Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Chronology of the Turin Shroud: Seventh century

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

This is part #7, "Seventh century," of my "Chronology of the Turin Shroud: AD 30 - present" series. For more information about this series See part #1, "First century" and index.

[Index #1] [Previous: 6th century #6] [Next: 8th century #8]


7th century (601-700)

[Above (enlarge) Gold solidus coin[2], minted 692-95 by Byzantine Emperor Justinian II (668–711)[3]. The face of Jesus on the coin has many "Vignon markings" features found on the face of the man on Shroud, including wrinkles in the Shroud cloth, proving beyond reasonable doubt that the 7th century designer of this coin had the Shroud as his model! See ["692"] below.]

614 The Sudarium of Oviedo, the "face cloth" or "napkin" in John

[Above (enlarge): "Comparison of the Sudarium of Oviedo and the Shroud of Turin"[4]. "The most striking thing about all the stains [on the Sudarium of Oviedo] is that they coincide exactly with the face of the image on the Turin Shroud."[5] (my emphasis).]

20:7[6] [see "30"], leaves Jerusalem in its chest (the present day Arca Santa) ahead of an impending invasion by the Persian king Khosrow II (r. 590-628)[6a]. In 616 the Sudarium enters Spain from Jerusalem via Alexandria at Cartagena and is taken to Seville and placed in the custody of St. Isidore (c.560–636), Archbishop of Seville.[7]. Bloodstains, particularly those on the back of the head of the Sudarium of Oviedo are so similar in appearance to those on the corresponding part of the Shroud, that it is evident that the two cloths were in contact with the same wounded body within the same short time period[8]. Since the Sudarium has been in Spain since the seventh century, this is further evidence that the medieval forgery theory and "mediaeval ... AD 1260-1390 radiocarbon date of the Shroud are wrong[9].

c.620 The Acts of Thaddaeus, a 7th century[10] Greek update of the Abgar V legend [see "50"], described Jesus' image as having been imprinted on a tetradiplon ("four-doubled") which was a sindon ("linen sheet"):

"And Ananias [Abgar V's courier], having gone and given the letter, was carefully looking at Christ, but was unable to fix Him in his mind. And He knew as knowing the heart, and asked to wash Himself; and a towel4 was given Him; and when He had washed Himself, He wiped His face with it. And His image having been imprinted upon the linen ... 4Lit., doubled in four."[11]
In the Greek, "towel" is tetradiplon, i.e. tetra "four" + diplon "doubled," and "linen" is sindon, a large linen sheet[11a]. See my 2012, "Tetradiplon and the Shroud of Turin" and my recent, "The date of Ian Wilson's tetradiplon = `doubled in four' Shroud experiment," for how doubling the Shroud four times, with the face always uppermost, results in the face centred in landscape aspect, exactly as it is in copies of the Mandylion/Image of Edessa! This is proof beyond reasonable doubt that the Shroud was already in existence as the Mandylion/Image of Edessa `four-doubled' in the 7th century, at least six centuries before its earliest 13th century radiocarbon date!

633 The Mozarabic Rite of Roman Catholics living under Muslim rule in Iberian Spain, which may have originated in the sixth century under Saint Leandro, Bishop of Seville (c.534–601)[12], was given its final form in 633 at the Fourth Council of Toledo, Spain[13]. The Illatio or preface of the rite states, "Peter ran to the tomb with John and saw the recent imprints of the dead and risen one on the cloths"[14].

639 Edessa was conquered by the Muslim army under the Rashidun Caliphate[15]. The Image of Edessa/Shroud which was in Edessa [see "544"] fell under Muslim control and remained so for over 300 years until 943[16]. [see "943"]. The conquest was peaceable[17] and indeed Edessa's Syriac-speaking population were happy to be liberated from the Greek-speaking Byzantine rule from Constantinople[18]. In return, Edessan Christians were allowed by their Muslim overlords to continue their religious observances, including veneration of the Image of Edessa/Shroud[19], and Edessa's Hagia Sophia cathedral was preserved[20].

