Shroud, Biblical and historic aspects

Links for Rich, YouTube videos: "Biblical Mysteries Explained"

Article sites: academia.edu, researchgate.net, richardsorensen.com, unholygrail.net/blog

Watch this excellent film from David Rolfe,

Watch this excellent film from David Rolfe,

Link to download my PowerPoint,

Shroudphotos.com

Shroud fabric

3D reconstruction

STURP conclusions

Study on radiocarbon result

New dating study on X ray scattering

Polon studies

1. ca. 33 Jesus is crucified and buried by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, with

burial cloth and tomb provided by the latter. Then Jesus rises from the dead. When the

disciples enter the empty tomb, they see the burial cloths according to the Gospels.

2. ca 33-38 The burial cloth of Christ was said to be brought to Edessa by Thomas or

Thaddeus at the request of King Abgar V of Edessa, who was miraculously healed.

Edessa becomes a Christian city. A mosaic tile was made of face on the Shroud, known

as the Keramion, and placed over the city gate. In addition to the Shroud, this tile may

have been the model used for future pictures of Christ.

3. 57 Ma’nu VI becomes king of Edessa and reverts the city to paganism. The Shroud and

the Keramion are hidden in the city walls to protect them from destruction, and the

location was apparently forgotten.

4. 525 The Shroud and the Keramion are rediscovered during the rebuilding of Edessa after

a flood.

5. 544 Edessa is besieged by a Persian army and the Shroud and/or the Keramion

purportedly save the city. Following this, the Hagia Sophia church (named after its

analog in Constantinople) is constructed to house and venerate the Shroud and the

Keramion. The Shroud is shown to the public every Easter, but in an air of secrecy and

mystery.

In this era the appearance of Christ as depicted in Christian art suddenly changes from a

smooth Greco-Roman style to a Semitic man, with the characteristics of the face from the

Shroud and/or the Keramion. Syriac artists become the main source of Christian art.

6. 944 - 1204 The Byzantine emperor, Romanus Lacapenus sends an army to Edessa to

capture the Shroud and bring it to Constantinople as a means of divine protection. The

Shroud was received with great ceremony and paraded through the city – a copy of the

sermon given by on that occasion still exists. The Shroud is kept in the imperial relic

treasury and periodically presented to private audiences.

7. 1204 The knights of the 4th Crusade come to Constantinople, supposedly on their way to

Jerusalem, but due to a complex and unfortunate series of political events, they sack

Constantinople instead. The Shroud is taken by the crusaders.

8. 1204 – 1355 This period is known as the “missing years” of the Shroud. The explanation

with the most documentary evidence is that the Shroud was given to or taken by the

knight Othon de la Roche, a knight from the Burgundy region of France who became the

Lord of Athens in Greece. The Shroud may have been in Greece but was eventually

brought to Besançon, the capital of Burgundy. In any case the Shroud eventually became

the property of Geoffrey de Charny and his family.

Geoffrey de Charny, a Templar and high counselor to King John II of France, and the

Lord of Lirey and Savoisy in France, had built a chapel in Lirey to commemorate his

rescue from the English. He and/or his wife Jeanne displayed the Shroud to the public

and had pilgrim medallions minted to commemorate the display of which examples exist.

9. 1389 Pierre D’Arcis, the Bishop of Troyes, wrote the D’Arcis Memorandum in which he

complained to Pope Clement VII that the Shroud being shown in Lirey was a painting

and a fake. However, this memorandum has been debunked.

10. 1400 – 1454 Margaret de Charny, the granddaughter of Geoffrey, allowed the cloth to be

publicly viewed on a number of occasions during the period of 1400-1453. In 1454 she

sold the Shroud to Duke Louis I of Savoy.

11. 1464 The sale of the Shroud by the de Charny family to the Savoys is detailed in a

document in the Paris archives. Some years later a history of the Savoy family recorded

that Louis’ acquisition of the Shroud was his greatest achievement.