Gabriel Vial, Turin Shroud Encyclopedia

Copyright © Stephen E. Jones[1]

Newcomers start <here>

[Index #1] [Previous: Barbara Frale #30] [Next: To be advised]

This is the sixth installment of "Gabriel Vial," part #31 of my Turin Shroud Encyclopedia. For more information about this encyclopedia, see part #1. This post will help me write, Chapter 3, "A linen cloth" of my book in progress, "Shroud of Turin: Burial Sheet of Jesus!" See 06Jul17, 03Jun18, 04Apr22, 13Jul22, 8 Nov 22 & 20Jun24).

Vial Gabriel Vial (1916-2005) was the Curator of the International Centre for the Study of Ancient Textiles (CIETA) at the Ancient Textile

[Right (enlarge): Gabriel Vial[KD10].

Museum, Lyon, France[RR05, 189; RR08, 63; WI10, 70].

Radiocarbon dating Vial and Prof. Franco Testore (1925-2018), an Italian textile expert from Turin Polytechnic's Depart-ment of Material Science, were present at the cutting of the radiocarbon dating sample in Turin Cathedral on 21 April 1988[DP89, 611; GH96, 260; GV01, 125]. They had been invited by the Archbishop of Turin, Cardinal Anastasio Ballestrero (r, 1977-89), to be expert witnesses to the cutting of the sample[WI10, 70]. They were also to choose the best place on the Shroud from which to cut off the sample[PM96, 48], and to follow all the operations[PM96, 48]. But when asked by the Cardinal to nominate the place from which the sample was to be taken, neither Vial nor Testore could say where because of their limited knowledge of the Shroud[GV01, 125]. So that decision was made by Turin professors Giovanni Riggi (1935-2008) and Luigi Gonella (1930-2007)[DT12, 166]. Which was to take the sample from the same corner where Prof. Gilbert Raes (1914-2001) had taken his sample in 1973, at the bottom left corner of the frontal image, called "Raes' corner"[GV01, 125], with Riggi doing the cutting[PM96, 62-63; GH96, 276].

The British Museum's Michael Tite (1938-), who was the cordinator of the Shroud's radiocarbon dating[IJ98, 162; GM98, 67; WI98, 6], had asked Prof. Jacques Evin (1937-), Director of the Lyon radiocarbon dating laboratory, among others, to find a 13th-14th century herringbone twill linen cloth, from which a sample could be provided as a control[GV01, 129]. Evin was eventually successful in obtaining from the Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene, in the town of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, in Provence, France, threads from the cope of St. Louis d'Anjou (1274-97)[PM96, 56-57; GV01, 129]. This sample was plain-weave linen, but its gold thread embroidery was herringbone weave and on the sample there was an impression which appeared to be herringbone[WI89, 6; WI98, 186; AM00, 182]. Also, it was only threads, not pieces of cloth, as the other samples were[WI98, 186]. Tite asked Evin to mail the sample to him, but fearing a postal strike, Evin gave the sample to Vial to hand deliver it to Tite, which he did[WI89, 5; GV01, 129], and it became the fourth sample[GV01, 129].

Report Vial took the opportunity to make a very careful examination of the Shroud, which he called "The Document" (see below), and write a technical report on the cloth[VG91, 7; WI10, 70].

[Above (enlarge): Dimensions of parts of the Shroud as measured by Vial[VG91, 7].]

Weave Vial confirmed Vignon's 1938 identification of the Shroud's weave as "3:1 herringbone twill"[VG91, 7].

Dimensions Vial measured the total dimensions of the Shroud as "length 4.30 m x width 1.08 m"[VG91, 7]. Or ~14 ft 1 in. x ~3 ft 6 in. This compares with the latest 442 cm = 14 ft 6 in. average length and 113.35 cm = 3 ft 9 in. average width, during the 2002 Restoration after the Shroud's Holland cloth backing had been removed[LM05].

Two parts Vial found that the Shroud is actually two cloths, what Vial called the "Main piece" (usually called the "main body of the Shroud") and a "Lateral band" (usually called the "Sidestrip" which Vial also calls it). The image lies on the main piece[VG91, 7].

Main piece Vial gives the dimensions of the main piece as "4.30 x 1.08 m"[VG91, 7] but that is an error because that is the total dimensions of the Shroud (see above). In the diagram above Vial gives the width of the main piece as "ca 1.01 m" but that is also an error because 1.08 - 8 - 0.5 cm = 99.5 cm. Since the width of the sidestrip is usually quoted as 8 cm[SR82, 41] and the seam is likely to be about 0.5 cm, either Vial's "1.08 m" width of the Shroud, and/or his "ca. 1.01 cm" width of the main body of the Shroud, is slightly too short.

To be continued in the seventh installment of this post.

Notes:
1. This post is copyright. I grant permission 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 this page. [return]

Bibliography
AM00. Antonacci, M., 2000, "Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence," M. Evans & Co: New York NY.
DP89. Damon, P.E., et al., 1989, "Radiocarbon Dating of the Shroud of Turin," Nature, Vol. 337, 16 February, 611-615.
DT12. de Wesselow, T., 2012, "The Sign: The Shroud of Turin and the Secret of the Resurrection," Viking: London.
GH96. Gove, H.E., 1996, "Relic, Icon or Hoax?: Carbon Dating the Turin Shroud," Institute of Physics Publishing: Bristol UK.
GM98. Guscin, M., 1998, "The Oviedo Cloth," Lutterworth Press: Cambridge UK.
GV01. Guerrera, V., 2001, "The Shroud of Turin: A Case for Authenticity," TAN: Rockford IL.
IJ98. Iannone, J.C., 1998, "The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: New Scientific Evidence," St Pauls: Staten Island NY.
KD10. Koudinoff, D., 2010, "In honour of Gabriel Vial," weavinglesson.blogspot.com, November.
LM05. Latendresse, M., 2005, "Length Measurements on the Shroud of Turin," 16 August.
PM96. Petrosillo, O. & Marinelli, E., 1996, "The Enigma of the Shroud: A Challenge to Science," Scerri, L.J., transl., Publishers Enterprises Group: Malta.
RR05. Rogers, R., 2005, "Studies on the radiocarbon sample from the Shroud of Turin," Thermochimica Acta, Vol. 425, No. 1–2, 20 January, 189-194.
RR08. Rogers, R.N., 2008, "A Chemist's Perspective on the Shroud of Turin," Lulu Press: Raleigh, NC.
RTB. Reference(s) to be provided.
SR82. Schwalbe, L.A. & Rogers, R.N., 1982, "Physics and Chemistry of the Shroud of Turin: A Summary of the 1978 Investigation," Analytica Chimica Acta, No. 135, 3-49.
VG91. Vial, G., 1991, "The Shroud of Turin: A Technical Study," Shroud Spectrum International, No. 38/39, March/June.
WI89. Wilson, I., 1989, "A French Accusation Against Dr. Tite," BSTS Newsletter, No. 22, May, 4-7.
WI98. Wilson, I., 1998, "The Blood and the Shroud: New Evidence that the World's Most Sacred Relic is Real," Simon & Schuster: New York NY.
WI10. Wilson, I., 2010, "The Shroud: The 2000-Year-Old Mystery Solved," Bantam Press: London.

