Chronology of the Turin Shroud: AD 30 to the present: 1st century and Index

Chronology of the Turin Shroud: AD 30 to the present
FIRST CENTURY
© Stephen E. Jones[1]

This is part #1 of my new "Chronology of the Turin Shroud: AD 30 to the present" series and also its index. This series supersedes my previous "Chronology of the Turin Shroud" series in which I became bogged down with too much detail. In this new series, I intended to emulate the brief format of Ian Wilson's "Shroud History." Individual years can be accessed by appending "#yyyy" to the page link, e.g. "http://theshroudofturin.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/chronology-of-turin-shroud-ad-30-present.html#0030" goes to year 30, etc. Each century will have a page, and if a page becomes too long I will split it and post the split-off part. [I originally wrote, "To save space I won't normally have references but rely mostly on links." But I forgot this and started footnoting later centuries in this chronology.] Unwritten references will include Wilson's "Shroud Chronology AD 30 to 2010"[Wilson, 2010, pp.297-310]. After a page is posted, if I add to it in the background I will notify the updates in my Shroud of Turin News "Editorials." See updates 50, 57 and 60.

[Next: 2nd century #2]

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Centuries: [1st] [2nd] [3rd] [4th] [5th] [6th] [7th] [8th] [9th] [10th] [11th] [12th (1)] [12th (2)] [13th] [14th (1)] [14th (2)] [14th (3)] [15th (1)][15th (2)] [16th (1)][16th (2)] [17th] [18th] [19th] [20th(1)] [20th(2)] [20th(3)] [20th(4)] [20th(5)] [20th(6)] [21st(1)] [21st(2)] [21st(3)]

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1st century (001-100)
30 Friday, April 7, 30. Jesus was crucified (Mt 27:35; Mk 15:24; Lk 23:33; Jn 19:18) and died (Mt 27:50; Mk 15:37; Lk 23:46; Jn 19:30)[2]. Joseph of Arimathea bought a linen Shroud [Gk. sindon], took Jesus' body down from the cross, bound His hands and feet with linen strips [othonia] (Jn 19:40), wrapped Jesus' body in the shroud [Right: "The Holy Shroud," by Giovanni Battista della Rovere (1561-1627)] and laid Him in a cave tomb (Mt 27:59-60; Mk 15:46; Lk 23:53).

Saturday, April 8. The dried clotted blood on Jesus' body moistens by fibrinolysis in the tomb and imprints "picture-like" bloodstains on the Shroud[2a].

Sunday, April 9. The Apostles Peter and John enter Jesus' tomb[3]. They find the linen strips [othonia] lying where they had been around Jesus' hands and feet (Jn 20:5-6), and the facecloth [soudarion = the Sudarium of Oviedo] which had been on [epi] the top of Jesus' head, where there is a gap between the front and back images on the Shroud, but they find no shroud [sindon]. John was immediately convinced from the pattern of the graveclothes that Jesus had risen from the dead (Jn 20:6-9), as He had predicted (Mt 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19; 27:63-64; Mk 8:31; 9:31; 10:34; Lk 9:22; 18:33; 24:7,46; Jn 2:19). John would have realised that graverobbers would have either taken Jesus' graveclothes and left His body, or they would have taken Jesus' body still wrapped in His graveclothes, but they would not have taken Jesus' body and left the linen strips [othonia] which had been tied around Jesus' hands and feet (Jn 11:44)[4]. Especially if those linen strips were still "looped together and knotted exactly as they had bound the hands and the feet," of Jesus' body, which having been resurrected had passed through them (Jn 20:19-29)[5]. Or rather they had passed through Jesus' "mechanically transparent"[6] resurrected body! One of the earliest Christian writings, the Gospel of the Hebrews, recorded that Jesus took His shroud with Him out of the tomb and gave it to the "Servant of the Priest"[7] presumably the Apostle John [see 23Nov14].

