The Shroud of Turin
- Jason Pluebell
- Dec 18, 2025
- 16 min read
Archeology, the study of past human history through the excavation of ancient sites and examining artifacts retrieved from them, has yielded some very interesting objects from the deep past of human history. Whenever archaeologists are excavating a site, they often find objects that appear to be intentionally made by past humans. By studying these objects through various methods such as analysis of the material, radioactive dating, and chemistry, we can determine the historical timeframe and context of an artifact. One of the most studied artifacts is a 14m long linen cloth believed to be the very burial shroud of Jesus Christ. Today, we will go over what this artifact has told us and whether it can offer any supporting evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. This evidence is not as crucial as some perceive, as it is a literal miracle that we have this shroud in the condition it is in today. If it does turn out to be a forgery, then it does not affect the reliability of the Gospels and the historical resurrection of Jesus.
"Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin." (Luke 23:50-54)
What is the Shroud?
The Shroud of Turin is rumored, and believed by many to be the very cloth that was wrapped around Jesus' body in His tomb. This artifact is a very unique artifact, as we will soon see, and it still serves as a stumbling block for naturalists who want to swipe it to the side like it's insignificant. But this will soon become obvious, as the Shroud of Turin is no ordinary burial shroud. A burial shroud is a linen cloth that is wrapped around dead bodies before being put into a tomb. This was a Jewish tradition, and Jewish families would usually, over a period of seven days, grieve the loss of the person. During this time of grief, they would visit the tomb and anoint the body with oils and spices to mask the smell of the decaying body. When Jewish tombs are excavated today, they are usually filled with ossuaries, which are bone boxes. Another Jewish tradition was to have a generational bone box, where the bones of family members were placed. Because of the dry climate, burial shrouds are often found intact and preserved along with these ossuraries.
Some people do bring up the fact that since the Shroud of Turin is supposedly so old, it cannot possibly be the shroud of Jesus. However, we have other artifacts of linen that are older than the Shroud, such as the Tarkhan Dress, an Egyptian linen dress dated to be approximately 3,000 years older than the Shroud. The Shroud is about 4.4m long and 1.1m wide, which is average for a burial shroud, with a herringbone weave, which is indicative of a rich man owning it. This aligns with what the Gospels tell us exactly, as a rich man, Joseph of Arimathaea, gave Jesus his family tomb and shroud (Luke 23:53). The Shroud is embedded with the image of a crucified man.
The photographic negative of the Shroud reveals a man with lacerations, wounds on his hands and feet, and marks on his forehead; all details match what we know about first-century crucifixion. It shows a man about 5'11" in height, which is a few inches taller than the average first-century Jew, and weighing between 170-180lbs.
Wasn't the Shroud Debunked?
Many people believe the Shroud of Turin to be a medieval forgery. In 1988, three independent labs carbon-dated a piece of the Shroud. The piece they removed dated to between A.D. 1260 - A.D. 1390, only about a century after it appeared in European records. Many saw this as the final blow to the Shroud, confirming it to be fake, regardless of the mystery of the photographic negative.1 Later on, the study was revisited by a member of the original research team, and some declarations were made. The sample they used was a small piece from the corner of the Shroud, a part that had been touched, hung from, and repaired in the past. It was also exposed to smoke in a fire in 1532, by which a group of nuns performed repairs on it by weaving it onto a backing cloth using a technique that made the weaves of the two cloths impossible to differentiate with the naked eye.
An American chemist named Raymond Rogers, who was part of the original research team, decided to revisit the samples that were tested in 1988. What he found was that the fibers were chemically different than the inner parts of the Shroud. The corner fibers were coated with plant gum and were dyed to match the color of the old linen. His work confirmed the hypothesis that the fragment that was carbon-dated was a patch from the 1532 fire.2 New dating methods have also been used on more original parts of the Shroud that reveal an even older date. In 2022, Italian researchers led by Dr. Liberato De Caro used Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering (WAXS) on the Shroud of Turin to inspect the degradation of the cellulose in the flax of the linen. The level of decay they measured dated between A.D. 55-75 (give or take 150 years).3 Another team used Vibrational Spectroscopy and got possible dates to around the same time as well. So, for the dating of the Shroud of Turin, we have one old carbon date done on a patch from the Middle Ages on the one hand, and multiple modern-day methods that place more central pieces in the first century A.D. on the other. Which side are you going to believe? It seems that the modern methods were done on the right pieces, and favor the reliability of the age of the Shroud of Turin.