680 A Bishop Arculf of Perigueux, France[21], returning from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in about 680[22], was shipwrecked on the island of Iona in the Scottish Hebrides[23]. Arculf recounted his pilgrimage to the Abbot of Iona Abbey, Irish scholar and saint Adamnan (c. 624–704)[24], who recorded it in his De Locis Sanctis ("On Holy Places"), completed in 698[25]. In particular, Adamnan recorded in Latin that in Jerusalem Arculf had seen, "the sudarium of our Lord which was placed over his head in the tomb"[26]. However, Arculf described this cloth as "eight foot long"[27], which is much shorter than the Shroud's fourteen feet[28]. It cannot have been the Shroud folded in two[29] because that would have been 7 feet long, and besides Arculf stated that he had kissed this "sudarium"[30] and that close up he would have noticed that it was folded. It also cannot have been the "face cloth" or "napkin" [Greek soudarion] of John 20:7 (see on the Sudarium of Oviedo above), because that would have been a much smaller cloth[31]. Finally, Arculf did not mention that this "sudarium" had an image of Jesus imprinted on it, which he surely would have, had there been one[32]. Since Latin had no word of its own for the Greek sindon used of the Shroud in the gospels (Mt 27:59; Mk 15:46; Lk 23:53), it was a common confusion in Latin writers that the word "sudarium" was used to mean the much larger Shroud[33]. Some have speculated that what Arculf saw was a single sided copy of the Shroud, such as the Besançon[34] or the Compiegne[35] shroud, but they both had images. So it seems that what Arculf saw was a piece of cloth that had acquired the false reputation of being either the Shroud or the Sudarium. Either way, it is a further testimony to the common knowledge among early Christians that Jesus' burial cloths had been recovered from His tomb and existed in their day!

692 Between 692 and 695 Byzantine Emperor Justinian II (668–711) minted tremissis and solidus[37] coins bearing an image of Jesus' face[38]. The coins are

[Right (enlarge): The Justinian II solidus above cropped to show only the head and neck. Compare this with the corresponding area of the Shroud below.]

inscribed "Jesu Christu, Rex Regnantium" ("Jesus Christ, King of Kings")[39]. They are therefore in the category of Christ Pantocrator [Greek pan "all" and kratos "rule," hence "all-ruling one," "Almighty" (2Cor 6:18; Rev 1:8; 4:8;11:17; 15:3; 16:7,14; 19:6,15; 21:22)] icons[40]. These were the first coins to bear Jesus' image[41].

As can be seen (below left), Jesus' face on the c. 692 solidus coin above, which was evidently based on the Image of Edessa[42], bears a striking resemblance to the face of the man on the Shroud[43].

[Left (enlarge): The Shroud front head and neck[44]. Note that the c.692 solidus coin above depicts as tassels on Jesus' garment what are wrinkles around the neck of the Shroud man! Also note that above the tassels on the coin it depicts three protuber- ances which are also on the Shroud, the middle one on both being Jesus' and the man's Adam's apple (see Enrie negative)!]

These resemblances include long hair that falls behind the shoulders, a long forked beard, a moustache, and a small tuft on the forehead where there is a `reversed 3' bloodstain on the Shroud[45] using his polarized image overlay technique, Dr Alan Whanger found at least 65 points of congruence between this coin and the Shroud face[46]. Yet in a court of law, only 14 points of congruence are sufficient to determine the identity of fingerprints, tire tracks, etc[47]. Even wrinkles in the Shroud fabric were reproduced on the coin (see above)[48]!

By my count [see 23Feb12] there are at least twelve out of the fifteen "Vignon markings" (see below) on Jesus' face on this coin

[Right (enlarge): The Vignon markings: (1) Transverse streak across forehead, (2) three-sided `square' between brows, (3) V shape at bridge of nose, (4) second V within marking 2, (5) raised right eyebrow, (6) accentuated left cheek, (7) accentuated right cheek, (8) enlarged left nostril, (9) accentuated line between nose and upper lip, (10) heavy line under lower lip, (11) hairless area between lower lip and beard, (12) forked beard, (13) transverse line across throat, (14) heavily accentuated owlish eyes, (15) two strands of hair"[49].]

that are also found on the Shroud: "... (2) three-sided `square' between brows, (3) V shape at bridge of nose, ... (6) accentuated left cheek, (7) accentuated right cheek, (8) enlarged left nostril, (9) accentuated line between nose and upper lip, (10) heavy line under lower lip, (11) hairless area between lower lip and beard, (12) forked beard, (13) transverse line across throat, (14) heavily accentuated owlish eyes, (15) two strands of hair."

The face of this solidus coin is a numismatic icon[50] only 9 mm (0.35 in.) high[51]. So many are the points of congruence (see above) between this tiny icon and the Shroud that the coin die maker would have needed to either travel to Edessa where the Image of Edessa/Shroud then was (see 639 above) and copy directly from the Image/Shroud face[52]. Or the die maker in Constantinople would have had to have worked from accurate sketches of the Image/Shroud made by an artist in Edessa[53]. Either way, this 692-695 Justinian II solidus coin is further proof beyond reasonable doubts that the Shroud existed "four-doubled" = tetradiplon as the Image of Edessa (see 620 above) nearly six centuries before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date!

Continued in part #8 of this series.

