For most people, the answer is, “No one knows.” Such an answer seems acceptable as there were no known portraits made of him in his lifetime and the photograph wasn’t invented, yet. Even for religious people, unless they’ve had a vision of Jesus (which does happen from time to time), most religionists just don’t know. Surely we’ll just have to wait until the Second Coming or Judgment day to find out, right?
Maybe not. Maybe we already have the image of Jesus Christ.
what4anarchy recently brought me a DVD entitled, The Fabric of Time. It was a documentary that presented the results of all the scientific studies done on the Shroud of Turin, a burial cloth that contains an image of a crucified man in the fibers of the cloth itself. No one knows how the image was created; it is not a painting. Despite intense scientific examination, scientists are still baffled. However, we do know the following:
- It is not a painting
- It is of an estimated 5′ 11″-6′ 2″ semitic man in his thirties, who weighed approximately 170 pounds
- The man was crucified
- The man was scourged in a manner exactly corresponding to Roman techniques
- The man had long hair and a beard, part of which appears “plucked out”
- There are head wounds consistent with the damage inflicted by a crown of thorns
- There is a right side wound consistent with a spear thrust
- Scrapes on the knees and shoulders are apparent
- Bruises on the face are apparent
- The wrists had wounds that are consistent with Roman crucifixion, i.e. as if nails had pierced them
- The thumbs curled under, consistent with a wound inflicted by nail insertion at the wrists
- Two coins were placed over the eyes, one on each eye and from their markings they can be traced to Jerusalem, being struck in 29 AD
- The coins were of equal value to the widow’s mites
- A plaque was placed over the neck in burial with four Hebrew letters written on it, which together mean, “Abba” or Father.
- Images of flowers were also found on the cloth
- The flowers were determined to be those found only in the Jerusalem area, only blooming during March and April, the time around the death of Christ
- The cloth (the Shroud of Turin) is fourteen feet long, half covering the bottom of the body and the other half covering the top of the body
- The image was transferred to both top and bottom parts of the cloth, so that half of the cloth shows the anterior of the body and the other half of the cloth shows the posterior
- Both anterior and posterior images of the crucified man are perfect, meaning the image was impressed upon the cloth while the body was suspended in mid-air and while the cloth was pulled perfectly taut
- 2-d photographic images taken of the cloth have recently been processed and converted into 3-d images, allowing the image of the man to be viewed in 3 dimensions
- Testing is undergoing to determine whether the fibers of the cloth itself are actually holograms, which, if this proves true, will allow complete reconstruction of the entire image (parts of which were lost due to fire damage in the Middle Ages)
- The few dissenting scientific opinions (concerning paint particles and Carbon-14 dating) have been scientifically disputed in peer-review journals, for very good reason
- I’m still working my way through all the bonus features, but I could have sworn that expert, scientific testimony also stated that the body had no broken bones
All in all, the evidence is overwhelming that the Shroud of Turin contains an actual image of the full body and face of Jesus Christ, , front and back, processed in some yet unknown way. The mystery of the anomalies of the cloth—for example, the apparent position of the body when the image was impressed upon the cloth (hovering or levitating over the stone slab, instead of resting upon it)—leads the more religious of the scientists to theorize that this image may have been created at the moment of Christ’s resurrection.
I invite other LDS to look into this for themselves. If you haven’t yet seen Jesus in vision, this may be the opportunity to do so. In addition to the above DVD documentary, you may want to visit The Shroud of Turin web site, which also contains the latest research.
Previous Jesus Christ article: How the atonement of Jesus Christ solves the “victim” problem
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Too cool. Whether or not it is real, seeing all the marks all over the body……I really don’t have any words to describe how that makes me feel.
I haven’t seen Jesus in a vision but my friend claims he saw him when I took him to a missionary departing testimony meeting. He said that he saw a figure off in the corner, behind the pulpit to the right. The figure had a beard and was wearing a robe with a hood. He said this figure would move behind the person speaking whenever he wasn’t paying attention and was just looking around the room. The next day I brought my ward directory which has a picture of the savior in a white robe with a hood. I showed it to him and he confirmed that that was exactly what he saw. Does that mean he saw Jesus? I don’t know, but it is pretty compelling. My friend exaggerates often, but his behavior after the meeting and the next couple days tells me he indeed saw something. I should get him to check out that DVD.
The DVD is pretty darn impressive in its assembly of the scientific studies that have been done on the cloth and the conclusion these scientists (including the one dissenting scientist) have come to.
