Friday, January 28, 2005
Turin Shroud news
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Turin shroud 'older than thought'
There are some other links of of this page that are interesting. Some interesting points from these are the weave on the shroud itself which matches a weave used at Masada in Palestine from the 1st century, and the presence of a combination of pollen grains that could only come from the region around Jerusalem.
If it could be shown that the shroud is indeed 1st century then I suppose that would be a good indication that it was Jesus' shroud; why would anyone have preserved a shroud belonging to someone else? On the other hand there would still be no provable link to Jesus.
Personally I would be happy to accept the shroud as genuine, but I don't think that would give it any religious significance. That is to say, it still wouldn't prove anything about the claims of Jesus or the church or the spiritual life. It would just be an interesting physical link to the historical Jesus.
There are some other links of of this page that are interesting. Some interesting points from these are the weave on the shroud itself which matches a weave used at Masada in Palestine from the 1st century, and the presence of a combination of pollen grains that could only come from the region around Jerusalem.
If it could be shown that the shroud is indeed 1st century then I suppose that would be a good indication that it was Jesus' shroud; why would anyone have preserved a shroud belonging to someone else? On the other hand there would still be no provable link to Jesus.
Personally I would be happy to accept the shroud as genuine, but I don't think that would give it any religious significance. That is to say, it still wouldn't prove anything about the claims of Jesus or the church or the spiritual life. It would just be an interesting physical link to the historical Jesus.