Notes
1. This post is copyright. Permission is granted 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. Money Museum. No longer online. [return]
3. Whanger, A.D. & M.W., 1991a, "A Quantitative Optical Technique for Analyzing and Authenticating the Images on the Shroud of Turin," 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.303-324, 308-309; Whanger, M.W. & Whanger, A.D., 1998, "The Shroud of Turin: An Adventure of Discovery," Providence House Publishers: Franklin TN, p.16; Antonacci, M., 2000, "Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence," M. Evans & Co: New York NY, pp.128-129; Oxley, M., 2010, "The Challenge of the Shroud: History, Science and the Shroud of Turin," AuthorHouse: Milton Keynes UK, p.26. [return]
4. Bennett, J., 2001, "Sacred Blood, Sacred Image: The Sudarium of Oviedo: New Evidence for the Authenticity of the Shroud of Turin," Ignatius Press: San Francisco CA, p.122. [return]
5. Guscin, M., 1998, "The Oviedo Cloth," Lutterworth Press: Cambridge UK, p.27. [return]
6. Whanger & Whanger, 1991a, p.312. [return]
6a. Guscin, M., 1996, "The Sudarium of Oviedo," British Society for the Turin Shroud Newsletter, No. 43, June/July; Guscin, 1998, p.14; Iannone, J.C., 1998, "The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: New Scientific Evidence," St Pauls: Staten Island NY, p.91; Whanger & Whanger, 1998, p.56; Guscin, M., 1999, "Recent Historical Investigations on the Sudarium of Oviedo," in Walsh, B.J., ed., 2000, "Proceedings of the 1999 Shroud of Turin International Research Conference, Richmond, Virginia," Magisterium Press: Glen Allen VA, pp.122-141, 128-129; Bennett, 2001, pp.28-29, 102a, 194; Guerrera, V., 2001, "The Shroud of Turin: A Case for Authenticity," TAN: Rockford IL, pp.41-42; Whiting, B., 2006, "The Shroud Story," Harbour Publishing: Strathfield NSW, Australia, p.322; Oxley, 2010, pp.182-183; Anderson, M.J., 2015, "The `Other' Shroud of Christ: The Sudarium of Oviedo," Catholic World Report, April 1; Klimczak, N., 2016, "The Shroud of Oviedo: A Legendary Cloth Connected to the Death of Jesus," Ancient Origins, 2 April. [return]
7. Guscin, 1998, pp.14-15; Bennett, 2001, pp.28-31, 194; Guerrera, 2001, p.42. [return]
8. Adler, A.D., 1996, "Updating Recent Studies on the Shroud of Turin," in Adler, A.D. & Crispino, D., ed., 2002, "The Orphaned Manuscript: A Gathering of Publications on the Shroud of Turin," Effatà Editrice: Cantalupa, Italy, pp.81-86, 83. [return]
9. Adler, A.D., 2000, "The Shroud Fabric and the Body Image: Chemical and Physical Characteristics," in Adler & Crispino, 2002, pp.113-127, 124. [return]
10. "... between A.D. 609 and 726." Guscin, M., 2009, "The Image of Edessa," Brill: Leiden, Netherlands & Boston MA, p.145. Being in Greek and if originated in Edessa, then presumably when Edessa was under Byzantine rule, before the Muslim conquest of 639 (see 639 above). [return]
11. Roberts, A. & Donaldson, J., eds, 1951, "The Ante-Nicene Fathers: The Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325," Vol. VIII: The Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocrypha, Decretals, Memoirs of Edessa and Syriac Documents, Remains of the First Ages, Eerdmans: Grand Rapids MI, Reprinted 1974, p.558. [return]
11a. Bulst, W., 1957, "The Shroud of Turin," McKenna, S. & Galvin, J.J., transl., Bruce Publishing Co: Milwaukee WI, pp.82-83. [return]
12. Guscin, 1998, p.17; Guerrera, 2001, p.42. [return]
13. "Mozarabic Rite," Wikipedia, 1 January 2017. [return]
14. Rinaldi, P.M., 1978, "The Man in the Shroud," [1972], Futura: London, Revised, p.22; Wilson, I., 1979, "The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Cloth of Jesus?," [1978], Image Books: New York NY, Revised edition, p.93; Scavone, D.C., 1989, "The Shroud of Turin: Opposing Viewpoints," Greenhaven Press: San Diego CA, p.76; Guscin, 1998, p.17; 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, p.56; Guerrera, 2001, p.42. [return]
15. "Edessa: Byzantine period," Wikipedia, 7 January 2017. [return]
16. Currer-Briggs, N., 1988, "The Shroud and the Grail: A Modern Quest for the True Grail," St. Martin's Press: New York NY, p.71; 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.148. [return]
17. Wilson, 1998, p.267. [return]
