Shroud of Turin News, August - December 2024

© Stephen E. Jones[1]

Newcomers start with: "The Turin Shroud in a nutshell"

[Previous: July-September 2024] [Next: To be advised].

This is the twentieth instalment of my Shroud of Turin News from August - December 2024. I have fallen more than a year behind in posting my News, but I don't want to abandon it, because it will be helpful in writing Chapter 11, "History of the Shroud," of my book in progress, Shroud of Turin: Burial Sheet of Jesus! [Right (enlarge)]. See 06Jul17, 03Jun18, 04Apr22, 13Jul22, 08Nov22, 20Jun24 & 01Dec24. I am still making steady progress writing my book almost every day. I hope to have it completed in word-processed manu-script form before the end 2026. I still want to write my "Open letter to Nature" but I first need to complete my "Dot points summary of my Hacker Theory" series. But before that I must continue where I left off in my Shroud of Turin News, July-September 2024, otherwise it will be 2026 in a few weeks! Articles will be brief extracts, in reverse date order (most recent uppermost). My comments will be within [bold square brackets] to distinguish them from the articles' words.

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"Ancient cloth headwrap dubbed 'the Shroud of Turin 2' is said to have been used on Jesus's head during burial," Daily Mail, 2 September 2024, Rob Waugh. As a new study has suggested that the famous Turin Shroud might not be a Medieval forgery [See "Little-known study of Shroud of Turin supports theory it was used to wrap the body of Jesus"], renewed attention has fallen on other relics of Jesus's clothing - including one that might 'prove' the story of the Shroud. [The Sudarium of Oviedo (see below) definitely does "'prove' the story of the Shroud." But I have deliberately not studied any other claimed relics associated with the Shroud, because: • I don't have the time. • I don't need to: the Shroud and Sudarium are more than enough to prove that they covered the dead body and face of Jesus. • Other claimed relics have not been subjected to as rigorous scientific testing as the Shroud and Sudarium have been. • If one or more of these other claimed Shroud-related relics turned out to be false, sceptics would use it to discredit me and the Shroud. A case in point was the attempt by Shroud sceptic Guy Walters (1971-) in 2010 to discredit Ian Wilson (1941-)'s books about the Shroud, because Wilson had written other books unrelated to the Shroud on contentious topics.] This week, many highlighted the connections between the shroud and the Sudarium of Oviedo - a relic held in a Spanish cathedral, which scientists have

[Above (enlarge): The Sudarium of Oveido. See 22Mar08 for an explanation of the stains. There is no reason why this grubby, blood and lung fluid stained, linen cloth, with no image, has been preserved since at least 614 in Jerusalem (see 2Jan17), unless it was known from Christianity's earliest time, to be the "face cloth [soudarion] that had been on Jesus’ head" (Jn 20:7)].

shown 'matches' the face on the Shroud. [Indeed they have! There is a perfect match between the face bloodstains of the Sudarium and those of the face of the Shroud (below). See below that there is even a

[Above: Perfect match of the face bloodstains of the Sudarium of Oviedo (right) with the face on the Shroud of Turin (left)[RTB]. This is proof beyond reasonable doubt that the Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium of Oviedo once covered the head of the same man[RTB].]

reversed `3' (see 08Sep13) equivalent bloodflow on the Sudarium! [Below (enlarge) : Extract from the right hand side of the Sudarium (Shroud.com). Faint `3' bloodflow on the Sudarium (reversed `3' on the Shroud), in the correct position, within the red circle (corrected).]

Here are three quotes from my book, chapter 13, "The Sudarium of Oviedo":

"The only possible explanation for the remarkable coincidences between the blood stains and other details on the Sudarium and the Shroud is that both cloths covered the same face ... Jesus of Nazareth"[GM98, 87]

"Recent image studies of the dorsal head wound blood marks on the Shroud show a very high congruence with a similar complex blood mark pattern on the Sudarium of Oviedo, another claimed relic of Christ's passion. Since this is a complex pattern, the agreement is not coincidental. Further, since these are both established marks of real blood derived materials, both cloths must have been imprinted at the same point in historical time"[AA0a, 124]

"In the case of the Oviedo cloth's back-of-the-head group of bloodstains, if these are photographed to the same scale as their equivalent on the Shroud, and then matched up to each other, there are again enough similarities to indicate ... that these two cloths were in contact with the same wounded body"[WS00, 78].

Further to Ian Wilson's quote above, below are back-of-the-head groups of bloodstains for both the Shroud (upper) and the Sudarium (lower):

[Above [AC23: Thanks to Joe Marino.] Close match of the back of the head bloodstains of the the Shroud (upper) and the Sudarium (lower), showing again that these two cloths were once in contact with the same crowned with thorns head! And it had to have been on 7 April AD30[24Jul16; 04Apr22], when the blood-soaked Sudarium which was wrapped around Jesus' head[26Jun08] , was laid on the newly bought Shroud!]]

