic means currently known to mankind. All of the research team’s tests indicated that this was a genuine burial cloth. But then how could they be sure that it was actually the shroud of Jesus Christ and nobody else?

BARRIE SCHWORTZ states Now when you look at the shroud a little closer you'll also see a number of stains, the most important of which if you look directly near his heart, is the darkest blood stain which we call the 'spear wound' blood stain, that appears on the shroud.

Blood stains near the wrists of the man of the Shroud. 
©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc., All Rights Reserved

Now as you come down the shroud and look again at the hands you'll see blood stains near the wrists of the man of the shroud. Now this would be the crucifixion wound from where the hands were nailed to the cross. And unlike all medieval and renaissance art, which always depicts the nailing of the hands through the palms themselves, this shows an exit wound further up the wrist, and would have been the correct exit wound for the nailing through the wrists, because the Romans did this all the time and they knew very well where to nail the hands so they wouldn't come loose, and in the middle of the palm is not the place to do that. Closer to the wrist.

Jesus on the cross showing wrists of the man of the shroud.

BARRIE SCHWORTZ states So unlike all medieval and renaissance art, the shroud shows it forensically accurate in the wrist.

The researchers discovered that if the Shroud was a fake, it must have been created by an artist with a comprehensive understanding of the forensics of crucifixion. Something that virtually no other artists of that period have demonstrated. But there was more...

Front view of the shroud showing blood stains
©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc., All Rights Reserved

The blood stains on the Shroud clearly correspond to the wounds of a man who has been whipped and scourged before being crucified. Why is this important? Well, because the Romans didn't usually treat prisoners this way before an execution. But we know from the gospels that Pontius Pilate was very uncomfortable with the idea of killing Jesus, who in his eyes had committed no crime...

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN - tells us that PILATE said to the PHARISEE

What do you accuse this man of? The PHARISEE replied "We would not have brought him to you if he had not committed a crime. PILATE replied "Then you yourselves take him, and try him according to your own law. PHARISEE replied "We are not allowed to put anyone to death. This happened in order to make come true what Jesus had said when he indicated the kind of death he would die.

So Pilate had Jesus whipped and scourged instead to try to pacify the Jewish authorities and save Jesus from execution.

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN tells us The soldiers made a crown out of thorny branches, and put it on his head. Then they put a purple robe on him, and came to him, and said, “long live the king of the Jews!”

But Pilate was unsuccessful, and the people demanded that Jesus be crucified. So Jesus was one of the few people to have been treated this way before being crucified, and therefore one of the few people to whom the Shroud of Turin could possibly belong. And what of the crown of thorns mentioned by the gospels?

THE SHROUD, SHOWING THE BLOOD STAINS ON THE HEAD
©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc., All Rights Reserved

BARRIE SCHWORTZ: Now if we look at the face of the man of the shroud, we see blood stains on the forehead. And if we go further we see blood stains in the hair. And if you look at the dorsal or back view of the head that shows the back of the head you see many blood stains there as well. We have stains on the shroud, on the head, as if from a cap, or 'crown' of thorns. So once again, everything about the Shroud of Turin, all the blood stains, all of these markings, are accurate to the gospel account of what was done to Jesus when he was scourged, beaten, and if you look at the man's face (once again I should mention), if you look at the face, look at the bruised cheek bones, one more swollen than the other but both rather swollen. So this man had been beaten in the face, he had been scourged, he had been then crucified, and then he was speared in the side. And what we have here is an accurate description, forensically accurate, of a crucified man, exactly as the gospel accounts of Jesus.

So far, so good! Over a thousand tests later, the research team had determined that this was very possibly the true burial shroud of Jesus. The whole world was abuzz with talk of the Shroud of Turin, and what it might mean if we finally had real, physical, undisputable scientific proof of the crucifixion.

But then something happened to throw the whole question into doubt again.

BARRIE SCHWORTZ states Probably the most important scientific test that was performed on the Shroud of Turin after our examination of the cloth in 1978 was the carbon 14 or radiocarbon dating that was performed on the shroud in 1988, ten years later.

C14 corner
©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc., All Rights Reserved

So interestingly enough, there was a two hour debate as they stood over the shroud as to where to take this single sample from. And ultimately it was decided to take it from a corner of the shroud, far away from the image and the other blood stains and things on the shroud, but not far from a water stain and a scorch, but down in this corner right next to an existing seam so it would appear that this was authentic Shroud of Turin. 

C14 CORNER SAMPLE ZONE
©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc., All Rights Reserved

BARRIE SCHWORTZ states Although in our photographs of 1978, even the regular white light photographs, there was a different colour in that area. But we weren't really that concerned about that part of the shroud, since we weren't thinking about radiocarbon dating in 1978, so we didn't pay that much attention to that corner. In 1988, that's the corner they sampled from, they took a piece and cut it into thirds, and each was distributed to the three laboratories that remained involved in the testing. 

So they took their sample, they did their testing, they came out with their results which was a medieval date, 1260-1390 I believe, and they with much fanfare went up on the television, and the media, and the world headlines were, "Shroud is a fake!"

Sounds familiar? The common answer of the Doubting Thomases these days, when faced with the question of the Shroud of Turin, is to bring up the carbon dating. Three different teams of scientists tested a piece of the shroud and found that it was only seven hundred years old. It couldn’t possibly have been the burial shroud of Christ. It isn’t nearly old enough. You can’t argue with that. It’s science. Well you know what? We agree. And the original Shroud research team agree. And for a while it left them completely puzzled...

BARRIE SCHWORTZ states So at the end of this period of 1999 when the results were announced, those of us who were involved with the study of the shroud from a truly scientific point of view were left scratching our heads and wondering, "how could this be?"

In fact the answer was right infront of their eyes, or had been all those years ago when the team had a discussion about which part of the shroud to take for carbon dating.

BARRIE SCHWORTZ states So interestingly enough, there was a two hour debate as they stood over the shroud as to where to take this single sample from. And ultimately it was decided to take it from a corner of the shroud They went away, none of them performed the chemical analysis that was called for by their own protocol, and when they were asked why the response was, "well we know which sample the shroud was, so we didn't need to do the chemical analysis."

None of the three teams entrusted with carbon dating the Shroud sample followed their own protocol to make sure there was nothing wrong or unusual about the piece of the shroud they had chosen for their tests. At the time, and when news of the test results hit news stands around the world, nobody knew whether this oversight would have made any difference. But one man was determined to find out.

RAY ROGERS
© 2002 Raymond Rogers Collection, STERA, Inc.. All Rights Reserved

Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Ray Rogers was an explosives research expert and thermal analyst with the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory for over thirty years before serving on the Department of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, where he held the equivalent rank of Lt. General and earned a Distinguished Service Award. Ray Rogers wasn’t just a scientist, he was one of America’s finest. He was also part of the original Shroud of Turin research team in 1978.

Marino and Sue Benford, brilliant bit of detective work.

BARRIE SCHWORTZ states Ray Rogers re-addressed the shroud. He was ill, and his time was coming to pass away, and he knew that he hadn't really completed what he had begun, and so Ray decided that he would revisit this issue of the shroud. And one of the first things that prompted him to do so was a paper that was published in 2000 by Joe Marino and Sue Benford, Story continued-that claimed that the corner from which the radiocarbon sample had been taken was in fact a re-woven, patched, or repaired corner. 

(photo) Medieval Re weaving the Shroud of Turin 

It was a brilliant bit of detective work. Sue Benford and Joseph Marino consulted with several textile experts. They examined the documenting photographs of the carbon 14 samples and other close up photographs of the Shroud. They found clear indications of a discrete repairs to the Shroud. The repair seems to have been what modern tailors call invisible re weaving. This results in an intermingling of new and older thread.Threads are even spliced together. The newer thread is carefully dyed to match the older material so as to make it almost invisible to the naked eye.

This was a common method by which artisans repaired valuable tapestries during the middle ages. 

Rogers saw their paper and called me up and said, "Look, I'm going to prove these people wrong and it's only going to take me five minutes." And I said, "Fine Ray, you do what you have to do." I mean he was a scientist and wasn't asking my permission anyway. Ray told me afterwards that he spent one hour examining samples he had from that corner where the radiocarbon dating sample had been removed, and he said after one hour he found that Benford and Marino were correct, and that he was wrong, and there was evidence that this corner was anomalous.

RAY ROGERS
© 2002 Raymond Rogers Collection, STERA, Inc. All Rights Reserved

BARRIE SCHWORTZ states Now remembering that Ray Rogers is a chemist, Ray took his sample and he performed a chemical analysis and a microscopic analysis. What the microscopic analysis revealed was a gummy substance on the surface of the fibres on this corner.

Madder root dye and gum on fibres. This is clear evidence of careful mending intended to be imperceptible.
© 2002 Raymond Rogers Collection, STERA, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Now when he did the chemical analysis of the 'gummy' substance he found that it was gum Arabic, and when he looked at the gum Arabic under the microscope he found little particles of a dye that came from from the Madder Root plant.

History

Madder roots have been used as a dye for over 5,000 years. Archaeologists have found traces of madder in linen in Tutankhamen’s tomb (1350 BC), and in wool discovered in Norse burial grounds. This was a strange discovery which, on its own, offered no real answers about how the radiocarbon dating could have produced such a strange result. But there was more...

