The history of the Shroud of Turin before 1357 CE is the history of the Edessa Cloth
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TWO MUST READ PAPERS:
Sugar Coated Shroud of Turin |
Much of the Shroud's history before 1357 is uncertain. It is the story of how a cloth, the Edessa Cloth, with the likeness of Jesus:
- came to the city of Edessa,
- was discovered in the city walls about 544,
- was moved to Constantinople in 944,
- disappeared from Constantinople in 1204,
- and remained unaccounted for until 1357
Much of the early story is fragmentary, some is only circumstantial, and some mere legend. Nonetheless, much of what we do know is clear, corroborated and documented history. It is a history that tells us that the Shroud of Turin and the Edessa Cloth are most likely one and the same piece of cloth.
Somehow, and at sometime, a cloth, with what was believed to be the image of Jesus, turned up in Edessa. Legend tells us it was brought to King Abgar V, the ruler of Edessa, by one of Jesus' disciples, perhaps Thaddeus Jude (Addai). That much is legend. That it is legend does not make it untrue. There may very well be a core of truth in this legend as there are in many legends. We know that the cloth was hidden away. We don't know when or why. It could well have been because of floods to which Edessa was prone, because of the threat of invasion, or because of Christian persecutions. What is not legend is that the cloth, with an image of what everyone then believed was an image of Jesus, was discovered in the walls of the city in the sixth century. In 525 CE during repairs of the city walls, or, more likely, in 544 CE during a Persian invasion of the city, the cloth was recovered and placed in a church built especially for this sacred cloth.
In 944, Emperor Romanus I sent an army to remove the Edessa Cloth and transfer it to his capitol in Constantinople. There it remained until 1204 when it disappeared during the sacking of the city by the crusaders of the Fourth Crusades.
During its known history, the Edessa Cloth was variously described as a divinely wrought image, and an image not made by hand.
A
diptych painted in the tenth century shows a cloth with an image
of Jesus being held be King Abgar V. Clearly inspired by
the legendary story, it is significant to note the width of the cloth
and
the centrality of a facial image suggesting what may be the folded
Shroud.
We know that the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade looted the treasures of Constantinople in 1204 and carried away many riches and relics. There is good evidence that the Edessa Cloth was taken to Athens. Then, about 150 years later the Shroud was displayed in Europe for the first time in the small town of Lirey, France.
TABLE OF THE SHROUD'S EARLY HISTORY
Realizing that "good" early history for the Shroud begins only in the sixth century, we must acknowledge that the history of the cloth before its discovery in Edessa is but possibility. Also, from a historical point of view, supposition that the Shroud and the Edessa Cloth are one in the same is, at best, circumstantial. It is the other evidence that gives credence to the early history of the Shroud. Pollen grains found on the Shroud indicate that part of the its history was in Jerusalem as well as in an area that encompassed Edessa and Constantinople. Artistic depictions of Jesus started looking much like the face on the Shroud beginning when the Edessa Cloth was found in the walls of the city. Floral images on Byzantine coins and icons, apparently patterned on the Shroud, suggest that the Shroud "was there" for artists to copy.
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Evidence
for the Shroud in Constantinople prior to 1204 Daniel C. Scavone |
Urfa,
Turkey: the urgent need for an archaeological survey of the town
that (arguably) was the Shroud's home for nearly a thousand
years. Ian Wilson |
| The
Fire and the Portrait Jack Markwardt |
Antioch
and the Shroud Jack Markwardt |
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| Joseph
of Arimathea, the Holy Grail and the Turin Shroud (Abstract) Daniel Scavone |
Home Page & Introduction:
The Shroud of Turin Story - A Guide to
the Facts 2005
© 2004 Daniel R. Porter, Bronxville, New York
TOPICS ON THIS WEBSITE:
- POLLEN AND FLOWERS The work of Dr. Avinoam Danin, a botany professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Dr. Uri Baruch, a pollen specialist at the Israel Antiquities Authority is highly significant. Pollen grains and flower images show that the cloth was at one time in the Jerusalem environs as well as the Anatolia area of Turkey that includes the cities of Constantinople and Edessa.
- 3D ENCODING The image is actually a 3-D encoded chart of the front and back of a man that also happens to have the important characteristics of a photographic negative. This unique dual quality may help theoretical physicists understand how the image was created.
- AN IMAGE OF PIXELS The image is very faint and composed of discolored lengths of fibers that have been chemically altered (dehydrated, oxidized and conjugated). Scientists call the lengths of discolored fibers: pixels. Different shades of yellow in the image are achieved by the number of pixels in an area in very much the same way as half tone photographs are printed in newspapers. Pixels are only to be found in the topmost layers of the cloth.
- THE EDESSA CLOTH Until 1204 CE, when crusaders sacked Constantinople, there was in that city, a picture of Jesus on a piece of cloth. It had been moved there from the city of Edessa in 944 where it was discovered in the city walls in 544. Historians think that the Edessa Cloth, also known as the Mandylion, is what we now call the Shroud of Turin.
- IT IS NOT A WORK OF ART Chemists and art scholars have ruled out the possibility that the Shroud is a painting or any other known form of art, including photography.
- THE CARBON 14 TESTS Scientists, who have examined the evidence, seriously question results of 1988 carbon 14 tests that determined that the Shroud had a medieval origin. Contrary to popular belief, carbon 14 testing is not always right. Too many variables, including contamination, could have skewed the results.
- THE SUDARIUM Since the eighth century, there has been in Oviedo, Spain, an ancient piece of linen known as the Sudarium. Blood stains and forensic analysis link it to the Shroud.
- ABOUT THE CLOTH The Shroud is an old, blood-stained piece of linen with traces of dirt. The historical nature of the cloth, the peculiarities of the blood stains, and the particles of travertine aragonite limestone dirt that suggest an origin in Jerusalem, are all significant to understanding the Shroud's origins.
- AN ART CONNECTION Scholars have found an amazing connection between the Shroud and depictions of Christ. These depictions date back as far as the sixth century.
- NATURAL CAUSE EXPLANATIONS Scientist do not know how the image was created. Having ruled out a work of art, they also rule out most natural causes known to science at this time.
- FORENSICS SCIENCE Twentieth century forensic medical science tells us that the image on the Shroud is an anatomically correct picture of man in a state of rigor mortis who was tortured and crucified. The blood stains are realistic to the point that only modern-day pathologists would know how to explain them.
- THE MISSING YEARS If the Shroud is indeed the Edessa Cloth, as most Shroud scholars now believe, then what happened to it after the sack of Constantinople?
- THE SHROUD'S LATER HISTORY The Shroud was displayed in Lirey, France in the 1350's. Later, moved to Chambery, France it was almost destroyed in a fire in 1532. It is now in Turin, Italy. Nothing in its later history has been more significant than a century of research since Secondo Pia's amazing discovery of its negative image properties in 1898.
- POSSIBLE COINS OVER THE EYES It seems that there is something over the eyes. It is quite possible that coins were placed on the eyelids to keep the man's eyes closed. This was a common burial practice. There is some evidence that these may be coins that were struck about 30 CE.
