Extensive scientific tests and experiments for the last four decades, along with a wealth of medical, archaeological and historical examinations throughout the 20th and 21st centuries have yielded a wide array of objective and independent evidence regarding the Shroud of Turin. The Shroud of Turin is a linen burial garment that once had intimate contact with a dead man who suffered all the same wounds, and was crucified, killed and buried in the same manner as the historical Jesus Christ. All of these events appear to have occurred in Jerusalem in the spring of the first century. However, within two to three days of having been wrapped in the Shroud, the body left the cloth in a mysterious manner. An unprecedented event occurred to this body prior to or during its disappearance that caused the man’s full-length frontal and dorsal body images and 130 blood marks (along with several secondary features) to be encoded on this burial shroud. The images and blood marks are so unique they have never been duplicated in any age by any scientist, artist or anyone utilizing any type of naturalistic, artistic or other method. While the most sophisticated science of today has been unable to duplicate the Shroud’s body images and blood marks, it has discovered and revealed scores of unique features throughout them and the cloth that have never been seen before. These features not only appear impossible to forge or occur naturally, but seemingly defy the laws of chemistry and physics. Of the thousands of scientific tests that have been performed on the Shroud only one result is inconsistent with its authenticity as the burial garment of the historical Jesus Christ and that is its medieval radiocarbon dating of 1988. This date was ascribed by and based on data from three laboratories following an arduous and controversial eight year process, whose result has been questioned by many on a variety of grounds. (The Resurrection of the Shroud, Chaps. 8 and 9)
According to attorney Mark Antonacci the evidence indicates that a particular event can explain the Shroud’s aberrant radiocarbon dating, the cause of its unparalleled body images and blood marks, and many other unique features on the Shroud that have never been explained or proven. He contends that this particular event and the events that happened to the man in the Shroud can now be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