"Moreover, other dating methods agree in the assignment of the TS to the first century AD." 3
How is the Shroud of Truin Significant?
So far, we know that the Shroud is a very old linen burial cloth dated to the 1st century. But why exactly is it significant? For starters, the record of the Gospels comes into play here to a large extent. It would make sense for the women to be the first people at the tomb to see Jesus' resurrection.
"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb" (Luke 24:1)
Jews mourned the dead for one week, during which they would visit the tomb and anoint the body with spices and oils. With what we know about Jewish burial tradition, the idea of a Shroud in the first place is not surprising. The honesty of the Gospel records, of women being there first, is also supported here by the fact that we may have the very Shroud that was on Jesus. Moreover, John's Gospel even mentions the very Shroud being folded up in the corner of the tomb, with the headcloth.
"Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying." (John 20:6-10)
The most common shape for Jewish tombs was kind of like a hand, with a central opening that had various slots in the walls where bodies and ossuraries were kept. Much like the one seen above. What we know about Jewish burial tradition, tombs, and the Gospel record all align with the Shroud of Turin.
Roman Crucifixion
The Shroud also aligns with what we know about Roman crucifixion. Historians believe that the Persians may have first created the method of torture in the 6th century B.C., but the Romans picked it up and perfected it later on. Alexander the Great hellenized the ancient world, bringing a standard language of Koine Greek, along with the crucifixion practice. The Romans would then take over Italy and eventually absorb the Greeks and their culture. Over a period of approximately 300-400 years, they carefully perfected a method that was as brutal and long-lasting as possible. In the first century, crucifixion was practiced in slightly different ways depending on the region, but the Syrian territories were known for having the most brutal form of crucifixion, the same area where Jesus was hung on the tree. In fact, we have records and artifacts of nail-piercing crucifixion, although the artifacts are rare because nails were often repurposed for pendants or other purposes. The Romans would drive nails through the area between the wrist and palm, along with the calcaneus in the heel of the foot.
They were very accurate with the placement of the nails and would often have the feet straddling the vertical beam of the cross. The nails in the wrists would sever the median nerve, which causes burning pain in the arms and back, along with ligament and tendon damage that would prevent the person from breathing normally. This would mean that a person would need to push off their feet and lift with their shoulders and back to inhale a breath of air, supporting themselves on the nails holding their feet to the beam. Victims were also crucified naked to increase the shame. Crucifixion was designed to maximize the length of the suffering until death. The nail wounds on the Shroud are in the exact places we would expect if this man were truly crucified.
The Image of the Man
The image itself is a mystery. When the first images were taken of the Shroud in 1889, Seconda Pia was processing the images he took of it in a dark room. When he looked at the film, the photographic negative he saw highlighted the form of a man covered in lacerations. When he saw this, he said that he felt like his heart had almost stopped when he noticed the man on the supposed burial shroud of Jesus. The negative image we see (seen above) is actually the positive of it; the normal image of the Shroud is a negative imprint on the very fibers of the linen. The image only penetrates the linen about 0.2 micrometers. The blood stains have all soaked through the Shroud, except for the image of the man, which only lies superficially on the surface. This lends some credibility to the Shroud, as if it were a fake, then using paint, dye, and burning methods, it would not be 0.2 micrometers thick; it would have traveled the thickness of the linen. No scientists anywhere can replicate what is on the Shroud, like the Shroud. No dye, and no ink, only a very thin image burned onto the surface.
Actually, in 2010, Julio Fanty proposed that the image could have been produced by a Corona Discharge Event. People were able to replicate burn marks on linen, but nothing as detailed and controlled as the image of the Shroud. Within two years after Fanty, Dr. Paolo Di Lazzaro performed a study to see what could cause the image. He found that successful colorations were achieved on linen using ArF lasers with a wavelength of 0.193 micrometers and a pulse width of 12 nanoseconds, for a total of 40-50 nanoseconds, with an ultraviolet radiation intensity of 34,000,000,000,000 watts. This replicated the chemical changes present on the Shroud, though the exact method has not been decided or discovered yet.5 This tells us that it was not a forger, painting, or imprint on the Shroud of Turin, yet the exact image cannot be reproduced today. Moreover, this shroud is the only one that we have that has an image like this. We have shrouds with blood stains, but nothing like a superficial burn mark that captured the form of the man it wrapped.