But could other relics, including the Sudarium of Oviedo, offer evidence of Jesus's life and death - or even prove that the Turin Shroud is real? [See above that I have no comment on relics other than the Shroud and the Sudarium. The Sudarium is a `two-factor authentication' of the Shroud[09May15; 23 Jun15; 19May19; 27Apr21; 21Mar23]. 1. Both the Shroud and Sudarium share the same bloodstains on their face and head (see above), therefore they once covered the same crowned-with-thorns head (see above). 2. Both the Shroud and the Sudarium originated in Jesusalem in AD 30[24Jul16]. 3. Since then the Shroud and Sudarium have had a divergent history: The Shroud was in Lirey, France in 1355[13Apr18], having arrived there from Besançon, France[10Feb18; 11Nov17]; Athens[11Nov17], Constantinople[11Nov17; 13May17], Edessa[07Dec16; 13May17] and Jerusalem[24Jul16], which it left in AD 68[24Jul16]. The Sudarium has been in Oviedo, Spain since 616 at Cartagena, Spain[24Jan17], having arrived there from Alexandria in 616[24Jan17], after having left Jerusalem in 614[24Jan17]. A forger would therefore have to have forged both the Sudarium and Shroud, in Jerusalem before AD 68!]

The Sudarium of Oviedo has been described as 'the Shroud of Turin 2' [The Sudarium is nothing like the Shroud. The Shroud's dimensions are ~442 × ~113 cm (~14.5 x ~3.7 ft)[10Jul15; 20Jun24; 03Aug24], whereas the Sudarium's are ~85.5 x ~52.6 cm (~2.8 x ~1.73 ft)[25May16; 25Mar17; BJ01, 13; BJ12, 2]. The Shroud's linen is fine[22Jan15; 04Mar20] but the Sudarium's is coarse[BJ01, 68]. The Shroud's weave is herringbone twill[17Dec09; 16Jul15; 03Aug24], whereas the Sudarium's weave is taffeta (plain)[0Aug07; BJ12, 2]. The Sudarium bears no image[04Jun10; 28Jul12; 25May16; 24Jun16; 08May18], but the Shroud bears a double image, front and back of a naked crucified man[13Jan16; 03Aug24].]

and some have claimed that the markings on the cloth - which is said to have been wrapped around Jesus's head as he died - suggest that it was used alongside the Turin Shroud. [When Jesus died on the cross, he bowed his head[Mt 27:50; Mk 15:37; Lk 23:46; Jn 19:30] (see below).

[Above (enlarge): "`Crucifixion,' sculpture in wood according to research carried out on the Holy Shroud" by Italian artist-priest Giulio Ricci (1913-95)[28Jul21]. Who incidently travelled to Oviedo in 1965 and was the first to discover that the stains on the Sudarium matched those on the head of the shroudman![06Nov14; 25May16; 11Feb22]!].

Someone (it may have been a Roman soldier) tried to cover Jesus' dead face with a Roman sweatcloth (the Sudarium), but Jesus' head touching his right shoulder prevented that, so the Sudarium was doubled back until Jesus was taken down from the cross, when the Sudarium was wrapped fully around his head[BJ01, 75-77; 26Jun08]. ] ... The Sudarium is kept in a cathedral in Oviedo[RTB] ...in the Arca Santa, an elaborate reliquary... [RTB] ... . In John Chapter 20, verses six and seven, the Bible says, "Simon Peter, following him, also came up, went into the tomb, saw the linen cloth lying on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloth but rolled up in a place by itself[RTB] ...The history of the cloth was documented by a 12th-century bishop who claimed it was in Palestine until the year 614 AD when it was taken from Jerusalem and given to the bishop of Seville[RTB]. ]

"God’s Icon – The Shroud of Turin," Patheos, 2 September 2024, Dennis Knapp [Knapp is a conservative Roman Catholic. So he should be aware that in Roman Catholic theology, an icon is merely a humanly created representation of the real thing:

"ICON ... from the Greek eikon meaning image, is a word now generally applied to paintings of sacred subjects or scenes from sacred histories" ("Icon," New Catholic Encyclopedia 2003. My emphasis)

as opposed to "relic" which is the real thing:

"RELICS The material remains of a saint or holy person after his death, as well as objects sanctified by contact with his body." ("Relics," New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2003)[23Jun15]

