Copyright © Stephen E. Jones[1]
This is #44, "Prehistory of the Shroud (1)," of my series, "The evidence is overwhelming that the Turin Shroud is Jesus' burial sheet!" For more information about this "overwhelming" series, see the "Main index #1" and "Other marks and images #26." Emphases are mine unless otherwise indicated. I had previously started a "Prehistory of the Shroud" series #16, #17, but abandoned 
that series in #21 because it duplicated my "Chronology of the Turin Shroud" series. But this new series will help me write Chapter "9. Prehistory of the Shroud" of my book in progress, "Shroud of Turin: Burial Sheet of Jesus!" See
[Right (enlarge): The planned cover of my book.]
06Jul17, 03Jun18, 04Apr22, 13Jul22 & 8 Nov 22. In my book the references in square brackets will be endnotes. I won't duplicate my Chronology but will only include evidence that the Turin Shroud is Jesus' burial sheet! Even so, ~1234 years of prehistory will mean that I will have to split this post into many posts.
See important update.
[Main index #1] [Previous: The Shroudman and Jesus were resurrected! #43] [Next: Prehistory of the Shroud (2) #45]
"For instance, the latest possible date is 544. In this year the Syrian-born historian Evagrius (527-600) described the cloth's having been used as a protective talisman or palladium to ward off a determined attack on Edessa by the Persian king Chosroes ... This account ... could be regarded as the entry of the Mandylion [Shroud] into history ..." (Wilson, 1979)[WI79, 137]
"Looking back in time from 1204, we are in a period in which, if the radiocarbon dating is to be believed, there should be no evidence of our Shroud. The year 1260 was the earliest possible date for the Shroud's existence by radiocarbon dating's calculations" (Wilson, 1998)[WI98, 141].
Prehistory By "prehistory" I mean the history of the Shroud from Jesus' having been "wrapped ... in a linen shroud"[Mt 27:59; Mk 15:46; Lk 23:53] in AD 30, to just before the Shroud first appeared in undisputed history at Lirey, France, in c. 1355[GV01, 14; OM10, 52; WI98, 126-127; WI10, 222].
AD 30 7-9 April[FJ64, 296,300; DK15]. Jesus was beaten on his head and face[Jn 18:22; Mt 26:67-68; Mk 14:65; Lk 22:63-64; Mt 27:30; Mk 15:19; Jn 19:3], scourged[Mt 27:26; Mk 15:15; Lk 23:16; Jn 19:1], crowned with thorns[Mt 27:29; Mk 15:17; Jn 19:2, 5] and nailed to a cross[Jn 20:25, 27; Lk 24:39-40; Col 2:14], on which he died[Mt 27:50; Mk 15:37; Lk 23:46; Jn 19:30]. Jesus’ legs were not broken but instead he was speared in the side[Jn 19:33-34]. Jesus was taken down from his cross, wrapped in a linen shroud[Mt 27:59; Mk 15:46; Lk 23:53], buried in a rock tomb[Mt 27:59-60; Mk 15:46; Lk 23:53; Jn 19:41-42] and resurrected![Mt 28:1-6; Mk 16:1-6; Lk 24:1-6; Jn 20:1-9].
As we saw in "The Bible and the Shroud" (09Jun13 & 08Sep20) the man on the Shroud has 
[Left (enlarge): "Anatomy of the Shroud"[WK80, 736-7], showing that the wounds and bloodstains on the Shroud match those in the Gospels' accounts of Jesus' sufferings and death.]
