The Face of Jesus Christ

My Investigation of the Shroud of Turin

De: William Thompson

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

In a climate-controlled case in Turin's Cathedral rests a fourteen-foot linen cloth bearing the faint image of a crucified man. According to Christian tradition, this is the burial shroud of Jesus Christ.

There's just one problem.

In 1988, three laboratories performed radiocarbon dating on the shroud. Oxford, Arizona, and Zurich. The results were conclusive: the linen was manufactured between 1260 and 1390 AD—a thousand years too late to have wrapped Christ. Case closed. Medieval forgery exposed by modern science.

Except for what forty American scientists discovered.

Ten years earlier, the Shroud of Turin Research Project spent 120 continuous hours examining the cloth with five tons of equipment. Physicists from Los Alamos. Chemists from major universities. Imaging specialists from NASA.

Their unanimous conclusion: the image is not painted. No pigments. No brushstrokes. The discoloration exists only on the outermost 200 nanometers of surface fibers—thinner than a wavelength of light. It's a photographic negative created five centuries before photography existed.

And the bloodstains are real human blood with chemistry consistent with severe torture.

How could a medieval forger create properties that modern lasers operating at 34 trillion watts can barely reproduce?

The Investigation That Changes Everything

From Secondo Pia's 1898 discovery that the image was a negative, to the 1988 carbon dating that deepened the mystery. From its medieval appearance in rural France, to two thousand years of possible history existing only in fragments.

You'll discover why the image shows anatomical details—nail wounds through wrists not palms, invisible thumbs from nerve damage—that weren't understood until the 20th century. You'll examine the 1195 Hungarian manuscript showing the shroud's exact burn holes 150 years before it supposedly existed. You'll hear from the chemist who discovered the radiocarbon sample contained cotton and dye not found elsewhere—suggesting the 1988 test dated a medieval repair.

And you'll confront the central fact: every reproduction attempt has failed.

Three Possibilities. None Without Problems.

If it's medieval, we're asking fourteenth-century forgers to possess knowledge that wouldn't exist for centuries. If it's first-century authentic, we're asking radiocarbon dating to be wrong by a millennium. If it's a medieval copy, we're building theories without evidence.

The radiocarbon date says one thing. The image properties say another. The blood chemistry says a third. They can't all be right.

A Mystery That Defies Resolution

The Face of Jesus Christ presents evidence that will challenge believers and skeptics alike. This isn't a book with easy answers. It's an investigation showing why the question remains unanswerable—why the evidence is fundamentally contradictory, and why the shroud exists between what we can measure and what we can know.

Perfect for readers who understand that rigorous investigation sometimes leads to "I don't know." Whether you approach this through faith, skepticism, or curiosity, you'll find an investigation that respects all the evidence—even when it contradicts itself.

The shroud exists. That's certain. What it is? That's the question we've been asking for seven centuries.