BARRIE SCHWORTZ states The other thing that he found that was very unique was cotton interwoven with the linen itself...

Thread found indicating a medieval repair
© 2002 Raymond Rogers Collection, STERA, Inc. All Rights Reserved

There was no cotton found anywhere else interwoven with the fibres of the shroud linen, so this made it unique.

Well this changed everything, and consequently Ray found a splice in one of his samples, he actually found an end-to-end splice, and this is not found in the rest of the shroud, one can look at the transmitted light photographs I made (light passing through the shroud) and in many places you could see where at the end of a piece of yarn, a hank of yarn, when they had to attach a new hank of yarn, they just laid them literally one on top of the other and slammed down the loom device, and kept on weaving. There were no splices found elsewhere on the shroud, though there is a splice in this corner.

© 2002 Raymond Rogers Collection, STERA, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This close up of the spliced thread found by Rogers was in the Raes sample, which was adjacent to the 19c-14 sample area. Rogers found both cotton and dyes in the Raes thread indicating a medieval repair.

BARRIE SCHWORTZ states Now to be certain that he was correct, because Ray was a really empirical scientist, Ray Rogers obtained a reserve piece of the actual sample cut for radiocarbon dating back in 1988 from the Turin authorities. So he obtained this sample and he performed the same chemical analysis on this and found exactly the same thing. So we now know that this sample, this corner of the shroud is anomalous and is not the same as the rest of the shroud. 5-K-10 small.jpg Remember that when Ray Rogers decided to undertake this new test, he didn’t believe that the corner of the shroud could have been re woven or in any way tampered with. The people who were suggesting as much, their theory was ridiculous, he said. They weren’t scientists, he said. He was going to prove them wrong in five minutes, he said. Instead, it took Ray Rogers just five minutes to undermine the single biggest doubt cast upon the legitimacy of the shroud.

TO READ MORE ON THIS ARTICLE GO TO LINK AT THE BOTTOM.

BARRIE SCHWORTZ states Now this is extremely important obviously from a radiocarbon dating point of view because if there was a re-woven section done sometime in medieval times, then by all means that would yield a different radiocarbon date than some of the shroud that was not manipulated elsewhere on the cloth. So had more than one sample been taken perhaps we would have had

some indication right away that there was a discrepancy between this corner and the rest of the cloth. But because that was the only sample taken everybody drew their conclusions virtually from a single sample. And although three different labs tested it they all tested the same sample, so it was really only one test done three times, not three different tests, because they all use the same AM/FM radio radiocarbon dating technique.

Ray Rogers
© 2002 Raymond Rogers Collection, STERA, Inc. All Rights Reserved

It’s important to keep in mind the backgrounds of Ray Rogers and Barrie Schwortz. Ray, one of the world’s top chemists, a sceptic, who refused to believe until he carried out an experiment for himself that the radiocarbon dating could have been flawed. Barrie, also a sceptic when he joined the Shroud research team, a Jewish man investigating a Christian relic. These guys placed their absolute faith in science, and in facts, and spoke only the truth as they saw it with their own eyes. They had no hidden agendas. But were there others involved in the Shroud research who did have their own agendas? It’s an interesting question...

In the gospel of John Jesus tells us Those who speak on their own authority are trying to gain glory for themselves. But he who wants glory for the one who sent him is honest, and there is nothing false in him. BARRIE SCHWORTZ states Perhaps the greatest irony of this whole process is that had the three laboratories performed the chemical analysis that was part of their original protocol back in 1988, had they performed that chemical analysis, had they looked at these samples under a microscope and then chemically as Ray Rogers did, perhaps they too would have found this anomaly in this area and then gone back and said look, we do have to get some samples from elsewhere on the shroud. But that's not what happened. What happened was, they were satisfied with the single sample. They didn't perform the chemical analysis. And considering that this was claimed to be a 'blind study', meaning they weren't supposed to know which samples were which, yet by their own admission they didn't do the chemical analysis because they knew which samples were the shroud. So somehow there's a discrepancy that I won't go into.

Photomicrograph of fibres from a warp segment of carbon-14 sample. Chemically, it is unlike the rest of the Shroud.
© 2002 Raymond Rogers Collection, STERA, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Now when we think about it, all that Rogers really did was finish what they had started by getting a reserve portion of the same sample that had been cut, by performing both the microscopic and chemical analysis, Rogers was able to determine that this area of the Shroud of Turin was different from the rest of the cloth.

The Filmy Substance That Holds the Pictures of Jesus

Phase-contrast microscope picture of a single fiber from the Shroud TurinThe substance is a dried carbohydrate mixture of starch fractions and various saccharides (sugars). It is as thin (180 to 600 nanometers) as the wall of a soap bubble. It is thinner than the invisible glare proof coating on modern eyeglasses. The coating is only found on the outermost fibres of the thread. In fact, it is only found where the fibres are close to the surface of the Shroud's cloth. In other words, the fibres inside the thread, deep in the cloth, do not have this filmy substance. Another important fact is that the carbohydrate coating can be removed by scraping or by pulling it away with adhesive tape. Over the years, as the Shroud of Turin was folded and unfolded, rolled up and unrolled and spread out across rough surfaces, microscopic bits of the filmy substance certainly flaked away. In fact, when the Shroud was examined in 1978, pieces of the substance -- pieces of the pictures -- were pulled away when adhesive tape was rubbed on the Shroud to collect particulate samples for research. Today, countless tiny bits of these pictures of Jesus, even whole fibres of the Shroud's cloth, are stuck to microscope slides and sampling tapes in laboratories in the United States. Scientist have a pretty good idea about how the the coating got there. It wasn't brushed on or wiped on as one might apply sizing to a canvas before painting. Had that been the case, the starch and sugar mixture would have soaked at least part of the way through the Shroud. Fibres inside the thread would have been coated. Capillary action would have pulled the mixture into the middle of the threads. 

TO READ THIS FULL ARTICLE GO TO THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.

Story from above continued.

BARRIE SCHWORTZ states But that brings me to the subject of the visible detection of this, because some of the authorities in Turin continued to insist that Ray Rogers was wrong and this was impossible because they don't see a repair. Well, that is a very valid point because usually when something's re-woven, if you look on the back side you'll see threads sticking out. In other words, we only in modern day re-weaving repair the side that is to be viewed, the outside of your trousers when you burn a hole in them and you get them re-woven, the outside looks perfect and you can't find it but on the inside you can see where the repair was made.

Madder root dye and gum on fibres. This is clear evidence of careful mending intended to be imperceptible.

Cloth showing weaving was so perfect.
© 2002 Raymond Rogers Collection, STERA, Inc. All Rights Reserved

BARRIE Well interestingly enough, in the fifteen and sixteen hundreds the French had perfected something that they called 'invisible reweaving'. Now when this first was mentioned by Benford and Marino most people just sort of waved their hands and said, "Please, if this was there we would have seen it by now!" Well Benford and Marino quoted from a reference, one of their references was a book written by one of the curators of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a textile expert in his own right, and he devoted two entire chapters to French invisible reweaving. And it was perfected in the French court at the same time the shroud was documented to be in France. And secondly, according to the expert, this type of re-weaving was so perfect, and they had perfected it on both sides of the re-woven cloth, that the only way anyone could detect this would be with a microscope and to know exactly what to look for and where to look for it, otherwise it would remain invisible. It's that good.

Cotton fibers coated with gum 



This colour enhanced image shows the intermixing of old and new threads found in the Raes sample. Rogers observed that, unlike 1st century splicing that compressed two ends together, this splicing technique twisted the two threads together.

(photo) sample taken from here. C14 Area

Well, it's very hard for a skeptic to believe that such a technique could be even in existence, particularly in medieval times. And yet, there is absolute scientific evidence to the fact that this technique was performed and that the shroud was in fact in France at this very same time. BARRIE SCHWORTZ states So there seems to be a correlation that obviously if there is a repair, and the shroud was in France, what better object than the Shroud of Turin would the King of France or the French court choose to use this spectacular technique on than this cloth, reported to be a relic of Jesus?

Ray Rogers had not only blown a hole in the carbon dating ‘evidence’ frequently used by doubters to discredit the Shroud. The only piece of hard scientific evidence in fact to cast any serious doubts on its authenticity, but he had also enlisted the help of textile experts to explain the results that he was seeing. But what would the international scientific community make of these findings?

BARRIE SCHWORTZ states So what conclusion can we draw from all of this? Well there is no doubt that the work of Ray Rogers, which by the way isn't just published in a TV documentary or a web site or a magazine or some commercial book, Ray Rogers submitted his research on this anomalous sample to one of the finest chemistry journals in all of the world, a journal named 'Thermochimica Acta', and they spent seven months reviewing his work, making him make changes, going back and making him re-do certain parts of his experimentation, furthering his documentation of what he'd found, and after seven months his paper was published in January of 2005. So we now have the first piece of peer-reviewed scientific evidence that's appeared in a refereed scientific journal, proving that the sample used in 1988 for the radiocarbon dating of the shroud was in fact anomalous, did not represent the main body of the shroud cloth, and consequently the Shroud of Turin itself was not dated but only this repaired corner was dated, which was obviously a synthesis of both old and new threads yielding the medieval date that was concluded by the 1988 radiocarbon dating. So that test, if we just look purely at the science, forget about all the other commercial aspects and the bloggers and the pundits, looking solely at the science this is the first conclusive evidence that indicates that the Shroud of Turin itself was not dated...