In 1978 an international scientific team (the Shroud of Turin Research Project, Inc., or STURP) went to Turin and examined the heck out of the cloth for about 5 days (120) hours. These were specialists of every conceivable field that might have interest in this ancient artifact. (The Shroud of Turin web site that I linked above is, in fact, by one of these researchers: the Documenting Photographer of that project, Barrie M. Schwortz.) The facts they uncovered, in my estimation, point solely at Jesus Christ as being the man in the image. There is a veritable mountain of scientific evidence that the Shroud is the authentic burial cloth of Jesus and but two evidences to the contrary (the C14 dating and the paint particles found by one of the researchers.) But the C14 dating is most likely flawed due to various reasons and the existence of paint particles can only be explained logically and scientifically in ways that preclude the image being a painting.
In addition to the Shroud of Turin, the DVD also talks about Sudarium of Oviedo, another ancient cloth artifact that is in the hands of the Spaniards. The Sudarium is a bloody cloth that appears to have been wrapped around the head of a bleeding man who then died upright, of asphyxiation (which is how crucified victims die), then the dead man laid down for an hour, face down, then was moved for 10 or so minutes and finally the cloth was removed from the head. This is according to the forensic research that has been done on this cloth. The Sudarium originally came out of Jerusalem around the 5th century and there are 3 intersecting evidences that link it to the Shroud. It may have originally been the sweat cloth wrapped around Jesus’ head during his crucifixion. Legend has it that Peter the Apostle took this cloth after Jesus’ death, hence its separation from the larger burial cloth.
Should you or your friend see the DVD, please visit and post your reaction and thoughts. As yet, I only know my own reaction and that of what4anarchy, who also believes that it is probably Jesus. (Neither of us have talked about the Shroud with other LDS, though he has voiced the opinion to me that the LDS will just yawn and tune out since the information doesn’t come from Salt Lake.)
Hahahaha….yawn….good times. As for carbon dating…I have plenty of skepticism of that. The problem I see with that is if carbon dating says that object X is umpteen thousands of years old, that only really tells us how old the matter itself is and not exactly when it was organized into its current state. I’ll be waiting with baited breath for the validity of carbon dating to be addressed by the first presidency.
Pontious Pilate and Publius Lentullus, President of Judea, both wrote letters describing the physical appearance of Jesus. Copies of the Letter from Pontius Pilate to Tiberius Caesar describing Jesus are in the Congressional Library in Washington, D.C. Jesus was descibed as tall, well-built, attractive, looking like his mother except his hair was more golden. His hair was chestnut as was his beard, probably bleached by the sun. He had lighter skin and hair than his followers. He also had light eyes. Several accounts said grey and one account said soft blue. They might have been hazel. Anyway, he was easy to identify in a crowd. His hair was plain to his ears and wavy to his shoulders, parted in the center “in the manner of the Nazarenes.” This disputes the argument that since he was a Jew he had short hair. His being tall would make the longer face we see on the Shroud seem appropriate. Pilate said there was something “magnetic” about him. (Naturally occuring magnetic stones were used back then). I don’t feel anything magnetic or appealing about the confused looking creation that Popular Mechanics had depicting a peasant skull with clay on it. It would make sense for Jesus to appear different from most Jews to help them know he was something unique. It really doesn’t matter what color his skin or hair was, other than he was different enough to stand out among the general population. For the argument that when Jesus was arrested, he had to be pointed out because he could not be recognized from his desciples, he could have had clothing the same as the others, with possibly a cloak and hood. Or it could just mean that the soldiers did not know who in the crowd was Jesus, not that everyone in the crowd looked the same. It could be that any description of Jesus was left out of the Bible on purpose, for God’s or man’s reasons.
You have forgotten a few things though. Yeshua ben Nazareth did not look ANY different from the rest of his disciples. Judas had to identify him to the guards. If he was this tall long haired fair skinned light eyed man, the guards would have picked him out from a mile away. A 1c peasant – because that is what he was – would have been approx 5′1″ 110 pounds, flat broad nose short nappy hair. That Shroud has been disproven to have been Yeshua’s burial cloth. According to Romam tradition, they would have broken his legs, to hasten death and according to scripture he died rather fast. This was the ‘norm’ at a crucifiction so they weren’t able to push themselves UP to gasp for air. The person would then have died of asphyxia IF they hadn’t already died from shock and trauma. The body was then thrown on a ‘garbage’ pile to be picked off by the scavenger birds. Also, dead people do not bleed. Yeshua was hung up – according to biblical accounts – to a pole with a cross member – which was the norm – and when stabbed in the chest blood came out. being up for minimum 6 hours arms stretched out and tied that way would cause the blood to go south. That is called gravity. Taking into consideration he was pretty well given a severe beating before he was hung up. he could have died from any number of factors. Heart attack, stroke, blood clot. Anyways, my point is this, that shroud could not have been the one that jesus was wrapped in. It doesn’t fit the description of a 1 c peasant. Take a read of Isaiah 53:2b, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.”
he will come again at the end of the world. the end of the world is when each one of us dies.