Why an Atheist Thinks the Shroud of Turin is the Real Deal

Edessa, a City of Conflict

Edessa, a high walled town along a major trade route seemed to be on the contested frontier of every empire that ruled it and thus it saw centuries of conflict in which it was sometimes conquered, sometimes successfully defended and sometimes ceded to victorious armies as part of a negotiated deal. As such it developed a varied culture of different peoples from many lands. When it became a Christian city is not clear, but it was so by the time it became part of the Byzantine. By 944, a date that will be very important in our analysis, it was under the jurisdiction of a Muslim Caliph but it retained significant communities of Greek Orthodox and Assyrians Christians as well as a number of Roman Catholics and possibly some Nestorians.

There was, throughout the city’s history, a strong tradition that the apostle Thomas and a disciple named Thaddeus Jude (Thaddeus of the 72, also called Addai) went to Edessa shortly after the death of Jesus.