By Antonio Lombatti
Deputazione di Storia Patria
Parma, Italia
www.antoniolombatti.it
April 2012
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Comments (5)
Those proving the Resurrection with a shroud and those disproving it with old bones make a very interesting, very contemporary combination.
#1 - Martin - 04/15/2012 - 17:20
I agree with you, Martin, historians cannot prove or disprove miracles. They fall into the realm of faith.
#2 - Antonio Lombatti - 04/16/2012 - 10:26
The shroud of Turin image has indeed been replicated by one Nathan Wilson. You can find his website by Googling "Turin shroud Nathan Wilson". The method is simple, delightfully so, and available to a medieval forger. No, this is not the method that requires a real corpse, a medieval camera obscura, and body fluids. This is far simpler yet reproduces the features of the Turin shroud. There is nothing miraculous involved nor even particularly clever.
I have been bothered by the Mediterranean features of the "man of the shroud" for nearly four decades. I have watched the faces of first century Jews being reconstructed from their skulls and they do not remotely resemble the man of the shroud.
At five eleven to six one the man of the shroud is far too tall to be a first century Jew. Romans averaged five feet three to five feet four inches and the Jews were shorter still. The man of the shroud would have been a giant among these people and Judas Iscariot would not have had to kiss him to point hiom out in a crowd.
Having once been an excited shroud maven who read all of the "reports" with zeal I was disappointed when the carbon 14 dating revealed it to be a medieval forgery. But rather than rail against reality and seek to squeeze out of its grasp I simply accepted reality and moved on. Committed shroud mavens have my empathy because the Turin shroud is their last best hope for something empirical to buttress their faith in a reanimated corpse view of resurrection.
NJM
#3 - Nathaniel J. Merritt - 05/22/2012 - 15:39
The shroud of Turin image, and its odd properties, has been replicated by one Nathan Wilson. You can find his website by Googling "Turin shroud Nathan Wilson". The method is simple, delightfully so, and readily available to a medieval forger. There is nothing miraculous involved.
#4 - Nathaniel J. Merritt - 05/23/2012 - 04:31
The last I heard, he had refused to let scientists have any samples of his evidence which cast a pall on his claims. Any change in that yet?
#5 - William D. Charlton - 06/09/2012 - 20:14