wounds and bloodstains which match those of Jesus above. 30 c. 10-16 April In one of his post-resurrection appearances to the Apostles[Jn 20:19-23, 26-29; 21:4-14; 1Cor 15:3-7], Jesus gave his Shroud, which was not in the empty tomb[Jn 20:3-8 NIV][BW57, 16; BP28, 83] to his cousin the Apostle John[TR82, 601; WJ84, 34-35] (see "c. 100"). c. 30-543 `Missing years'. From when Jesus gave the Shroud to the Apostle John (see above) who took Jesus' mother Mary, his mother Salome's sister[TR82, 601; WJ84, 34-35], into his home[Jn 19:25-27], presumably in Jerusalem. And presumably John then gave the Shroud to his aunt Mary, Jesus' mother, its rightful owner as Jesus' next of kin[OM10, 17-18]. Joseph, Mary's husband[Mt 1:16-24] is last mentioned in the Gospels when Jesus was 12[Lk 2:41-51], so evidently he had since died[NR82, 620]. After Mary died in Jerusalem[TVW] before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70[MJ08], until the Shroud re-appeared in Edessa in 544 (see "544"), are ~474 missing years. It is likely that after Mary's death the Shroud was passed down to her remaining eldest son, Jesus' brother James[Mt 13:55; Mk 6:3; Gal 1:19], who became the leader of the earliest Jerusalem church[Acts 15:13-21][OM10, 18; BJW]. But James was martyred before the destruction of Jerusalem[JBW]. So the Shroud may then have become collectively owned by the Jerusalem church[RTB]. Various theories have been proposed to fill in these missing years, including Wilson's Jerusalem to Edessa theory[RTB], Markward's Jerusalem to Antioch theory[RTB] and my Ravenna Theory (Jerusalem to Antioch to Ravenna to Edessa)[07Dec16; 28Mar19 & 01Jan20]. c. 34 Following the martyrdom of Stephen[Acts 7:2, 54-58], the persecuted disciples fled to Antioch in Syria, where they were first called "Christians"[Acts 11:19-26]. Antioch became the major centre of Christianity[OM10, 19; ACW]. Each of the Apostle Paul's three missionary journeys to the Gentiles started from, and returned to, Antioch[Acts 13:1-3; 15:35-41; 18:18-23][PTW]. The plant and human DNA on the Shroud (24Nov15), the Pray Codex's `poker holes' (21Aug18), and the large water stains (05Apr18) are evidence that the Shroud was circulating in small Christian communities flying under history's radar[. The huge amount of pollen on the Shroud indicates that it featured in early Church Easter ceremonies which reenacted the Spring flowers placed by the disciples over Jesus' enshrouded dead body[MP90, 5]. 50 Death of Abgar V. According to the early church historian Eusebius (c. 260-339), who had read in Edessa's public records[EE55, 44], that Edessa's King Agbarus, that is Abgar V (r. BC 4–7AD, 13-50) of Osroene, the capital of which was Edessa[AVW], was suffering from an incurable disease[EE55, 43]. Abgar had heard of Jesus’ miracles of healing[Mt 4:23-25], and wrote a letter to Jesus asking him to come and heal him[EE55, 43-44]. Jesus replied by letter to Abgar, promising that after his ascension he would send one of His disciples to Edessa to heal Abgar and preach the Gospel[EE55, 44]. After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the Apostle Thomas sent Thaddeus, one of the Seventy (or seventy-two Lk 10:1-17) disciples to Edessa[EE55, 43-45], who healed Abgar V, and commenced Christianity in Edessa and its surrounds[EE55, 44-47]. [See "325"]. The late Jewish Professor of Semitic Languages, Judah Benzion Segal (1912–2003), in his book, "Edessa `The Blessed City'" (2001), on fallacious (and anti-Christian) grounds, rejected this account "as one of the most successful pious frauds of antiquity"[SJ01, 64] but although "apocryphal the account of the conversion of King Abgar to Christianity; the legend may well have a substratum of fact"[SJ01, 69-70]. However, Segal failed to plausibly answer the central questions: "Why Abgar?" "Why Edessa"? "Why letters"? Also, significantly, Segal fails to mention the letters between Abgar V and the Roman Emperor Tiberius (r. AD 4-37)[AVW], which clearly add to the plausibility of Abgar writing a leter to Jesus. That Segal was not a nominal Jew, neutral to Christianity, is evident in that: 1) Despite being very erudite on first-century issues, and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, Segal had rejected Christianity; and 2) his daughter, Prof. Naomi Segal (1949-), when being admitted as a fellow of Queens' College Cambridge, insisted that the ceremony's wording be changed from, "in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit," to "in the name of God" because "I am Jewish":"In addition I asked for the phrase referring to `Father, Son and Holy Spirit' to be changed to `in nomine Dei', because I am Jewish"[FY19].
However, Eusebius' account says nothing about Abgar V being healed by an image of Jesus on a cloth[RC99, 54; OM10, 15]. The Spanish pilgrim nun Egeria in c.384 recorded that she had seen the text of Jesus' letter to Abgar V and the city gate through which it had entered Edessa[PM96, 173], but she did not mention an image-bearing cloth, which she would have if it then was in Edessa[PM96, 173; GM09, 147].
