Is the Shroud of Turin a real biblical artifact?

While this isn’t really about the Bible, it remains a popular question about Jesus that needs some attention. The Shroud is a long strip of linen bearing the image of a man who appears to have suffered physical trauma consistent with a crucifixion. Many believe this is the actual cloth used to embalm Jesus.

I don’t believe that this shroud has anything to do with Jesus. The Bible says that His body was bound in strips of linen with spices (John 19:40), more like a mummy, and that a separate napkin was wrapped around His head (John 20:5–7). The Shroud of Turin, on the other hand, is a single cloth that was folded up the front and down the back of the individual’s body.

A few years ago, the first scientific tests suggested that it did date back to the time of Christ and that it originated in Palestine. For example, they found pollen particles on it that were native only to Palestine. Later, different researchers announced that the cloth dated back only to about ad 1300. Now the University of Padua claims that the shroud dates between 300 bc and ad 400. Other research has concluded that the stains on the cloth are not from blood.

Around the time the Shroud first appeared, there were many other “true” shrouds also appearing around Europe. At least 43 “true shrouds” circulated in medieval Europe after the Crusades, which brought lots of supposed “relics” from the east. In fact, you can still travel Europe and see some of these shrouds. Tellingly, no burial garments from the time of Christ resemble the Shroud of Turin.

The Shroud might have been the result of a crucifixion, as Muslims punished some of the Crusaders by crucifying them. Either way, we know the Lord does not want us worshiping relics, true or false. When the children of Israel began to pray and burn incense before the bronze serpent Moses had made, King Hezekiah crushed it into powder.

Key Bible Texts

Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. (John 19:40 KJV)