18. Wilson, I., 2010, "The Shroud: The 2000-Year-Old Mystery Solved," Bantam Press: London, p.299. [return]
19. Oxley, 2010, p.26. [return]
20. Wilson, 1979, p.254; Morgan, R., 1980, "Perpetual Miracle: Secrets of the Holy Shroud of Turin by an Eye Witness," Runciman Press: Manly NSW, Australia, p.35. [return]
21. 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; Wilson, 1979, p.94; Wilson, 2010, p.109. [return]
22. Scavone, 1989, p.76; Wilson, 2010, p.109; "Arculf," Wikipedia, 25 January 2020. [return]
23. Wilson, 1979, p.94; Wilson, 2010, p.108. [return]
24. Green, 1969; Wilson, 1979, p.94; "Adomnán," Wikipedia, 15 January 2017. [return]
25. Adamnan, "De Locis Sanctis," Wikipedia, 18 November 2016. [return]
26. Barnes, A.S., 1934, "The Holy Shroud of Turin," Burns Oates & Washbourne: London, p.50; Wilson, 2010, pp.108-109. [return]
27. Wilson, I., 1986, "The Evidence of the Shroud," Guild Publishing: London, p.103; Currer-Briggs, 1988, p.62; Scavone, 1989, p.77. [return]
28. Beecher, P.A., 1928, "The Holy Shroud: Reply to the Rev. Herbert Thurston, S.J.," M.H. Gill & Son: Dublin, p.144; Wilson, 1979, p.94; Currer-Briggs, 1988, p.62; Scavone, 1989, p.77; Wilson, 2010, p.109. [return]
29. Scavone, 1989, p.76. [return]
30. Wilson, 1979, p.94; Scavone, 1989, p.77. [return]
31. Beecher, 1928, p.144; Wilson, 2010, p.109. [return]
32. Wilson, 1979, p.94; Scavone, 1989, p.76; Wilson, 2010, p.109. [return]
33. Guscin, 1998, pp.11-12. [return]
34. Currer-Briggs, 1988, p.62; Iannone, 1998, p.210; Oxley, 2010, p.113. [return]
35. Wilson, 1979, p.94; Wilson, 1986, p.103. [return]
36. Scavone, 1989, p.82; Scavone, D.C., 2002, "Joseph of Arimathea, The Holy Grail & the Edessa Icon," BSTS Newsletter, No. 56, December; Guscin, M., 2009, "The Image of Edessa," Brill: Leiden, Netherlands & Boston MA, p.146; Wilson, 2010, p.140-141. [return]
37. Antonacci, 2000, p.128; Whanger & Whanger, 1991a, p.308; Whanger, A.D. & Whanger, M., 1991b, "Evidence of Early Origin and Nature of the Shroud of Turin by Image Analysis and Optical Comparison," Shroud News. No. 65, June 1991, pp.8-18, 16. [return]
38. Whanger & Whanger, 1991a, p.308; Wilson, I., 1992, "The Shroud Face on a Coin Precisely Datable to 692-5 AD," BSTS Newsletter, No. 30, Dec/Jan, pp.2-4, 2-3; Guerrera, 2001, p.101. [return]
39. Whanger & Whanger, 1998, p.16. [return]
40. Wilson, 1991, p.166; Petrosillo & Marinelli, 1996, p.195; Oxley, 2010, p.26. [return]
41. Scavone, D.C., "The History of the Turin Shroud to the 14th C.," in Berard, 1991, p.187; Whanger & Whanger, 1991a, p.308; Wilson, I., 1991, "Holy Faces, Secret Places: The Quest for Jesus' True Likeness," Doubleday: London, p.166; Petrosillo, O. & Marinelli, E., 1996, "The Enigma of the Shroud: A Challenge to Science," Scerri, L.J., transl., Publishers Enterprises Group: Malta, p.195; Wilson, 1998, pp.158, 267; Guerrera, 2001, p.101; Oxley, 2010, p.26. [return]
42. Whanger, A., "Comment" in Meacham, W., 1983, "The Authentication of the Turin Shroud: An Issue in Archaeological Epistemology," Current Anthropology, Vol. 24, No. 3, June, 283-311, 303; Wilson, 1991, p.166; Wilson, 1998, p.267; Oxley, 2010, p.26. [return]
43. Scavone, 1991, p.188; Petrosillo & Marinelli, 1996, p.194; Wilson, 1998, pp.158, 267; Oxley, 2010, p.26. [return]
44. Extract from Latendresse, M., 2010, "Shroud Scope: Durante 2002 Vertical," Sindonology.org. Brightness and contrast autocorrected [return]
45. Petrosillo & Marinelli, 1996, p.195. [return]
46. Whanger, 1983, p.303; Wilson, 1986, p.110C; Whanger & Whanger, 1991, p.308. [return]
47. Whanger, 1983, p.303; Guerrera, 2001, p.102. [return]
48. Whanger & Whanger, 1991, p.308. [return]
49. Wilson, I., 1978, "The Turin Shroud," Book Club Associates: London, p.82e. [return]
50. Whanger, 1983, p.303. [return]
51. Wilson, 1986, p.107; Whanger & Whanger, 1991a, p.308; Whanger, A.D. & M.W., "Aspects of the Shroud in Botany and Related Art," in Fanti, G., ed., 2009, "The Shroud of Turin: Perspectives on a Multifaceted Enigma," Proceedings of the 2008 Columbus Ohio International Conference, August 14-17, 2008, Progetto Libreria: Padua, Italy, pp.140-144, 143. [return]
52. Whanger, 1983, p.303; Whanger & Whanger, 1991, p.309; Antonacci, 2000, p.128. [return]
53. Scavone, 1991, p.188. [return]

