The negative imagery of a man’s face as it appeared upon the Shroud of Turin has fascinated millions of people for almost two centuries. Yet, was this the face of the popular Galilean rabbi, called Yahshua (Jesus)? Was this shroud actually prepared in advance for the death of the Jewish messiah, or was it hastily brought to the burial site for a make-shift burial?
According to the scientific team, led by John Jackson, physics lecturer at the University of Colorado at the Turin Shroud Center of Colorado at Colorado City, Colorado, when they studied the Shroud in 1978 there was an interesting hypothesis of its origin. It is called the “Tablecloth Hypothesis” on the origin of the shroud.
This hypothesis suggested that the shroud actually was the tablecloth that was used in the Upper Room during the “Last Supper” with Yahshua (Jesus) and his disciples. When the rapid turn of events that occurred in less than 24 hours did come to pass, the disciples of their Master Rabbi Yahshua ben Yosef (Jesus son of Joseph) suddenly found to their dismay that He had been executed and now they had a dead messiah. What were they to do? According to the biblical text, with the exception of the Apostle John, all the rest of the disciples fled in terror, except the brave and intrepid Peter, who claimed that he would follow his Master to his death, actually denied to the Jewish authorities three times that he even knew him, so he was released from any further interrogation.
The 13th century Franciscan rebuilding of the House with the Upper Room and later the Jewish Nazarene Synagogue that were Built over the Tomb of King David –
Photo by Robert Mock
Crushed and confused they quickly sought the essential elements in which to make a burial before the High Shabbat of the Passover. Quickly looking for a cloth to wrap the dead body of the Jewish messiah, this would have been reasonable to assume. With the fast approaching Passover Shabbat, would it be a reasonable assumption that they could have taken the table cloth that was used at the “Last Supper” in the Upper Room and wrapped the body of the young and youthful rabbi? Here he was in his 30s, the most popular rabbi the Jewish peasant class had ever had as their Messiah and now was having to be prepared for a quick and hasty burial with a make-ship death shroud to wrap his body.
The most challenging scientific obstacle for the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project was first to obtain the “Church’s” permission to take a small sampling of the shroud and submit it to rigorous scientific investigation. The permission they finally obtained was to obtain a small sampling of the shroud.
This shroud sample was submitted to the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit for carbon dating analysis. What if the evidence turned against the history that the Roman Catholic Church had carefully fostered about this legendary and historical relic? Would it now be suspected to be a forgery? Would the “Church” be blamed? Their worst fears were soon to be realized.
This carbon dating on the sample of the shroud was later reported that it was not a 1st century linen cloth but came 1,000 years later from the 13th to 14h century. Yet, this still did not answer the most persisting question? Did carbon monoxide contamination actually skew the result to look 1000 year younger? That concept was debated and later affirmed by Professor Christopher Ramsey, the director of the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, so studies continued to be used as new technologies such as imaging were also being developed.
Even after the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project subjected the shroud for scientific carbon dating analysis, the question on how the image was formed on the 14-foot-long linen cloth remained a subject of universal debate. But the young carbon dating sampling was their first concern. Jackson and his team in Colorado later convinced Prof. Christopher Ramsey, the head of the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, to test his hypothesis that carbon monoxide contamination could have skewed the test results by more than 1,000 years. As Ramsey later stated, "There is a lot of other evidence that suggests to its many adherents that the shroud is older than the radiocarbon dates allowed and so further research is certainly needed."
Credit to World Net Daily – “Is this the Face of Jesus Christ” – March 24, 2010
To be Continued to Part Three