History

The Shroud of Turin*

Is the Shroud of Turin really the burial cloth of Jesus? A young friend's question sent one writer digging into the dating controversy, the blood evidence, and how its image was even formed.

Jeff Reed Sunday, April 5, 2026 4 min read

Recently a young friend asked me what I thought about the Shroud of Turin. The Shroud of Turin, in case you’re not familiar with it, is purported to be the burial cloth of Jesus.  

National Geographic Magazine(June 1980) labeled it: “One of the most perplexing enigmas of modern times.”

To be clear, neither my faith nor the Christian faith stands or falls on whether or not the Shroud is authentic. Personally, I’ve always been agnostic about it. But at the prompting of my young friend I did a more in-depth look at it, and here is a brief overview of some of what I learned.  

What it is: A centuries-old linen cloth bearing the image of a crucified man. The faint image on the cloth depicts a gaunt man 5’6’-6’1”. He has markings on his body corresponding to the way the Bible describes the trials and crucifixion of Jesus – thorn marks on his head, bruises on his shoulders, lacerations on his back. It is housed in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy. And it is the most studied artifact in human history.

The age of the Shroud: In 1988 an international team of scientists dated the Shroud using the carbon-14 technique. They concluded that the fabric originated between 1260 AD and 1390 AD. This would rule it out as the burial shroud of Christ and led many people to dismiss the Shroud as a clever medieval hoax.

But some experts challenged this conclusion on various grounds and also claimed that this study was not properly controlled because of contamination of the Shroud. Also, the samples they used were collected from a single location, and that piece may have been added to the Shroud later to repair it after it was burned in a fire in 1352 – which is roughly how old that 1988 study said it was.

In the most recent study, researchers from Italy’s Institute of Crystallography applied a much more advanced X-ray technique to study the Shroud. That analysis dates the Shroud’s origin to the first century AD, supporting its authenticity.

Those researchers also found that their analysis of the material in the Shroud was consistent with the analysis of linens from Israel in the first century AD. But when the Shroud was compared with linens from the medieval period (1260-1390 AD) there was no similarity.

“We can conclude for now that the Shroud image is that of a real human form of a scourged, crucified man. It is not the product of an artist.” – Shroud of Turin Research Project Final Report, 1981.

Further:

•The dimensions of the cloth match the measurement used by Jewish law and custom for a burial cloth.

•The composition of the cloth: The material of the threads is consistent with known first-century plants.

•It has pollen grains on it unique to Judea.

•There are Roman coins on the eyes in the image, minted by Pontius Pilate in 29 AD.

There are real blood stains on it:

•Like the markings on his body, they match the descriptions of the sufferings of Jesus in the Gospels.

•The blood type is a very rare AB+. Apparently people with this blood type are universal plasma donors.

•The stains match descriptions of the Passion of Jesus in the Gospels.

•The blood particles reveal a high content of bilirubin. This is significant for two reasons: 1. It is consistent with bodily response to extreme trauma (so a dead body could not have been used to create the image); and 2. Blood with high bilirubin content stays red over time and does not turn dark brown (consistent with stains on the Shroud).

•The blood imprints precede the formation of the image.

•There are correspondences with another relic, the Sudarium Christi: similar pollen grains; 124 exact matches to wounds on the Shroud; the same AB blood type.

•The Shroud is a precise photographic negative (on non-photographically sensitive cloth). This obviously is hundreds of years before cameras and photographs and negatives were invented.

•The image was not produced by paint, dye, vapors, or scorching.

•The image is unique: no other image in the world has its distinctive characteristics. The only known explanation for the formation of the image is an intense burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation (equivalent to the output of 14K excimer lasers) emitted from every three-dimensional point of the body in the Shroud.(Emphases added.)

Skeptics abound, but so far no one has come up with a credible explanation of how the relic might have been forged. And in spite of a $1 million offer, no one has yet produced a similar object.

Again: Neither my faith nor the Christian faith depends on whether or not the Shroud is authentic, but I’m leaning more in the direction of it being authentic … until someone can explain how it was made.