Posted: 24 January 2017. Updated: 10 March 2024.

Monday, January 23, 2017

Hacking an explanation & Index: Steps in the development of my radiocarbon dating of the Turin Shroud hacker theory #1

Copyright © Stephen E. Jones[1]

This is part #1, "Hacking an explanation" and the Index of my "Steps in the development of my radiocarbon dating of the Turin Shroud hacker theory" series. It is the continuation of my "The 1260-1390 radiocarbon date of the Turin Shroud was the result of a computer hacking" series." It was formerly titled, "June 2007" but I later realised that it will be more informative to include in the title of each post in this series a brief description of the actual step in the development of my hacker theory. In this series I will set out in chronological order the steps in the

[Above: Page 147 of David Sox's 1988 book, "The Shroud Unmasked," in which he stated of the very first radiocarbon dating run of the Shroud at Arizona laboratory on 6 May 1988, that:

"The calculations were produced on the computer, and displayed on the screen"[2].]
When I read this in June 2007, I did not then see the significance of "Timothy Linick, a University of Arizona research scientist" (above) communicating with Sox, but then apparently no one else did either. See my post of 31Mar14 where I first alleged that Linick may have been the hacker whose program produced the bogus "1260-1390" radiocarbon date of the Shroud, and my post of 24Jun14 where I first alleged that Linick was the leaker of Arizona's first "1350" date of the Shroud to Sox.]

development of my theory that the 1988 radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin as "mediaeval ... AD 1260-1390"[3] was the result of a computer hacking. Each step will be a separate post linked back by the date of the step to this index.

[Next: Fraud a real possibility #2] [Index: #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12]

Hacking an explanation As mentioned in my post of 24Oct16, in the late 1980s-early 1990s I was the Systems Administrator of a wide-area network of 7 hospitals' UNIX servers in rural Western Australia. As part of my job interest I had read Clifford Stoll's 1989 book, "The Cuckoo's Egg," in which he documented from personal experience (much of which was at Arizona University!) how poorly secured university networked computer systems were in the 1980s and therefore how easy they were to hack, and were hacked.

So when I read the above in June 2007, that "The calculations were produced on the computer, and displayed on the screen," it occurred to me that since the AMS computer produced the calculations of the Shroud's radiocarbon date and displayed them on the computer's screen, then hacking of the AMS computer's radiocarbon dating program could be an explanation why the authentic and therefore first-century (or earlier) Shroud had a 13th/14th century radiocarbon date.

However, I had only just started this blog and had a lot to learn about the Shroud, so didn't begin to post that the radiocarbon dating of the Shroud may have been hacked until 09Jan14, when I intended to mention hacking in the context of a 7-part series on fraud in the Shroud's radiocarbon dating, but which I abandoned because it was too broad and I wanted to concentrate on hacking as a form of fraud in the Shroud's radiocarbon dating.

So it was not until 6½ years later on 18Feb14 that I mentioned "hacker" but then only in the title of a four-part series as a question, "Were the radiocarbon dating laboratories duped by a computer hacker? (1)." And then on 22Feb14 in part #3 of that series, I first proposed, tentatively, that:

"...there is another form of fraud that does not seem to have occurred to anyone, namely that the laboratories may have been duped by a computer hacker."

Continued in part #2 of this series.

Notes
1. This post is copyright. Permission is granted 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 post. [return]
2. Sox, H.D., 1988, The Shroud Unmasked: Uncovering the Greatest Forgery of All Time," Lamp Press: Basingstoke UK, p.147. [return]
3. Damon, P.E., 1989, "Radiocarbon Dating of the Shroud of Turin," Nature, Vol. 337, 16th February, pp.611-615, 611. [return]

Posted 23 January 2017. Updated 7 November 2023.

