Thursday, October 4, 2018

Open letter to Professor Christopher Ramsey

© Stephen E. Jones[1]

This is my promised open letter to Oxford Radiocarbon Laboratory's Professor Christopher Bronk Ramsey, emailed to him on 6 November 2018 with a brief covering letter containing a link to it. Then also on 6 November I airmailed to him a print out this post. See Shroud of Turin News, October 2018. To date (8 June 2024), Prof. Ramsey has not responded to, or even acknowledged, this open letter, which he must have received!


Professor Christopher Ramsey
Director of Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit
1 South Parks Road,
OXFORD, OX1 3TG
United Kingdom

Date: 6 November 2018

Professor Ramsey,

My name is Stephen E. Jones and I am the owner of the The Shroud of Turin blog.

As you would be aware, 13 October 2018 was the 30th anniversary of the near-simultaneous announcement in the British Museum, London and in Turin, that three radiocarbon dating laboratories at Arizona, Zurich and Oxford, had dated the Shroud of Turin to 1260-1390[2].

[Above (enlarge): From left to right, Prof. E. Hall (Oxford), Dr M. Tite (British Museum) and Dr R. Hedges (Oxford) announcing on 13 October 1988 in the British Museum, London, that the Shroud of Turin had been radiocarbon dated to "1260-1390!"[3].]

Then on 16 February 1989, a report in the science journal Nature confirmed that the Shroud's radiocarbon date was "mediaeval ... 1260-1390"[4].

You were a member of Oxford laboratory's team which dated the Shroud[5] and as "C.R. Bronk" were a signatory to that Nature paper[6]. You subsequently became Director of the Oxford radiocarbon dating laboratory[7].

In 2008 you published an article about the Shroud on the Oxford laboratory's website in which you acknowledged:

"There is a lot of other evidence that suggests to many that the Shroud is older than the radiocarbon dates allow and so further research is certainly needed. It is important that ... experts assess and reinterpret some of the other evidence. Only by doing this will people be able to arrive at a coherent history of the Shroud which takes into account and explains all of the available scientific and historical information" (my emphasis)[8].
As you must know, one of those items of evidence that the Shroud is older than the radiocarbon dates allow is the Pray Codex[9]. The codex was named after Gyorgy Pray (1723-1801) a Hungarian Jesuit professor of theology[10] who discovered it in 1770[11]. The codex, kept in the Budapest National Library[12], contains the oldest written work in the Hungarian language[13], and is dated 1192-95[14].

The codex also contains four large pen and ink drawings[15], which from their style, may be even earlier-the middle of the twelfth century[16]. One of those drawings, fol. 28, depicts two scenes, one above the other: the entombment of Jesus on Easter Friday (upper) and the visit to the Tomb of three of Jesus' women disciples on Easter Sunday (lower)[17] (see below).

[Above (enlarge): "The Entombment" (upper) and "Visit to the Sepulchre" (lower) in fol. 28 of the Hungarian Pray Codex (1192-95)[18].

The upper scene of fol. 28 (above) contains the following seven correspondences with the Shroud:

  1. Jesus is lying in a shroud-like pose[19], which was uncommon in the art of that period[20].
  2. He is completely naked front and back[21] (unique in the 12th century[22]).
  3. He is about to be wrapped in a double body length shroud[23].
  4. Jesus' hands are crossed, right over left, awkwardly at the wrists, covering his genitals[24].
  5. His fingers are unnaturally long[25].
  6. Jesus' hands have four fingers each but no thumbs[26].
  7. Red marks in Jesus' scalp and forehead, match the crown of thorns puncture marks and the `reversed 3' bloodstain on the Shroud[27] (see below [28 & 29]).

The lower scene of fol. 28 (above) contains the following further three correspondences with the Shroud:

  1. The sarcophagus lid (which together with the sarcophagus represents the empty tomb (Mk 16:1-6)[30]), has a representation of the Shroud's herringbone weave pattern[31].
  2. Red zig-zag lines in the sarcophagus lid represent the blood trickles down on the Shroudman's arms[32].
  3. Two patterns of four and five tiny circles in the sarcophagus lid and sarcophagus, represent the two basic patterns of four and five `poker holes' on the Shroud[33] (see below [34 & 35]).

