To me I never really cared either way about the shroud.
Then I read this thread AND I investigated for myself.
The simple FACT ( not opinion, but fact) that NO ONE has been able to duplicate the shroud speaks volumes.
The fact that the only possible explanation for the image have ALL the characteristic that it has is that it was exposed to radiation of the type that even NOW can't be created by humans outside of the most advanced nuclear laboratories, made me reconsider what the shroud is and WHO the image is of.
Here is the thing though, IF it is NOT of Christ then it is of another "human like being" that emitted so much radiation AFTER "his" death that his "image" was permanently "etched" into the material of this shroud in such a way that even TODAY it can't be duplicate outside of advanced nuclear laboratories.
If the image is NOT of Christ then WHO was it?
In regards to FL comment on Isaiah's description of the "suffering servant":
Let us look at the passage:
Isaiah 53 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
The Suffering Servant
53 Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
3 He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
6 All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation, who considered
That He was cut off out of the land of the living
For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
9 His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
10 But the Lord was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.
11 As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.
In terms of an actual PHYSICAL description all we have is this:
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
What we see described is a man that had NO features out of the norm, indeed , someone plain that was no different than anyone else.
He would have been beaten and physically marked from various afflictions ( there are different scholarly views on t his, including the view that He bore the physical marks of ALL the illnesses He healed).
He would have been pierced.
And we see ALL that in the image of the shroud.
There is no "muscular man" so I am not sure where that comment came from...
The image on the shroud shows a bruised and beaten male, thin and non-descript.
The ONLY POSSIBLE issue with the image on the shroud compared to to Jesus would be, possibly, the height of the person.
But since we have NO indication of Jesus' height, we simply don't know.
NOTE: in regards to the height of Jesus, some have stated that He was short because of how this passage could be read to indicate that Jesus had a small stature:
Zaccheus Converted
19 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. 3 Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way.
Some read this as Zaccheus was short and others as Jesus was short.