Posted 12 October 2024. Updated 18 October 2024.

Barbara Frale: Turin Shroud Encyclopedia

Copyright © Stephen E. Jones[1]

Newcomers start <here>

[Index #1] [Previous: Report of the 1973 Turin Commission on the Shroud (3) #29] [Next: Gabriel Vial #31]

This is "Barbara Frale," part #30 of my Turin Shroud Encyclopedia. For more information about this encyclopedia, see part #1. This post will help me write, Chapter 7, "Other Marks and Images" of my book in progress, "Shroud of Turin: Burial Sheet of Jesus!" [Right (enlarge[SU91]): The planned cover of my book.]. See 06Jul17; 03Jun18; 04Apr22; 13Jul22; 8 Nov 22 & 20Jun24). See my "The Shroud of Turin: 2.6. The other marks (6): Writing: Barbara Frale."

Frale Barbara Frale (1970-) is an Italian paleographer[BFW] (expert in ancient writings), and a researcher at the Vatican Secret Archives[FN09; OR09; BFW]. Frale has

[Left (enlarge): Barbara Frale (Maverick House).]

written books about the Templars[BFW] and a 2009 book about the Shroud in Italian, La Sindone di Gesu Nazareno ("The Shroud of Jesus of Nazareth")[OR09. See below]. The latter book has not been published in English, as far as I know. So, since I cannot read Italian, I must rely on English articles about Frale's book. However, I do have Frale's Italian book and I will post photographs from it.

[Right: Cover of Frale's book, "La sindone di Gesù Nazareno" (2009).]

This post will be primarily about Frale's claim to have discovered on the Shroud, ink writing from a Roman papyrus death/burial certificate of Jesus, which was glued to the Shroud where it covered the Shroudman's face!

Computer ehancement Frale based her burial certificate theory on the computer enhancement of Shroud photographs by nuclear physicist Andre Marion (1942-2009) and his graduate student, Anne-Laure Courage, at the Institut d'Optique d'Orsay, Paris[LR09]. See 04Jun13. Frale has a photograph at plate 11 of her book (below) of Marion and

[Above (enlarge): "11. Traces of writing in Greek and Latin identified by Andre Marion and Anne-Laure Courage: a) NNAZAPENOE; b) (I)HEOY(E); c) INNECE(M d) PEZ(co); e) KIA-; ΑΔΑ-; g) SB" (Frale-translated by Google). Photograph at plate 11 in Frale's book showing the words that Marion and Courage claimed they found on the Shroud by computer enhancement. But because some of their words were vertical, Marion and Courage proposed that they had been on two U-shaped wooden frames which held Jesus' head in position[GM99]. This was contrary to John 19:30 where  Jesus "bowed his head" and died[GV01, 108] (amongst many other things), so Frale has converted Marion and Courage's U-shaped wooden frames into a burial certificate! But as can be seen, it would be larger than necessary - by my scaling from a Shroud photograph[LM10], it would have been about 39.7 cm (15.6 in) wide and 45.3 cm (17.8 in.) tall. And surely no burial certificate would have a combination of horizontal and vertical writing!].

Courage' photograph at plate 17 of their French book, "Nouvelle Decouvertes sur Le Suaire de Turin" (1997). Frale counted at least 11 words in her study of enhanced images produced by French scientists (Marion and Courage)[FN09]. Frale stated that, "My research begins where that of the French researchers (Marion and Courage) ends"[LR09]. Frale named Marion and Courage in her claim that, "Marion and Courage were not paleographists and could not make much sense out of those words"[LR09].

Words Frale claimed that  computer enhancement of photographs of the Shroud revealed extremely faint words[LR09; SN09]. That the letters are barely visible to the naked eye[OR09]. The words are fragmented and scattered on and around the image's head, crisscrossing the cloth vertically and horizontally[FN09]. According to Frale, the words are Greek, Aramaic and Latin[FN09; SN09] in archaic script[SN09]. Many of the letters are missing[OR09]. Like the image of the man on the Shroud, the words are in reverse and only make sense in negative Shroud photographs[OR09]. They included the Greek words "(I)esou(s) Nnazarennos," i.e. "Jesus the Nazarene"[FN09; LR09; OR09; SN09], and "(T)iber(iou)," which Frale interprets as "Tiberius," the Roman emperor at the time of Christ's crucifixion[FN09; SN09]. Frale claimed that scholars first noticed that there was writing on the Shroud in 1978[OR09], presumably STURP. But, according to Frale, when radiocarbon dating of the Shroud in 1988 claimed that the Shroud was a medieval forgery, historians lost interest in the writing[FN09; SN09]. When Frale cut out the words from enhanced photos of the Shroud and showed them to experts, they concurred the writing style was typical of the Middle East in the first century[FN09].

Death/burial certificate Frale claimed  that the words were on a death or burial certificate[FN09; LR09; OR09; SN09], which was of Jesus Christ[OR09; FN09; SN09]. She explained that the three languages was consistent with the polyglot nature of a community of Greek-speaking Jews in a Roman colony[LR09; OR09]. Frale said that under Jewish burial practices current at the time of Christ in a Roman colony such as Palestine, a body buried after a death sentence could only be returned to the family after been purified for a year in a common grave[LR09; OR09]. Frale claimed that the death/burial certificates were written by low-ranking Roman officials or mortuary clerks on a scroll or piece of papyrus to identify each corpse[FN09; SN09]. According to Frale the certificates enabled the relatives of a dead person to retrieve his/her body from a communal morgue[FN09; SN09]. The papyrus burial certificate was attached to the Shroud with a flour-based glue[FN09; SN09], around the face[LR09; OR09] to

[Above (enlarge): "9. The Burial of Jesus and the Glory of the Holy Shroud, painting by Jean-Gaspard Baudoin (1590-1669), today in the Chapelle du Saint-Suaire in Nice." (Frale-translated by Google). Photograph at plate 9 in Frale's book. Note that if Frale's papyrus burial certificate was stuck to that part of the Shroud which covered Jesus' face, that would be now be the non-image side of the Shroud. This is a fatal problem of Frale's theory because her claimed burial certificate writing is on the image side of the Shroud[OR09]! See "Problems of Frale's theory."]