Another of the four drawings, fol. 28v (below), has a further four

[Above (enlarge): "Christ enthroned with the Angel Holding the Instruments of Torture": fol. 28v of the Pray Codex[36].]

correspondences with the Shroud:

  1. The nail wound in Jesus' right hand (left facing on the Shroud) is in his wrist, while its counterpart in the other hand (hidden on the Shroud) is in Jesus' palm (as per Christian tradition)[37].
  2. A red elliptical mark on Jesus' right chest is about the same size, shape and location (except it is on the left-facing side) as the spear in the side wound on the Shroud)[38].
  3. Jesus is clothed in a long shroud, the ends of which match those in the entombment scene above (see below insets)[39].
  4. An angel is holding a cross in which are three nails, corresponding to the three nail wounds on the Shroud[40)] (one in each wrist and one through both feet[41)].

As can be seen above, there are at least fourteen (14) correspondences between the drawings on two folios of the Pray Codex and the Shroud! Clearly this many `coincidences' cannot be the results of chance[42]. As Nobel prize-winning geneticist Jérôme Lejeune (1926-1994), who in 1993 was granted a rare private viewing of the Pray Codex in Budapest[43] concluded:

"Such precise details are not to be found on any other known [Christ] image - except the Shroud that is in Turin. One is therefore forced to conclude that the artist of the Pray Manuscript had before his eyes ... some model which possessed all the characteristics of the Shroud which is in Turin"[44] (my emphasis).
So these fourteen correspondences between the no later than 1195 Pray Codex and the Shroud alone is proof beyond reasonable doubt that the Shroud existed at least 65 years before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date of the Shroud![45]. And then at least 100 years would have to be subtracted from 1195 (i.e. 1095) to allow for the development of a tradition that the cloth portrayed by the artist was the burial shroud of Jesus[46].

Then, as agnostic art historian Thomas de Wesselow, pointed out, given the close links between Hungary's King Bela III (r.1172–1196) and the Byzantine Empire[47], Bela having spent six years (1163–1169) as a young man in the imperial court at Constantinople[48], "it can hardly be doubted that the artist saw the relic in Constantinople"[49].

But then the Shroud in Constantinople was the Image of Edessa[50], doubled four times (see below) and fastened to a board[51], which had arrived from Edessa in 944[52], more than three centuries (316 years) before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date of the Shroud[53], according to the following evidence:

  • There are historical records of the Image of Edessa arriving in Constantinople from Edessa on 15 August 944, amid great celebrations[54]. But there is no record of the Shroud (sindon), which was in Constantinople (see below), arriving in Constantinople[55]. This can only be plausibly explained by the Image of Edessa and the Shroud being one and the same[56].

  • There is no record of the Image of Edessa/Mandylion leaving Constantinople or ceasing to exist-it just quietly faded away[57]. Again this can only be plausibly explained by the Image of Edessa and the Shroud being one and the same[58].

  • From soon after the Image of Edessa/Mandylion arrived in Constantinople, there began references to what can only be the full-length Shroud. On 16 August 944, the day after the Image of Edessa/Mandylion arrived in Constantinople, Gregory Referendarius, the Archdeacon of Hagia Sophia cathedral, preached a sermon in which he said that the Edessa Cloth bore not only "sweat from the face of the ruler of life, falling like drops of blood" but also "drops from his own side ... [of] blood and water" (my emphasis)[59]. In 958 Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII (r. 913-959) wrote in a letter of encouragement to his army campaigning around Tarsus, that he was sending them holy water consecrated by relics of the Passion, including, "the sindon [shroud - Mt 27:59; Mk 15:46; Lk 23:53] which God wore"[60]. In c. 960 the Image of Edessa was called a sindon in the Synaxarion by Symeon Metaphrastes (fl. c.950-c.990)[61]. In 977 a group of refugee monks from Damascus set up in Rome a cult of St Alexis of Rome (d.412), who became a beggar at Edessa after hearing of its cloth bearing, "an image of our Lord Jesus Christ made without human hand on a sindon"[62]. In c. 980 Leo the Deacon (c. 950-992), a Byzantine historian and a deacon in the imperial palace[63], wrote an eyewitness history from the reign of Byzantine Emperor Romanus II (r. 959-963) to the early part of the reign of Basil II (r. 976-1025)[64]. Leo described the Image as being a peplos, which was a full-length robe[65]!

