Shroud of Turin

I will be trying to use as few sources as possible as the amount of knowledge on this topic is enormous. As such I will attempt to use distilled and simplified versions where possible. Graphics are not inserting properly for me, sorry you'll have to click the photos to display. History of the ShroudAnything closer to modern times will be easier to verify than that which is more ancient. As such, we will trace this back in time. The Shroud can be reliably traced in Western Europe back to 1349 When Geoffroi de Charny was recorded as having possession of it. [1]The oldest surviving Hungarian text is the Pray Codex. [2] This book contains 5 images. I'll focus on one of them:. http://www.debate.org...The top panel of this photo shows the burial of Jesus and the bottom panel shows the tomb on Easter Morn. It is key to note from this picture sever key aspects:1) It shows the body of Jesus with only 4 fingers on each hand, just as on the shroud. 2) We an see that the shroud is long in that it wraps around the neck and shoulders of the man on the upper left. 3) We see the red crosses artistically denoting Christ's blood. 4) The herringbone pattern of the cloth is noted5) The L shape burn holed (below the extended arm of the leftmost woman in the bottom panel) is consistent with burn marks that predate the larger burn marks created by in a fire in 1532. [3]These are strong evidence of the shroud existing prior to its arrival in Western Europe in the 14th Century. A French Knight notes a ceremony in 1204 where the shroud was raised every Friday. [4] Constantinople was sacked later in 1204. In 1205 Theodore nephew of Emperor Isaac II wrote to Pope Innocent III requested that the Pope have the shroud returned to Constantinople. [5] The Knights Templar were known to have great reverence for holy objects and would have known about its existence in Constantinople. The Knights Templar were disbanded in 1307 with Grand Master Jacque Molay (highest ranking Knight) and Sir Knight Geoffrey de Charny (Preceptor of Normandy for the Knights Templar) were executed together. [6] Geoffroi de Charny was highly suspected of being a relative of the executed Geffrey de Charny. In 1287 a young Frenchman, Arnaut Sabbatier, described a Templar initiation rite:""(I was) shown a long piece of linen on which was impressed the figure of a man and told to worship it, kissing the feet three times" [7]Thus there is strong evidence of the possession of the shroud by the Templars from Constantinople to France. Muslims had conquered the town of Edessa and a group of Muslim prisoners were exchanged for the image of Edessa. [8] On August 15, 944 Constantinople came into possession of the Image of Edessa. The (Eastern Orthodox) Feast day of the Image in August 16. A copy of the sermon pronounced on the occasion of the arrival of the image has been preserved. in this sermon the priest noted that: "he imprinted the reflection of his form on the linen" [9]So we can see that the Image of Edessa was a full body reflection of the body of Christ. In 787 at the Seventh Ecumenical Councils, bishops defended the veneration of images by teaching that Christ Himself provided an image for veneration - the Holy Image of Edessa. [10]In the 6th century the image of Edessa was found buried in the walls above one of the city gates [11]. Later in the 6th century it was written that "Edessa was protected by a 'divinely wrought portrait' (acheiropoietis) sent by Jesus to Abgar" and in the 730AD, "St. John Damascene in On Holy Images describes the cloth as a himation, which is translated as an oblong cloth or grave cloth. This may be the first mention, among extant documents, of it being a grave cloth. " [11]The Legend of Abgar reports how the shroud came to Edessa:"But when the Edessan Christians wrote their history in the 3rd century, they remembered that the Gospel originally came to them in the 1st century from a Jerusalem disciple named Addai and to a King Abgar V, a known historical figure contemporary with Christ. Eusebius included in his Ecclesiastical History a brief late 3rd century version, reporting a famous letter from Jesus still kept in the Edessan archives (Eusebius 1991: 43-47). But later in the 4th century (or possibly early in the 5th) a Syriac writer penned a much expanded text. Known as The Teaching of Addai (hereafter TA) one small passage has Abgar, who is corresponding with Jesus by way of a messenger Hanan, instructing him to make a picture of Jesus:When Hanan the archivist saw that Jesus had spoken thus to him, he took and painted the portrait of Jesus with choice pigments, since he was the king’s artist, and brought it with him to his lord King