identify it for later retrieval[LR09; OR09]. This had been done in the case of Jesus even though he was buried not in a common grave but in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea[OR09]. The metal based ink seeped through the papyrus burial certificate into the Shroud below it, leaving a faint imprint[FN09; SN09]. Frale claims that the certificate mentions that the man who was wrapped in the Shroud had been condemned to death[SN09]. According to Frale the certificate confirms the Gospels' account of Jesus' final moments[FN09], and provided a historical date consistent with the Gospels account[OR09]. And that a fragment in Greek on the Shroud can be read as "removed at the ninth hour" and so may refer to Christ's time of death reported in the Gospels[FN09]. Here is Frale's interpretation of the letters appearing in Marion and Courage's image above[LR09]. 1. (I)esou(s) "Jesus" 2. Nnazarennos "Nazarene" 3. (o)pse kia(tho) "taken down in the early evening." 4. in nece(m) "to death" 5. pez(o) "I execute"[LR09]. There are more letters on the linen[LR09], such as the word "iber," which Frale identified as referring to Emperor Tiberius, who reigned at the time of Jesus' crucifixion[LR09]. Frale's reconstruction of the burial certificate from the lettering on the Shroud[FN09; LR09; OR09] reads:

"In the year 16 of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius Jesus the Nazarene, taken down in the early evening after having been condemned to death by a Roman judge because he was found guilty by a Hebrew authority, is hereby sent for burial with the obligation of being consigned to his family only after one full year"[LR09; OR09].

The certificate ends with "I execute"[LR09] and "signed by" but the signature has not survived[OR09].

Frale's credibility Shroudie historian Ian Wilson (1941-), has publicly cast doubt on Frale's credibility[WI11]. According to Wilson, Frale, in an article in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, about her book 2009 book, I Templari e la sindone di Cristo ("The Templars and the Shroud of Christ"), stated that a document she had discovered in the Archives Nationales, Paris, had vindicated Wilson's 1978 theory that the Knights Templar had owned the Shroud at some time during its disappearance from Constantinople in 1204 and its reappearance in Lirey, France in the 1350's[WI11]. The document which Frale stated was previously unknown, described an initiate to the Knights Templar, Arnaut Sabbatier, being shown a "long linen cloth," presumably the Shroud, at one of the Order's ceremonies in 1287[WI11]. Wilson, whom Frale had not contacted, emailed Frale asking for a copy of the Sabbatier document[WI11]. Frale, however, replied that the Archives Nationales had sent her a "bad reproduction" photocopy, pages of which were very dark" and she declined to send it to Wilson and even her transcript of the document[WI11]. When Wilson obtained a copy of I Templari e la sindone di Cristo, he was surprised to see that Frale had even less detail in it about the Sabbatier document than in the L'Osservatore Romano article[WI11]! Then in correspondence between Wilson and the Shroud sceptic historian, Andrea Nicolotti on another matter, Nicolotti mentioned that far from being a new discovery by Frale, a transcript of the Latin text of the Sabbatier document had been published in 1907 by a German medieval historian, Heinrich Finke (1855-1938)[WI11]! And Finke's transcript revealed that three of Sabbatier's fellow Templars described their order's "idol" as made of wood (lignum), whereas Sabbatier's document  described it as made of lineum (linen)[WI11]. Historians had agreed that this was a translation error, and had corrected Sabbatier's lineum to lignum[WI11]. Frale, however, had translated it as the original "linen"[WI11]. Furthermore, Frale had inserted in her translation the descriptions "long" and "imprinted" which were not in the Sabbatier document's Latin text[WI11]! So Frale made that up to support her theory! Moreover, Nicolotti then provided Wilson with a photograph of the page of the Sabbatier document obtained by him from the Archives Nationales, which Frale had told Wilson was only available in a badly reproduced, "very dark" photocopy[WI11]. But actually the photograph is clear, in full colour, and perfectly legible[WI11]. Nicolotti further informed Wilson that that same photograph had been published, to accompany an interview with Frale, in the Italian magazine Fenix in June 2009 (below enlarge)[WI11].

Which was a month before Frale assured Wilson that all she had was illegible photocopies[WI11]. Wilson therefore concluded his article with:

"In summary, and quite aside from her seriously questionable behaviour towards me, Frale's so extravagant claims to the world's media as made back in 2009 simply cannot justify the conclusiveness that she so publicly attributed to them. Besides her misinforming the world in general, she misled me, and thereby seriously misdirected the line that I took in chapter 14 of my latest book … And  whilst  I have absolutely no competence to  comment on Dr Frale's more recent  claims to have  discovered Aramaic lettering on the Shroud,  it is hard for me to  avoid harbouring the strongest doubts concerning these also ..." (my emphasis)

Problems of Frale's theory

Computer enhancement Since Frale's 'writing on the Shroud' theory is based on Marion and Courage's computer enhancement, problems of their theory (see again 04Jun13) are problems of Frale's theory. In my book I will have covered Marion and Courage's theory before Frale's.

Words Frale admitted that her letters are barely visible to the naked eye. But if she cannot show publicly where they are on the Shroud, then it is because they are not really there but exist only in Frale's imagination!

Frale also admits that many of the letters are missing. Indeed most of them are missing! But if her claimed words are not substantially complete, they are not words at all, and therefore not even letters, but just random shapes in the weave vaguely resembling letters. For example, the Greek words translated "Jesus the Nazarene" in Mt 26:71 are "Iēsous ho Nazōraios," ("IHSOUS HO NAZORAIOS" in capitals), which are 17 letters all together in one direction. But according to Frale above the "words are fragmented and scattered ... crisscrossing the cloth vertically and horizontally! Frale's copy above in her book, of  Marion and Courage's photograph of claimed words, Frale's caption includes the letters "HSOY" (Greek ΗΣΟΥ)," supposedly "Jesus," diagonally below the chin and "NNAZAPENOE" (Greek ΝΝΑΖΑΡΕΝΟΕ)," supposedly "the Nazarene," vertically alongside the man's face! So they are not the name "Jesus the Nazarene." And neither are "HEOY" and "NNAZAPENOE" found in the New Testament, according to my "Analytical Greek Lexicon" which lists in Greek alphabet order every Greek word in the New Testament[AG70].

Why are the letters in reverse and only make sense in negative photographs? If the letters "IBER" (using one of Frale’s claimed words as an example) are written on porous paper (representing a papyrus certificate), they do appear on the other side of that paper as "IBER", in reverse. But then if that "IBER" in reverse soaks through to an underneath sheet of porous paper (representing the Shroud), it appears on that underneath sheet of paper (the Shroud) as "IBER" again!

And why would the burial certificate of a crucified Jew include the name of the Roman emperor? And if it did, why wasn't it his official name, "Tiberius Caesar" (Lk 3:1)?