  • In Constantinople's 945 Monthly Lection the Image of Edessa was described as tetradiplon[66]. Edessa's seventh century Acts of Thaddeus also used the same Greek word tetradiplon of the Image of Edessa[67]. Those are the only two places in all known Greek literature where the word tetradiplon occurs and in both it was used of the Image of Edessa[68]. Tetradiplon is a compound of two Greek words, tetra "four" and diplos "doubled," hence "four doubled"[69] (see below [70]). In 1966 Ian Wilson proved experimentally that the Shroud is the Image
    of Edessa, "four-doubled"[71], by taking a full-length photograph of the Shroud, and keeping the man's face uppermost, folding the Shroud photograph in half, then folding it in half again, and folding it in half again[72]. The result is that the man's face is "disembodied, on a landscape-aspect cloth, exactly as it appears on ... Edessa cloth copies"[73]. And when looked at from the side, as it evidently was possible to do with the Image of Edessa fastened to a board, it is indeed four doublings[74]. Raking light photographs of the Shroud taken by STURP in 1978 confirmed that the Shroud had indeed been folded for long periods in eight layers[75]!

  • A tenth-century manuscript, Codex Vossianus Latinus Q 69[76], preserved in the University of Leiden in the Netherlands[77], mentions an eighth-century Syrian report that Jesus had left an imprint of his whole body on a cloth which was in Edessa's Hagia Sophia cathedral[78]. Adding to Jesus' legendary reply to Edessa's King Abgar V (r. 4BC-AD7, 12-40)[79], the codex reads: "... If you really want to see what my face looks like, I am sending you this linen cloth, on which you will be able to see not only the form of my face but the divinely transformed state of my whole body"[80].

  • In c. 1070 John Skylitzes (c.1040s–c.1101)[81], depicted the transfer of the Image from Edessa to Constantinople, as the full-length Shroud behind the face-only Image[82] (see below)! [Correction: It was not Skylitzes himself who painted the above depiction. It is in the 12th century Madrid manuscript which contains 574 miniatures (including the above) illustrating Skylitzes' Synopsis of Histories. The miniatures may be copies of earlier Byzantine images! [see 21Feb21]].

  • Nicholas Mesarites (c. 1163–aft 1216), a former keeper of the Imperial relic collection in Constantinople's Pharos Chapel[83], recounted his 1201 speech in defence of the chapel's relics against a mob intent on looting them during a palace revolution[84]: "In this chapel Christ rises again, and the sindon with the burial linens is the clear proof ... defying decay, because it wrapped the mysterious [aperilepton [85]], naked dead body after the Passion"[86]. Mesarites' descriptors of this sindon: aperilepton = "without outline"[87] and "naked dead body"[88] can only mean that this was the Shroud[89]!