Abgar. When King Abgar saw the portrait he received it with great joy and placed it with great honor in one of the buildings of his palaces. Greek text, the anonymous Acts of Thaddaeus described this new way of understanding the picture’s origin. This document is another brief account of the Gospel coming to Edessa in the 1st century in the time of Abgar V. The king’s messenger, Ananais, was unable to paint Jesus, so:And He [Jesus] knew as knowing the heart, and asked to wash Himself; and a towel was given Him; and when He washed Himself, He wiped His face with it. And His image having been imprinted upon the linen, He gave it to Ananias. [12]The Greek words used for this linen were "rakos (piece of cloth) which was a tetradiplon, a word translated as “doubled in four," [12]As you can see in the following picture, folding the shroud in this manner would leave you an image of the face. . http://www.debate.org...Edessa was an early convert to Christianity in first or second century. And had a great deal of Gnosticism intertwined. Embedded in the Acts of Thomas is the Hymn of the Pearl. This is most often attributed to the Syrian Gnostic Bardaisan (152-222AD) at the royal court of Edessa. Supposedly some elements of it suggest a 1st century oral tradition [13]In the Hymn Jesus speaks:I saw my image on my burial garment like in a mirror. Myself facing outward and myself facing inward. As though divided, yet one likenessTwo images, but one likeness of the King of Kings. [14]Now mirrors in the ancient world were rare being either beaten metal or calm pools of water. However they understood a mirror image. That a poetic description detailing the shroud written by a man in Edessa is strongly corroborative. The poem states inward and outward facing - both the front and back images on the shroudAnd though divided, yet one likeness - two images of the same personTwo images, but one likeness of the King of Kings - The shroud bears the image of Jesus Christ. There is only one source left to go - the Bible. All four Gospels mention the linen cloth that Jesus was wrapped in:Matthew 27:59 - "And Joseph taking the body, wrapped it up in a clean linen cloth. "Mark 15:46 - "And Joseph buying fine linen, and taking him down, wrapped him up in the fine linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewed out of a rock. "Luke 23:53 - And taking him down, he wrapped him in fine linen, and laid him in a sepulchre that was hewed in stone, wherein never yet any man had been laid. John 19:40 - They took therefore the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths, with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. So far we can see that the linens that wrapped the body are important enough to mention in every Gospel. Now we can look at where they are next mentioned. Peter 24:12 - But Peter rising up, ran to the sepulchre, and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths laid by themselves; and went away wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. John 20:4-8 - And they both ran together, and that other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And when he stooped down, he saw the linen cloths lying; but yet he went not in. Then cometh Simon Peter, following him, and went into the sepulchre, and saw the linen cloths lying, And the napkin that had been about his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but apart, wrapped up into one place. Then that other disciple also went in, who came first to the sepulchre: and he saw, and believed. The other disciple here was John who was, according to records, the author the this Gospel. He saw the linens and believed. Given that burial cloths were ritually unclean in the culture, no more could possibly be said. However, he didn't believe on looking into the empty tomb. He believed when he saw the linens. It is not unreasonable to interpret this as a hidden message within the Gospel. It has been shown that a historical trace of the shroud from the resurrection onward is present. That is it for this round. There is so much more to add on this topic, but that is why this is a 5 round debate. I look forward to my opponent's arguments. [1] . http://www.shroud.com...[2] . http://theshroudofturin.blogspot.ca...[3] . http://greatshroudofturinfaq.com...[4] . http://greatshroudofturinfaq.com...[5]http://www.west.net...[6] . http://www.theholyshroud.net...[7] . http://www.telegraph.co.uk...[8] . http://en.wikipedia.org...[9] . http://www.freerepublic.com...[10] . http://taylormarshall.com...[11] . http://greatshroudofturinfaq.com...[12] . http://www.biblearchaeology.org...[13] . http://st-johns-on-the-hill.org...[14] . http://st-johns-on-the-hill.org...