Philip wrote:Thanks philip:).
Hmm your right, as far as the c14 dating I'll just send them Ray Rogers peer reviewed thermochimica acts paper.
As far as the replica, I do remember a few scolarly critiques in shroud.com
It might take a week or 2 to put something together but I will have something good for them.
Bippy, it sure can't hurt! One thing to remember is that RTB exists to trumpet powerful evidences to support its contention that the Bible is God's word. If an evidence isn't supported by a LARGE number of factors and independent, peer-reviewed studies, it may be something they believe wise to stay clear of. I don't know that I've ever seen them really do an about face on a position they've held. But that's not to say they wouldn't if they consider the evidence to be especially compelling.
A couple of things: I find it fascinating that the Bible actually mentions Jesus' burial wrappings - at least enough to know that there were two parts. And any force or energy released during the Resurrection might have easily incinerated the Shroud, much less have left an improbable image on it. Obviously, whether The Shroud is the real deal or not, the burial garments were intentionally preserved. But who might have retrieved them for safekeeping? How did the head portion get separated from the rest? Why would whoever retrieved the garments not have kept them together? The Biblical accounts show no one lingering at the grave, except Mary, who encountered Jesus Himself. Truly, with all of this drama going on, the burial garments would seem only important in its aftermath. It's also puzzling as to why there is no strong stream of oral history that the Shroud existed prior to the first known accounts.
Philip, you brought up a good point about the energy released by the resurrection, but you have to remember that if God wanted there to be a resurrection do you think he would have created it in a way that would kill people. John Jackson's (my future professor
) said that if you want try to understand what happened on that image your going to have to change the laws of Physics. I believe this is where the information on the shroud will lead us to. Im sure that God knew of a way to do this without harming anyone else.
As far as the biblical accounts, that Peter and the other disciple were also there and one legend holds that Peter grabbed the shroud. Now he might of grabbed the sudarium of Oviedo or not, im not sure, but you have to remember that for the first almost 400 years after Jesus that being a Christian meant certain death for you. Peter however, wasnt afraid to die, but if I was Peter and I held something as precious as the shroud in my possession do you think I would want the Pharasees or the Romans to know about it? Common sense would say that they would most certainly have taken the shroud from him.
Its my opinion that Peter took both of them and gave the sudarium to someone else for safe keeping just in case they found him with the shroud and took it away from him. Remember that during and after the time that Peter died it was almost a crime to be a Christian and they had to be on the hush hush to be able to pass this down from generation to generation. The fact that Rogers Vanillin test showed this to be much older then the c14 tests and on par with other relics that tested negative for vanillin (like the dead sea scrolls) shows why they would want to pass this down.
Also remember that the shroud was most likely known as the mandylion, and if you recall in the accounts of the mandylion (which are historically older then the shroud's history) only the head part of the image was shown to people, and historical accounts of the mandylion show that it was folded 8 times to be able to get it just to show the face. Sure enough, shroud experts found creases that showed that the shroud was folded over 8 times and when folded in this way the shroud shows only the face part of the image.
Remember also that the sudariums history is indesputable going all the way back to the late 500's, and the sudarium is a perfect match with the shroud as far as blood point congruent points. It also has much of the same pollens found on the shroud from the jerualem area, but this is where it gets shocking. They also found microscopic pollen from areas of the world that were different then the shrouds. When Max frei took his sticky samples of the sudarium , he didnt even know a thing about the sudariums history, but the pollen found on the sudarium perfectly matches the history of the shroud (the geography of where it has been through its indesputable history).
The shroud is the "sexy" relic as it has an image but its a grave error for any shroud researcher to ignore the sudariums importance in this. The sudarium and the hungarium pray codex were important in understanding why true shroud researchers initially objected to the dates found on the c14 tests.
There is also the legend of akbar that says that the king of eddesa was gravely ill and asked for Jesus to come there to visit him. Jesus refused but promised to send someone in his place. Soon after Jesus was crucified one of his disiples (maybe one of the lesser known, not sure as I havent researched this fully) brought the shroud to the king and he was instantly healed and converted to Christianity. This is the legend of Akbar.