Friday, January 20, 2017

The date of Ian Wilson's tetradiplon = `doubled in four' Shroud experiment

Copyright © Stephen E. Jones[1]

I had been thinking of Ian Wilson's experiment in which he found that

[Above (enlarge): From my 2012 post, "Tetradiplon and the Shroud of Turin." The full-length Shroud of Turin (1), is doubled four times (2 through 5) [ignore my white join in the 3rd doubling], resulting in Jesus' face within a rectangle, in landscape aspect (5), exactly as depicted in early copies of the Image of Edessa, the 11th century Sakli church, Turkey (6) and the 10th century icon of King Abgar V of Edessa holding the Image of Edessa, St. Catherine's monastery, Sinai (7).]

a photograph of the Shroud, when "doubled in four" (the meaning of the Greek word tetradiplon, which in all of known ancient Greek literature was only used of the Mandylion/Image of Edessa[2]) with the face of the Shroud man uppermost, results in the man's face in landscape aspect, exactly as it is in ancient copies of the Mandylion/Image of Edessa!

So I emailed Wilson on 11 December, under the subject line, "Re: What was the date of your `Secondo Pia' discovery?," as follows[3]:

Ian

You have written that you made the discovery "some twenty years ago" (in 1991 - 20 = 1971):

"Here the interesting feature is that in the original Greek text of this quotation the word translated as `towel' is `tetradiplon', meaning a cloth `doubled in four'. It is a most unusual word, occurring in the entire corpus of Greek literature only in regard to the `holy face' of Edessa, and it prompted me some twenty years ago to try `doubling in four' a photograph of the `shroud', just to see what might emerge. The result was more than astonishing. Doubled, then doubled twice again to give four times two folds, the `shroud' face appeared disembodied on a landscape aspect cloth exactly as conveyed by the copyists of the Edessan `holy face' pre-1204 [fig. 16]. From this and similar evidence I deduced that the `shroud' had been one and the same as the `holy face' of Edessa, which explained its otherwise unrecorded pre-fourteenth century history. Why it had not been described as a `shroud' during the Byzantine era (Wilson, I., 1991, "Holy Faces, Secret Places: The Quest for Jesus' True Likeness," Doubleday: London, p.141)
"more than a quarter of a century ago" (in 1998 - 27 = 1971):
"Why should the cloth of Edessa have been described as 'doubled in four'? Inevitably this can only have had something to do with the way the cloth was once folded. It provided my cue, more than a quarter of a century ago, to experiment with what might happen if one tried folding the Shroud in four-by-two folds, as the word seemed to suggest [fig. 18]. When I tried this with the aid of a photograph, the revelation was something akin to Secondo Pia's discovery of the hidden negative. To my utter astonishment, the Shroud face appeared strangely disembodied, on a landscape-aspect cloth, exactly as it appears on the pre-1204 Edessa cloth copies, such as at Sakli, Gradac and Studenica, some of which I did not even know of at that time." (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.152).

[Above (upper - enlarge): Fresco of the Image of Edessa/Mandylion (10th/11th century)[4], Sakli church, Goreme, Turkey[5]:

"This particular painting dates no later than the mid eleventh century - a full two centuries earlier than the earliest date [1260] attributed to the Shroud by radiocarbon dating. And for the artist who created the painting, the original cloth he was depicting was already very old"[6].
And (lower - enlarge): 12th century[7] fresco of the Image of Edessa/Mandylion in the Church of the Annunciation, Gradac, Serbia[8]. Compare these with the enlargement of "5. Fourth doubling"[9] below (the burn marks and patches parallel to the face are from the 1532 fire).]

that when you took a full-length photograph of the Shroud and folded it in half with the man's face uppermost, then folded it in half again with the man's face uppermost, and folded it in half again with the man's face still uppermost (I am using my own words as I do it myself as I write) it leaves the man's face "disembodied, on a landscape-aspect cloth, exactly as it appears on the pre-1204 Edessa cloth copies ..." And looking at it from the side, as it was evidently possible to do with the Edessa Cloth, fastened to a board, it is indeed four doublings!

You described your discovery as a "revelation ... something akin to Secondo Pia's discovery of the hidden negative" and I totally agree. This was one of the great moments in Shroud history. It was experimental proof that the Mandylion was the Shroud `four-doubled'. I still get a thrill when I do it, so I can hardly imagine what it must have been like for you the first time.

The only problem is that you have never, as far as I know, ever stated exactly when and where it was that you made your most important discovery.

Would you please tell me when and where it was, so that I may at an appropriate time, share it with readers of my blog, and hence with Shroud posterity?

Thanks and regards,

Stephen

Wilson replied on 12 December[10]:

Dear Stephen,

Many thanks for this – an interesting question! Yes it was a very real and indeed a very moving moment, though the exact date was one that I never recorded, not least because at the time I had absolutely no idea of all that might subsequently flow from it.