50 Death of Edessa's King Abgar V (r. 4 BC–7 AD, 13–50). According to the early church historian Eusebius Pamphilus(c. 260-340), King Abgar V) of Edessa had written to Jesus asking Him to come and heal him and Jesus had replied to Abgar by letter promising that after His resurrection He would send one of His disciples to Edessa to heal Abgar and preach the Gospel[8]. According to Eusebius, Thaddeus, one of the Seventy (Lk 10:1-17), did go to Edessa, healed Abgar V [Left: 10th century depiction of Abgar V receiving the Mandylion (the Shroud four-doubled) from Thaddeus (see "c.945")], and commenced Christianity there[9]. While historian Judah B. Segal (1912–2003), considered that this account "may well have a substratum of fact," he regarded the part of it about the exchange of letters between Abgar V and Jesus, which Eusebius had personally read in Edessa's archives [see "325"], was a "pious fraud," which unknown to Eusebius had been inserted into Edessa's archives in the time of Abgar VIII (177 to 212), who was the first Christian king of Edessa (see "177"). But as will be seen, Eusebius' account says nothing about Abgar V being healed by an image of Jesus on a cloth [but see 08Jan19a], which (as we shall see, and see above) later versions of the Abgar V story do say [see 08Jan19b]. The pilgrim Spanish nun Egeria in c.384 recorded that she had seen the text of Jesus' letter to Abgar V affixed to Edessa' city gate [see "c. 384"].

57 Death of Ma'nu V (r. 50–57), son of Abgar V, who had succeeded him as king of Osroene, the capital city of which was Edessa. Ma'nu V is succeeded by Ma'nu VI (r. 57–71).

c. 60 According to the 945 "Official History of the Image of Edessa" [see 25Apr16], King Ma'nu VI reverted to paganism and persecuted Edessa's Christians. To ensure the safety of "the likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ not made by hand" which had been fastened to a board and embellished with gold, i.e. the Image of Edessa (the Shroud "four-doubled" = tetradiplon), was supposedly bricked up inside the public gate of Edessa, where it had previously laid, and then was completely forgotten for almost five centuries until its discovery in 544 [see "544"] during the Persian King Khosrow II (590-628)'s Siege of Edessa. However, this story is most implausible. Did not Ma'nu VI, nor any of his guards or officials, notice that the Image of Edessa they were seeking to destroy, was where it had previously been but only behind fresh brickwork? Or is it more likely to be a "pious fraud" to give the Image of Edessa/Shroud, which is known in Edessa only from 544, a false back-history to the time of Jesus?

Continued in part #2, "2nd century," of this series.