... but a repair was. Now there are many people who disagree with this, and they'll continue to disagree, and my answer to that is simply this: That if somebody finds something wrong in what Ray did, Ray Rogers himself would have been the first to say publish it, get it into the literature, and I will change my mind, as he had done on more than one occasion in the world of the shroud. As new evidence came in Rogers was flexible, and was willing to accept that his original opinions and conclusions might have been wrong, and was willing to change as the evidence showed otherwise. That's what I call real science.

Real science performed by the Shroud of Turin Research Team in 1978, and continued by the likes of Barrie Schwortz and Ray Rogers, indicates that not only is the Shroud -not- a fake, but also that the main piece of evidence against it, the radiocarbon dating, is significantly flawed so as to be practically useless. As Barrie says, the scientists found that the Shroud was not a medieval painting, not a forgery, a hoax, a photograph, rubbing, etching, dust painting, or any of the other possibilities suggested by the doubters. Yet there were still doubters. If only we had some other piece of evidence to corroborate the story of the Shroud... What many people don't realize, is that we do... Cathedral of San Salvador in Oviedo, Spain. Fiercely protected behind lock and key at the Cathedral of San Salvador in Oviedo, Spain 

Fiercely protected sits a great wooden ark.
© 1978 Mark Evans Collection, STERA, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Wooden ark
© 1978 Mark Evans Collection, STERA, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The metal front, fashioned in distinctly Roman style, shows the image of a man on what appears to be a throne, surrounded by twelve other figures. Legend has it that this chest was kept secretly in a cave near a monastery in Jerusalem until the seventh century, when Persian invaders forced the monks to flee, taking the ark with them to Spain. They risked their lives to keep this box safe because of what it contains 

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.
King James Version  tells us:

1 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. 2 Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. 3 Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. 4 So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. 5 And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. 6 Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, 7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. 8 Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. 

Inside the Roman ark at the Cathedral in Oviedo is a piece of cloth known as the Sudarium of Oviedo. Sudarium means shroud. It is said to be the cloth that was wrapped around Jesus’ head when he was buried, as described in the Gospel of John.

The Sudarium
© 1978 Mark Evans Collection, STERA, Inc. All Rights Reserved

TO READ MORE ABOUT The Sudarium of Oviedo: go to the link at the bottom of this page.

Blood tests conducted on the Sudarium and the Shroud of Turin prove that both are of the same blood type - AB - a rare blood type amongst medieval Europeans but common in the Middle East. What’s more, pollen samples taken from both cloths place them both in the Palestine area, and textile experts have confirmed that the Sudarium is made from the same fabric as the shroud.

Are the Shroud and the Sudarium really linked? Look and ye shall find, said Jesus. There would seem to be no doubt that both the Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium of Oviedo both covered the same man. 

©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc., All Rights Reserved

A man of Middle Eastern origin who was scourged and whipped...

Back view of the shroud 
©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc., All Rights Reserved

Shroud showing blood stains on the feet Nailed to a cross...
©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc., All Rights Reserved

Crowned with thorns... 

THE SHROUD showing THORN BLOOD STAINS 
©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc., All Rights Reserved

SUDARIUM showing THORN BLOOD STAINS.

So the scientists found that the Shroud of Turin was not a fake. Not a hoax. Not a painting, or a photograph, or any of the other things that the doubters claimed. And Ray Rogers found that the radiocarbon dating, the only scientific test to cast real doubts on the authenticity of the shroud, was fatally flawed. The blood stains on both the Shroud and the Sudarium match the description of events in the gospels. Now having seen everything we have seen, let us consider again our friend Thomas.

Unless I see the scars of the nails in his hands, and put my finger on those scars, and my hand in his side, I will not believe.

Surely the modern day Doubting Thomases would have to agree that they have now seen solid evidence of these things. Yet many of them will still not believe. And somehow, we know that many of them never will. Why not? Well, the gospels have something to say on the matter...

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN - states This is how the judgement works. The light has come into the world, but people love the darkness rather than the light because their deeds are evil. Those who do evil things hate the light, and will not come to the light, because they do not want their evil deed to be shown up. But those who do what is true come to the light, in order that the light may show that what they did is in obedience to God.

The topographical 3 d image of the Shroud created by the VP-8 computer 
©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc., All Rights Reserved

Some people will never accept the truth because they are afraid. Maybe there is nothing we can do about that, except to plead with them to keep their eyes open. For when their eyes are open they may truly see, and the truth may come to them. Which leads us to one final, incredible piece of the scientific puzzle...

The VP-8 Image Analyzer is a computer that scientists use to make topographical maps of the moon and other things. It analyzes light and dark areas of an image to determine the three-dimensional

qualities of the object in the image. So for example, it can tell us how deep the craters are on the moon. The VP-8 analyzer needs photographs to be taken in a particular way in order to be accurate. A normal photograph fed into the machine will just display a jumbled mess of light and dark patches, because the light and dark areas of a regular photograph have little to do with how far away the subject is. Well just out of curiosity, a group of scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratories fed a photograph of the Shroud through a VP-8 image analyzer. This is what they saw...

The topographical image of the Shroud created by the VP-8 computer shows very clearly the image of a man in three dimensions. The image is darker where his body would have touched the cloth directly, like his nose, and fainter where it would have been farther away, like his neck. In fact the VP-8 map of the Shroud shows the image of the man more clearly than ever before, and in doing so proves once and for all that the Shroud of Turin cannot possibly have been made using photographic methods. In fact this discover convinced the scientists at Los Alamos that the image on the Shroud must have been formed by the cloth being draped over a real human being.

Peter Shumacher, the NASA VP-8 Image Analyzer, describes the discovery of the 3 D image. 

I had never heard of the Shroud of Turin before that moment. I had no idea what I was looking at. However, the results were unlike anything I have processed through the VP-8 Analyzer, before or since. Only the Shroud of Turin has produced these results from a VP-8 Image Analyzer isometric projection study 

TO READ THIS FULL ARTICLE GO TO LINK AT BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE

VP-8: the image analyzer 

The absolute proof that the Shroud could not be a forgery (exhibit 4)

Sit down and fasten your seatbelts. What I am going to tell you is, according to scientists, "impossible," and yet it is an established fact.

Incomprehensible, so a "miracle." Let me begin by quoting from a passage of Professor Heller's book Report on the Shroud of Turin. Heller is a physicist and chemist. He first learned about the "shroud affair" from reading a paper in the leading science journal Science, rather shockingly entitled "The Science of Miracles." You don't have to be a scientist to listen to his story: 

To read this full article go to the link at bottom of this page

The Shroud of Turin is a truly unique artifact, a three dimensional image on a two dimensional piece of cloth. This in itself is something of a miracle. It suggests that the image on the Shroud was intended to be viewed as more than just a picture. It suggests that the Shroud itself is trying to say something to those willing to look hard enough. But what? Renowned Christian scholar and medical doctor Richard Kent has some thoughts on the matter...

Jesus said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of God has been given to you. But to others I speak in parables, so that, though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.”  Could the Shroud of Turin be a parable for modern times? A physical manifestation of Jesus’ promise that those who seek shall find, and that those who believe in him will understand the secrets of the Kingdom? You know, God is sending us messages every day, letting us know that he is here and watching over us, but many people never see or hear those messages because they’re simply not looking or listening for the truth. I think that if you look again at the image on the Shroud with your mind and heart open, the truth of the matter couldn't be clearer.

THE SHROUD CLOSE UP 
©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc., All Rights Reserved

BARRIE SCHWORTZ states And an interesting little story - When my son saw it with me in 1998, he was eighteen at the time, we stood before the actual shroud in the Turin cathedral. And being a tall kid he leaned down and whispered in my ear, "That's not a painting." Well I didn't want to disrespect those who were there in the cathedral, so I waited until we exited the cathedral and I turned to him and I said, "David, what prompted you to say that? How do you reach that conclusion that it's not a painting just from looking at it?" And he says, "Look, artists spend their whole lives trying to perfect their art, their craft, so that when they paint something it's clear, it's understandable, it's obvious. The shroud is so subtle that at the distance that we were standing we could see the image distinctly. But as you get closer, for example within arms' length of the Shroud of Turin, you have to keep stepping away from it again and asking well what exactly am I looking at? Because it's so subtle, and the closer you get the harder it is to see."

BARRIE So I think that when you look at the shroud itself, and you realize the subtlety of what's there, why would an artist even conceive of doing something like this when we have literally scores of replicas made of the Shroud of Turin by artists, professional artists, who are allowed to view the shroud itself and then paint their replica, and no-one has even come close. They're cartoon-like in comparison to the subtleties and the detail in the image of the man on the shroud. And yon no it's funny how sometimes the skeptics will say, "Well you know the shroud is too perfect, therefore it must be a fake!" Well what's interesting about that is, if the shroud were less perfect, meaning the science of the shroud were less perfect, they would say well it's not perfect so it must be a fake. So there's absolutely no way apparently to please the skeptics who will forever look at the Shroud of Turin and say it's a fake, it's a medieval hoax. And so in the end, I think maybe the most important thing about the shroud is, it's an enigma that continues to baffle us in certain areas. You get the chemistry right and the physics isn't right, you get the physics right and the chemistry seems wrong. It seems as if it defies us. And perhaps it's meant to do so. Perhaps the real value of the shroud is in making us think about it. Is it real? And if it is, what does it mean? And so in the end, I think each one of us has to search in our own hearts, to look at the shroud, and study it, and study its image, and then we have to decide in our own hearts: What does this really mean? I don't think it's something that can be done externally, I think it's something that each of us must do in our own hearts. And I think that that may be the only place we'll ever find the answer to the Shroud of Turin.

