Shroud of Turin

[catsittingstill]

There is an interesting analysis here.

The upshot is, if the shroud were real and not a 12th century work of art, the figure depicted would have been

1) freakishly tall for someone living in Jesus's time and place
2) with arms like an orangutan, even given how tall it is,
3) with one forearm about 4 inches longer than the other
4) with an extraordinarily short head for someone of that size,
5) with most of the shortness of the head resulting from a shortness of the forehead that would put the brain case down in australopithicene sizes.

1, 4, and 5 are consistent with art styles in the 12th century.  2 is consistent with an artist who felt a need to cover the genitals with *something* on a naked figure.

Supposing this were an image of Jesus, the whole "betray me with a kiss" thing would have been completely redundant; the most sketchy physical description would have served to uniquely identify Jesus among his disciples, and probably among the entire population of Jerusalem.

Comments

[frith]

Also, what's with the gap between the head, top view and head, bottom view? If the head was wrapped in the cloth, back to front should come out as one long oblong. Similarly, the sides of the corpse did not stain the cloth either. It's like the sides of the corpse did not touch the cloth, like it was a liner in a box, not a shroud. Or maybe the cloth was the box, stretched purse-like in a frame with the corpse inside. But then, how could the feet be point straight down? Silly 12th century artists.

[catsittingstill]

Yes, there are also all kinds of problems with how the image on the cloth looks like a photo from the front rather than showing the distortion expected when it drapes around a supine form.

I guess some people really really want to believe and that makes it easy to overlook these things.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

It was obviously a fake in the 14th Century and it is obviously a fake now and has been for a while.

I thought this particular article was a very good one, but if the history of the shroud, the fact that it does not tally with the biblical account (go to the original Greek and it is 'strips of cloth'), the radio-carbon dating and the pigment analysis will not convince the 'believers' then this won't either.

Which perfectly illustrates the difference between faith and evidence-based-reason.

[howeird]

Thanks for the summary. It's interesting stuff, what some people choose to believe/believe in. The obvious answer to this list of anomalies is that Elvis took the UFO into Star Trek visit-the-past mode and dropped the fake in Turin.

consistent with art styles in the 12th century

[bigbumble.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the carbon 14 dating of the cloth.

[orawnzva.livejournal.com]

That all seems to suggest either that the shroud is a fake or that Jesus was a time-traveling orangutan.