  • Vatican Library codex 5696[90], dated before 1130[91], contains a Latin update of an original Greek[92] Easter Friday sermon by Pope Stephen III (r. 768-772), preached in 769[93]. The 12th century (or earlier[94]) interpolation into Stephen III's 8th century mention of the Abgar V legend[95], were the words in square brackets: "Since you wish to look upon my physical face, I am sending you a likeness [not only] of my face [but of my whole body divinely transformed] on a cloth" (my emphasis)[96]. Ordericus Vitalis (1075–c.1142)[97], an English monk living in Normandy[98], in his History of the Church, written by 1141[99], recounted an updated version of the Abgar V legend[100]: "Abgar the ruler reigned at Edessa; the Lord Jesus sent him a sacred letter and a beautiful linen cloth he had wiped the sweat from his face with. The image of the Saviour was miraculously imprinted on to it and shines out, displaying the form and size of the Lord's body to all who look on it" (my emphasis)[101]. In 1171 historian William of Tyre (c.1130–1186)[102], as Archbishop of Tyre[103], accompanied a state visit of King Amalric I of Jerusalem (r. 1163-74) to Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (r.1143-80) in Constantinople[104]. William recorded that his party was shown "the most precious evidences of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ" including "the shroud" (sindon)[105].

  • Gervase of Tilbury (c.1150 – c.1228)[106], an English born but Rome-educated[107], canon lawyer, statesman and writer[108], referring in his widely read Otia Imperialia, written between 1210 and 1214[109], to the story of the cloth upon which Jesus had impressed an image of His face and sent it to Edessa's King Abgar V[110], added that: "... it is handed down from archives of ancient authority that the Lord prostrated himself full length on most white linen, and so by divine power the most beautiful likeness not only of the face, but also of the whole body of the Lord was impressed upon the cloth" (my emphasis)[111]. This is one of a number (see above Codex Vossianus, Vatican Library codex 5696 and Ordericus Vitalis) of updated versions of the Abgar V story which substituted for Jesus pressing His face onto a cloth to explain the Image of Edessa, Christ laying his body onto a cloth to produce a likeness of His whole body[112]! It is self-evidently preposterous that Jesus would have in life, let alone publicly, laid His naked body on a cloth to imprint His image on it[113]. So these can only be 10th-13th century references to the Shroud in Constantinople, beginning three centuries before the earliest 1260 Shroud radiocarbon date, and mentioned in archives which were "ancient" even then!

  • In 1216 French Fourth Crusader knight Robert de Clari (c.1170-1216)[114] wrote a chronicle in Old French from 1205 to 1216 titled, The Conquest of Constantinople[115]. In that eye-witness account of the period from 1203 inside the walls of Constantinople[116] until its sack in 1204, de Clari wrote: "... there was another of the churches which they call My Lady St. Mary of Blachernae, where was kept the shroud [sydoines] in which Our Lord had been wrapped, which stood up straight every Friday so that the figure of Our Lord could be plainly seen there, and no one, either Greek or French, ever knew what became of this shroud when the city was taken" (my emphasis)[117]. The Old French word "sydoines" is singular and the equivalent of the Greek sindon[118], the word used in the Gospels for the linen sheet in which Jesus' body was wrapped (see above)[119]. Also, the Old French word "figure" means "bodily form"[120]. So Robert de Clari saw the Shroud bearing Jesus' bodily image, in Constantinople in 1203-4[121], more than a half-century before its earliest 1260 radiocarbon date[122]!
Moreover, as we saw above, the Image of Edessa/Shroud "four-doubled" arrived in Constantinople from Edessa in 944. And the Image/Shroud had been continuously in Edessa since 544[123]. That is more than seven centuries (716 years) before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date of the Shroud!

No amount of "further research"[125] or statistical manipulation[126] can reconcile a gap of 316 years (1260-944) between the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date of the Shroud and the Shroud's documented existence in Constantinople from 944-1204, let alone 716 years (1260-544) between the Image of Edessa/Shroud's documented existence in Edessa from at least 544[124].