The only scholars who examined the Shroud in 1978 was STURP. And it is false that STURP noticed that there was writing on the Shroud in 1978. The first sentence of STURP's October 1981 Final Report stated: "No pigments, paints, dyes or stains have been found on the [Shroud's] fibrils"[SS81], and that includes ink. So Frale made this up!

Why did Frale cut out her claimed words from Marion and Courage's enhanced photograph of the Shroud to show them to experts? Why did she not show them copies of the photograph and ask them if they saw any words? Assuming that this is even true and not another made up claim by Frale?

Death/burial certificate Why would the words on first century Jerusalem burial certificates be written in Greek, Aramaic and Latin, when Frale claimed they were to enable Greek-speaking Jews to identify the bodies of their deceased relatives? For that, Greek alone would have been sufficient.

Why would the words on a burial certificate be "fragmented and scattered ... crisscrossing the cloth vertically and horizontally"?

Why under Jewish burial practices in a first century Roman colony could a body buried after a Roman death sentence only be returned to the family after been purified for a year in a common grave? For starters, this is refuted by Jesus' burial in Joseph of Arimathea's private cave-tomb[Mt 27:57-60; Mk 15:43-46; Lk 23:50-53; Jn 19:38-42]. The brutal Romans would not have altruistically provided a free written death/burial certificate service, and a free communal mortuary service, for Jewish criminals! In every first century Roman colony! This is a fatal problem of Frale's theory, and so she must have made it up also!

Since Old Testament times, the norm for Jewish burials was: 1) To be buried in the family rock-cut cave tomb, and 2) promptly "including that of the bodies of hung criminals":

"BURIAL AND MOURNING. I. In the Old Testament a. The times of the Patriarchs It was customary for successive generations to be buried in the family tomb (cave or rock-cut); thus Sarah (Gn. 23:19), Abraham (Gn. 25:9), Isaac and Rebekah, Leah (Gn. 49:31) and Jacob (Gn. 50:13) were all buried in the cave of Machpelah, E of Hebron. Individual burial was sometimes necessitated by death at a distance from the family tomb; so Deborah near Bethel (Gn. 35:8) and Rachel on the road to Ephrath (Gn. 35:19-20), their tombs being marked by an oak and a pillar respectively ... b. The Pentateuchal legislation Prompt burial, including that of the bodies of hung criminals, was the norm (Dt. 21:22-23) ... c. Israel in Palestine (i) Burial. When possible, people were buried in the ancestral inheritance in a family tomb: so Gideon and Samson (Jdg. 8:32; 16:31), Asahel and Ahithophel (2 Sa. 2:32; 17:23), and eventually Saul (2 Sa. 21:12-14)"[KA82, 151].

How could there have been a communal morgue in first century Jerusalem, before the invention of refrigeration in the 19th century[RFW]? A communal morgue before refrigeration, in which bodies were continully being added, would be filled with an overpowering stench of decomposing corpses, including the poisonous decomposition gas hydrogen sulfide[DCW]. As well as blowflies[DCW] carrying diseases to the deceased's relatives who entered the morgue and the citizens of Jerusalem beyond it. This is a fatal problem of Frale's theory, and she must have made it up!

Why was there a burial certificate for Jesus when he was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, as Frale acknowledges? According to Frale the purpose of a Roman burial certificate was to enable the relatives of a dead Jewish criminal to retrieve his/her body from a communal morgue after a year. But since Jesus' body was was not taken into a Roman communal mortuary, there would be no reason for there to be a burial certificate attached to his Shroud. This is a another fatal problem of Frale's theory, and again she must have also made it up!

Frale claims that the papyrus burial certificate was attached to the Shroud with a flour-based glue, around the face to identify it for later retrieval (see above). But as pointed out above, that part of the Shroud which covered Jesus' face underneath it, is now the non-image side of the Shroud. This is yet another fatal problem of Frale's theory because her claimed burial certificate writing is on the image side of the Shroud! So again, Frale must have made this up.

Frale further claimed that the metal based ink seeped through the papyrus burial certificate into the Shroud below it, leaving a faint imprint. But this would mean that the ink did not quickly dry but seeped right through the papyrus burial certificate to its underside, and then continued to seep through to the underlying Shroud. But this would be the non-image side (see above), so Frale, to save her theory, would need to claim that the ink continued to seep right through the Shroud to its underneath image side! But an ink which did not quickly dry on the surface it first contacted, but kept seeping through its original document (the hypothetical papyrus burial certificate), and then continued to seep all the way through an underlying document (the Shroud), would be unusable and would not exist beyond its first testing! This is another fatal problem of Frale's theory, so again she must have made it up!

According to Microsoft Word, Frale's reconstruction of Jesus' burial certificate above has 58 words and 155 letters! Yet Frale counted only 11 words in Marion and Courage's computer enhanced Shroud photograph above! As pointed out above, "ΗΣΟΥ" supposedly "Jesus," and "ΝΝΑΖΑΡΕΝΟΕ" supposedly "the Nazarene," are nowhere near each other. On plate 10 of Frale's book, "IBER" is only the two letters "ie"! So again, Frale made up her reconstructed `burial certificate' out of random shapes in the Shroud's weave, or out of thin air! This also is a fatal problem of Frale's theory.

Conclusion As we have seen, there are at least six fatal problems with Frale's theory that the Shroud has imprinted on it the faint ink writing of Jesus' burial certificate:

1. The Romans would not have provided a free written death/burial certificate service, and a free communal mortuary service, for Jewish criminals, in every first century Roman colony!
2. There could not have been a communal morgue in first century Jerusalem (or anywhere), before the invention of refrigeration in the 19th century.
3. Jesus would not have had a burial certificate so that his relatives could retrieve his body from a Roman communal morgue after a year, because (apart from there wasn't one) Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.
4. Frale claims that the papyrus burial certificate was attached to the Shroud covering Jesus' face, but that part of the Shroud is now its non-image side (see above), so Frale's writing cannot be on the same side as the man's image! (This is a fatal problem of some (if not all) other `writing on the Shroud' theories)!
5. An ink would dry quickly on Frale's papyrus burial certificate and not remain liquid to seep right through it and then through both sides of the Shroud under it to imprint its image side.
6. Frale's reconstruction of Jesus' burial certificate is self-evidently made up by her. Marion and Courage's computer enhanced Shroud photograph that Frale's burial certificate is based on has 11 words but Frale's reconstruction has 58 words! The words "Jesus the Nazarene" are together in Frale's reconstruction but they are far apart in Marion and Courage's photograph.

We have seen that Frale made up out of thin air the words "long" and "imprinted" to support her theory that the Templars' idol was the Shroud. The above at least six fatal problems with Frale's theory that the Shroud has imprinted on it writing of a Roman burial certificate bearing Jesus' name, must also have been made up by Frale. I presume the reason there has been after ~5 years no English translation of Frale's 2009 La sindone di Gesù Nazareno book is because Frale's claims in it are so self-evidently false that the English publisher, Maverick House rejected it!

