Let’s look at that old chestnut the Turin shroud.
In 1998 and 2000 Pope John Paul II arranged for public viewings of the shroud; he called the shroud “a mirror of the gospel !!”
This revered piece of cloth still hanging in the Cathedral in Turin was supposedly found around 1354 by a knight named Geoffroi de Charnay although no one knows how he came by it. He sounds a bit of a rogue to me.
So, what exactly is the shroud? It is a sheet of cloth 14 feet 3 inches long with the impression of a man’s face on it. (There is much more to say about how that face could have appeared on the cloth but it’s far too gruesome a subject to go into here).
So, what does science say about it?
Carbon 14 dating tests (1988) placed the cloth between 1260 and 1390 AD, this fits perfectly within the carbon 14 date. C14 dating is pretty accurate for things that are no more than 5000 years old.
Scripture doesn't help here because it states "Cloth and Cloths"!
However, when we look at the burial practices at the time of Jesus and of medieval 1260 and 1390 AD along with good science (carbon 14 dating) the Turin shroud story appears to be just a money-making scam?
Luke 23:53Then he took the body down, wrapped it in a linen sheet, and placed it in a tomb which had been dug out of solid rock and which had never been used.
John 19:40The two men took Jesus' body and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices according to the Jewish custom of preparing a body for burial.
John 20:6Behind him came Simon Peter, and he went straight into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there
John 20:7and the cloth which had been around Jesus' head. It was not lying with the linen cloths but was rolled up by itself.