It is not necessary for Shroud pro-authenticists to provide an explanation of why the 1st century Shroud returned a 13th-14th century radiocarbon date[127] (although such an explanation can be given). As you would well know, it is common for radiocarbon dating results to be rejected as "rogue" when they conflict with historical or archeological evidence[128], even when the reason for the conflict is not known[129]. While she doesn't use the term "rogue," Dr. Sheridan Bowman, one of the British Museum's signatories to the 1989 Nature paper[130] (correction: that should be Zurich laboratory's), and the successor to Dr. Michael Tite as the British Museum's Keeper of the Department of Scientific Research[131], confirmed that radiocarbon dates are accepted or rejected by archaeologists depending on whether they conform to the archeological evidence (not the other way round):

"Rejecting radiocarbon results In the datelists published in the journal Radiocarbon, submitters provide a brief comment on how the radiocarbon results compare with the archaeology and therefore with expectation. Comments such as 'archaeologically acceptable', while not very informative, are less frustrating than the bald 'archaeologically unacceptable' statements. Often there is no discussion of these 'unacceptable' results; they are simply rejected by the archaeologist when evaluating the chronology of the site"[132].
In conclusion, as we have seen above, the Shroud of Turin existed not just 65 years, nor only 316 years, but at least 716 years before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date of the Shroud! Therefore, the 1260-1390 radiocarbon date of the Shroud of Turin must be wrong and cannot be salvaged.

I therefore respectfully request that you, Professor Ramsey, commence a process of consultation with your relevant colleagues. The result of which will be a joint communication to Nature advising that the 1260-1390 date of the Shroud in its 16 February 1989 paper, "Radiocarbon Dating of the Shroud of Turin," must be wrong, since it conflicts with the overwhelming weight of the historical and artistic evidence, and that therefore the paper be retracted.

