As scientists claim to have "proven" the Shroud of Turin dates back to Jesus Christ's time, Daily Express has used AI to reveal what he may really have looked like.
EXCLUSIVE: As scientists claim to have "proven" the Shroud of Turin dates back to Jesus Christ's time, Daily Express has used AI to reveal what he may really have looked like.
Artificial intelligence has recreated the "face of Jesus Christ" from a piece of cloth some believe was used to wrap him after his Crucifixion.
The Shroud of Turin has divided opinion for centuries, with some claiming an outline of Christ's face can even be seen in the material. Others routinely dismiss it as a forgery but new technology used by Italian scientists suggests that the 14ft linen sheet may indeed date back to the time of Christ.
And now, AI has been used to reinterpret the enigmatic holy relic to reveal the “true face of Jesus”. The Daily Express used cutting-edge AI imager Midjourney to create a simulation of the face behind the shroud.
The images appear to show Christ with long flowing hair and a beard – much like many classical depictions of him. There appears to be cuts and grazes around his face and body, pointing to the fact he had just been killed.
While sceptics believe an unknown 14th-Century artist faked the “shroud of the Messiah” using powdered paint on either a sculpture or the body of a model, many Catholics are convinced that the bolt of cloth was somehow imprinted with Christ’s image at the moment of resurrection.
In the 1980s, radiocarbon analysis determined that the cloth used to create the shroud dated from the mid-1300s, shortly before its documented history began.
But Dr. Liberato de Caro from Italy’s Institute of Crystallography, using a new method known as Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering, has sensationally claimed that the fabric is a good match for a similar sample that is confirmed to have come from the siege of Masada, Israel, in 55-74 AD.
Dr de Caro has cast doubt on the accuracy of carbon dating. He wrote: “Moulds and bacteria, colonising textile fibres, and dirt or carbon-containing minerals, such as limestone, adhering to them in the empty spaces between the fibres that at a microscopic level represent about 50% of the volume, can be so difficult to completely eliminate in the sample cleaning phase, which can distort the dating.”
He added that, because the X-ray scattering technique is non-destructive, the same sample could be tested by labs around the world, helping to confirm his findings.
In additional support for his claims, Dr de Caro pointed out that tiny particles of pollen from the Middle East had been lodged between the fibres of the linen, ruling out the common belief that the shroud is a European forgery.
While there is no hard evidence of the Shroud existing before the mid-1300s, a similar relic – which supporters believe was the same object – was reportedly stolen from a church in Constantinople a century before.
It bears the ghostly image of a man around six feet in height who bears wounds consistent with whipping and crucifixion. With the invention of photography at the end of the 19th Century, the shroud was photographed – revealing that the negative image was much more vivid than the faded “scorch mark” visible to the naked eye.
Over the years, a number of sceptics have attempted to recreate the centuries-old image, with mixed results. While the balance of probabilities lies with the object having been produced by an unidentified faker in the mid-1300s, whoever created it would have had remarkable, almost supernatural skill.
Various popes have endorsed the Turin Shroud as a miraculous relic, including Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis in 2013, but the Catholic Church as a whole has no official position on its authenticity.
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Shroud Of Turin Consistent With Jesus Christ’s Tortures
A study published in July revealed that a new analysis of the Shroud of Turin, including the composition and a microscopic analysis of bloodstains, shows that the marks are consistent with the tortures endured by Christ as described in the Gospels.
The study, titled “New Insights on Blood Evidence from the Turin Shroud Consistent with Jesus Christ’s Tortures,” stated that the presence of creatinine particles with ferritin, which are often a by-product of muscle contractions, “confirms, at a microscopic level, the very heavy torture suffered by Jesus of the HST,” or Holy Shroud of Turin.
Furthermore, “numerous bloodstains scattered throughout the double body image of the HST show evidence that Jesus of the HST was tortured,” it stated.
“Bloodstained marks all over the body image which are consistent with pre-crucifixion flagellation, bloodstained marks on the head that are consistent with a ‘crown’ of thorns, blood marks on the hand and feet that are consistent with crucifixion and the bloodstain on the chest that evidences a post-mortem wound that corresponds with the post-mortem spear wound that Christ received as is described in the Bible,” the report said.
