The body image on the Shroud

The Resurrection of Christ as told by the Shroud of Turin

Easter Sunday marks the anniversary of the Resurrection of Christ. Forensic evidence from the Shroud of Turin gives us a better understanding of how the resurrection occurred. It also gives us scientific evidence that Christ did indeed rise from the dead as told in the New Testament.

In the Series:
The Resurrection of Christ as told by the Shroud of Turin
The Passion of Christ as told by the Shroud of Turin

Christ was dead when His body was placed in the tomb

There have been several papers written suggesting that Christ was not dead when he was placed in the tomb; implying that Christ was not resurrected, but simply recovered and left. One line of evidence cited to support this claim is that burial customs of the time required the body to be washed before being placed in the tomb. Following this line of argument, the blood stains on the Shroud of Turin indicate that the body had continued to bleed after being washed, and therefore, Christ must still have been alive when He was buried (Acosta, 2015).

There are several lines of evidence to state with certainty that Christ had died on the cross. The first line of evidence is that Christ’s legs were not broken. Since Christ and the two criminals crucified with Christ had been crucified on Friday, Jewish custom required that their bodies be removed from the cross before sunset which marked the beginning of the Sabbath.

The guards attending the crucifixion were well experienced with this form of execution and they would never remove someone from the cross unless they were sure that the individual was dead. The guards went to each of the two criminals crucified alongside Christ and used a large wooden mallet to break their legs. With their legs broken they could not push themselves up to breath and would have died from asphyxiation within a few minutes. When the guards got to Christ they could see that he was already dead so they did not break his legs. They did need proof that he was dead before they could remove him from the cross, so they pierced his right side. The fluid that came out of that wound was a mix of blood pleural fluids indicating Christ had in fact expired (Shroud of Turin Blog, 2012, Thompson and Harrub, 2002).

Normally victims of crucifixion are left on the cross to be eaten by vermin or were removed and tossed into a nearby trash heap. Christ’s friends and relatives had asked for permission from the Roman guards to have Christ’s body released to them. This process would have required approval from a higher Roman authority than the Centurion on site. As such, this permission would have taken some time to get. Since the body needed to be entombed before sunset, it is very likely that the family did not have time to wash the body as custom required. So Christ was hastily wrapped in the Shroud and placed into the tomb.

The body image on the Shroud

The image seen on the Shroud of Turin consists of two elements, blood stains and a body image, with the formation of the body image occurring after the blood stains. The body image appears as a shadow, and penetrates the linen of the Shroud by only 20 to 30 microns (Fazio et al, 2014).

The body image was formed by a chemical to molecular change of the cloth cellulose (Jackson, 2014), proof that the image was not painted. So how did the body image get onto the linen of the Shroud? 

A quantity of energy was released in all directions from the body (Fazio et al, 2014). This radiation of energy occurred as Christ’s body was resurrected. This radiation was released in the form of an electrical discharge; a burst of light and energy (Fanti, 2013, Adams, 2015). The body image on the Shroud also suggests that the image formed as the Shroud collapsed into and through the underlying body (Jackson, 2014). This could only happen if the radiation causing the image were emanating from Christ’s body as it was being resurrected.

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What does it mean for us?

The basis for the world’s largest religion is the belief that, in Jerusalem around a.d. 33, an itinerant Jewish teacher and prophet died as a result of crucifixion and after three days rose from the dead, fulfilling his own and numerous other ancient Messianic prophecies found in the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament (Adams, 2015).

The image on the Shroud of Turin validates the story of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. It is tangible scientific evidence that the foundational story of Christianity is real and not a myth.

It is also incredibly strong evidence that Heaven is real. The face on the Shroud has a very strong match to the painting of Christ by Akiane Kramarik. Akiane produced a visionary portrait of Jesus titled “Prince of Peace.” Akiane has said the painting came from her visualization of God and her visits to Heaven (Art & Soul Works).  Akiane’s painting of Jesus was recognized by Todd Burpo, whose visit to Heaven was chronicled in the book and movie Heaven is for Real (Vincent and Burpo, 2010).

With proof that the foundation of Christianity is fact not myth, and that Heaven is for real, we can all take comfort in the knowledge that death is not finite. Those of us who live our lives in such a manner as to be worthy of entering God’s Kingdom can look forward to a life after death. So the question that we need to ask ourselves is “am I worthy?”

References and Additional Reading

• Acosta, 2015, Forensic Analysis of the Image and Bloodstains on the Shroud of Turin: Contributions to the Evaluation of the Circumstances Surrounding the Burial of Jesus of Nazareth from the book Forensic Analysis of the Image and Bloodstains on the Shroud of Turin: Contributions to the Evaluation of the Circumstances Surrounding the Burial of Jesus of Nazareth
• Adams, 2015,  What Does the Shroud of Turin Prove About Easter?, National Review
• Art & Soul Works,
• Fanti, 2013, The Image of a Man Who Lived Between 280BC and 220 AD, The Shroud of Turin Blog
• Fazio et al, 2014, The Mysterious Coexistence of Bloodstains and Body Image on the Shroud of Turin Explained by a Stocahastic Process, Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol. 14, No 2, pp. 55-65
• Jackson, 2014, Is the image on the Shroud of Turin due to a process heretofore unknown in modern science?
• Shroud of Turin Blog: Getting the Left and Right Side Right
• Thompson and Harrub, 2002 An Examination of the Medical Evidence for the Physical Death of Christ
• Vincent and Burpo, 2010, Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back