In the book I read about the Shroud (sorry I can't remember its name) there is a tradition that the linen napkin that was around His face was also preserved.So where is the napkin?
Not sure what difference that would make in it's authenticity. However, if you were an apostle or one of the women who attended Jesus, would you save these clothes as something precious and proof of the empty tomb? It is certainly human nature to preseve the effects of those we love and not outside of the realm of possibility.It's interesting that none of the apostles ever mention this cloth.
How can you explain the fact that the blood on the Shroud completely agrees with the wounds described to us in the Bible? Or that no one has ever been able to reproduce the image on the cloth?I would also think that because of the enormous amount of blood loss that Jesus endured, the shroud would have been absolutely saturated with His blood and not just in the points of the wounds.
We don't know if they wiped the worst of the blood off before he was placed in the tomb. My assumption would be that they did wash the body but blood from His many wounds still leaked out.He was buried hurriedly without no time to wash the body.
Have you heard of hyperbole? Exaggeration for effect? (Matt 5:29). Of course His dear face was the face of a Man.The bible says that He was not even recognizable as a human because of the beatings that He endured. Flesh was ripped away from the bone and His face was not the face of a man. (Is. 52:14)
Wounds on head - crown of thorns. Check.Yet, the image of the face on the shroud was clearly that of a man who was not beaten to the extent that Christ was.
Beaten on the face - swelling appears on the forehead and cheekbones. Check.
Wound in the side - Speared after His death. Check.
Hundreds of wounds on back and legs - scourging. Check.
I watched the History Channel show, too, called "The Real Face of Jesus" and it is amazing to me no one can explain the image scientifically. And that 3-D imaging gives us a look at the face and body of the man of the Shroud so perfectly. If it wasn't the "real thing", how could 3-D imaging applied to the cloth create a 3-D image? If it was 2-D, then the image would be distorted. As it was, the image was rendered perfectly showing a 3-D person was wrapped in the Shroud.
I believe that the image on the Shroud was not made by human hands, but by the very Image of our dear Lord and Savior.
I think a lot of bias and skepticism about the Shroud is simply because it is in the custody of the RCC. Put that aside and really think and pray about whether or not it is genuine by using the facts and your faith.
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NE can say HOW a person created the cloth. It just isn't possible using either modern or ancient methods.