Notes
1. This post is copyright. I grant permission to quote from any part of this post (but not the whole post), provided it includes a reference citing my name, its subject heading, its date and a hyperlink back to this page. [return]
2. Finegan, J., 1964, "Handbook of Biblical Chronology: Principles of Time Reckoning in the Ancient World and Problems of Chronology in the Bible," Princeton University Press: Princeton NJ, pp.296,300; Wilson, I., 1998, "The Blood and the Shroud: New Evidence that the World's Most Sacred Relic is Real," Simon & Schuster: New York NY, p.263; Baima-Bollone, P., "Images of Extraneous Objects on the Shroud," in Scannerini, S. & Savarino, P., eds, "The Turin Shroud: Past, Present and Future," International scientific symposium, Turin, 2-5 March 2000," Effatà: Cantalupa, 2000, pp.131, 133; Doig, K.F., 2015, "New Testament Chronology: Part IV, The Crucifixion of Jesus" & "The 30 CE Crucifixion," 22 April. [return]
2a. Nickell, J., 1987, "Inquest on the Shroud of Turin," [1983], Prometheus Books: Buffalo NY, Revised, Reprinted, 2000, p.68; Petrosillo, O. & Marinelli, E., 1996, "The Enigma of the Shroud: A Challenge to Science," Scerri, L.J., transl., Publishers Enterprises Group: Malta, p.211 [return
3. Whanger, A.D. & M.W., "A Quantitative Optical Technique for Analyzing and Authenticating the Images on the Shroud of Turin," in Berard, A., ed., "History, Science, Theology and the Shroud," Symposium Proceedings, St. Louis Missouri, June 22-23, 1991, The Man in the Shroud Committee of Amarillo, Texas: Amarillo TX, 1991, pp.303-324, 303; Wilson, 1998, p.263. [return]
4. Robinson, J.A.T., " The Shroud of Turin and the Grave-Clothes of the Gospels," in Stevenson, K.E., ed., 1977, "Proceedings of the 1977 United States Conference of Research on The Shroud of Turin," Holy Shroud Guild: Bronx NY, p.29; Robinson, J.A.T., "The Shroud and the New Testament," in Jennings, P., ed., 1978, "Face to Face with the Turin Shroud ," Mayhew-McCrimmon: Great Wakering UK, pp.69-81, 74; Iannone, J.C., 1998, "The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: New Scientific Evidence," St Pauls: Staten Island NY, p.90. [return]
5. Bulst, W., 1957, "The Shroud of Turin," McKenna, S. & Galvin, J.J., transl., Bruce Publishing Co: Milwaukee WI, p.99; Iannone, 1998, p.90. [return]
6. Jackson, J.P., 1990, "Is the Image on the Shroud Due to a Process Heretofore Unknown to Modern Science?," Shroud Spectrum International, No. 34, March, pp.3-29, 11-12, 22; Jackson, J.P., "An Unconventional Hypothesis to Explain all Image Characteristics Found on the Shroud Image," in Berard, A., ed., 1991, "History, Science, Theology and the Shroud," Symposium Proceedings, St. Louis Missouri, June 22-23, 1991, The Man in the Shroud Committee of Amarillo, Texas: Amarillo TX, pp.325-344, 338-339; Wilson, I. & Schwortz, B., 2000, "The Turin Shroud: The Illustrated Evidence," Michael O'Mara Books: London, pp.128-129; Oxley, M., 2010, "The Challenge of the Shroud: History, Science and the Shroud of Turin," AuthorHouse: Milton Keynes UK, pp.240-241, 244-245. [return]
7. Schonfield, H., "Historical Supplement," in Proszynski, K. & Schonfield, H., ed., 1932, "The Authentic Photograph of Christ: His Face, and Whole Figure as Marvellously Appearing on the Shroud which was Thrown Over His Body after the Crucifixion," The Search Publishing Co Ltd: London, pp.54-55; Barnes, A.S., 1934, "The Holy Shroud of Turin," Burns Oates & Washbourne: London, p.50; Bulst, W., 1957, "The Shroud of Turin," McKenna, S. & Galvin, J.J., transl., Bruce Publishing Co: Milwaukee WI, pp.87, 142; Green, M., 1969, "Enshrouded in Silence: In search of the First Millennium of the Holy Shroud," Ampleforth Journal, Vol. 74, No. 3, Autumn, pp.319-345; Humber, T., 1978, "The Sacred Shroud," [1974], Pocket Books: New York NY, pp.74-75; Robinson, J.A.T., "The Shroud and the New Testament," in Jennings, P., ed., 1978, "Face to Face with the Turin Shroud ," Mayhew-McCrimmon: Great Wakering UK, pp.69-81, 75; Wilson, I., 1979, "The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Cloth of Jesus?," [1978], Image Books: New York NY, Revised edition, pp.92-93; Wilson, I., 1986, "The Evidence of the Shroud," Guild Publishing: London, p.103; Scavone, D.C., 1989, "The Shroud of Turin: Opposing Viewpoints," Greenhaven Press: San Diego CA, p.74; Ruffin, C.B., 1999, "The Shroud of Turin: The Most Up-To-Date Analysis of All the Facts Regarding the Church's Controversial Relic," Our Sunday Visitor: Huntington IN, pp.52-53; Guscin, M., 2004, "The History of the Sudarium of Oviedo: How It Came from Jerusalem to Northern Spain in the Seventh Century A.D.," Edwin Mellen Press: Lewiston NY, pp.18-19; Tribbe, F.C., 2006, "Portrait of Jesus: The Illustrated Story of the Shroud of Turin," Paragon House Publishers: St. Paul MN, Second edition, p.14; Oxley, 2010, pp.183-184; Wilson, I., 2010, "The Shroud: The 2000-Year-Old Mystery Solved," Bantam Press: London, pp.108. [return]
8. Eusebius, c. 325, "The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus," Book I, Chapter XIII, Cruse, C.F., transl., 1955, Baker: Grand Rapids MI, Fourth printing, 1966, pp.43-44; Antonacci, M., 2000, "Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence," M. Evans & Co: New York NY, p.133. [return]
9. Eusebius, pp.44-47. [return]

Posted 24 July 2016. Updated 5 November 2024.