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN tell us

JESUS said: If you remain in me and my words remain in you, then you will ask for anything you wish, and you shall have it. My father’s glory is shown by your bearing much fruit, and in this way you become my disciples. I love you just as the father loves me. Remain in my love. If you obey my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. My commandment is this - love one another, just as I love you. The greatest love you can have for your

friends is to give your life for them, and you are my friends, if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because servants do not know what their master is doing. Instead I call you friends, because I have told you everything that I head from my father. You did not choose me, I chose you, and appointed you to go and bear much fruit. The kind of fruit that endures. And so the father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name. This, then, is what I command you. Love one another. 

Copyright © 2011 iStockphoto LP.

PLEASE PRAY

Lord Jesus, you died that I might live forever in your kingdom of peace and righteousness. Strengthen my faith that I may know the power of your resurrection and live in the hope of seeing you face to face for ever. Amen.

Please do not be deceived. God has persevered the Turin Shroud to prove to you his word is true and because he loves the world. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life’ - John 3:16.

 This is proof of God's desire to save humans by us believing and following Jesus Christ. 

Copyright © 2011 iStockphoto LP.

Whether you are an atheist or agnostic, no matter what colour or race you are; by believing in the Shroud it will prove to you Jesus Christ was indeed crucified, just as the Four Gospels say. You can find true faith in Jesus Christ.

AS IT IS FAITH IN JESUS AND FOLLOWING HIM WHICH CAN CHANGE YOUR NEXT LIFE TO COME.

If you would like to know Jesus please watch this video below to Surrender Your Heart To God This will be the best decision you have ever made in your life.

Please leave your comments at the bottom of this page as they mean a lot. After reading this article - WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE? Is the Shroud a fake or genuine? Has the shroud proved to you Jesus was crucified? Has the shroud changed your mind from being an atheist or an agnostic? Has the Shroud proved to you the Gospels are TRUE? Has the Shroud helped you to find true faith in Jesus Christ? If you are a believer has the Shroud strengthened your faith in Jesus? Do you believe the Shroud is a tool that God has supplied to prove his word is true? Do you believe believers should use it to prove God’s word is true?

LINKS
• http://www.shroud.com/


• http://www.shroudstory.com/


• http://www.rense.com/general28/turin.htm


• Marino and Sue Benford, http://www.skepticalspectacle.com/carbon1403.htm


• http://www.shroudforum.com/


• The Sudarium of Oviedo: http://www.realdiscoveries.com/article-item.php?cat=321&id=462


• Peter Shumacher, the inventor of the NASA VP-8 Image Analyzer, http://www.shroudstory.com/vp8.htm


• The absolute proof that the Shroud could not be a forgery (exhibit 4) http://www.scienceofgod.eu/chapters/chapter09.htm

Special Thanks to
• Script By Matthew Tulloch

Special Thanks to
• Barrie M. Schwortz www.shroud.com Copyright Barrie M. Schwortz collection, STERA, Inc All Rights Reserved

Special Thanks to
• Licence Agreement between GNN International Corp, C/O Eternal Picturer Inc. The Gospel of John

Special Thanks to
• Johan Sturm Eternal Picturer Inc

Special Thanks To
• El Centro Español de Sindonología es una Asociación www.linteum.com for Images

Special Thanks to
• Dr Richard Kent www.freechristianteaching.org

Special Thanks To
• Dan Porter. http://www.shroudstory.com/

Special Thanks To
• JGD Productions http://www.scienceofgod.eu/index.htm

Special Thanks To
• Rense.com

Special Thanks To
• Frederick T. Zugibe, http://www.e-forensicmedicine.net/

Special Thanks To
• shroud.wikispaces.com http://shroud.wikispaces.com/facts13

Produced and Edited By
• Simon Brown Of Real Discoveries.org Which is a non profit organization Copyright 2011 - Real Discoveries.com.Ltd

Lets Give Thanks to the Lord God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob who gives us victory through Jesus Chris. Amen.

WATCH THE WHOLE FILM HERE THE Evidence and The True Face of The Shroud Film.

 THE EVIDENCE OF THE SHROUD

"Unwrapping the Shroud: New Evidence to be Rebroadcast on the Discovery Channel 

The Discovery Channel will be broadcasting “Unwrapping the Shroud: New Evidence”

The Discovery Channel will be rebroadcasting “Unwrapping the Shroud: New Evidence” on Sunday February 1 at 9 p.m. EST and again 4 hours later at 1 a.m. (Check your local listings). It will be broadcast on Discovery’s regular and HD channels. This Shroud of Turin documentary was first shown in December and received numerous positive reviews. Part of it was recorded at Ohio State University during a conference of about 100 scientists, historians and other researchers last August. Discovery is featuring the broadcast on their home page. The documentary clearly explains why the previous carbon dating has been shown to be invalid by peer-reviewed scientific studies including the work of Raymond Roger and subsequently a team of scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. If you have wondered about the latest evidence concerning the shroud, this is an excellent production. Even if you are skeptical, it will help explain why many people believe it is genuine or are at least open to the possibility that it is.

PRESS RELEASE: Los Alamos National Laboratory team of scientists prove carbon 14 dating of the Shroud of Turin wrong

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE

Analogies between the TS Man and Christ, from the Old and the New Testament:

"And no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." (Mat 16:4). 
"And all flesh shall see the salvation of God." (Luk 3:6). 
"And I am with you always, even to the end of the age " (Mat 28:20). 

The TS [Shroud of Turin] shows a sign promised by Jesus: like Jonah "who remained for three days in the stomach of the big fish", the Man of the TS [Shroud of Turin] remained for three days inside the sepulcher (Rodante 1987).

"A woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table." 
(Mat 26:7); "When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial." (Mat 26:12). 

Less than 48 hours before his crucifixion, the hair of Jesus was anointed with a very valuable oil and this fact must be considered for an hypothesis about the TS [Shroud of Turin] image formation (Scheuermann 1984).

"Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him." (Joh 19:1). 
"I offered my back to those who beat Me, /my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; /I did not hide my face /from mocking and spitting" (Isa 50:6). 

The whole body of the MTS is cruelly scourged, except for the breast where, hitting, one could cause death. The scourging was given like punishment apart, more abundant (120 strokes) than the normal (39 strokes) as a prelude to crucifixion (Zaninotto 1984).

"Then they struck Him on the head with a reed and spat on Him" (Mar 15:19). 
"And they struck Him with their hands" (Joh 19:3). 

The TS [Shroud of Turin] Man was hit on his face: for instance various tumefactions and the breakage of the nasal septum are evident (Fanti and Marinelli 1998).

"And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head" (Joh 19:2). 
"When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head" (Mat 27:29 etc). 

The TS [Shroud of Turin] Man was crowned with thorns. The head presents many wounds caused by sharp bodies (Fanti and Marinelli 1998). 

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE

Challenged observations: Body Image:

The chiaroscuro effect is caused by a different number of yellowed fibers per unit of surface, so that this is an image with ‘areal’ density (Moran 2002, Fanti and Marinelli 2003).

Body image characteristics can be referred to the hypothesized effect of a man became mechanically transparent that radiated a burst of energy (Jackson 1977, 1984, 1990).

The TS [Shroud of Turin] face shows a sad but majestic serenity (Moroni 1997).
IMAGE FORMATION HYPOTHESES, THEORIES, AND FINDINGS*

* Note on Hypotheses, Theories and the Scienctific Method

This page is provided to give details on image formation hypotheses/theories and findings which determine the likelihood that the various theories/hypotheses are correct. Before one analyzes the formation hypotheses/theories it is important to consider the CHARACTERISICS OF THE IMAGE THAT A THEORY MUST SATISFY ***

Image hyppotheses/theories tend to fall into only a few categories:

1) THE IMAGE IS SIMPLY A PAINTING... Different techniques have been proposed, none of them satisfy the characteristics of the body image, but there are still many who think this true. Closer examination.

2) THE IMAGE IS DUE TO A BAS-RELIEF (hot or covered with dust)... As no gnomonic distortions are visible in particular in correspondence of Face, some researcher have supposed the use of a bas-relief to obtain the image, but many facts are against these hypotheses.

3) CONTACT IMAGE... This hypothesis is contradicted by some facts as the presence of image in non-contact areas (for example the zone between cheeks and nose) and the partial lack of characteristic distortion that contact images have.

4) THE IMAGE IS VAPOR MEDIATED... Many scientists have supposed that the body image formed by the action of the gases correlated to sources related to the state of the body, either bodily fluids or gases associated with the early breakdown of cellular systems in the hours shortly after death.

5) THE IMAGE IS A MEDIEVAL PHOTOGRAPHY... Some scientist suppposes that the body image formation was due to a proto-photography made by a genius in the Middle Age. Even if the proposed technique is interesting, it is not able to satisfy many characteristics of the Shroud image as, for example, the distortions of calves and the image color at linen fiber level.

