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New research on the Shroud of Turin has shown that the material is roughly from the time of Jesus.
The claim of the study has caught the attention of a fair amount of the secular media.
Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based Middle Eastern News Network, published an “explainer” describing the history of the Shroud and its mysterious origins. The article, by Sarah Shamim, surveyed the controversy over the years, beginning with the bishop who first declared the Shroud to be inauthentic, Pierre d’Arcis of Troyes, and recent scientific discoveries, such as the 1978 study by the Shroud of Turin Research Project that found no remnants of dye or pigment, concluding that the image is not a painting.
Newsweek wrote that in spite of the news, “the scientific consensus leans toward the Shroud being a medieval artifact and a forgery.”
The Independent did a thorough job in explaining the research and added that it could be helpful to historians in testing their hypotheses about the shroud’s origins.
“They can check, for example, if the conditions detailed in the new study match possible locations in the world and historical periods in which the shroud could have been kept before its documented history,” the British daily said.
Bishop Barron quoted
Fox News Digital, in addition to summarizing the research, interviewed Bishop Robert Barron, founder of Word on Fire ministry, regarding the findings.
"I have had a long fascination for the Shroud of Turin. It first came to my attention when I was 16 and I read everything I could about the Shroud -- its history and provenance, arguments regarding its authenticity, and the scientific research," said Bishop Barron, who also serves as bishop of Rochester-Winona, Minnesota.
"As such the recent news that the use of new technology had led to a different conclusion than a carbon dating test conducted in 1988. It seems that there is now new evidence that strengthens the hypothesis that the cloth of the Shroud is contemporary to the time of Christ."
The Daily Mail gave a more detailed description of the research’s process:
For the new study, scientists at Italy's Institute of Crystallography of the National Research Council conducted a recent study using wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS).
The technique measures the natural aging of flax cellulose and converts it to time since manufacture.
The team studied eight small samples of fabric from the Shroud of Turin, putting them under an X-ray to uncover tiny details of the linen's structure and cellulose patterns.
Cellulose is made up of long chains of sugar molecules linked together that break over time, showing how long a garment or cloth has been around.
To date the shroud, the team used specific aging parameters, including temperature and humidity, which cause significant breakdown of cellulose.
The Mail's Deputy Science and Technology Editor Stacy Liberatore said that based on the amount of breakdown, researchers determined that the shroud was likely kept at temperatures at about 72.5 degrees Fahrenheit and a relative humidity of around 55% for about 13 centuries before it arrived in Europe.
“If it had been kept in different conditions, the aging would be different,” Liberatore wrote.
Researchers then compared the cellulose breakdown in the shroud to other linens found in Israel that date back to the first century.
'The data profiles were fully compatible with analogous measurements obtained on a linen sample whose dating, according to historical records, is 55-74 AD, found at Masada, Israel [Herod's famous fortress built on a limestone bedrock overlooking the Dead Sea],' reads the study published in the journal Heritage.
The team also compared the shroud with samples from linens manufactured between 1260 and 1390 AD, finding none were a match.
'To make the present result compatible with that of the 1988 radiocarbon test, the Shroud of Turn should have been conserved during its hypothetical seven centuries of life at a secular room temperature very close to the maximum values registered on the earth,' the study reads.
Shroud experts respond
Aleteia asked Myra Kahn Adams, executive director of the National Shroud of Turin Exhibit, if there is a particular article she felt was noteworthy for its accuracy. She cited Liberatore’s coverage, which was the first article to be picked up by the Drudge Report, leading to increased interest in the shroud.
Over the next two days, Drudge featured two more articles about the Shroud, one about the presence on the shroud of blood that came from a person experiencing great trauma, the other about an AI-generated image of Jesus.
“I think it is the hand of God,” Adams said, noting that the shroud usually only gets attention around Easter, and the research dating the shroud to the first century is already two years old.
“I believe the Lord wants us to know this is the authentic burial shroud of Jesus, in whom you can place your faith and your hope and your trust – to believe in him,” she said. She feels this new attention to the shroud is happening now because “the world’s a complete mess, and people are losing faith and losing hope.”
She hopes that the new study will lead the Vatican to have “21st-century testing” done on the artefact.
Nora Creech, the North American representative for Othonia, an organization with the objective of educating people around the world about the shroud through exhibits, educational initiatives, conferences, and lectures, said that it’s “wonderful that so many people are learning about the shroud – some maybe for the first time.”
“There are so many amazing aspects of the shroud that are undisputed and not controversial – and can lead people to saving faith. These new articles give us the opportunity to explain that the shroud image is less than 1/2 the thickness of a human hair, acts like a photographic negative, and has three dimensional qualities. In addition, despite being one of the most scientifically studied artifacts in the world, there is still no explanation for what caused this mysterious image.”
For the believer, Creech said the most significant aspect of the shroud is that it is a "mirror of the Gospel."
“The wounds documented on the man of the shroud exactly match the wounds suffered by Jesus during his Passion and death,” she said. “The shroud invites everyone who encounters it to answer the question that Jesus asked His Apostles, ‘Who do you say that I am?’”