So Knapp, by calling the Shroud "God's Icon" is effectively calling it "God’s Fake"! Since Knapp believes that the Shroud is Jesus' burial sheet and the image of the man on the Shroud is Jesus, imprinted on the cloth by Jesus' resurrection, then the title of his article should have been "God’s Relic"!] ... Many believe the Shroud is a true relic of the Passion of Christ. [That is, a relic.] Many regard it as a human creation. [That is, an icon.] Others see it as no more than a scam for fleecing gullible pilgrims. [Since the evidence is overwhelming that the Shroud is Jesus' burial sheet, even if those pilgrims are gullible, they are not being fleeced] For over a hundred years, it has been scrutinised by numerous scientific disciplines. Indeed, the Shroud of Turin is the most studied artefact in human history. [If the Shroud was a forgery, it would have been discovered to be one in 1978 when STURP's ~30 scientists, for 5 days working around the clock, subjected the Shroud to a battery of scientific tests[20Jun22]. Some (if not most) members of STURP were sceptical, like Ray Rogers (1927-2005), who expected it would take him 20 minutes to prove that the Shroud was a fake": "Give me twenty minutes and I'll have this thing shot full of holes"[03Apr08; 17Jun08; 07Jul17]. ... Science has proven that this image is not a painting, drawing, or caused by a scorch. [Agreed with "painting"and "drawing" but not "scorch." The following will help me write Chapter 17 of my book, "How was the image formed?": ■ The man's image is a scorch[08Nov23]. • Resembles a scorch[08Jul07; 25Jun08; 28Feb2508Nov23]. • Analogous to a scorch[RTB]. • Characteristics of a scorch[RTB]. • Colour[07Feb12; 08Nov23]. • Fine detail[08Nov23]. • Negative[08Nov23]• Physical change[RTB]. • Stable chemically and thermally[RTB]. • Not added but taken away[RTB]. • Dehydration, oxidation and conjugation of cellulose[18Jan12]. ■ Not a heat scorch[RTB]. • Heat scorches discolour cloth all the way through[18Jan12; 03Mar12]. • But the Shroud image is superficial[18Jan12; 07Feb12]. • Heat scorches on linen fluoresce in ultraviolet light (see below)[21Jul07; 03Mar12; 15Feb16].

[Above]: Head and chest of the Shroud man's image in ultraviolet light[08Oct16]. As can be seen above, while the scorch marks from the 1532 fire[25Sep19] fluoresced orange-brown in ultraviolet light, both the blood areas and the body image did not fluoresce in ultraviolet light at all. The blood (e.g. in the speared-in-the-side-wound) is the same red colour of blood in ordinary light because blood absorbs ultraviolet light, and yellow is the background color of the Shroud's aged linen. Therefore the man's image on the Shroud cannot have been caused by a heat scorch, either by a hot statue, or by a heated bas relief.]

• Orange[RTB]. • Scorches caused by the 1532 fire fluoresce in ultraviolet light[21Jul07; 03Mar12].• But Shroud image does not fluoresce in ultraviolet light[21Jul07; 03Mar12; 15Feb16]. ■ Is a radiated light scorch[RTB]. • Caused by light not heat[RTB]. • Light can scorch linen[28Oct11]. Without it fluorescing[RTB]. • ENEA[RTB]. - Excimer UV laser[RTB] - Closest to Shroud image[RTB]. - Colour[RTB]. - Superficial[RTB]. - Did not fluoresce in ultraviolet light[RTB]. - Energy required too high for modern science[RTB]. ■ Consistent with Jesus' resurrection[12Apr08]. • Transfiguration[RTB]. • (Mt 17:1–2; Mk 9:2–3; Lk 9:28–31) . • ENEA showed image is a scorch caused by intense ultraviolet light. • Irradiated linen with excimer ultraviolet laser. • As expected result of Jesus' resurrection[12Apr08]. I will complete the above references in the background.]

"Turin Shroud scholar produces more evidence of its authenticity," Church Times, Jonathan Luxmoore, 2 September 2024. THE bloodstains and markings on the Holy Shroud of Turin correspond to the brutal treatment of Christ described in Gospel accounts of his crucifixion, a new study suggests [see 25 Oct24]. The study, published by the University of Padua, is by Professor Giulio Fanti ... a professor of mechanical and thermal measurements ... The Vatican, given ownership in 1983, has not officially pronounced on its authenticity. [As I have posted before, it is duplicitous (two-faced) of the Vatican not to affirm that the Shroud is Jesus' burial cloth[06Oct13; 14Feb14; 17Apr15; 23Jun15; 07May16; 21Feb20; 29Dec20; 29May21; 11May24; 04Jun24]. Because by its actions, spending many millions of US dollars equivalent preserving and exhibiting the Shroud, the Vatican clearly does believe that the Shroud is Jesus' burial sheet. The only alternatives are: the Shroud is a forgery purporting to be Jesus' burial shroud; or it is another man crucified in mockery of Jesus. Neither of those fraudulent alternatives should be acceptable for a church which claims to be Christian. If the claim is that the Shroud is a fake but it "draws people to the tormented face and body of Jesus" as Pope Francis (r. 2013-25) said after viewing the Shroud up close:

"`The icon of this love is the shroud, that, even now, has attracted so many people here to Turin,' Francis said. `The shroud draws [people] to the tormented face and body of Jesus and, at the same time, directs [people] toward the face of every suffering and unjustly persecuted person.'"[TG15]

then that is the philosophy that "the end justifies the means." In Roman Catholic theology, an "icon" is a representation of a sacred object, whereas a "relic" is the sacred object itself[23Jun15]. The Apostle Paul condemned those who said, "why not do evil that good may come"? (Rom 3:8). ] In 1988, it was carbon-dated to the 12th century, although some scientists claim that the testing was carried out erroneously on a piece of medieval cloth. [No. The Invisible Repair Theory is fatally flawed (see 28Feb25). The true explanation of why the first century Shroud has a 1260-1 390 radiocarbon date is because that date was generated by a hacker's computer program-see 14May25 and 28Jan25.]

"Further evidence suggests Jesus was not wrapped in 'Shroud of Turin'," Scimex, 29 August, Sarzeaud, N. [See my critique part (1) and part (2). This was a pathetic beat-up by `historian' Nicolas Sarzeaud (1992-), based on a mere footnote (10Oct25) by medieval philosopher Nicole Oresme (1325-82) who never saw the Shroud but repeated the false rumour ("it was said") that the Lirey church "clerics deceive[d] others, inducing them to bring offerings to their church..." but Oresme did not dispute that it was "the shroud of the Lord Jesus Christ"[10Oct25]. In his media release Sarzeaud LIED twice (10Oct25 and 12Nov25). I pointed out that in his media release Sarzeaudfine ignored the scientific evidence for the Shroud being Jesus' burial sheet, and in his journal article Sarzeaud only briefly mentioned that: "In 1898, the Shroud captured public attention after a photograph, with its negative revealing the face of Christ, was seen by many devotees as an undeniable miracle, ruling out any human intervention" (my emphasis)[12Nov25]. I then pointed out, what many shroudies (including me) are not fully aware of, that it was not only "the face of Christ" in Secondo Pia's 1898 photograph which revealed that the shroudman's image was a photographic negative, but it was the man's double full-length body, front and back (see below)!

[Above (enlarge): The negative plate of one of Secondo Pia's (1855 1941) photographs of the Shroud in 1898, including the altar in Turin Cathedral where it was displayed. As can be seen, on Pia's negative the Shroud image is photographically positive, while everything else is negative[07May16]. The man's face is only a small part of Pia's photograph!]

And that it was impossible for an unknown 14th century forger to depict the double full-length body of Jesus as a photographic negative, let alone also as three-dimensional, extremely superficial, non-directional, and x-rays of hand bones and teeth, etc[12Nov25]. Therefore, the man's image on the Shroud can only be "an undeniable miracle, ruling out any human intervention"[12Nov25]. That is, a snapshot of Jesus' resurrection[10Oct25]!]

To be continued in the twenty-first instalment 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
AA0a. Adler, A.D., 2000, "The Shroud Fabric and the Body Image: Chemical and Physical Characteristics," in AC02, 113-127.
AC02. Adler, A.D. & Crispino, D., ed., 2002, "The Orphaned Manuscript: A Gathering of Publications on the Shroud of Turin," Effatà Editrice: Cantalupa, Italy.
AC23. "La Sindone de Turin y el Sudario de Oviedo, dos telas y ¿un cuerpo?" ("The Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium of Oviedo: two cloths and one body?"), Actas del Congreso de Abarán, 4 noviembre 2023.
BJ01. Bennett, J., 2001, "Sacred Blood, Sacred Image: The Sudarium of Oviedo: New Evidence for the Authenticity of the Shroud of Turin," Ignatius Press: San Francisco CA.
BJ12. Bennett, J., 2012, "The Sudarium of Oviedo and its Relationship with the Shroud of Turin," First International Conference on the Shroud of Turin, Panama City, Panama, June 30–July 1, 2012, 1-12.
GM98. Guscin, M., 1998, "The Oviedo Cloth," Lutterworth Press: Cambridge UK.
GM98. Guscin, M., 1998, "The Oviedo Cloth," Lutterworth Press: Cambridge UK.
TG15. "Pope Francis praises Turin shroud as an 'icon of love'." The Guardian, 21 June 2015.
RTB. Reference(s) to be provided.
WS00. Wilson, I. & Schwortz, B., 2000, "The Turin Shroud: The Illustrated Evidence," Michael O'Mara Books.

Posted 15 December 2025. Updated 5 January 2026.