Notes:
1. This post is copyright. I grant permission 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 this page. [return]

Bibliography
AG70. Bagster, S., ed., 1870, "The Analytical Greek Lexicon," Samuel Bagster and Sons: London, c. 1960, reprinted
BFW. "Barbara Frale," Wikipedia, 26 September 2024.
DCW. "Decomposition," Wikipedia, 17 August 2024.
FN09. "Does Hidden Text Prove Shroud of Turin Real?," Fox News, 20 November 2009.
GM99. Guscin, M., 1999, "Purported Inscriptions on the Shroud Claimed by French Researchers Marion and Courage - Are They Really There?" British Society for the Turin Shroud Newsletter, November.
GV01. Guerrera, V., 2001, "The Shroud of Turin: A Case for Authenticity," TAN: Rockford IL.
KA82. Kitchen, K.A., "Burial and mourning," in Douglas, J.D., et al., eds., "New Bible Dictionary," [1962], Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester UK, Second edition, 1982, Reprinted, 1988.
LM10. Extract from Latendresse, M., 2010, "Shroud Scope: Durante 2002 Vertical," Sindonology.org.
LR09. Lorenzi, R, 2009, "Big Pic: Close-Up of Latest Shroud of Turin Claim," Discovery News 24 November.
OR09. Owen, R., 2009, "Death certificate is imprinted on the Shroud of Turin, says Vatican scholar in Rome," The Times, 21 November.
RFW. "Refrigeration," Wikipedia, 18 August 2024.
SN09. Squires, N., 2009,  "Jesus Christ's 'death certificate' found on Turin Shroud," The Telegraph, 20 November.
SS81. "A Summary of STURP's Conclusions," October 1981, Shroud.com.
SU91. "Shroud University - Exploring the Mystery Since 33 A.D.," Shroud of Turin Education Project, Inc., Peachtree City, GA.
WI11. Wilson, I., 2011, "The Shroud, the Knights Templar and Barbara Frale," BSTS Newsletter, No. 73, June.

Posted 29 September 2024. Updated 16 October 2024.

Prehistory of the Shroud (5) #48: The evidence is overwhelming that the Turin Shroud is Jesus' burial sheet!

PREHISTORY OF THE SHROUD (5) #48

Copyright © Stephen E. Jones[1]

This is #48, "Prehistory of the Shroud (5)," of my series, "The evidence is overwhelming that the Turin Shroud is Jesus' burial sheet!" This post is based on my "Chronology of the Turin Shroud: Tenth century." For more information about this "overwhelming" series, see the "Main index #1."

Newcomers start <here>

[Main index #1] [Previous: Prehistory of the Shroud (4) #47] [Next: Prehistory of the Shroud (6) #49]

---

Prehistory of the Shroud (AD 30-1354).

943 In the Northern Spring of 943, Byzantine usurper Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos (r. 920–944)[OM10, 31; WI79, 255; W198, 267] sent an army led by his best general, John Kourkouas (aka Curcuas) (bef. 915 – aft. 946)[WI79, 148; W198, 148], to Edessa to negotiate with its Muslim emir ruler for possession of the Edessa Cloth/Shroud[SD89a, 84; OM10, 31], to add to his collection of Christian relics[MR90, 36; SD89a, 84; DA99, 4]. In exchange for the Cloth, Kourkouas offered on behalf of the Emperor, a guarantee of perpetual immunity of Edessa from Byzantine attack, 12,000 pieces of silver and the release of 200 Muslim prisoners[MR90, 36; W198, 267-268; AM00, 130; GV01, 4; SJ01, 215; TF06, 24; WI10, 300].

944a After lengthy consultations with his superiors in Baghdad[W198, 48; AM00, 130; SJ01, 215; TF06, 24; OM10, 31; WI10,158.], in the Northern Summer of 944[TF06, 24], Edessa's emir accepts Kourkouas' terms, and Bishop Abraham of nearby Samosata[WI79, 149, 255; AM00, 130; TF06, 24; OM10, 32; WI10, 159], enters Edessa to receive the cloth, and despite the resistance of Edessa's Christians[WI79, 149-150, 255; OM10, 32; WI10, 159-160], he is satisfied that he has the

[Above (enlarge): "The surrender of the Holy Mandylion" (the Image of Edessa), one of 574 miniatures, which may be copies of earlier Byzantine images, in the 12th Century "Madrid Skylitzes," which was based on the Synopsis of Histories by John Skylitzes (c. 1040s – aft. 1101)[CFW]. The persons on the left are wearing turbans and the buildings on their side have no Christian crosses, hence they are Muslims. The buildings on the right have Christian crosses, which means that the artist depicted both the Image being handed over by muslims in Edessa and its arrival in Christian Constantinople. Note that behind the face-only Image of Edessa is depicted the full-length Shroud[WI90, 10; FM15, 54-55]! So by at least the 12th century the Image of Edessa/Mandylion was known to be the full-length Shroud[SD91, 193-194; SD06]!]

original, as well as two copies of the Image[WI79, 255; AM00, 130; TF06, 24; 39] and Abgar V's letter from Jesus (see "50" and 08Jan19)[WI79, 255; TF06, 24], the bishop travels with the Image, escorted by Kourkouas' army[W198, 148; WI10, 159] across Anatolia back to Constantinople[WI79, 149, 255; TF06, 24; 39; OM10, 32; WI10, 159].

944b On Thursday 15 August 944 the Image of Edessa/Shroud arrives in Constantinople[MW86, 92; W198, 268; GV01, 4]. It is carried in its framed portrait, fastened to a board and embellished with gold[WI79, 282; DR84, 35, 57; SD89a, 84; AM00, 131], through the streets of the city amidst great celebration[SD89a, 84; SD91, 194; WI10, 300]. The Image is then taken to the church of St Mary at Blachernae[W198, 148-149, 268; GV01 4-5], where it is viewed by members of the imperial family[W198, 149, 268]. Romanos I's two sons Stephen (r. 924-45) and Constantine (r. 924-45) find the face blurred and cannot distinguish its features[WI79, 116; MW86, 92; SD91, 192; W198, 268; AM00, 130; TF06, 25] (further evidence that this was the Shroud: its image is faint and difficult to see close-up[WI79, 116, 122; SD91, 192; AM00, 130!). But the legitimate Emperor, Constantine VII (r. 913-59), son of the late Emperor Leo VI (r. 886–912), is artistic and readily discerns them[WR77, 94; SD91, 192; W198, 268; TF06, 25; WI10, 300.]. The Image of Edessa/Shroud is then taken to the Imperial (Boucoleon) Palace where it is placed overnight in the Pharos chapel[W198, 149, 268].

