Is the Shroud of Turin Authentic Or A Hoax?
Is a stained piece of linen fabric kept in Turin, Italy - mysteriously imprinted with what appears to be the image of a human being - the burial shroud of Jesus Christ? Although scientific and Biblical evidence casts doubt on this claim, many consider the Shroud of Turin to be sacred, an object of worship. Is the worship of objects, such as the Shroud, behaviour that Christians should engage in?
What do a stained cloth, the vague semblances of a man's face and body, sacramental belief, and relic worship all have in common? They're all connected to the mysterious—and controversial—Shroud of Turin. Just what is this item that some worship as a venerated religious relic?
The Shroud is a linen cloth, roughly fourteen-and-a-half feet long by three-and-a-half feet wide, which some say bears the image of a man who had been scourged and crucified. Many believe the Shroud depicts none other than Jesus Christ Himself, and that it may even have been His burial shroud.
The Shroud has been kept in Turin, Italy, since 1578, and has only been exposed to the public five times since 1933. The shroud was put on "virtual display" in April of 2020. In the past, the Catholic Church has taken a somewhat ambiguous position as to the Shroud's authenticity, saying merely that it is significant to those believing it is Christ's burial cloth. However, Pope Francis venerated, the Shroud in 2015, calling it an "icon of love."
Is the Shroud of Turin the authentic burial shroud of Jesus? Frankly, the evidence is stacked against this assumption.
Jewish burial rites required the body of the deceased to be wrapped in strips of cloth, not in a continuous length of material. The biblical account matches the traditional Jewish rites.
"Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury."
The biblical account also records that Jesus' face was simply covered with a napkin or handkerchief, a separate item from the strips of cloth used to wrap His body.
"the handkerchief that had been around His [Jesus'] head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself."
Clearly, the Shroud of Turin, when compared with the Bible's account, fails this test of authenticity.
Adherents of Catholicism view the Shroud of Turin as sacramental, something which bridges the physical to the spiritual. Does man need to have something physical and material to aid in the worship of God, especially something shrouded in mystery and controversy?
The second commandment condemns the use of Pictures of Jesus, crucifixes, crosses, angel figurines, statues and images of so-called saints, and yes, even relics such as the Shroud of Turin, all as forms of idol worship. They are to be rejected by those who strive to truly follow God and who respect His instructions!
Exodus 20:4–5 states,
"You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them…."
However you consider the shroud, it does not have any significance with the God of the Bible.