To the best of my recollection it would have been around the summer of 1966, probably early evening, and at my parents’ home in south London. I was staying there after having recently left a job that had been based in Oxford (with Oxfam), and whilst doing a three month stint of ‘Shroud history’ researches at the then Reading Room of the British Museum. I know that I had earlier (when still living in Oxford), purchased volume VIII of Roberts and Donaldson’s Ante-Nicene Fathers, which has translations of the New Testament Apocrypha. And it was whilst reading the ‘Acts of the Holy Apostle Thaddaeus’ in this that a footnote at the bottom of page 558 ‘Lit., doubled in four’ struck my attention.

It was so early in my researches that I did not even have to hand any readily usable full length photo suitable for performing the folding experiment. But I had a very strong feeling that it was going to work, so at the time hastily improvised by cutting out a photo from a newspaper article. Then the moment that I saw the result there was what I can only describe a quite extraordinary feeling of ‘thrill’ – an all-encompassing tingling of the spine and incredibly humbling realisation that this was something that had to be significant.

Ever since I have been trying to prove that significance – not without a few setbacks along the way! I am still working very hard on the Charny researches – and be assured that from this some very interesting new historical findings will eventually emerge...

Wishing you and yours every happiness and blessing at this Christmastime, and for 2017,

Ian.

So there you have it. This "one of the great moments in Shroud history" and "experimental proof that the Mandylion was the Shroud `four-doubled'" was by Ian Wilson in the Northern "summer of 1966" (i.e. June-August 1966) at south London.

As posted in the "Editorial and Contents," Shroud of Turin News, December 2016, the paragraph and footnote on page 558 of volume VIII of Roberts & Donaldson's "Ante-Nicene Fathers," specifically "Acts of the Holy Apostle Thaddaeus." is:

"And Ananias [Abgar V's courier], having gone and given the letter, was carefully looking at Christ, but was unable to fix Him in his mind. And He knew as knowing the heart, and asked to wash Himself; and a towel 4 was given Him; and when He had washed Himself, He wiped His face with it. And His image having been imprinted upon the linen ...
4 Lit., doubled in four."
In the Greek, "towel" is tetradiplon, i.e. tetra "four" + diplon "doubled," and "linen" is sindon, a large linen sheet[11]. The earliest Greek manuscript of the Acts of Thaddaeus which mentions an image of Jesus having been imprinted on a tetradiplon which was also a sindon, dates from the 9th/10th century, and derives from a 6th/7th century original[12]. So the above is proof beyond reasonable doubt that the Shroud was already in existence as the Mandylion/Image of Edessa `four-doubled' in the 6th/7th century, at least six centuries before its earliest 13th century radiocarbon date!

Notes
1. This post is copyright. Permission is granted 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 post. [return]
2. Wilson, I., 1979, "The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ?," [1978], Image Books: New York NY, Revised edition, p.307 n.16; Drews, R., 1984, "In Search of the Shroud of Turin: New Light on Its History and Origins," Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham MD, p.36; Wilson, I., 1986, "The Evidence of the Shroud," Guild Publishing: London, p.112; Iannone, J.C., 1998, "The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: New Scientific Evidence," St Pauls: Staten Island NY, pp.104-105; Wilson, 1998, pp.152-153; Antonacci, M., 2000, "Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence," M. Evans & Co: New York NY, pp.132-133; Wilson, I. & Schwortz, B., 2000, "The Turin Shroud: The Illustrated Evidence," Michael O'Mara Books: London, pp.110-111; Wilson, I., 2010, "The Shroud: The 2000-Year-Old Mystery Solved," Bantam Press: London, pp.140-141. [return]
3. Jones, S.E., 2016, Email to Ian Wilson, "Re: What was the date of your `Secondo Pia' discovery?," 11 December 2016 7:51 PM. [return]
4. Scavone, D.C., 1989, "The Shroud of Turin: Opposing Viewpoints," Greenhaven Press: San Diego CA, p.75; Wilson, 1991, p.136; Wilson, 1998, pp.150-151; Wilson & Schwortz, 2000, p.109. [return]
5. Wilson, 2010, plate 22b. [return]
6. Wilson, 2010, p.112. [return]
7. Pfeiffer, H., 1983, "The Shroud of Turin and the Face of Christ in Paleochristian, Byzantine and Western Medieval Art: Part I," Shroud Spectrum International, Issue #9, December, pp.7-20, 8; Bulst, W., 1989, "Some Important Dates in the Early History of the Turin Shroud," Shroud News, No 54, August, pp.10-17, 14; Wilson, 1991, pp.136, 175. [return]
8. "Gradac: Annunciation: Fresco, northwest view of the Holy Mandylion," Index of Christian Art:, Princeton University, N.D. [return]
9. Extract from Latendresse, M., 2010, "Shroud Scope: Durante 2002 Vertical," Sindonology.org. [return]
10. Wilson, I., 2016, Email to Stephen Jones, "Re: What was the date of your `Secondo Pia' discovery?," 12 December 2016, 8:08 AM. [return]
11. Scavone, 1989, p.82; Scavone, D.C., 2002, "Joseph of Arimathea, The Holy Grail & the Edessa Icon," BSTS Newsletter, No. 56, December; Guscin, M., 2009, "The Image of Edessa," Brill: Leiden, Netherlands & Boston MA, p.146; Wilson, 2010, p.140-141. [return]
12. 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.54-55; Scavone, 2002; Guscin, 2009, p.145; Wilson, 2010, p.140; de Wesselow, 2012, p.186. [return]