57 Death of Ma'nu V (r. 50–57), son of Abgar V, King of Osroene[ADW]. He is succeeded by Ma'nu VI (r. 57–71), another son of Abgar V[ADW]. According to the 945 Narratio de imagine Edessena ("Story of the Image of Edessa")[DT12, 185], or the "Official History"[WI98, 149, 256], Ma'nu VI reverted to paganism and intended to destroy "the image of the Lord"[WI79, 281]. To ensure the safety of "the likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ not made by hand" which had been fastened to a board and embellished with gold[WI79, 280], i.e. the Image of Edessa (the Shroud "four-doubled" = tetradiplon), was supposedly bricked up inside the public gate of Edessa, where it had previously laid[WI79, 281], and then was completely forgotten for almost five centuries until its discovery in 544 [see "544"] during the Persian King Khosrow II (590-628)'s Siege of Edessa[WI79, 281]. However, this story is most implausible. Did not Ma'nu VI, nor any of his guards or officials, notice that the Image of Edessa they were seeking to destroy, was where it had previously been but only behind fresh brickwork? Or is it more likely to be a "pious fraud" to give the Image of Edessa/Shroud, which is known in Edessa only from 544, a false back-history to the time of Jesus?
c. 60 Shroud-like fresco of Jesus in profile in the Orpheus Cubiculum 
[Right (enlarge)[MR86, pl. 1]: Sketch by Thomas Frank Heaphy (1813-73) of a fresco in the ceiling of the earliest section of the Catacomb of Domitilla, Rome, dated to the time of Nero (r. 54–68). Jesus is depicted in profile naked with a white cloth over his shoulder. Presumably sitting up at His resurrection with the Shroud still partly covering Him! If so, this is the earliest, mid-first century, depiction of the Shroud! See 05Jun21]
part of the Catacomb of Domitilla, Rome[CD93, 28]. Jesus has shoulder length hair and a beard, a white cloth is over His right shoulder. The Italian archaeologist Giovanni Battista de Rossi (1822–94) who opened this and many Roman catacombs, dated that section to the time of Nero. Belgian industrial chemist, Remi Van Haelst (1931-2003), saw this fresco and wrote of it, "This is the oldest representation of the Lord, made by an unknown artist ... who had know[n] Jesus":
"On the sepulchral vault, in the light of his flashlamp, the guide showed me a very vague painting. In a kind of circular inset on the ceiling of the chamber I saw the figure of a human bust, looking from the left side. With a kind of sepulchral voice the monk told me: `This is the oldest representation of the Lord, made by an unknown artist, probably based on descriptions or perhaps a sketch or painting by someone who had know[n] Jesus or his disciples"[VR87, 12]The Apostle Paul, who then had never been in Rome[Rom 1:9-13; 15:22-24], in his letter to the church in Rome (c.55-57), listed many Christians he knew personally[Rom 16:3-15], including "Andronicus and Junia", his "kinsmen" who were "well known to the apostles" and "were in Christ before" him[Rom 16:7]. Paul was converted in 33/34[FJ64, 320], so they likely were among the Greek-speaking Jews who saw Jesus at his final Passover[Jn 12:20-21] and then were among the Hellenists in the earliest Jerusalem church[Acts 6:1][BF85, 258]. Rufus[Rom 16:13] likely is a son of Simon of Cyrene[Mk 15:21][BF85, 260]. So there would likely have been Christians alive then in Rome who would have seen Jesus, making this Shroud-like depiction of Him an independent confirmation that the Shroudman is Jesus!
68 Athanasius (c. 296–373), the Bishop of Alexandria from 328 to 373, with five(!) exiles in between, affirmed that "a sacred Christ-icon traceable to Jerusalem and the year 68, was then present in Syria"[VD99]. This can only be the Shroud, since no other icon would have been tolerated by the earliest Jerusalem church. The Image of Edessa/Shroud was from Christianity's earliest times regarded as acheiropoietos, "not made by hands" (the same word occurs in Mk 14:58; 2Cor 5:1 & Col 2:11) [DR84, 34, 39; OM10, 131; DT12, 184-185], so it was exempt from the commandment to not make an image[Ex 20:4; Dt 4:23]. Athanasius wrote "Syria" not "Antioch," so it is possible the Shroud was initially kept at another location in Syria. Especially since construction of Antioch Cathedral was not commpleted until 341[DAW].
c. 70 Water stains on the Shroud exactly match the pattern of water stains produced by folding a linen cloth of the Shroud's dimensions and
[Left (enlarge)[GS02, 1]: Large water stains on the Shroud (left) were discovered by photographer Aldo Guerreschi and writer Michele Salcito not to have been caused by water to extinguish the 1532 fire (only the small water stains were), but exactly match the pattern of the Shroud having been folded (top right) and hididen in a part-filled first century earthenware jar (bottom right). See 05Apr18.]