944c The next day, Friday 16 August 944, the Image is carried around the walls of Constantinople[WI79, 256; WI98, 149, 268], thereby establishing it as the city's new palladium (guarantee of a city's Divine protection)[CN95, 57; WI98, 149]. The Image is then taken to Constantinople's Hagia Sophia cathedral[WI79, 256; WI98, 149, 268], where it is placed on the "throne of mercy"[WI79, 256; MW86, 92; CN95, 57; WI98, 149, 268]. During that enthronement of the Image ceremony[RC99, 58], Gregory Referendarius (overseer of relationships between the Patriarch and the Emperor[GM09, 4]), Archdeacon of Hagia Sophia[SD91, 192; WI91, 143; OM10, 13], an eyewitness of these events[SD91, 192; DT12, 185], delivers a sermon[SD91, 192; WI91, 143; IJ98, 115; OM10, 13, 36; DT12, 185; FM15, 56] in which he says that the Cloth bears not only "the 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":

"This reflection, however - may everyone be inspired with the explanation - has been imprinted only by the sweat from the face of the ruler of life, falling like drops of blood, and by the finger of God. For these are indeed the beauties that have coloured the true imprint of Christ, because that from which they dripped was also embellished by drops from his own side. Both are highly instructive - blood and water there, here sweat and image. O equality of happenings, since both have their origin in the same person. The source of living water can be seen and it gives us water, showing us that the origin of the image made by sweat is in fact of the same nature as the origin of that which makes the liquid flow from the side"[GM09, 85; OM10, 36].

By "the sweat from the face of [Christ] ... falling like drops of blood" Gregory refers to Lk 22:44:

"And being in agony he [Jesus] prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground."

which occurred in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mt 26:36; Mk 14:32), before Jesus' death on the cross[WI98, 268]. But the "drops from his own side ... [of] blood and water" refers to Jn 19:33-34 which was after Jesus' death on the cross:

"But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water."

Clearly the face-only Image of Edessa does not show the blood and fluid stained spear wound in Jesus' side that is on the Shroud[ SD91, 192]. But Gregory could not have made that reference unless he had been aware of the wound in the side of the image and of bloodstains in the area of that wound[OM10, 36.], and hence knew that the Cloth was full-length rather than merely a face-cloth[IJ98, 115; RC99, 58; OM10, 36]. And to know that, Gregory must have seen that under the Image of Edessa face was a full-length, bloodstained, body image of Jesus[SD98, 63; WI98, 268. SD91, 192; GV01, 5-6; SD06, xxvii]. This is a further corroboration of Ian Wilson's insight that the Image of Edessa was the Shroud ("four-doubled" - tetradiplon)[SD91, 192; GV01, 5-6; SD06, xxvii]!

944d In December 944, the co-Emperor sons of Romanos I, Stephen and Constantine, fearing their ~74 year-old father was going to confirm Constantine VII as his successor[RLW], forced him to abdicate[MW86, 92].

945a On 27 January 945, with the help of his wife, Romanos I's daughter Helena Lekapene (c. 910–61), Constantine VII exiled Stephen and Constantine (Helena's brothers!) and became sole emperor at the age of 39[CSW; WI79, 154; WI98, 268; WI10, 166-167]. Within weeks of his accession, Constantine VII had a new gold solidus coin struck[WI79, 154; MW86, 92; TF06, 164; WI10, 300], bearing

[Right (enlarge):

"Coin ... [a gold solidus] minted in 945 under the reign of the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII. On the obverse, a bust of Christ similar to the Shroud face image; on the reverse, Constantine VII ... Notice ... the overall similarity of the facial representation with the face on the Shroud ... the left cheek of Christ, that is, the cheek that appears on our right, shows a clear protuberance, which is also on the Shroud. The beard and hair are also similar to the Shroud. Note the very peculiar lock of hair on the forehead. This is similar to the inverted '3' shape as seen on the forehead on the Shroud"[LM07].]

a Shroud-like Christ 'Rex Regnantium' (King of Kings) portrait, inspired by the recently arrived cloth of Edessa[WI98, 268]

945b On 16 August 945, the anniversary of the solemn exposition of the cloth in Hagia Sophia cathedral, Constantine VII proclaimed 16 August as the Feast of the Holy Mandylion in the Eastern Orthodox church calendar[WI79, 256; MW86, 92; WI98, 149; GV01, 6; WI10, 300], which it continues to celebrate to this very day, even though the Image has been lost to them since 1204[WS00, 113; WI10, 167]!

945c Soon after becoming sole Emperor, Constantine VII commissioned[WI79, 116-117; WI10, 167, 174] an Official History of the Image of Edessa[WI79, 272; WM86, 112; WI98, 151, 268; OM10, 34], the "Narratio de Imagine Edessena"[WR77, 95; WI98, 256, 268], or "The Story of the Image of Edessa"[SH81, 207; AM00, 130; DT12, 185]. Indeed it may have been written by Constantine himself[WI10, 167, 174]! The Story is actually a sermon to be read to Eastern Orthodox congregations on each 16 August Feast of the Holy Mandylion, starting in 946[WI79, 155; AM00, 130], hence it is also known as the "Festival Sermon"[DR84, 115]. The Official History states that the Image of Edessa "now to be seen" in Constantinople in 944, had in Edessa been fastened to a board and embellished with gold by Abgar V:

"Abgar ... set up this likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ not made by hand, fastening it to a board and embellishing it with the gold which is now to be seen, inscribing these words on the gold: `Christ the God, he who hopes in thee is never disappointed'"[WI79, 280; OM10, 34].

This fits Ian Wilson's theory that the Shroud was folded and mounted in such a way ("four-doubled" - tetradiplon) that only the facial area was visible and accessible, so "every description of the Image of Edessa during the period in question is compatible with a viewing of the Shroud"[WM86, 112; WI98, 152-153; OM10, 34; WI10, 140, 174].

The Official History gives two mutually exclusive versions of the origin of Jesus' image on the Cloth[WI79, 117, 256; WI98, 150, 268; WI10, 174-175]. The first version is the traditional explanation since the sixth century[DT12, 185], that Jesus washed his face in water, wiped it on a towel, and his likeness was impressed on the towel, which he then gave to Abgar V's servant Ananias, who in turn gave it to Abgar:

"... immediately Ananias [Abgar's servant] focused his eyes on him [Jesus], held a piece of paper in his hand and began to draw a likeness of him ... Jesus ... summoned Thomas and said, `... bring me that man who is sitting on the rock drawing me, and bring the letter which he has brought from home, so that he may fulfill the command of the man who sent him:' Thomas ... brought him to Jesus ... He then took it [the letter from Abgar] and, having read it, gave him another letter for Abgar ... Christ ... knew that the man was anxious to bring to completion the other command of his master, that he should take a likeness of Jesus' face to Abgar. The Savior then washed his face in water, wiped off the moisture that was left on the towel that was given to him, and in some divine and inexpressible manner had his own likeness impressed on it. This towel he gave to Ananias and instructed him to hand it over to Abgar so that the latter might have some consolation for his longing and disease"[WI79, 117, 276-277; DR84, 35, 56; WI98, 150, 268; WI10, 174-175; DT12, 185].