The new study was written by Giulio Fanti, associate professor of Mechanical and Thermal Measurements at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Padua. According to his personal website, Fanti has studied and written about the famed burial cloth since 2004.
According to the report, a preliminary study conducted by Fanti, along with Christian Privitera, an engineer, revealed the presence “of an almost transparent substance” between the bloodstained threads of the shroud.
“This substance, given its origin and in agreement with other scholars who have analyzed the Shroud of Oviedo, could be the semi-transparent fluid produced by pulmonary edema,” the report said, referring to the excessive accumulation of fluid in the lungs that Jesus was believed to have suffered from while on the cross.
The Shroud of Oviedo, Spain, is what both tradition and scientific studies claim was the cloth used to cover and clean the face of Jesus after the crucifixion.
Fanti’s study on the Shroud of Turin stated that aside from confirming the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ torture, including the flagellation, the right eye of the man of the shroud, given that it was “more sunken” with a vertical mark over the “apparently furrowed” eyelid,” indicate that he “could have been blinded by another blow of the scourge on the head.”
“As an alternative to the scourge mark on the right eye, one can think of a wound produced by a thorn from the crown placed on Jesus’ head,” the report stated.
The 14-foot-by-4-foot shroud features a full-length photonegative image of a man, front and back, bearing signs of wounds that correspond to the Gospel accounts of the torture Jesus endured in his passion and death.
The Catholic Church has never officially ruled on the shroud’s authenticity, saying judgments about its age and origin belonged to scientific investigation. Scientists have debated its authenticity for decades, and studies have led to conflicting results.
A 1988 carbon testing dated the cloth to the 12th century, leading many to conclude that the shroud is a medieval forgery. However, scientists have challenged that claim by noting that the methodology of the testing was erroneous and that the sample used in the carbon dating process may have been a piece used to mend the cloth in the Middle Ages.
A 2014 study published in the 2018 Journal of Forensic Sciences by Matteo Borrini, an Italian forensic scientist, and Luigi Garlaschelli, an Italian chemist, stated that blood patterns on the shroud were not consistent with those left by a crucified person.
Garlaschelli also posted a YouTube video of his experiment in 2015 using a live person to study the blood patterns in various positions as well as pressing a sponge against a plastic mannequin to examine the way the fake blood flowed.
However, several experts and researchers criticized the 2014 study, stating that their findings lacked the accuracy of past studies, some of which involved cadavers of men who died of hemopericardium, the pooling of blood in the heart, which is believed to be what ultimately caused Jesus’ death on the cross.
In his report, Fanti questioned the results of the 1988 study, stating that certain factors, including the presence of neutron radiation, may have transformed elements in the shroud, “thus heavily skewing the results of the radiocarbon dating of the HST performed in 1988 by many centuries.”
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New Shroud Of Turin Evidence Said To Offer Proof Of Christ’s Crucifixion
New study claims bloodstains on Shroud of Turin consistent with torture of Christ
A new study from an Italian researcher that analyzes the blood on the Shroud of Turin argues that the stains are consistent with the torture and crucifixion of Jesus Christ as described in the Gospels.
Giulio Fanti — a professor of mechanical and thermal measurements at the University of Padua — claims that a macroscopic and microscopic analysis of the bloodstains accurately reflects “the physical conditions relating to Jesus Christ” that are “consistent with the description of Jesus Christ in the holy Bible and, in particular, within the four canonical Gospels.”
Fanti has authored more than 50 studies on the Shroud of Turin and has published books on the subject as well. The shroud, a burial cloth that many believe was used to wrap the body of Christ after his death on the cross, has been the subject of significant academic debate in the past few decades, with some defending its authenticity and others asserting that it is a medieval forgery.
The shroud is imprinted with the body and face of a man wearing a crown of thorns and is covered in bloodstains. It is held in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud in Turin, Italy, where many Catholics venerate it as a holy relic of Christ’s crucifixion. The Vatican does not have an official position on its authenticity.