The Wounds on the Man
As previously mentioned, the wounds on the man line up with what we know about Roman crucifixion practices, but there is more to them. The blood type of the stains is male type AB blood, which is Semitic blood. So if this were a medieval forgery, then the perpetrator would need a fresh Semitic person present to kill for the blood stains. The side wound is also recorded in the Gospels (John 19:34), but there is also a translucent fluid stain surrounding it on the Shroud. This is consistent with what the Gospels record about blood and water flowing out of Jesus' side when the Roman soldier poked Him. But the blood is even more unique. There is both pre-mortem and post-mortem blood all over the Shroud, implying the man died a torturous death, bleeding while both living and dead.
The blood on the side wound is specifically post-mortem blood that differs from the rest of the stains, lending more credibility to the Shroud. The nail wounds on the hands and feet, along with the thousands of scourging marks on the body, all align with the Gospel's record of Jesus' flogging, and what we know about Roman crucifixion (Matthew 27:26, Mark 15:15, John 19:1). The blood stains on the Shroud also exhibited high levels of creatine, which is released when the kidneys fail, and high levels of Ferritin, which is released when the body experiences trauma and inflammation. The blood also reveals that the man was very dehydrated, and there are 6 parts of pulmonary edema and 1 part of blood. This makes sense since Jesus would have been slowly suffocating on the cross, causing His lungs to fill with fluid (John 19:34). One of the top researchers on the Shroud, Jeremiah Johnston, estimates that there are about 7,000 individual wounds on the body, consistent with whipping and beating.
The Probability and Common Misconceptions
The Shroud is the most studied historical artifact of them all, with a total of 102 scientific disciplines getting their hands on it! Bruno Bareris, a Mathematician, was part of a group that performed probability calculations on the likelihood that the man on the Shroud is not Jesus. They took into account different aspects of Jesus' death, like no bones being broken, the side wound, the crown of thorns, etc. What he has come up with leaves the Shroud, at least from a mathematical standpoint, extremely unlikely to be anybody but Jesus.
"At the beginning of the last century, some French scholars decided to use the probability calculation to prove this identification. I was involved in reviewing and perfecting these studies. I obtained that out of 20 billion crucifixes, there could have been only one in possession of common characteristics, both to the man of the Shroud and to Jesus. Since it is evident that in history there have not been twenty billion crucifixes, the calculation allows us to conclude that the possibility that the man of the Shroud is really Jesus of Nazareth is very high”.6
When Barberis took into account all the variables he could manage, the probability he came up with is a 1 in 2x1011 chance that the man on the Shroud is not Jesus. He has written extensively and mentions it in interviews, the transcripts of which can be found on Shroud.com.7 Professor Gary Habermas of Liberty University has also written about the Shroud, and he mentions multiple historical inaccuracies that are often brought up concerning the Shroud. As previously mentioned, the earliest records of the Shroud show up in the A.D. 1350s, but this is not entirely true, as there are brief mentions earlier than this date. Braulio of Seville performed a sermon concerning the Shroud in the second century A.D., as well as paintings of Jesus' face that are identical to the Shroud before its rediscovery.8,9 Details such as these tell us that the Shroud was in the hands of the Early Church, but was later lost and then rediscovered in A.D. 1350.
What is AI Telling Us?
More recently, a team has had AI examine the Shroud. With a study originally published in the journal Archeometry, they tasked their AI with analyzing images of the Shroud in different spectra and then converted them into digital data sets to look for specific patterns. They also used Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), when the AI learns to see patterns; Generative Adversarial Networks, an AI that leanrs to spot things that are fake or false (GAN); edge detection, where AI senses edges of objects in images; and Fourier transforms, where AI breaksdown data into simple frequency components, which helps the AI detect patterns.10 The AI discovered that the image is just hundreds of nanometers thick, being superficially imposed on the surface of the Shroud. If it were a medieval forgery, Ink would have soaked through, yet the image on the Shroud sits just on the surface of the linen, which required a large and fast burst of energy to produce. The image is thinner than a human hair, which is about 80,000 nanometers thick.
When the AI looked at the image of the man, it detected patterns far too complex for middle-aged forgers to have known of. It was tasked with analyzing every pixel of the images, and it found strange lines of symmetry in the areas of the chest and head, which are uncharacteristic of human weaving patterns and painting techniques. The AI also detected repeating sequences of patterns from radiation signatures and 3D depth information.