The Shroud is either the actual burial cloth of Jesus Christ, or the most ingenious, elaborate hoax in human history.

What do you think?

Kent

*Compiled from numerous sources.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Shroud of Turin?

The Shroud of Turin is a centuries-old linen cloth bearing the faint image of a crucified man, purported to be the burial cloth of Jesus. The figure in the image is a gaunt man between 5'6" and 6'1" tall, with markings on his body that correspond closely to the way the Gospels describe the trials and crucifixion of Jesus — thorn marks on his head, bruises on his shoulders, lacerations on his back. The cloth is housed in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, and it is the most studied artifact in human history. National Geographic Magazine (June 1980) called it 'one of the most perplexing enigmas of modern times.' It's important to be clear: neither the Christian faith as a whole, nor any individual believer's faith, stands or falls on whether the Shroud is authentic. The resurrection is established on much stronger ground than a single relic. But the Shroud is genuinely fascinating, and the more carefully it's studied, the harder it becomes to dismiss.

How old is the Shroud of Turin?

The dating has gone back and forth. In 1988, an international team of scientists used carbon-14 testing and concluded that the fabric originated between 1260 AD and 1390 AD — which would rule it out as the burial cloth of Jesus and led many to dismiss it as a clever medieval hoax. But that study has been challenged. Critics argue it was not properly controlled because of contamination, and the samples came from a single location that may have been added to the Shroud later to repair it after a fire damaged it in 1352 — suspiciously close to the date the 1988 study returned. More recently, researchers from Italy's Institute of Crystallography applied a much more advanced X-ray technique to study the Shroud. That analysis dates the Shroud's origin to the first century AD, supporting its authenticity. The same researchers also found that the material in the Shroud was consistent with linens from Israel in the first century — and showed no similarity to medieval linens from the 1260-1390 AD range. The picture is far from settled, but the evidence has been moving toward authenticity, not away from it.

What is the blood evidence on the Shroud of Turin?

There are real bloodstains on the Shroud, and what scientists have found in them is striking. The bloodstains match the descriptions of Jesus's sufferings in the Gospels — thorn marks on the head, bruises on the shoulders, lacerations on the back. The blood type is a very rare AB+. The blood particles reveal a high content of bilirubin, which matters for two reasons: first, bilirubin is consistent with the body's response to extreme trauma, meaning a dead body could not have been used to create the image; second, blood with high bilirubin content stays red over time rather than turning dark brown — which is consistent with the stains on the Shroud. Researchers have also determined that the blood imprints precede the formation of the image, not the other way around. There are even correspondences with another relic, the Sudarium Christi, which shares similar pollen grains, 124 exact matches to wounds on the Shroud, and the same AB blood type. None of this is proof on its own, but it is exactly what you would expect if the cloth genuinely wrapped the body of a real crucified man — and exactly what would be nearly impossible for a medieval forger to fabricate.

How was the image on the Shroud of Turin made?

Nobody knows — and that is part of what makes it so remarkable. According to the Shroud of Turin Research Project's Final Report in 1981, 'the Shroud image is that of a real human form of a scourged, crucified man. It is not the product of an artist.' The image was not produced by paint, dye, vapors, or scorching. It is a precise photographic negative on non-photographically sensitive cloth — and it predates the invention of cameras and photographic negatives by hundreds of years. The image is unique: no other image in the world has its distinctive characteristics. The only known explanation for how the image formed is an intense burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation, equivalent to the output of 14,000 excimer lasers, emitted from every three-dimensional point of the body inside the cloth. That sounds like science fiction — but it also sounds remarkably like what you would expect from a resurrection. Despite a $1 million offer, no one has yet produced a similar object or explained how a medieval forger could have made one. The Shroud is either the actual burial cloth of Jesus Christ, or the most ingenious, elaborate hoax in human history.

Jeff Reed

Pastoral writing from the team at Christchurch Miami — a faith family on mission in Kendall, Miami.