If the Holy Grail is the secret everyone seeks to find, the Shroud of Turin is the mystery that still remains unsolved.
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The mystery of the Shroud |
7 th April 30 CE, the innocent was crucified on the cross, his body covered with wounds, soul tortured to death. yet he sacrificed himself for us. He is regarded as the son of God, the creator of Christianity, Jesus Christ. It is said that when his body was brought down from the cross, it was covered by a piece of cloth to prevent anyone from seeing the gruesome sight.
The 15-foot linen cloth that was used to cover his body is the famous Shroud of Turin, which quite naturally bears his bloodstains.
But miracles always find a way to surprise us, in the year 1898 amateur photographer Secondo Pia after examining the reverse negative photographic plate of the shroud was shocked to find a detailed image of a bearded man with scars of torture distinct on his body.
Now the question, is it possible for blood stains, to make such a detailed imprint of the body on cloth?
Umm, not until someone forcefully presses the cloth on the body, and I don't think anyone would be willing to play with the dead.
Interestingly, in the year 1389, the bishop of Troyes claimed it to be a work of art.
now you will be thinking " then it is fake! the mystery is solved".
No, it is not so simple
In 1969, after years of playing with photographs, Scientists were at last allowed to perform different tests on pieces of the fabric directly. In 1978 STURP (Shroud of Turin Research Project) a research team from the U.S. concluded two main points from their experiments.
- The image is not artificial but of a real crucified man.
- the stains are of human blood with the presence of serum albumin, which confirms it to be a human male.
But they failed to explain the formation of the image in any scientific or logical way.
In 1988, the Radiocarbon results confirmed the shroud to be from the years 1260 to 1390, which is a millennium after Jesus died. The age is also too close to the time the shroud first emerged in 1354.
So, the body may not even belong to Jesus. Then whose body is it? or it is the work of an artist?
Again, to Paolo Di Lazzaro, the most important question is not its age, but how the image was produced or rather created?
According to him the image hue on the fabric is quite unusual, the color penetration is immensely delicate almost 0.7 micrometers.
ina n experiment to produce a replica of the color hue Di Lazzaro and his came to a close approximate hue by using lasers but they failed in creating a human figure or attaining all the physical and chemical properties of the image.
Di Lazzaro states that the UV light required to create the exact hue exceeds the maximum power of any available source found nowadays.
So how could a medieval artist create such a masterpiece?
not to mention blood coagulates and if an anti-coagulating agent is used then the penetration layer wouldn't be so shallow.
Many people suggest, "divine light" in the tomb of Jesus may have caused the image. But the light of that intensity in a tomb is kind of unbelievable.
So what is our conclusion?
Yes, the mystery still remains unsolved.
Holy light or the handiwork of some cunning artist, It deserves credit for portraying an image, so detailed in representing the suffering of an innocent man.
Even if it is not the real shroud, it is a true masterpiece and is entitled to sit on the pedestal it is sitting on. After roaming a lot, the Shroud presently lays peacefully under protection at the CATHEDRAL OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST
blue rose belles
( Archie)
REFERENCE CORNER
https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/files/10489469/Dating_the_Death_of_Jesus_Memory_and_the_Religious_Imagination.pdf