Posted: 20 January 2017. Updated: 21 February 2022.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

"Editorial and Contents," Shroud of Turin News, December 2016

Shroud of Turin News - December 2016
© Stephen E. Jones
[1]

[Previous: November 2016, part #2] [Next: January 2017, part #1]

This (belatedly) is the "Editorial and Contents," part #1 of the December 2016 issue of my Shroud of Turin News. Following this editorial, I will add excerpts from Shroud-related December 2016 news articles (if any) in separate posts, linked back to this post, with the articles' words in bold to distinguish them from mine. Click on a link below to go to that article. Articles not yet linked are planned to be commented on in this issue.

Contents:
Editorial


Editorial

Rex Morgan's Shroud News: My scanning and word-processing of issues of Rex Morgan's Shroud News issues provided by Ian Wilson, and emailing them to Barrie Schwortz for him to convert to PDFs and add to his online Shroud News archive, continued in December up to issue #65, June 1991 [Right (enlarge)]. Issues in that archive are now up to #61, October 1990.



Posts: In December I blogged only 4 new posts (latest uppermost): "Negative #19: The man on the Shroud: The evidence is overwhelming that the Turin Shroud is authentic!," "Chronology of the Turin Shroud: Sixth century," "`Life in the post-truth age,' Shroud of Turin News, November 2016," "`Editorial and Contents,' Shroud of Turin News, November 2016,"

Updates to my posts in the background in December included: "Chronology of the Turin Shroud: Fifth century," "c. 490 The Gelasian Decree, attributed to Pope Gelasius I (r.492-496), dismissed the correspondence between Edessa's King Abgar V and Jesus [see "50"] as apocryphal."

Books: In December, following a tip from Ian Wilson (to be explained in my next post) I ordered and received the book, Roberts, A. & Donaldson, J., eds, 1951, "The Ante-Nicene Fathers: The Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325," Vol. VIII, Eerdmans: Grand Rapids MI, Reprinted 1974, because it "has translations of the New Testament Apocrypha" including, the "Acts of the Holy Apostle Thaddaeus." In the latter at page 558 it has this very significant paragraph and footnote:

"And Ananias [Abgar V's courier], having gone and given the letter, was carefully looking at Christ, but was unable to fix Him in his mind. And He knew as knowing the heart, and asked to wash Himself; and a towel 4 was given Him; and when He had washed Himself, He wiped His face with it. And His image having been imprinted upon the linen ...
4 Lit., doubled in four."
See my "Tetradiplon and the Shroud of Turin," and my next post, "The date of Ian Wilson's tetradiplon = `doubled in four' Shroud experiment."

Pageviews: At midnight on 31 December, Google Analytics [below (enlarge)] gave this blog's "Pageviews all time history" as 670,590 and "Pageviews last month" as 46,130. It also gave the most viewed posts for the month as: "Did you ask radiocarbon dating experts their opinion on this?," Nov 3, 2016 - 277; "Superficial #18: The man on the Shroud: The evidence is overwhelming that the Turin Shroud is authentic!," Nov 11, 2016 - 248; "Medieval photography: Nicholas Allen," Aug 7, 2016 - 241; "Chronology of the Turin Shroud: Second century," Aug 5, 2016 - 207; "Life in the post-truth age," Shroud of Turin News, November 2016," Dec 6, 2016 - 195. As can be seen there was a huge jump in "Pageviews last month" in December: 46,130 compared to 13,771 in November! I assume that it was due to the free publicity in the article, "Life in the post-truth age," The Telegram, Pam Frampton, November 19, 2016, where Ms Frampton cited a prime example of "post-truth" as:

"A blog asserting the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin has 616,999 page views, even though that piece of cloth has been proven to be a forgery."!


Notes:
1. This post is copyright. Permission is granted to extract or quote from any part of it (but not the whole post), provided the extract or quote includes a reference citing my name, its title, its date, and a hyperlink back to it. [return]

Posted 19 January 2017. Updated 4 November 2023.