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

Plausible Alternative to the Abgar Legend

Historian Jack Markwardt has developed a plausible alternative to the Abgar legend to the account of cloth’s discovery in Edessa. From early documents he has inferred that the best explanation was that the shroud was taken, not to Edessa, but to Antioch during apostolic times. There it remained until late in the 2^nd century when it was taken to Edessa for the baptism of King Abgar the Great—Abgar the VIII, not to be confused with Abgar V of the legendary account. Markwardt writes:

. . . Avircius Marcellus, the Bishop of Hieropolis, was summoned to Rome, where he was introduced to Abgar’s wife, Queen Shalmath, that he then travelled to Antioch, where he was joined by Palut and provided with the Shroud, identifiable as the historically-documented sacred Christ-icon which had been taken from Palestine to Syria, and that he then proceeded to Edessa, where he displayed the imaged relic to the king and baptized him into the Christian faith, thereby resulting in the Shroud’s commemoration, in legend, as the Portrait of Edessa.

This makes sense. It fits with a general scholarly consensus that Edessa was evangelized at about this time and probably not before. And it gives us a plausible scenario for seeing how the legend of Abgar might have developed.