Stephen E. Jones
The Shroud of Turin blog

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. Garza-Valdes, L.A., "The DNA of God?," Hodder & Stoughton: London, 1998, p.9; Wilson, I., 1998, "The Blood and the Shroud: New Evidence that the World's Most Sacred Relic is Real," Simon & Schuster: New York NY, pp.6-7; Wilson, I., 2010, "The Shroud: The 2000-Year-Old Mystery Solved," Bantam Press: London, p.89; de Wesselow, T., 2012, "The Sign: The Shroud of Turin and the Secret of the Resurrection," Viking: London, p.167. [return]
3. Wilson, 1998, plate 3b. [return]
4. Damon, P.E., et al., 1989, "Radiocarbon Dating of the Shroud of Turin," Nature, Vol. 337, 16 February, pp.611-615, 611. [return]
5. Gove, H.E., 1996, "Relic, Icon or Hoax?: Carbon Dating the Turin Shroud," Institute of Physics Publishing: Bristol UK, p.188. [return]
6. Damon, et al., 1989, p.611. [return]
7. "Christopher Bronk Ramsey," Wikipedia, 13 October 2017. [return]
8. Ramsey, C.B., 2008, "Shroud of Turin," Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, 23 March. [return]
9. "Pray Codex," Wikipedia, 1 September 2018. [return]
10. "György Pray," Wikipedia, 16 January 2018. [return]
11. Guerrera, V., 2001, "The Shroud of Turin: A Case for Authenticity," TAN: Rockford IL, p.104; "Pray Codex," Wikipedia, 1 September 2018. [return]
12. Wilson, I., 1991, "Holy Faces, Secret Places: The Quest for Jesus' True Likeness," Doubleday: London, p.150; Wilson, 1998, pp.145-146; Guerrera, 2001, p.104; Wilson, 2010, p.183; "Pray Codex," Wikipedia, 1 September 2018. [return]
13. Wilson, 1991, p.150; Wilson, 1998, p.146; Guerrera, 2001, p.104; "Pray Codex," Wikipedia, 1 September 2018. [return]
14. Berkovits, I., 1969, "Illuminated Manuscripts in Hungary, XI-XVI Centuries," Horn, Z., transl., West, A., rev., Irish University Press: Shannon, Ireland, p.19; Wilson, 1991, p.151; Wilson, 1998, p.146; Guerrera, 2001, p.104; "Pray Codex," Wikipedia, 1 September 2018 [return]
15. Berkovits, 1969, p.19; Wilson, 1991, p.151; Guerrera, 2001, p.104; Oxley, M., 2010, "The Challenge of the Shroud: History, Science and the Shroud of Turin," AuthorHouse: Milton Keynes UK, p.37. [return]
16. Berkovits, 1969, p.19; Wilson, 1991, p.151. [return]
17. Berkovits, 1969, p.19; Wilson, I. & Schwortz, B., 2000, "The Turin Shroud: The Illustrated Evidence," Michael O'Mara Books: London, p.115; Guerrera, 2001, p.104; Oxley, 2010, p.37; de Wesselow, 2012, p.178. [return]
18. Berkovits, 1969, pl. III. [return]
19. Wilson, 1998, p.1466; Wilson & Schwortz, 2000, p.116; Oxley, 2010, p.37; Wilson, 2010, pp.182-183; de Wesselow, 2012, p.179. [return]
20. de Wesselow, 2012, p.179. [return]
21. Iannone, J.C., 1998, "The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: New Scientific Evidence," St Pauls: Staten Island NY, p.155; Wilson, 1998, p.146; Wilson & Schwortz, 2000, p.116; Guerrera, 2001, p.105; Oxley, 2010, p.37; Wilson, 2010, p.183; de Wesselow, 2012, p.179. [return]
22. Wilson, 1991, p.151. [return]
23. Guerrera, 2001, p.105; Wilson, 2010, p.184; de Wesselow, 2012, p.178. [return]
24. Wilson, I., 1979, "The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Cloth of Jesus?," [1978], Image Books: New York NY, Revised edition, p.160; Iannone, 1998, p.155; Guerrera, 2001, p.105; Wilson, 2010, p.183; de Wesselow, 2012, p.179. [return]
25. Guerrera, 2001, p.105. [return]
26. Iannone, 1998, p.155; Wilson, 1998, p.146; Guerrera, 2001, p.105; Oxley, 2010, p.37; Wilson, 2010, p.183; de Wesselow, 2012, p.179. [return]
27. Wilson, 1998, p.146; Guerrera, 2001, p.105; Oxley, 2010, p.38; Wilson, 2010, p.183; de Wesselow, 2012, p.179. [return]
28. Extract from Latendresse, M., 2010, "Shroud Scope: Face Only Vertical," Sindonology.org. [return]
29. Berkovits, 1969, pl. III (rotated right 90 degrees and enlarged). [return]
30. Wilson, 1998, p.146. [return]
31. Iannone, 1998, p.155; Guerrera, 2001, p.105; Oxley, 2010, p.38; Wilson, 2010, p.184; de Wesselow, 2012, pp.179-180. [return]
32. Scavone, D.C., 1998, "A Hundred Years of Historical Studies on the Turin Shroud," Paper presented at the Third International Congress on the Shroud of Turin, 6 June 1998, Turin, Italy, in Minor, M., Adler, A.D. & Piczek, I., eds., 2002, "The Shroud of Turin: Unraveling the Mystery: Proceedings of the 1998 Dallas Symposium," Alexander Books: Alexander NC, pp.58-70, 64. [return]