6) MIXED MECHANISMS... Some scientist suppposes that the body image formation was due to the combination of more than one mechanism such as that of the contact image combined with that of the vapor mediated image.

7) THE IMAGE IS DUE TO A SOURCE OF ENERGY (natural or supernatural)... As the image is a non-contact image, we must refer to a source of energy as the cause of the body image.

NOTE If only one fact detected on the Shroud is not in agreement with a particular hypothesis, that hypothesis must be discharged. Currently there is no known mechanism that duplicates all the the microscopic and macroscopic characteristics evidenced in the Shroud of Turin. The image formation mechanism is still unknown. If anyone has a hypothesis to propose, he must compile the following scheme.

PROFESSOR: I think you should be more explicit in the conclusion.

RESEARCHER: Here is the IMPOSSIBLE RESULT![X=2·X·X; X≠0 and X≠0.5]

Figure captions:**

1) E. Craig's reproduction of face

2) J. Nickell's reproduction of face

3) Volckringer's leaf from an herbarium

4) Image of hand obtained by R. Rogers

5) Proto-photography obtained by N. Allen

6) Neal's image of a pig leg

7) Image of hands obtained by radiation (A. Accetta). 

CLICK HERE FOR THIS ARTICLE

CARBON 14 DATING AND RELATED MATTERS

How the Carbon Dating Went Wrong The protocol agreed upon for the carbon dating was arrived at in late September and early October in 1986 in Turin. William Meacham was a participant and gives this account:

The first serious error in planning for the C-14 dating was made by STURP. In contrast to the other excellent science that this group did on the Shroud, their approach to C-14 was poor. They proceeded to draw up a plan for the testing without having anyone in the group who had ever done C-14 dating in a professional context. Another serious error made by STURP was not to include a textile conservator in the group. When a major rift occurred with the directors of the C-14 labs, STURP's lack of knowledge of the normal dating procedures and their lack of a textile expert led to their ultimate exclusion from the dating operation. As the principal researchers on the object, their role should have been to take the samples, submit them to the lab, interpret and publish the results. 

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE

The Journal News - October 11, 2005 Ex-Rockland medical examiner writes book on famous cases. 

READ THE ARTICLE

The expertise of the forensic pathologist is essential in both criminal and civil proceedings regarding time of death, pain and suffering, bullet trajectories, wounds, determining pre-mortem versus postmortem wounds, post-mortem movement of a body from another location, instrument type consistent with a particular injury as well as a multitude of other issues.

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No One Can Explain Shroud of Turin Pictures of Jesus

I must admit, with some embarrassment, that until a few years ago I knew nothing about the Shroud of Turin. And when I first did read about it, while on a flight to Miami, I laughed out loud, something I rarely do alone in the company of strangers.

How ridiculous, I remember thinking. How can anyone think the Shroud of Turin is real: the actual burial shroud of Jesus? The fact that the Shroud of Turin has an image on it, believed to be a picture of Christ, made it seem beyond preposterous.

I was reading Desire of the Everlasting Hills, Thomas Cahill’s book about the apostolic era. Having enjoyed Cahill’s previous best seller, The Gifts of the Jews, I thought I would enjoy his newest book. And I was enjoying it. Suddenly, with no logical reason that I could see, Cahill introduced the Shroud of Turin. It might have been a treasure of the early church, he thought. That is when I laughed -- out loud.

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE

The Shroud of Turin: Facts and Fiction

Shroud of Turin Carbon Dating Biggest Radiocarbon Mistake Ever

In 2008, we can now say the carbon dating in 1988 is invalid.

In scientific terms, we don't know the age of the cloth. See: SHROUD OF TURIN FOR JOURNALISTS

In early 2005 The American Chemical Society website quoted Raymond Rogers, a Fellow of the Los Alamos National Laboratory: "The observations do not prove how the image was formed or the 'authenticity' of the Shroud. There could be a nearly infinite number of alternate hypotheses, and the search for new hypotheses should continue." 

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE

Shroud of Turin Facts Check: More Facts
Primary Facts:

• Carbon 14 tests did not prove that the Turin Shroud was medieval.

• A Bioplastic Coating, formed by living, growing micro-organisms did not cause errors in C14 tests.

• The Fire in 1532 did not alter the C14 to C12 isotope ratios or introduce additional new carbon.

• A Second Face image has been discovered on the reverse side of the cloth.

• It is not a painting. Walter McCrone did not prove that Shroud was painted and Bishop Pierre d'Arcis' (1389) claim that an artist confessed is false.

• The Images are contained within a very thin coating of starch fractions and saccharides.

• The History of the Shroud of Turin does not just begin in Europe in 1357.

• Bloodstains on Shroud of Turin are real blood.

• Coin Images of 1st century Roman lepta may or may not have been identified over the eyes.

• Negative Images. The picture on the Shroud of Turin is a realistic, photographic-like negative image

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE

A must visit The Shroud of Turin Museum at Notre Dame just outside the Old City Jerusalem

Live interview Barrie M. Schwortz of Shroud.com. regarding the Shroud of Turin.

Sit down and fasten your seatbelts, as we ask Barrie the most controversial questions raised regarding the authenticity of the burial cloth, believed by many to have a 3 D image of Jesus on the Shroud. 

Did the Turin Shroud play a part in the most important event in the history of Mankind?

Were there two cloths discovered that were used to bury Jesus? (As stated in the Bible.)

Why does the Bible state that Jesus was wrapped with strips of linen and not one cloth, like the Shroud we have today?

In the books of Exodus, Deuteronomy and Leviticus 26, God states-" Ye shall make you no idols nor graven images". So why would God break his own laws?

Isaiah 50:6 states: 
I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.(NIV) (©1984)
Does the Shroud of Turin show any facial hair missing? 

Why do so many Christians debunk the Shroud because it is in the hands of the Roman Catholics?

Why would Barrie go against his own faith, to prove that the Shroud is the genuine burial cloth of Jesus Christ ? 

Join us as we find out.

Live interview Barrie M. Schwortz of Shroud.com. regarding the Shroud of Turin.
DO NOT BE DECEIVED. 'Seek and you will find' said Jesus.

We Simon and Emma Brown are proud to support the fact that the Turin Shroud is genuine, is the burial cloth of Jesus preserved by God as evidence of His time on earth, the scourging, crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (YESHUA) the promised Messiah. preserved so that future generations may study it and come to believe and be saved.

And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, Matthew 27:59 King James 2000 Bible (©2003)

We believe this because God, knowing man's rebellious hearts would refuse to believe that he sent his son to become our Great High Priest and pay the ultimate and perfect sacrifice and replace animal sacrifices and became the Lamb of God "who takes away the sin of the world'.

We also know this is a fact that most of the world do not believe Jesus is Christ (YESHUA) the promised Messiah, just as stated in this verse; 2 Corinthians 4 V 4, "The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

We believe the Shroud should not be worshipped in any way, but can be used to strengthen and confirm faith in a tangible physical way, and help bring others who require proof, to come to a knowledge of Gods saving grace. As Christians we worship nothing but Jesus Christ Yeshua, which is the essence of our faith in our hearts and of each believer is a trusting, abiding faith in Jesus Christ only. Amen.

COMBINED CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF STARCH FRACTIONS & PECTIN IN COMPARISON TO MYRRH AND ALOES AS MENTIONED IN THE GOSPEL. By David Hines.

These substances (Starch fractions & Pectin) were found to make up the micro thin layer where the image of The Shroud of Turin Resides.
Let’s begin by defining what starch & pectin is made up & see if the chemical properties match up with “the 100lb weight of myrrh and aloes” as mentioned in the Gospel of John.
Amylose was found on the Shroud of Turin and is a spiral polymer made up of D-glucose units.   It is the main component which makes up starch. Starch and cellulose are polymers derived from the dehydration of D-glucose.
 Starch is a polysaccharide (meaning "many sugars") made up of glucose units linked together to form long chains.
The main component of Pectin is D Galacturonic acid, which is a sugar acid, an oxidized form of D-Galactose.
Pectin is a polysaccharide of 1 - 4 linked polygalacturonic acid with intra chain Rhamnose insertion, neutral sugar side chains and methyl esterification from many of the rhamnose residues, side chains of various neutral sugars branch off.
 The neutral sugars are mainly D-Galactose, L-Arabinose and D-Xylose,
PECTIN is also a uronic acid,  Naturally occurring uronic acids are D-glucuronic acid, D-galacturonic acid.

Let’s make a simplified list of what Starch and Pectin are made up of.
1.     Uronic Acids
2.     D Gluceronic Acid & D-Galacturonic acid.
3.     Polygalacturonic acid  (An oxidized form of D Galactose)
4.     Glucose
5.     L-Arabinose
6.     D-Xylose
7.     Rhamnose

NOW LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT THE CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF MYRRH AND ALOES IN COMPARISON TO STARCH AND PECTIN

Myrrh resin contains D Galactose and L Arabinose, Xylose and 4>0 methyl D-Gluceronic acid
 From the resin yields Uronic Acid 19% D-Galactose 60%
 L-Arabinose 10% and L-Rhamnose 5%

Many of the health benefits associated with Aloe vera have been attributed to the polysaccharides contained in the gel of the leaves.
A variety of polysaccharides are present in the cell wall matrix. An overall carbohydrate analysis showed that the cell walls of the aloe leaf hold mainly polysaccharides, cellulose and pectic polysaccharides whereas the skin of the leaf contains in addition significant quantities of xylose-containing polysaccharides
Aloes contain cellulose and hemicellulose and store carbohydrates.