The second version is that:

"... when Christ was about to go voluntarily to death ... he ... pray[ed] ... sweat dropped from him like drops of blood ... he took this piece of cloth which we see now from one of the disciples and wiped off the drops of sweat on it ... the still-visible impression of that divine face was produced. Jesus gave the cloth to Thomas, and instructed him that after Jesus had ascended into heaven, he should send Thaddaeus with it to Abgar ... Thomas gave the divine portrait of Christ's face to Thaddaeus and sent him to Abgar"[WI79, 117, 277-278; WI10, 175].

That is, the image was formed during Jesus' agony in the Garden of Gethsemane when His "sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Lk 22:44)[WI79, 117, 123; DR84, 35, 57; SD91, 190; WI98, 150, 153, 268; WS00, 111; WI10, 175]. See also Gregory Referendarius' sermon above. This second version would be inexplicable unless drops of blood could be seen on the face of the Image of Edessa[WI79, 123; DR84, 35; SD89b, 315; SD91, 190; DT12, p185-186], as they are on the Shroud face[DR84, 35], but which

[Left (enlarge): Face of the man on the Shroud showing major bloodstains outlined in red[27Feb14].]

could not be explained by the first version[SD89b, 315]. This second version may be the parent of the tradition of Veronica's veil[WI79, 117; SH81, 25; CN88, 59] - or it may be the other way around [see 06Mar17 and "1011"].

The Official History described the Image as "a moist secretion without coloring or painter's art"[WR77, 95; WI79, 115, 255, 273; SD91, 192; DT12, 185], "it did not consist of earthly colors ... and ... was due to sweat, not pigments"[WI79, 115, 279; WI98, 268; WS00, 111]. This fits the Shroud image which is extremely faint[SD98b, 315]. It also explains why some thought the Image had been made in the Garden of Gethsemane when Christ's face was covered in sweat "like great drops of blood"[DT12, 187]. Wilson, who has seen the Shroud many times, agrees that these "water/sweat details" sound "uncannily like the characteristics of the Shroud's image"[WI98, 150]. Wilson also asks of the late 10th/early 11th century copy of the Edessa cloth, painted above

[Above (enlarge): The Image of Edessa (late 10th-early 11th century), Sakli church, Goreme, Turkey[WI10, pl. 22b].]

an arch in the Sakli church in the Goreme region of central Turkey:

"... its general resemblance to the facial portion on the Shroud is really quite remarkable. There is the same sepia-coloured, disembodied, rigidly frontal face on the same landscape cloth. ... And when we know, as we do from the Official History, that this same Edessa cloth's imprint had the appearance of `a moist secretion without colouring or painter's art', then can we really believe that this could not have been our Shroud[WI98, 151]?

In his insistence that the Image was "... without coloring or painter's art," "did not consist of earthly colors" and "was [not] due to ... pigments," the author of the Official History "anticipat[ed] twentieth-century science by a full millennium"[TF06, 25], in that the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP), after an exhaustive series of scientific tests on the Shroud, found that: "No pigments, paints, dyes or stains have been found on the fibrils"[SS81] (i.e. which constitutes the image).

945d Soon after he became sole Emperor in January 945[WI79, 154; PH83, 8], Constantine VII commissioned a painting, now at Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mt Sinai, depicting Abgar V holding the Edessa cloth, which had been handed to him by Jesus' disciple Thaddeus[WI79, 154; SD89a, 88; WW98, 5]. That icon survives as the

[Right (enlarge)[IH12]: King Abgar V (r. 4 BC-AD 7, AD 13 - 50) of Edessa is depicted in this 10th century icon at Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai[AVW], receiving the Image of Edessa (the Shroud "four-doubled" - tetradiplon) from Jesus' disciple Thaddeus[WI79, 154-155] [see "50"]. Abgar's face is that of Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (r. 913-59)[WI79, 151,154], to commemorate the arrival of the Image of Edessa/Shroud in Constantinople on 15 August 944[WI79, 116, 151, 255; W198, 148,268; GV01, 4-5; TF06, 24; WI10, 165, 300; WI79, 255; W198, 267OM10, 31].]

top right-hand quarter of a diptych[WM86, 110E, 118] (see 13May17).

946 On 16 August 946, the first anniversary of the Image's enthronement ceremony in Hagia Sophia Cathedral (see above) the "Monthly Lection" for that day, and on that day in each year thereafter, was a text that recounted the full history of the Image of Edessa[DR84, 40]. This particular lection was prepared soon after the Image's arrival in time for this first anniversary festival[DR84, 40]. In describing the Image's origins, the "Monthly Lection" stated that after Jesus had washed:

"...there was given to him a piece of cloth folded four times [rhakos tetradiplon]. And after washing, he imprinted on it his undefiled and divine face"[DR84, 40; IJ98, 105]

According to former Cambridge University Prof. Geoffrey Lampe (1912-80), editor of A Lexicon of Patristic Greek (1961), in all of Greek literature the word tetradiplon is found only twice, here in the 10th century Monthly Lection and in the 7th century Acts of Thaddeus (see "c. 620"), and both times it is in connection with the Image of Edessa/Mandylion[WI79, 307; WM86, 112-113; IJ98, 105; AM00, 132-133]! Moreover, that the Image of Edessa is the Shroud "four-doubled" (tetradiplon), was proved experimentally by Wilson, in that, when a full-length photograph of the Shroud is four-doubled (tetradiplon), kepeing the face uppermost, the result is, "the Shroud face, front-facing and disembodied-looking on a landscape aspect cloth, exactly as on the earliest artists' copies of the cloth of Edessa" (see my "Tetradiplon and the Shroud of Turin")!:

"For me a crucial breakthrough in overcoming this objection surfaced in the 1960s, when I noticed how a sixth-century Greek version of the Abgar story, the `Acts of the Holy Apostle Thaddaeus', describes the Edessa cloth as a tetradiplon. In all the corpus of Greek literature tetradiplon is an extremely rare word, and totally exclusive to the Edessa cloth. Yet, because it is a combination of two common words, _tetra_ meaning `four' and _diplon_ meaning `two fold' or `doubled', its meaning is actually very clear: `doubled in four', suggesting four times two folds. This immediately raised the thought: `What happens if you try giving the Shroud four times two folds?' When I tried this, using a full-length photograph of the Shroud, I was dumb-founded by the result - as I continue to be today. There was the Shroud face, front-facing and disembodied-looking on a landscape aspect cloth, exactly as on the earliest artists' copies of the cloth of Edessa" (my emphasis)[WS00, 110-111]

In 1984, STURP's John Jackson (c. 1946-) examined STURP's 1978 raking light photograph of the Shroud and found a pattern of foldmarks at one-eighth intervals[08Dec22], which is consistent with the Shroud having been "doubled in four" for much of its history.

