"The Shroud of Turin is a genuine artifact of a first century Roman crucifixion of an
adult Jewish male...The Shroud of Turin is not the artifice of a forger."
Jack Kilmon1
"It's senseless that this travesty
is still being played out to the public, since it was in fact settled 600 years
ago, but I guess if enough lies are propagated long enough, the truth will
ultimately become the disenchanted myth." Bruce Monson expressing
skepticism that the Shroud of Turin dates to the 1st century CE.
2
The Shroud of Turin is a piece of linen cloth 1.1 meters wide and 4.36 meters long (approximately
43 inches by 14.3 feet). The linen was "spun with a Z twist, and woven
in a three to one (herringbone) twill." 3It bears
the negative image of the front and back of a naked man with beard, long hair
and a mustache, bearing wounds on his body, most of which are consistent with having been
flogged and crucified. Many devout Christians believe that this shroud was the
actual fabric used to wrap Jesus after his crucifixion circa 30 CE.
Most investigators assume that there are only two possible explanations about
the nature of the Shroud:
That it is the actual burial shroud of Jesus, having survived from
the 1st century CE, or
That it is a forgery, intended to deceive the faithful.
Only rarely are two additional possibilities suggested:
That it is a religious artwork; a type of
painting, devoutly created to portray what the shroud might have looked
like.
That it is the burial shroud of a crucified man other than Jesus,
which has survived from the 1st century CE.
Bruce Monson, "Oh what a tangled web we weave," Review of
Ian Wilson, "The Blood and the Shroud: New Evidence that the World's
Most Sacred Relic is Real." Review is online at: Amazon.com