Saccharides in aloes are,  Mannose, Glucose, L-Rhamnose, Aldopentose
THE PRIMARY POLYSACCHARIDE IN ALOES IS A PECTIC SUBSTANCE.

MYRRH & ALOES                                                 STARCH & PECTIN
1. Uronic Acids                                                       1. Uronic Acids
2. D Gluceronic Acid & D-Galacturonic acid.              2. SAME
3. D Galactose                                                        3. Oxidized D Galactose
4. Glucose                                                              4. Glucose
5. L-Arabinose                                                         5. L-Arabinose
6. D-Xylose                                                              6. D-Xylose
7. L Rhamnose                                                         7. L Rhamnose
                                                               
Dr. Baima Bollone a professor of forensic medicine in Turin claimed to have found myrrh and aloes by antibody-antigen testing but did not publish details or ask for confirmation.
Note   Myrrh resin also contains many volatile oils and other chemical properties such as (limonene, eugenol, pinene, terpenes, sesquiterpenes, esters, cinnamaldehyde, cuminaldehyde, cumic alcohol, heerabolene, dipentene, m-cresol and cadinene), resins (myrrhin, alpha-, beta- and gamma-compiphoric acids, commiphorinic acid, alpha- and beta-heerabomyrrhols, heeraboresene, commiferin, campesterol, beta-sitosterol, alpha-amyrone
All of which would have evaporated over the course of almost 2000 years with only the remnant of the sugars/carbs of the myrrh remaining.

There is, on the outermost fibers of the cloth a clear washing residue: a thin coating of starch fractions and the various saccharides found in soapwort: glucose, fucose, galactose, arabinose, xylose, rhamnose, and glucuronic acid.

Sugars in myrrh and aloes are the same sugars in soapwort

1.Glucose
2. Galactose
3. Arabinose
4. Xylose
5. Fucose
6. Gluceronic Acid
7. Rhamnose

And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then they took the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices.

The Myrrh and Aloes are not only on the cloth, THEY ARE IN THE BLOOD!

Dr. Baima Bollone a professor of forensic medicine in Turin claimed to have found myrrh and aloes in the BLOOD by antibody-antigen
testing but did not publish details or ask for confirmation.

Think about that.  Now we have traces of myrrh and aloes on the Head Cloth in Spain and on The Shroud of Turin and in the blood of
The Shroud of Turin.  There are traces of it everywhere.
Type AB blood was also in the Lanciano Miracle.
So this is just not ordinary type AB Blood, it is type AB blood with myrrh and aloes in it.
Who else would have that in his blood except Jesus?
It matches the Gospel account.   It is a powerful piece of evidence.

Dr. Baima Bollone is a well known highly respected forensic pathologist.
He also confirmed a genuine person who was crucified and dead was wrapped in the Shroud.

This eliminates the "that could have been any person in that Shroud"  Person whose head made contact with the head cloth in Spain is the
 same person whose head and body made contact with the Shroud.

The myrrh and aloes also further confirm this, "it could not have been anyone else" They are on both cloths.
The Man In The Shroud is Jesus"

THE VILLISCA AXE MURDERS AND THE SHROUD OF TURIN.
What do these 2 things have in common?  

They both involve BRUTAL & WRONGFUL DEATHS
If we were to have hired Walter McCrone to examine the blood stains on the linens left behind from the 8 people that were slaughtered with an axe, McCrone would find a microscopic trace of plastic that got into some of the blood and come to the conclusion that no crime was no committed, and the 8 people found dead were just mannequins, and the whole thing was a hoax, to bring tourism to the small town in Iowa.
When presented with photographs of the bloody crime scene,  and eye witness testimony of the police and family members, and the coroner’s autopsy report,  McCrone would refuse to acknowledge all of them and stick to his "pet theory"  Small minded and stubborn, babyish, ignorant and stupid.
He examined 32 sticky tape samples, never saw The Shroud of Turin and rendered a verdict based on less than 1% of the evidence.
Those sticky samples were delivered to him on Friday, October 13, 1978.   He refused to give them back and even damaged them, which he promised he would not do.   Ray Rodgers had to track him down in Chicago and get them back in person.   One of the reasons McCrone did not see the Shroud of Turin himself, is because the high authorities in Turin did not like him to begin with, and refused to allow him to touch it, for good reason.
Of all the most incompetent researchers in the History of the Earth, McCrone wins the award; there is not even a close second.
He has done a huge disservice to mankind, what a tragic ending to what could have been a very successful life and career.   We can all learn a valuable lesson from his tragic errors,  do a thorough investigation and look at 100% of the evidence before rendering a verdict.
Let's take a look at some the crap he wrote in his "scientific paper" It should be used for toilet paper and discarded into a septic tank.  That is how much value it has.
First of all he found microscopic traces of cinnabar.    CINNABAR IS USED IN FUNERAL RITES, HE FORGET TO MENTION THAT.
He also found hematite   HEMATITE IS USED IN FUNERAL RITES GOING BACK TO ANCIENT TIME, HE FORGET TO MENTION THAT.
What was the significance of these minerals? The ancient Maya may have thought cinnabar was sacred due to its color red. Red to the ancient Maya may have been associated with the east (which may be connected to the rising sun/Rising Son) and with blood, a sacred substance.
Funerary Rites
Cinnabar was also used in funeral rites. Skeletons covered with CINNABAR (or sometimes HEMATITE) have been discovered, and the ritual seems to vary. In some burials such as Tikal Burial 10, the head seems to be the most important part for the cinnabar covering ritual.
BEAR IN MIND THIS IS A POWDER FROM A ROCK, NOT PAINT!
One famous example of cinnabar coated skeleton is Lord Pacal. Another instance is of the "Red Queen" who was buried in tomb near Lord Pacal's tomb. The reason they did this isn't entirely clear, but this practice may have been done in connection to the sacred color, possibly even meaning resurrection.  BEAR IN MIND THIS IS NOT WAS NOT PAINT, BUT THE RAW MINERAL FROM THE ROCK.
CINNABAR WAS USED IN FUNERAL RITES OF HIGH PROFILE PEOPLE.  JESUS WAS A HIGH PROFILE PERSON BEING BURIED.
McCrone claims to have found vermillion on The Shroud, but did he?
McCrone fails to mention is that in order to make vermillion paint you must 1st have the raw mineral cinnabar.   This was done by adding sulfur to cinnebar and then heating it in a flask.  The excess sulfur is lost due to evaporation during the process.
BOTTOM LINE; THERE IS NO WAY TO KNOW FOR SURE WHETHER HE FOUND CINNABAR OR VERMILLION, 
There is no way for him to be able to make this determination, even with an electron microscope.
They are the same chemical composition.
McCrone also claimed to have found ochre paint on The Shroud, but did he?
NO, he found hematite, it is a mineral.   Used for what?  That's right you guessed it FUNERAL RITES AND SOMETIMES IN COMBINATION WITH CINNABAR.   THE SHROUD OF TURIN IS A BURIAL SHROUD,   DO THE MATH ON THAT ONE YOURSELF.
It looks like someone spread out a little cinnabar and hematite during the burial of Jesus.  These are the type of items a merchant who sells myrrh and aloes would also be selling and carrying in his line of spices.  Perhaps Nicodemus went all out and purchased myrrh, aloes, cinnabar and hematite.
(About a 100lb weight)
The substances McCrone found had an organic matrix, meaning the raw mineral was present, not the artificial paint that can be made from hematite.
So McCrone found microscopic traces of minerals that were used in FUNERAL RITES!!!
THE BLOOD ON THE SHROUD ON TESTED POSITIVE FOR BILIRUBIN, HEMOGLOBIN AND  HUMAN ALBUMIN
DOES ANYONE OUT THERE THINK THAT POWDER FROM A ROCK WILL TEST POSITIVE FOR HEMOGLOBIN AND HUMAN ALBUMIN?
The same approach for the detection of blood is still in use today:
1.Chemical testing for the identification of hemoglobin, followed by
2. Immunological testing to identify the species from which the blood originates.
3. The blood group and subgroup.
1. Blood on Shroud tested positive for hemoglobin
2. Blood tested positive for human albumin
3. Blood is of the type AB Group
In “Judgement Day for the Turin Shroud”, McCrone repeats his continued argument that
the Shroud is a painting. It should be pointed out that the problem has more to do with how he
interprets what he sees than the observations itself. He examined the sticky tapes under a
microscope and saw iron oxide particles, cinnabar and fibers
that seemed to have a thin film on them that stained with a basic dye as would a protein. He
decided these observations were sufficient to declare the Shroud a painting. He simply has never
accepted the work of other investigators showing this was a hasty judgement on his part
and that his observations have alternate interpretations. There is little point
in repeating all these refutations.   A higher court has repealed his judgement.
“In effect everyday hematological diagnostic investigations have allowed us to
ascertain the incontrovertible presence of human blood, with all its
characteristics, on the Shroud. All this proves and confirms that on
the Shroud there are effectively real and complete bloodstains,
conserved in their various components”
BOTTOM LINE; Blood on Shroud is genuine, A WRONGFUL DEATH TOOK PLACE.