putting it in a partly water filled first century earthenware jar, identical to one found at Masada, the Jewish fortress overthrown by the Romans in AD 74[GS02]! Ian Wilson confirmed this:
"This is no anecdote. Guerreschi repeated it in April 2004, with me acting as his assistant, for a British-made television documentary produced by Pioneer Productions. As the production team can confirm, the filming occurred at the very end of the day, with no possible opportunity for a second 'take'. Again, an identical pattern was produced"[WI10, 83]This is evidence both that the Shroud is first century and that it had to be hidden in its early centuries from Christianity's Jewish and Roman enemies.
c. 100 Gospel of the Hebrews, which many Church Fathers held to be the original Hebrew of St Matthew's Gospel[GM69], now exists only in fragments in the writings of Jerome (c. 342-420)[BP28, 17] and other early Church Fathers[GHW]. Jerome, in his De Viris illustribus[PM96, 172] (The Lives of Illustrious Men[RC99, 52]), wrote:
"The Gospel also which is called the Gospel according to the Hebrews, and which I have recently translated into Greek and Latin and which also Origen often makes use of, after the account of the resurrection of the Saviour says, `but the Lord, after he had given his grave clothes [sindon - SD8, 74] to the servant of the priest, appeared to James ..."[JG16].In his Latin text, Jerome retained the the Greek word sindon's Latin equivalent (sindonem)[DR84, 105, GM04, 17-18], to make it clear that it was Jesus' shroud that he gave to "the servant of the priest."This is the earliest reference to the Shroud outside the New Testament[GM69; SD8, 74; PM96, 172] and the first that the Shroud existed in the late first, or early second, century[SD8, 74; RC99, 52].
The "servant of the priest," presumably is a pseudonym of the Apostle John [See my series "Servant of the Priest (1)", "(2)" & "(3)"]. A Jewish priest was simply a male descendant of Aaron, who was Israel's first priest[Ex 28:1][UM66, 882; WJ84, 41]. Jesus' mother Mary was a relative of John the Baptist's mother Elizabeth[Lk 1:34-36]. And Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah were both descendants of Aaron[Lk 1:5] and so Zechariah was a priest[Lk 1:8-12]. Therefore Mary also must have been a descendant of Aaron, as well as of king David[Lk 3:23-31][ML74, 72-73]. A Jewish priest was not required to marry a descendant of Aaron, but only an Israelite virgin[Lev 21:13-14][ML74, 68]. Mary's sister was Salome (see above)[Mt 27:55-56; Mk 15:40; Jn 19:25], the mother of the sons of Zebedee, and therefore the Apostle John's mother[Mk 3:17; 10:35; Lk 5:10][WJ84, 35]. So Jesus and John were cousins[WJ84, 35]. Mary's, and therefore Salome's, father was Heli[Lk 3:23], that is Eli, a Jewish priestly name[1Sam 1:9; 2:11; 14:3]. Early Church historian Eusebius (c. 260-340) quoted from a letter by Polycrates (c.130–196), a Bishop of Ephesus, who wrote that "John, who rested upon the bosom of our Lord; who also was a priest, and bore the sacerdotal plate (petalon)"[EE55, 208]. In Jesus' time there were two Jewish High Priests: Annas and Caiaphas[Lk 3:2; Acts 4:5-6]. Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas[Jn 18:13]. Annas was High Priest from 6–15 when he was deposed by the Roman Procurator Valerius Gratus (r. 15-26). But since according to the Law of Moses the high-priesthood could only be terminated by death [Num 35:25], Annas was regarded by the Jews as the legitimate High Priest[ANW]. After Jesus was arrested, he was first brought before Annas[Jn 18:12-13] and then Caiaphas[Jn 18:24]. That John was a servant in Annas' household is evident in that John, the "other disciple"[ML74, 9-12] twice mentions that he was "known to the High Priest"[Jn 18:15-16]; the "servant girl" doorkeeper of Annas' house knew John, and that he was a follower of Jesus, and admitted both John and Peter into the courtyard[Jn 18:16-17]. John knew that the name of the "servant of the High Priest" whose ear Peter had cut off was "Malchus"[Jn 18:10] (but was healed by Jesus [Lk 22:50-51]) and that another servant of the High Priest was a relative of Malchus[Jn 18:26]. There are examples where a High Priest was simply called "the Priest"[2Ki 22:4; 22:10; Neh 3:1; 13:4]. John has a priestly interest in Jewish feasts[Jn 2:13; 5:1; 6:4; 7:2; 10:22; 11:55]. Although John reached Jesus' empty tomb before Peter, he waited until Peter entered it[Jn 20:4-8]. Presumably for Peter to confirm that Jesus' dead body was not inside, because a priest was forbidden to touch a dead body, except for his closest household relatives[Lev 21:1-3].
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
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RTB. Reference(s) to be provided.
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Posted 2 January 2024. Updated 2 March 2024.
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