33. Iannone, 1998, pp.154-155; Wilson, 1998, p.146; Wilson & Schwortz, 2000, p.115; Guerrera, 2001, p.105; Oxley, 2010, p.38; Wilson, 2010, p.184; de Wesselow, 2012, p.180. [return]
34. Berkovits, 1969, pl. III (enlarged). [return]
35. Latendresse, M., 2010, "Shroud Scope: Durante 2002: Vertical," Sindonology.org. [return]
36. Berkovits, 1969, pl. IV (cropped). [return]
37. Wilson, 1998, p.146; Guerrera, 2001, p.105. [return]
38. I have been unable to find any reference to this. [return]
39. I have been unable to find any reference to this. [return]
40. Wilson, I., 1995, "News From Around The World," BSTS Newsletter, No. 39, January, pp.4-13, 5; Guerrera, 2001, p.105. [return]
41. Barbet, P., "A Doctor at Calvary," [1950a], Earl of Wicklow, transl., Image Books: Garden City NY, 1953, Reprinted, 1963, p.128. [return]
42. de Wesselow, 2012, pp.179-180. [return]
43. Lejeune, J., in Pacl, S.M., 1993, "All those carbon 14 errors," 30 Days, No 9, 1993, in Shroud News, No 80, December, pp.3-8, 6. [return]
44. Lejeune, J., 1994, "Unfolding the Shroud," The Catholic World Report, July, pp. 51-52, 52, in Guerrera, 2001, pp.104-105, 169 n.54; Wilson, 1998, p.147; Oxley, 2010, p.38. [return]
45. Wilson & Schwortz, 2000, p.115. [return]
46. Maloney, P.C., 1998, "Researching the Shroud of Turin: 1898 to the Present: A Brief Survey of Findings and Views," in Minor, Adler, & Piczek, 2002, pp.16-47, 33. [return]
47. de Wesselow, 2012, p.178. [return]
48. Ibid. [return]
49. de Wesselow, 2012, p.180. [return]
50. Scavone, 1998, p.64; Scavone, D.C., "Underscoring the Highly Significant Historical Research of the Shroud," in Tribbe, F.C., 2006, "Portrait of Jesus: The Illustrated Story of the Shroud of Turin," Paragon House Publishers: St. Paul MN, Second edition, p.xxvii; de Wesselow, 2012, p.181. [return]
51. Wilson, I., "The Shroud's History Before the 14th Century," 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, pp.31-49, 44; Wilson, 1979, pp.120-121; Drews, R., 1984, "In Search of the Shroud of Turin: New Light on Its History and Origins," Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham MD, p.35; Wilson, I., 1986, "The Evidence of the Shroud," Guild Publishing: London, p.112; Wilson, 1998, p.152; Antonacci, M., 2000, "Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence," M. Evans & Co: New York NY, p.131; de Wesselow, 2012, p.383 n.55. [return]
52. Guerrera, 2001, pp.4-5; Tribbe, 2006, pp.24-25. [return]
53. Wilson, 1991, p.3; Wilson, 1998, pp.125, 141; Wilson & Schwortz, 2000, p.113; Wilson, 2010, p.108de Wesselow, 2012, p.178. [return]
54. Maher, R.W., 1986, "Science, History, and the Shroud of Turin," Vantage Press: New York NY, p.92; Scavone, D.C., 1989, "The Shroud of Turin: Opposing Viewpoints," Greenhaven Press: San Diego CA, p.84; Wilson, 2010, p.300. [return]
55. Scavone, 1989, p.87; Wilson, 1991, pp.153, 155. [return]
56. Scavone, 1989, pp.86-87. [return]
57. Maher, 1986, p.93. [return]
58. Scavone, D.C., "The History of the Turin Shroud to the 14th C.," 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.171-204, 192. [return]
59. Wilson, 1991, p.143; Petrosillo, O. & Marinelli, E., 1996, "The Enigma of the Shroud: A Challenge to Science," Scerri, L.J., transl., Publishers Enterprises Group: Malta, pp.176-177; Wilson, 1998, pp.154, 268; 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.58; Guerrera, 2001, p.5; Oxley, 2010, p.36; de Wesselow, 2012, p.185; Fanti, G. & Malfi, P., 2015, "The Shroud of Turin: First Century after Christ!," Pan Stanford: Singapore, p.57. [return]
60. Wilson, 1991, p.153; Wilson, 1998, pp.268-269; Whiting, B., 2006, "The Shroud Story," Harbour Publishing: Strathfield NSW, Australia, p.257; Wilson, 2010, p.169; de Wesselow, 2012, p.177. [return]
61. Wilson, 2010, p.177; de Wesselow, 2012, p.186. [return]
62. Wilson, 1998, p.269; "Alexius of Rome: Veneration," Wikipedia, 25 July 2018. [return]
63. "Leo the Deacon," Wikipedia, 25 July 2018. [return]
64. Ibid. [return]
65. Wilson, 1998, p.152; Antonacci, 2000, p.136; Oxley, 2010, p.36; de Wesselow, 2012, p.383 n.53. [return]
66. Drews, 1984, p.40; Iannone, 1998, pp.105, 115; Antonacci, 2000, p.132. [return]
67. Drews, 1984, p.36; Antonacci, 2000, p.132; Guerrera, 2001, pp.2-3. [return]
68. Drews, 1984, p.36; Antonacci, 2000, pp.132-133. [return]
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Posted 4 October 2018. Updated: 23 August 2024.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear professor Stephen Jones