Using a VP-8 Image Analyzer, used to produce pictures of planets from light signals, the STURP team was able to recover the 3D information from the image on the linen.11
It also performed a technique called Principal Component Analysis, which kind of finds a bit of information in a data set that best represents the average of it, which makes comparison of other sets easier and faster. This method revealed that the Shroud's image doesn't use shading as a painting or drawing does. Instead, bits of the image correspond perfectly to the distance between the body and the linen. The image is darker where the skin is closer to the lens, which behaves like a projection instead of a 2D image. It also analyzed the background, as forgeries will often exhibit painted backgrounds. The Shroud had zero noise in the background, implying that the burst of energy only produced the image of the man.
The process was selective, supporting the hypothesis that a fast, laser-like burst of energy produced the image. It had to be laser-like because normal light would scatter as it passes through the linen, like when you shine a flashlight through a blanket. This means that whatever produced the image must have been intense and moving extremely fast in straight lines so as not to disperse and scatter. The light intensity did not dissipate with distance, so AI flagged this as a physical anomaly, as there is no naturalistic explanation for it. The team also claims to have detected Roman coins covering the eyes of the man. This has been debated in the past, as the image above shows what people mainly discuss. The images we had before were too blurry to make out the coin completely, but the AI has claimed to have perhaps detected it. It was able to increase the contrast enough to at least identify two objects that fit the dimensions of 1st-century Roman coins covering the eyes. The AI also revealed that the blood was present before the flash took place. As the blood soaks through the linen, there would be no image left behind in them, which is exactly what the AI found. This suggests that the flash happened after death, within the tomb.
Finally, it compared the blood stains on the Shroud to those of the Sudarium of Oeddo, the supposed headcloth of Jesus. It found that the blood stains are the same blood type, and patterns that line up with the man on the Shroud. It has a main historical record starting in the 7th century A.D., before the supposed forgery date.12 Since the blood type and stains are the same, it suggests that this may have been the headcloth of the man of the Shroud of Turin. All of this evidence is very powerful in support of the Shroud and extremely difficult to explain naturalistically.
Could It be a Forgery?
After examining what we know about the Shroud, its early historical support, strange symmetry not visible ot the human eye, no brushmarks, image thinner than a human hair, the energy required to produce it, the blood stains, the blood type, the dating, etc., what would be required for this to be a medieval forgery? With what we know about the image of the man and what is needed to make it, could the Shroud even be made by middle-aged artists?
Knowledge of photographic negatives
If the Shroud was created in the Middle Ages, then they would need advanced knowledge of a photographic negative, a concept that didn't appear until the early 1830s with William Henry Fox Talbot. The person making the image would need to know how to reverse the color contrasts of the image and then imprint it on the linen.
Ability to create the image with symmetry not visible to the human eye
They would need knowledge of how to create strange patterns of symmetry that can only be detected through advanced AI systems. The chances of them knowing this are close to none.
Know how color intensity is affected by distance from a surface
They would need to know the exact way that color intensity is affected by the distance of the body from the linen, something that would be extremely difficult to do today, let alone with the exactness of the Shroud.
Access to technology to create a burst of energy
Access to the technology required to produce the image would also be needed. They would need a way to generate 34 trillion watts of UV energy moving at an incredible speed to produce the image, something we cannot do in the modern era.
Ability to have the image only nanometers into the surface of the linen
The hypothesis that they used a heated statue falls apart because the heat would have dissipated through the linen and not produced the fine-detail image on the Shroud. They would need a technique and technology to produce the energy and produce the image with the high level of detail it has.
Conclusion
The chances that this is a forgery are very low, and it doesn't even take complex mathematics to realize that. The Shroud is indeed a very unique artifact that requires some attention. It follows the Biblical record of the crucifixion, as well as what we know about the practice. It exhibits many characteristics that are impossible to explain naturalistically, and the chances of it being a forgery are very low. Even if the Shroud is fake, and someday that is proven, it is not a piece of evidence that would tear down the resurrection, as it is a miracle we have the Shroud in its current condition today!
The Shroud reveals how brutal Jesus' sacrifice was, and highlights its importance. He carried that cross, covered in lacerations and bruises, bleeding from all over, in the most excruciating physical pain. Jesus did not only suffer a terrible physical death, but He also suffered immense spiritual pressure and torment. But being fully God, death cannot affect Him, and He arose again victorious over it. He took the punishment that we all deserve from our sin, to make possible a reconnection to God. In a righteous love relationship, Jesus wants to make you more like Him, and by accepting and believing in His words and sacrifice, and by chasing after His love like no other, we can be granted a restored relationship with our eternal Father. Amen.
(4) https://www.revlox.com/archeology/a-nail-through-history-the-gruesome-evidence-of-roman-crucifixion/
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