September 13, 2008

Shroud of Turin: This is believed by many to be the burial shroud of Jesus. It has the image of his face and body on it, appearing as a photographic negative. If a photo is taken of it, the negative of the photo shows, clearly, details that correspond to what is know of his punishment and crucifixion. Many tests were performed on small samples of the fabric taken from the edge of the material. (Only small portions were allowed by the church authorities to be taken.) One of the tests is called Carbon 14 dating.

Carbon dating of a substance is based on the percentage of radioactive carbon 14 in a once-living substance. Carbon 14 decays at a known rate. The less carbon 14 in comparison to carbon 12, (normal carbon) the older the substance.) Based on the results of this test, the shroud was found to be less than 1,000 years old.

Here is my thought on this: Is it possible that a burst of radiation at the moment of Jesus’ ascension increased the proportion of (radioactive) carbon 14 in the shroud which centuries later caused an erroneous reading in the dating of the shroud?

There are other theories as well. One is that the edges of the shroud were repaired in medieval times with newer threads by “invisible weaving” repair (in which the tapestry weavers of that time were experts.) This would explain why samples from the edge of the shroud appear to be from the middle ages.