No doubt this picture of John Skilitzes depicting general John Curcuas delivering the Mandylion to byzantine emperor Romanus Lecapenus is one more piece of evidence that the Mandylion and the Shroud are nothing but the same relic.
Everyone can see that what the emperor's general is delivering is a long cloth and not a simple towel size piece of fabric as skeptics claim the Mandylion was.
So, ancient art provides us pieces of evidence against 1988 radiocarbon dating of the Shroud.

regards
Antero de Frias Moreira (Centro Português de Sindonologia)

Stephen E. Jones said...

Antero

>Dear professor Stephen Jones

Thanks, but again I am just plain Mr Jones.

>No doubt this picture of John Skilitzes depicting general John Curcuas delivering the Mandylion to byzantine emperor Romanus Lecapenus is one more piece of evidence that the Mandylion and the Shroud are nothing but the same relic.

Agreed. I hope that Prof. Ramsey also agrees. And he will write to Nature asking that the 1989 Nature paper be retracted.

Or at least advises Nature that as a signatory to that paper he no longer agrees with it's claim that "The results provide conclusive evidence that the linen of the Shroud of Turin is mediaeval ... AD 1260-1390."

>Everyone can see that what the emperor's general is delivering is a long cloth and not a simple towel size piece of fabric as skeptics claim the Mandylion was.

It does more than that. It shows the face-only Image of Edessa and behind that is the full-length Shroud!

>So, ancient art provides us pieces of evidence against 1988 radiocarbon dating of the Shroud.

I would put it more strongly, that medieval art, such as the Pray Codex and John Skylitzes' "Surrender of the Mandylion to the Byzantines," proves beyond reasonable doubt that the 1260-1390 radiocarbon date of the Shroud is wrong!

And they cannot wriggle out of it by expanding the two standard deviations 95% confidence level to one standard deviation 68%, because as Table 3 of the Nature paper shows, at 95% the Shroud's radiocarbon date was "AD 1262 - ... 1384" (not 1260-1390), whereas at one standard deviation 68%, it would still be "68% AD 1273 - 1288," i.e. ~1270-1290.

Not only would that be admitting that Bishop of Troyes Pierre d'Arcis (r.1377–1395) was wrong about the Shroud having been "cunningly painted" by an artist exposed by his predecessor Bishop Henri de Poitiers (r.1354–1370); it would still too recent to accommodate the Pray Codex's 1192-5, or Skylitzes' c. 1070 "Surrender of the Mandylion to the Byzantines"!

And then, the Pray Codex and Skylitzes' painting shows the Shroud, as the Image of Edessa "four-doubled" (tetradiplon), was in Constantinople in c. 1070-1195, having arrived there from Edessa in 944, i.e. 316 years before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date at 95% confidence, or 326 years before the earliest 1270 radiocarbon date at 68% confidence.

But then, the Shroud/Image of Edessa had been continuously in Edessa since at least 544, i.e. 716 years before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date at 95% confidence, or 726 years before the earliest 1270 radiocarbon date at 68% confidence!

No amount of statistical manipulation can accommodate that!

It will be interesting to see what Prof. Ramsey does, when confronted with this evidence (which he may already be aware of, from his 2008 "There is a lot of other evidence that suggests to many that the Shroud is older than the radiocarbon dates allow ..." admission).

>regards
Antero de Frias Moreira (Centro Português de Sindonologia)

Stephen E. Jones
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