For centuries, Christians have attributed a first-century date to the Shroud of Turin. Nuclear engineer Robert Rucker says that his latest research on the shroud verifies that. Source: CNA.
“The Shroud of Turin is the second-most valuable possession of the human race next to the Bible itself,” Mr Rucker said.
The shroud is preserved in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud adjacent to St John the Baptist Cathedral in Turin in Italy.
For more than 10 years, Mr Rucker has studied the physics of the disappearance of the body of Jesus and its imprint on the shroud.
His website, Shroud Research, challenges conclusions that the shroud dates to the period of 1260 to 1380 AD, leading sceptics to conclude it is a medieval fake.
In 1988, scientists used tiny samples snipped from the shroud to determine the amount of carbon 14 isotopes they contained, destroying the samples in the process.
The radioactive carbon 14 isotope is a variant of carbon-containing excess neutrons, which are particles smaller than atoms.
Over time, carbon 14 decays into nitrogen 14 in organic materials such as bone and plant matter. The ratio of carbon 14 atoms remaining in a sample provides the data needed to estimate the sample’s age.
Mr Rucker said his calculations show that the 1988 carbon 14 dating is erroneous because it does not take into account the radiation emitted from Jesus’ body at the Resurrection, which included neutrons that were absorbed by the shroud and formed new carbon 14 atoms, thus leading to a misinterpretation of the data.
In 2015, Pope Francis prayed before the shroud and during an Angelus address said: “The shroud attracts [us] toward the martyred face and body of Jesus.”
Neither the Pope nor his immediate predecessors have made any pronouncements on the authenticity of the shroud.
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Nuclear engineer says latest research confirms first-century date of Shroud of Turin (By Martin Barillas, CNA)