[Left (enlarge): Diagram of raking light photograph of the Shroud, taken in 1978 by STURP photographer Vernon Miller (1932-2009)[JP84, 10; WM86, 123].]

Classics Prof, Prof. Robert Drews (1936-) has shown how the Image of Edessa could have been "fastened to a board" and yet known to be "doubled in four" from its side view:

"What exactly the authors meant by a cloth `folded four times' may be debated, but a reasonable guess is that in a slightly expanded form the cloth was arranged something like this: [Below (enlarge)] The Mandylion [Image of Edessa], then, was an ivory-colored linen, bearing a blurred and dim image, the image being described as `not made by human hands' and resembling, in the artists' copies of the Mandylion, the face of the Man of the Shroud. The Mandylion was considerably wider than one would expect as backdrop for a portrait of a face, and was apparently far longer than the height of the exposed cloth. The bulk of the cloth seems to have been folded, in seven folds, behind an exposed, eighth panel. That the seven other folds were nothing but blank linen, carefully concealed but carefully preserved for over a thousand years, is manifestly improbable. If the Shroud does carry, as it seems to, the vera imago of Jesus, then what is now known as the Shroud of Turin was in the Middle Ages the Mandylion of Edessa and Constantinople" (my emphasis)[DR84, 41]!

The above is further evidence that the Image of Edessa was the Shroud "four-doubled" (tetradiplon), which first appeared in history during the 544 Siege of Edessa (see "544"). That is ~716 years before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date of the Shroud and ~811 years before the Shroud first appeared in c. 1355, in undisputed history at Lirey, France!

958 In a letter of encouragement to his troops campaigning around Tarsus in 958, Constantine VII told them that he was sending them holy water consecrated by relics of the Passion, including, "the sindon [shroud] which God wore"[SD89b, 317-318; WI91, 153; WI98, 268-269; WI10, 169; DT12, 177]. This can only mean that by 958 Constantine VII had seen unfolded the full-length Shroud behind the face of the Image of Edessa[SD89b, 318]. Moreover Constantine made no mention of the Image of Edessa, despite his previous close identification with it[SD89b, 317-318; WI10, 169]. This is the first of several subsequent mentions of a burial sindon or shroud being among the imperial relic collection in Constantinople, with no explanation how it came to be there[WI98, 269; WI91, 153; WI10, 169]. The arrival of the Edessa cloth in Constantinople in 944 had been accompanied by a great celebration (see above), so the arrival of the sindon, acknowledged as Jesus' burial shroud, ought to have merited at least the same level of celebration and ceremony, but there is no record of the sindon's arrival in Constantinople[SD91, 194-195]! And there is no record of the Image of Edessa/Mandylion leaving Constantinople or ceasing to exist-it just quietly faded away[MW86, 93]. This is inexplicable unless the Edessa cloth and the Shroud are one and the same[WI98, 269], more than three centuries before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date of the Shroud[DT12, 178]!

c. 960 The Image of Edessa is called a sindon in versions of a liturgical text called the Synaxarion, composed after its arrival in Constantinople and based on the work of Symeon Metaphrastes (fl. c.950-c.990), who saw the cloth in 944[WI10, 177; DT12, 186].

977 A group of refugee Greek monks, led by Sergius, exiled metropolitan of Damascus, set up a cult of St Alexis of Rome (d.412) in Rome's near-abandoned Church of St Boniface[WI98, 269; ARW]. According to their version, the young Alexis was attracted to become a beggar at Edessa by hearing of its cloth bearing Jesus's imprint: "an image of our Lord Jesus Christ made without human hand on a sindon," the same word used in the gospels for Jesus's burial shroud[WI98, 269; ARW] (Mt 27:59; Mk 15:46; Lk 23:53)! [see "c1050a"]

c. 980 Leo the Deacon (Leo Diaconus) (c. 950-992) was a Byzantine historian and a deacon in the imperial palace[LDW]. In Constantinople he wrote a 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)[LDW]. Leo's history was based on his experiences as an eyewitness to events[LDW]. Leo wrote of the Cloth as being a peplos, which was a full-length robe[WI98, 152; AM00, 136; OM10, 36; DT12, 383 n.53]!

c. 990 The first known reference to the Edessa Cloth as the "Mandylion" appeared in about the year 990 in a biography of the Greek ascetic, Paul of Latros (c. 880-956)[DR84, 39; GV01, 4; WI98, 151, 268; OM10, 36], who without ever leaving Mt. Latros (aka Mt Latmus), was granted a vision of "the icon of Christ not made by hands, which is commonly called 'the holy Mandylion'"[DR84, 39; GV01, 5; WI98, 151, 268; OM10, 36.]. "Mandylion" originally derived from the Latin word mantile which meant "hand-cloth"[WI79, 118; DR84, 39], and by the tenth century it had been borrowed by several languages including Arabic, Turkish, and Greek[DR84, 39; GV01, 5; OM10, 33] as mandil, "handkerchief"[WI79, 118; DR84, 39; OM10, 33; WI10, 176]. The Byzantine Greeks attached to mandil the diminutive suffix -ion as a colloquial name for the Image of Edessa[DR84, 39]. It clearly was not a descriptive name because the Image of Edessa definitely was not a "little handkerchief "[DR84, 39]! The existing word "mandylion" was evidently applied by the Byzantines to the Cloth since it was no longer of Edessa but Constantinople[WI10, 176]. However "mandylion" was not used of the Image by the cloth's official custodians[DR84, 39; WI98, 151], and in fact the word only appears three times (including the Paul of Latros reference) in the Greek texts of that period[DR84, 39; WI98, 151].

Notes:
1. This post is copyright. I grant permission 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 this page. [ret urn]

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RTB. Reference(s) to be provided.
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SH81. Stevenson, K.E. & Habermas, G.R., 1981, "Verdict on the Shroud: Evidence for the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ," Servant Books: Ann Arbor MI.
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WI79. Wilson, I., 1979, "The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ?," [1978], Image Books: New York NY, Revised edition.
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WI91. Wilson, I., 1991, "Holy Faces, Secret Places: The Quest for Jesus' True Likeness," Doubleday: London.
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Posted 15 September 2024. Updated 10 October 2024.