Friday 1 January, 2010

Special Report

This iconic face of Christ on the Shroud of Turin may not be the real Jesus, but a new discovery confirms the Bible’s account of his resurrection.

By Andrew Halloway

A burial shroud dated to the time of Jesus has been touted as proof that the Shroud of Turin is a fake. But it is also evidence for the resurrection of Christ.

The cloth, recently found in Jerusalem, has a weave and design that is so different to the famous Turin Shroud that the liberal media have seized on it as final confirmation that the Catholic relic is a medieval forgery.

That’s a pity… because the details of the find reveal a much more important story. For the Jerusalem cloth provides outstanding support for the authenticity of the story of Jesus’ resurrection, as told in the Bible.

Other shrouds from the time of Jesus have been found in the Holy Land, but this is the first to be discovered in Jerusalem itself. It was still wrapped round the body of a man sealed in a chamber of a cave in the Hinnom Valley, near the Old City of Jerusalem. Archaeologists from the Hebrew University and the Albright Research Institute have confirmed that carbon dating, DNA analysis of the fibres and other evidence in the tomb date the man’s death and the cloth to within a few years of Christ’s crucifixion.

The shroud has a simple two-way weave, in contrast to the Turin Shroud, which has a more complex twill weave. Historians believe that type of weave wasn’t in use until ten centuries after Christ.

But the more significant factor is that the Turin Shroud is a single sheet whereas the Jerusalem shroud is made of several pieces – including a separate wrapping for the head.

Most of the secular media have overlooked the fact that this multiple wrapping is described in the Bible, which clearly talks about Jesus’ shroud as grave clothes – not a single cloth. And most importantly, it goes into some detail on the fact that Jesus’ head was wrapped separately – just like the Jerusalem shroud now discovered.

The Gospel of Luke (chapter 24, verse 12) says: “Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen…” The Gospel of John also confirms that several strips were used, and emphasises the separate head cloth (chapter 20, verses 5 to 7).

Arriving at Jesus’ tomb, one of his disciples “looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.”

Professor Shimon Gibson, the archaeologist who found the shroud, said ancient documents and shrouds found elsewhere in Israel had already suggested that Jesus’ contemporaries were wrapped in several strips, with a separate head cloth. The Jerusalem find is final proof of the theory.

The shroud survived for 2,000 years because the tomb had been sealed, just as Jesus’ own grave was sealed – until the Resurrection. The Gospel of Matthew says in chapter 27 verse 66 that Jesus’ tomb was secured “by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.”
Speaking of the Turin Shroud, Professor Gibson says: “The twill weave is known from this part of the world only from the mediaeval period, so we’re talking about something that’s from the Middle Ages. But the Jerusalem shroud confirmed another local practice which casts even more doubt on the Turin artefact. It wasn’t one continuous sheet. What our shroud shows is that the practice of having a separate shroud or wrapping for the body and for the head was common practice.”

The separate head cloth “was very important because when they brought someone to burial they would place the head wrapping separately on the face in case the person wasn’t actually dead and woke up again… they would be able to blow off the face wrapping and shout for help,” continues Gibson. “This did occur quite a lot in antiquity because they didn’t have the medical means we have today.”

Jesus’ case was different, of course, because Roman soldiers were expert killers and made sure he was dead before burial, but the Jewish burial rituals would have been the same whatever the circumstances of the death.

But it is intriguing that Professor Gibson says the custom at the time was for the family to visit the tomb after three days to check their relative was indeed dead. This is another indication of the authenticity of the Gospels, which describe Jesus’ followers and family going to his tomb three days after the crucifixion – at which time they found it empty.

The Jerusalem shroud is just one more in a long series of archaeological and historical discoveries that show that the Gospels accurately describe the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

It should be the last nail in the coffin (or shroud) of Bible truth deniers, but they have shown an unwavering ability to remain blind to the evidence before their eyes.

Photo credit: wordpress.com