IF THE SHROUD DEPICTS JESUS THERE WOULD BE SOME DECOMPOSITION

The Turin Shroud is the most famous relic in the world. Millions believe that it is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ bearing his crucified and bloodied image.

The cloth is kept at Turin in Italy. The cloth is an enigma. Many say it is a miracle.

The Christians think that Jesus was buried in the Shroud for nearly three days and during this time the image appeared on the cloth.  Jesus predicted he would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The Christian view is, "The way the Jews reckoned days leaves Jesus being in the grave one day and two nights. This is not three days but a day and a half!" Whether it is that short or longer the fact remains that there is no way to prove Jesus rose on the third day whatever that means. When the gospels say that the tomb was found empty on Sunday morning there is no hint that anybody said they knew when Jesus left the tomb. He could have been gone as soon as the stone was closed. Thus the prophecy whether it means part of three days or three full days is a trick. A prophecy that predicts something uncheckable is a fake. Jesus was definitely a false prophet and the early believers made a slip that showed how gullible the first generation of Christians actually was. Religion blinded them so they could not see the obvious.

We will approach the Shroud assuming that Jesus did stay in the tomb until Sunday morning.

The Shroud of Turin image shows no signs that it contained a decomposing body. Jesus was buried for nearly three days and bodies decomposed fast in the Palestine climate. There should be some sign of decomposing. The freedom from decomposition is verified in http://www.skepticalspectacle.com. It is ridiculous to surmise that Jesus came to earth to suffer and die on the cross and would not decay noticeably until he raised his body up again. His body was decaying all his life and restoring itself like we all do, he aged which is decomposing alive. Why would a god who was willing to undergo a humiliating birth and death preserve his body. Why not let it rot as much as it should for the three days and then restore it to life? What makes it worse is that there is no evidence in the New Testament that the resurrection was a revival of the human body of Jesus. All it says is that it had the seed of the new resurrection body of Jesus which was more like a spirit than a body but nevertheless a body.

The blood should have decomposed a bit. He was hardly going to resurrect it for there is no flesh and blood in the kingdom of Heaven according to St Paul. So the blood was of zero importance. The blood that spilled from the cross decomposed. But not on the Turin Shroud. What you have on it is blood that is so well-preserved you would swear it was paint or some compound made by an artist. All this is very suspicious. It indicates that the Shroud is not the burial cloth of Jesus. It may be a miracle duplicate but miracles prove nothing though religion tries to pretend they are evidence from Heaven that its doctrines are true. If you look to miracles as evidence you will be confused forever for every religion has them and has experts to defend them. Miracles can be used as an excuse for defending any tall story. So whatever the Shroud can do, it cannot prove that Jesus existed. In fact it warns us to be wary of miracles! A miracle burial cloth that is not a burial cloth cannot be warning us any louder than that! Besides, we have evidence from the New Testament itself that Jesus did not die when the Church claims he died. The shroud is made to look like it supports the Church so the shroud is fake. It is refuted by the written evidence. If it is a miracle it is still not stopping us from disbelieving in Christ with a clear conscience.

Bodies in Palestine will decompose faster than bodies in the United Kingdom. Bodies in the UK are displayed at wakes and funeral parlours until the third day after death. They are displayed a lot less than 72 hours and yet the following procedures are necessary for undertakers. Steps have to be taken to make sure there is no decomposition until the body is in the grave. The body is wiped with disinfectant to stop maggots and worms and insects from infesting the corpse while it is on display. Steps have to be taken to stop fluids being ejected from the stomach through the mouth. The mouth needs to be sewn together. The penis needs to be tied and the anus stuffed with cotton wool containing preservative chemicals. This is to stop leaks from those areas. The man on the Shroud shows no signs of being treated as a truly dead body.  And he has not been behaving like a dead body should without these treatments. And this despite him being supposedly buried in Palestine! No matter what the mad scientists say, there was definitely no body in the Shroud. If there was, then the man was not Jesus or was not in the Shroud long. Jesus supposedly was buried on Friday night and disappeared from the tomb on Sunday morning. He was in his shroud longer than the Shroud man was in his.

The Christians might say that the lack of decomposition is a miracle. It is wrong to use miracles as explanations for mysteries or to get around facts one does not like. The sensible Christians go in search of evidence to show their belief in miracles is justified. They do not guess that a miracle has happened. They only consider miracles when somebody has experienced a possible miracle and claims a miracle happened. But do such Christians exist? 

Conclusion 

The Shroud man is not Jesus Christ.  

BOOKS CONSULTED

Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Roberts and Donaldson, T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870
Biblical Exegesis and Church Doctrine, Raymond E Brown, Paulist Press, New York, 1985
Free Inquiry, Spring 1998, Vol 18, No 2, Article by Joe Nickell, Council for Secular Humanism, Amherst New York
From Fasting Saints to Anorexic Girls, Walter Vandereycken and Ron van Deth, Athlone Press, London, 1996
Holy Faces, Secret Places, Ian Wilson, Corgi, London, 1992
Inquest on the Shroud of Turin, Joe Nickell, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY, 1987
Jesus Lived in India, Holger Kersten, Element, Dorset, 1994
Looking for a Miracle, Joe Nickell, Prometheus Books, New York, 1993
Miracles, Ronald A Knox, Catholic Truth Society, London, 1937
Sceptical Inquirer 9/10 2001 Vol 25, No 5, Article by Joe Nickell, CSIOCP, Amherst New York
Relics, The Society for Irish Church Missions, Bachelors Walk, Dublin
The Blood and The Shroud, Ian Wilson, Orion, London, 1999
The Book of Miracles, Stuart Gordon, Headline, London, 1996
The Divine Deception, Keith Laidler, Headline, London, 2000
The DNA of God?, Leoncio A Garza-Valdes, Doubleday, 1999
The Holy Shroud and Four Visions, Rev Patrick O Connell and Rev Charles Carty, TAN, Illinois, 1974
The Holy Shroud and the Visions of Maria Valtorta, Msgr Vincenzo Celli, Kolbe Publications Inc., Sheerbrooke, California, 1994
The Image on the Shroud, Nello Ballosino, St Paul’s, London, 1998
The Jesus Conspiracy, Holger Kersten amd Elmar R Gruber, Element, Dorset, 1995
The Jesus Relics, From the Holy Grail to the Turin Shroud, Joe Nickell, The History Press, Gloucestershire, 2008
The Pagan Christ, Tom Harpur, Thomas Allen Publishers, Toronto, 2004
The Second Messiah, Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, Arrow, London, 1998
The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal, Lynne Kelly, Allen & Unwin, Australia, 2004
The Shroud, The 2000 Year Old Mystery Solved, Ian Wilson, Bantam Press, London, 2010
The Turin Shroud is Genuine, Rodney Hoare, Souvenir Press, London, 1998
The Turin Shroud, Ian Wilson, Penguin Books, Middlesex, 1979
The Unauthorized Version, Robin Lane Fox, Penguin, Middlesex, 1992
Turin Shroud, Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, BCA, London, 1994
Verdict on the Shroud, Kenneth E Stevenson and Gary R Habermas, Servant Publications, Ann Arbour, Michigan, 1981



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