Finding myrrh resin on the Shroud is like find a slaughtered pig on the side of the road, that has a gold ring in it's snout.
Or coming upon a murder victim who was robbed and the victim is wearing a gold Rolex watch.

To a forensic detective it raises a huge red flag?   Why is that there?

It matches only one case in History.  Jesus.

Nicodemus would not have purchased "about a 100lb weight of myrrh and aloes for a burial, but he would purchase it to treat multiple scourge wounds.  Myrrh was used in war to cover battle wounds, used as a antiseptic, not for burials.  Nicodemus thought Jesus would be scourged and released, not scourged and crucified.  Romans did not brutally scourge a prisoner and then execute the prisoner, it was one or the other.  NOT BOTH scourged and crucified.

Only in the historical account of Jesus do we find a person who was scourged, crucified and treated with excessive myrrh in a Jewish burial.

The Forensic Evidence Tells Us The Man In The Shroud was scourged, crucified and myrrh resin used in his burial.That is completely out of place, it only makes sense in the case of Jesus of Nazareth.

Again, this links the Shroud of Turin to Jesus.

1.Ray Rodgers indirectly confirmed by finding starch fraction and pectin on cloth.
2. Walter McCrone accidentally confirmed it.   His quote  "iron oxide is suspended in gum arabic"  Myrrrh is a gummy substance,  it is not unlike tree sap.
3. Dr. Baima Ballome  found myrrh and aloes in blood my anti body antigen testing
4. Eye Witness Testimony   Gospel of John   John said it was used in the burial.  "Then they took the body of Jesus and wound it in the linen cloth with the spices"

That is 4 different ways it is confirmed.

  Final thought,  image on shroud is translucent,  myrrh resin in thin layers is translucent, meaning light will pass through it.  When The Shroud is back lit you cannot see Shroud image because it is translucent.  Myrrh is a caramel, sepia color, Shroud image is a caramel, sepia color when viewed up front. Again, more evidence it is myrrh

May The Holy Spirit Rest Upon You, The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding, The Spirit of Counsel and Might, The Spirit of Knowledge and of the Fear of the Lord. Amen. David Hines.

UPDATE BY David Hines 16/12/2014.

EARLY CHRISTMAS GIFT TO THE WORLD!
BRIEF  HISTORY OF THE SHROUD FROM 1ST CENTURY TO THE PRESENT.

 The pollens on the Shroud tell the the complete history of The Shroud/Mandylion.  1st we see Pollens from the area around the Dead Sea on Shroud,  laws of probability and chance heavily favor this is the area the linen was manufactured. (Syria would be choice #2)  Then we see pollens from the area around Jerusalem, then we see the pollen trail heading North through Lebanon and Syria and into Turkey.  Yes, that's right you guessed it, the pollen trail goes directly into Edessa.  There are no less than pollens from 9 different plants from Turkey on The Shroud going from one end of the country to the other,  which is appx 1000 miles.  (I don't know have the exact figure in front of me, I am going off my memory, ) Note also the pollens on Shroud are not from one area but go in trails, like dots on a map that you can connect and go from one city to another.   All one must do is connect the dots to see the trail.

The pollen trail then goes in 2 directions out of Edessa.  The 1st one taking the southern route and goes into a city that was called Troas.  It is about 150 miles south of  Constantinople.   This is the city you would go to if you were planning to go to Europe.  Paul of Tarsus makes mention of a "cloak" he left in Troas that he wanted brought to Rome.   Coincidence, the next time we see pollens on The Shroud are in Northern Greece.   Then the next time we see pollens on the Shroud, they are from Rome Italy.  Not outside of Rome,  but from Rome Italy. At some time in The Shrouds history it was in Rome.  That is quite a distance from Turin.   At some point in The Shrouds history it was also in Troas and across the sea into Northern Greece and then into Rome.  There is a high probability chance Paul of Tarsus at one time had possession of it and it was brought to Rome.
I believe Timothy and St Mark were involved in bringing The Shroud To Rome, under the permission of Peter, who later went there himself around the time of the Paul of Tarsus letter when Paul asked  Timothy and Mark to bring "the cloak/shroud there.  The word Paul of Tarsus wrote in his letter to Timothy translates as "The Shining Wrap/ Illuminated Shroud, not just some cloak.  Note  also the word Paul wrote is never used again in the Bible or any other literature. A one of kind word used to describe a one of a kind thing.   The Mighty Mandylion,  The One and Only Shroud of Turin!

There is a fresco in the catacombs of Rome that used The Shroud as a role model, that is dated to be 280AD.  There is another believed to be from the 1st Century.  I made a video about it.  It is nearly a perfect match to The Shroud, better than any other image I have tested doing a overlay with Sony Vegas Video Editing Software.   At some point in The Shrouds history it was in the catacombs of Rome.   High probability chance.   That or one incredibly well done reproduction of The Shroud was brought there.   That is the only other remaining possibility.

Then there is a second route the pollens take from Edessa, and it goes the northern route into Constantinople,  then the pollen trail goes north and into Hungary and across the Swiss Alps and into France.    The reason we see pollens from Hungary and in the area of the Swiss Alps is because this is the route they took when The Shroud was taken from Constantinople (Instanbul) and into France.   Then the pollens go south and into Northern Spain.  Then the pollen trail goes north again into Lirey.   From Lirey it goes into Turin.   And there it remains to this day.

The pollens from dozens of plants tell us the History of The Shroud, once known as the Mandylion.

The pollens from the plants are better than eye witness testimony, and even better than any historically written document.   The Earth itself is telling us where The Shroud has been throughout it's history.

These are the facts of the case file and they are indisputable.

There are other alternative theories, but they are not logical.

 We can be certain beyond any reasonable doubt The Shrouds History begins in Palestine.     Note I said reasonable.
  Happy Holidays Everyone.
"And may God Bless Us, Everyone of of Us!"
Credit Tiny Tim for the last line.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The ventral image of the Shroud of Turin as it appears on the screen of a VP-8 Image Analyzer

Designed in the 1970's for evaluating x-rays and for other imaging purposes, the VP-8 Image Analyzer is an analog device that converts image density (lights and darks) into vertical relief (shadows and highlights). When applied to normal photographs, the result was a distorted and inaccurate image. However, when it was applied to the Shroud, the result was an accurate, topographic image showing the correct, natural relief characteristics of a human form. These results are often referred to as "three-dimensional."

In 1976, a group of scientists who were using a VP-8 at Sandia Laboratories to evaluate x-rays, put a 1931 Enrie photograph of the Shroud of Turin into the device and were able to visualize the three-dimensional properties that exist in the Shroud image. This particularly intrigued two of the researchers present at the test, Dr. Eric Jumper and Dr. John Jackson. Stimulated by their startling discovery, they decided to form a research team to investigate what might have formed the image on the cloth and within a few months, the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP) was born. Two years later, that same team would perform the first ever, in-depth scientific examination of the Shroud of Turin.

When input to a VP-8, a normal photograph does not result in a properly formed dimensional image but in a rather distorted jumble of light and dark "shapes." That is because the lights and darks of a normal photograph result solely from the amount of light reflected by the subject onto the film. The image densities do not depend on the distance the subject was from the film. Yet the image on the Shroud of Turin yields a very accurate dimensional relief of a human form. One must conclude from this that the image density on the cloth is directly proportionate to the distance it was from the body it covered. In essence, the closer the cloth was to the body (tip of nose, cheekbone, etc.), the darker the image, and the further away (eye sockets, neck, etc.), the fainter the image. This spatial data encoded into the image actually eliminates photography and painting as the possible mechanism for its creation and allows us to conclude that the image was formed while the cloth was draped over an actual human body. So the VP-8 Image Analyzer not only revealed a very important characteristic of the Shroud image, but historically it also provided the actual motivation to form the team that would ultimately go and investigate it. Interestingly, only sixty VP-8 Image Analyzers were ever constructed and only two remain functional today.

On May 1, 1997, I was fortunate to spend some time in North Carolina with my friend Kevin Moran, retired Senior Technology Specialist from Eastman Kodak's Estek Products Division and a Shroud researcher since 1978. Kevin owns one of the two functioning original VP-8 units and was kind enough to welcome me into his home and spend the next 14 straight hours working with me to videotape "new" VP-8 images. Actually, the real thanks should go to his dear wife Anne, who put up with the two of us working until 4:00am!

To maximize the quality of the somewhat dated and temperamental imaging system, I replaced the existing camera and lens with a new high resolution CCD camera and lens and used first generation black & white prints made directly from my original 4x5" negatives as source images. I recorded the results off the VP-8's green screen monitor using a Sony BetaCam SP system. The image at the top of this page is a frame taken from the videotape we made during that "all-nighter". The Animated Gif file below shows only a brief sample of the VP-8 "Gain" control being applied to the Shroud facial area.

 Raising and lowering the VP-8 "Gain" Control© 1997 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc.

The photographs we used in the VP-8 were black & white prints of the Shroud as it appears to the eye, much like the images in the "Mapping of Research Test Points" paper found on the "Scientific Papers & Articles" page of this website. This article was originally written in 1997 and updated March 30, 2014.