According to Fanti’s study, the bloodstains on the side and the front of the shroud show blood flowing in three different directions: vertical with the body in an upright position, inclined at a 45-degree angle, and horizontal with the corpse resting on its side. Fonti asserts that “the single rivulets show a sudden change of their direction; it is probable that the blood flows streamed when the corpse was moved.”
The study adds that the three distinct colors of blood suggest three “different types of blood,” which are “postmortem blood leakage” from moving the body, the less evident ones that appear to be “premortem bloodstains” that likely occurred “when Jesus was still nailed to the cross,” and “leaks of blood serum.” It adds that the stains appear to show scourge marks consistent with the scourging at the pillar and that the quantity of blood matches the amount of blood that would have resulted from the wounds described in the Gospels.
Additionally, nanoparticles found in the blood “recognized as creatinine” are consistent with “the very heavy torture suffered by Jesus,” according to the study. It adds that “the high level of urea hypothesized” in some of the blood “implies renal … malfunction or blockage, which is a condition compatible with intense flagellation … in the area of the kidneys, causing microcytic anemia.”
“This microcytic anemia, also increased by prolonged fasting, suggests the extreme difficulties Jesus had in exchanging oxygen, which most likely resulted in extremely labored breathing,” the study continues.
“Jesus had to heavily increase his breathing,” the study adds, “and, consequently, increase the frequency of his heartbeats, which prompted a heart attack as the main cause of his death.”
Father Robert Spitzer, a Jesuit priest and president of the Magis Center of Reason and Faith, told CNA that “all of these indications [found in Fanti’s study] coincide with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.” Spitzer has been a strong supporter of the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin.
Spitzer said that the creatinine in the blood “generally indicates a heavy polytrauma [severe injuries in multiple locations],” adding that “the blood came from a person who had undergone tremendous heavy polytrauma.”
“The man certainly was struggling to breathe [as well],” Spitzer said, citing the findings in the study. “He had undergone real tortures. …You can tell that he lost a tremendous amount of blood … especially from the whipping — the scourging that he received.”
According to Spitzer, the blood evidence points to the “unique crucifixion of Jesus on the cross.” In defending the authenticity of the shroud, he said “a medieval forger” could not have possibly anticipated 21st-century scientific studies of the cloth: “[He] certainly would not have used the hematic serum of a victim who experienced a heavy polytrauma.”
Spitzer referenced other recent studies to defend the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, particularly the 2022 wide-angle X-ray scattering analysis published by Italian researchers at the National Research Council in Bari. The team of researchers was led by Liberato De Caro.
The study used wide-angle X-ray scattering to examine the natural aging of cellulose in a sample of the Shroud of Turin, which determined that the age of the fabric should be about 2,000 years old — consistent with the period in which Christ died. The findings conflicted with a famous 1988 carbon dating study, which placed the age of the Shroud of Turin in the 13th or 14th century.
Spitzer told CNA that the X-ray scattering is “a really ideal dating test” and that it “really adds a credibility to the other data that has been garnered.” He also referenced studies that analyze pollen DNA, saying the Shroud of Turin “had to be in the open air for … three to four centuries at least” in the area of northern Judea and Jerusalem to account for the pollen from indigenous plants.
Additionally, Spitzer criticized the 1988 carbon dating study as unreliable, alleging contamination can affect carbon dating and that the researchers only took material from a small portion of the shroud rather than taking multiple samples from different parts of the shroud. He noted that the Shroud of Turin was damaged in a fire in the 1500s and repaired with material from that era and asserted that the fabric used in the carbon dating study “definitely is not the same as the linen cloth that the rest of the shroud is made of” but instead fabric added during the repair in the Middle Ages.
Despite the public debate about its authenticity, the Shroud of Turin continues to attract pilgrims from around the world and remains the subject of public interest.
The shroud was honored at the National Eucharistic Congress just last month at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis with a 14-foot replica and a high-tech educational exhibit.
The shroud also reentered the public spotlight last week when the New York Post published an image created with artificial intelligence meant to recreate the face of Jesus Christ based on the imprint on the Shroud of Turin. In 2022, the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., hosted an exhibit on the Shroud of Turin for five months.