An open letter to Richard Dawkins. By David Rolfe Publisher Shroud-enigma.com http://shroud-enigma.com

29th March 2012
Dear Richard Dawkins

It is really not sufficient to dismiss the Shroud, as you do, on the basis of a C14 test from a single and badly selected sample area. Are you really saying that C14 has never made a mistake? Archaeologists frequently go back to retest something when other data conflicts. That has been impossible with the Shroud.In your Shroud blog you argue, rightly in my view, that it is not enough for Christian apologists to weigh faith heavier than facts. After all, Christianity is based on a historical figure. The Shroud of Turin is a much-
studied tangible object and it is a very significant fact that its unique image - so far - remains unfathomable. But that could be about to change if you, with the weight of your formidable foundation behind you, choose to accept this challenge.  When Professor Hall, Head of the Oxford Radio Carbon Unit announced the C14 result he was asked for his explanation for the Shroud. He said: “Someone just got a bit of linen, faked it up and flogged it”. This sounded a bit glib at the time and now, over twenty years on, it is beginning to sound a little hollow. No one has yet been able to show how it might have been “faked up”.  Accepting this challenge would appear to be consistent with your foundation's mission. Does it not represent a wonderful educational opportunity to investigate what some have suggested could only have been the work of a Leonardo Da Vinci? To make the decision easier for you we will donate the £20,000 to your foundation if you simply accept the challenge and follow it through to some kind of conclusion. The public can make up their own minds about the result.*  The challenge then, if you choose to accept it, is to explain how the Shroud and its image might have come into existence. You will find a list of the most significant image characteristics here. If you cannot pin it down then, in all conscience, you should, at least, give it the appropriate respect as an enigma. If you can explain it then this site’s title becomes a misnomer and you will have solved a great mystery. Everyone would like to see this matter resolved. Could you be the one to do it?  With all good wishes  David Rolfe Publisher Shroud-enigma.com* This £20,000 donation is not made possible because championing the possible authenticity of the Shroud is well funded or lucrative operation - far from it - but because your acceptance would trigger a commission for a documentary along the lines of our 2008 BBC2 film with Rageh Omaar. If you wish, you could nominate an executive producer. [Close]

UPDATE 9/12/2014.

Dear friends I often receive criticisms from many Non Believers. However they hurt when they are from Christians.


Here is a small part of a recent Comment.
He wrote:
Well it seems Simon Brown is dishonest - he quotes cherry-picked extracts from tabloid newspapers yet only accepts peer-reviewed papers as rebuttals - further hedeletes any response to which he finds it too difficult to respond - as he did my rebuttal of his Turin Painting comment.  Well, I hereby re-post the comment with added sections - including references and words directly from Walter McCrone as printed in the Biblical Archaeology Review.  If this post is deleted, I will post it as a new comment in every thread in which I find Simon Brown's spam.


You can read his full article here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoNqSrA7Mos
My reply from Simon Brown.
Dear ------- it is always a good thing to do your research ''properly.'' As you have failed to do this when it come to the truth of the Shroud of Turin, I have done some more ''proper'' research for you below.


You wrote a long 173 line post list regarding your research believing and stating The Shroud of Turin is a fake painting.


Well, although I already knew your research was ''wrong'' old hat and out of date, I have done some more  ''proper'' research by sending your comment which people can read below, to the greatest expert on the Shroud of Turin: Barrie M. Schwortz of http://shroud.com/


Mr Barrie M. Schwortz has confirmed what I already knew. But I believe the truth must be seen and known by others. So I have added Barrie M. Schwortz of http://shroud.com/ comment here for ALL to see and read the truth of the Shroud of Turin.


Barrie M. Schwortz has confirmed to me here you are simply repeating all the same stuff sceptics have been saying for years, every bit of which has been disputed by credible, peer reviewed science.


COMMENT FROM Barrie M. Schwortz of http://shroud.com/ 7/12/2014.
Dear Simon,


This man is simply repeating all the same stuff skeptics have been saying for years, every bit of which has been disputed by credible, peer reviewed science.


Here is a link to an article I wrote called "Answering a Skeptic" http://www.shroud.com/latebrak.htm#skeptic that addresses McCrone and his work.


Here is a link to an article by Thibault Heimburger that directly addresses the "duplicate shroud" made by Luigi Garlaschelli (who used my photographs as a basis for his work). Heimburger worked WITH Garlaschelli to evaluate his results, which in the end were very different from the Shroud. Here's a link: Comments About the Recent Experiment of Professor Luigi Garlaschelli. http://www.shroud.com/pdfs/thibault-lg.pdf

Here's a link to a complete bibliography of STURP's published work:  http://www.shroud.com/78papers.htm 


Every claim made by your skeptic has been addressed scientifically but I just don't have time to discuss them all today, so I'll answer a few of them instead.


The blood data evaluation was performed by Dr. Alan Adler, a world renown blood chemist who was far more qualified than McCrone and used chemical and spectral analyses to study the blood samples in addition to microscopy. McCrone simply used his eyes through a microscope on a few tape samples. Here are the references to two papers that document the blood analyses:


Heller, J.H. and A.D. Adler, "Blood on the Shroud of Turin," Applied Optics, Vol. 19, No. 16, 1980, pp. 2742-2744.


Heller, J.H. and A.D. Adler, "A Chemical Investigation of the Shroud of Turin," Canadian Society of Forensic Sciences Journal, Vol. 14, No. 3, 1981, pp. 81-103.


Since these are listed on our website but we are unable to publish them online due to copyright considerations, I have attached copies for your information.


Also, we have a new blood expert in the Shroud world, a man named Kelly Kearse. Here is a link to the first of his papers that we published in 2012:  Blood on the Shroud of Turin: An http://www.shroud.com/pdfs/kearse.pdf Immunological Review.  You will find four more of his papers that we published since by using the Scientific Papers & Articleshttp://www.shroud.com/pdfs/kearse.pdf list (alphabetical by author's last names) on our Website Library.http://www.shroud.com/library.htm#papers

As for the D'Arcis memorandum, no signed copy exists (only a draft) and it has been disputed by many qualified experts over the years. Try typing "Arcis" (without the D' ) into our Website Search Engine and you will get nearly 75 results.


These are the same old objections that have been made for decades and literally every one of them is disputed by the real evidence.


That's all I have time for at the moment, but I hope this information is helpful.


Warmest regards but in haste,


Barrie


Blood on the Shroud of Turin: Blood_On_The_Shroud_Heller_Adler_1980.pdf


A CHEMICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE SHROUD OF TURIN. Chemical_Investigation__Heller_Adler_1981.pdf


COMMENT BELOW BY GOOD SHEPARD TO ----------


The highest form of ignorance is to reject something you know nothing about.  You just reached the zenith of ignorance with your 173 line post.  1st price is a dunce cap,   you WON!   Would you like that delivered by express mail or regular UPS Ground?   Either way you have to pay for it.    You are quoting from Walter McCrone a person who never even saw The Shroud of Turin.   He received 32 sticky tape samples on Friday October 13, 1978, never personally examined The Shroud himself, yet proclaimed himself as a Shroud of Turin expert.  What a laughing joke.  He rendered verdict on the authenticity of the Shroud based on less than 1% of evidence in the case file.  Incredibly incompetent.  He was nothing more than a modern day Judas.  But he got a lot more than the 30 pieces of silver that Judas got.   He damaged some of the samples that he was entrusted with breaking his word he would not do that.  He agreed to give the samples back undamaged, but damaged them anyway and would not give the samples back  Like a 5 year old who did not want to give back his toys. Ray Rodgers had to track him down in Chicago to get the samples back.  That is the character of the  person you are using as a witness.  A fat sick cow, a babyish, ignorant creep with a microscope


You go and ahead and put him on the stand. But you will have to exhume a dead body and conduct a seance to get a response from this witness.  It will be a train wreck for you. There is not one credible scientist or researcher in agreement with him, lest they meet his same fate,  a once promising career utterly destroyed by conducting some of the most incompetent research in the history of science.  His books should be in the comedy section of a library.
You have also presented here say evidence from a dead witness.  Inadmissible evidence in a court of law.
What you have is someone who looked at The Shroud in the 14th century and concluded,  "It was cunningly painted"     As anyone would think looking at it the 1st time.   No scientific examination.  Do you realize you are presenting the opinion of a unknown person from the 14th century as evidence against authenticity?!     Alrighty then.


The imprint reproduction of Shroud made by putting a mask over a student looks like a 5 year old did it.  It not only does not match the chemistry and physics of The Shroud, it does not even match one of it's qualities.  It looks so bad that one has to hold back their laughter looking it,  or better yet,  let it all out.  They laughter is the best medicine.  Looking at this incredibly stupid reproduction might cure some one of a ailment,  I say display it.   Bring that ridiculous reproduction into a court of law and show it to a jury as evidence against authenticity,    It would be a train wreck you would never recover from.  Whatever shred of credibility that may have remained after using one of  McCrone's books as evidence against authenticity would be completely shattered after presenting the image that was made by placing a mask on a student.
But you go ahead and do that.  See what happens.


Your still back in the stone knife and bearskin thinking of paint and imprint.   I highly suggest spending the next year in research before even attempting to post any comment about the Shroud of Turin.    You want to launch an attack against Simon Brown?   Bad Idea    What comes around goes around.   Shroud is obviously authentic,  it is as obvious as your racial bias and hatred toward religion.   You would not make for a credible witness.  One thing you cannot hide from a jury on the stand, is hidden anger and hatred.  It shows in your face and body language.   Once that is revealed,  it's over.
Next witness.
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