Spirituality

New Turin Shroud study suggests that it had once wrapped a body

By T.K. Randall
August 10, 2025

Image: Turin Shroud
Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 / Dianelos Georgoudis Believed by many to be the actual burial cloth of Jesus himself, the Turin Shroud - which is today situated in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy - has long been the subject of intense scrutiny, controversy and debate.

A significant number of researchers have made conflicting claims about the Shroud, with some hailing it as authentic and others suggesting that it is either a forgery or not the shroud of Jesus at all.

Last week we reported on new research which focused on analyzing the way cloth drapes over a real human body.

The findings indicated that the image of Jesus was most likely to have been created by the Shroud being placed upon a low-relief sculpture rather than on a real human being.

Now, however, another new study has completely contradicted this by suggesting that the Shroud was indeed placed upon a real human body - possibly that of Jesus himself.Headed up by Dr Kelly Kearse - an immunologist trained at Johns Hopkins University - the new analysis focused on determining whether the Shroud had been placed on a body that had been washed, as oppose to on a body that still bore the blood stains of violent injuries.

The findings indicated that the markings on the Shroud were consistent with an unwashed body - something you'd expect to see if it had genuinely been placed on Jesus' body.

They also showed that a crucified body could potentially account for the pattern of stains on the cloth.

While this is compelling evidence, this research is far from conclusive and is unlikely to convince everyone that the Turin Shroud is the real deal.

Ultimately, we may never know for sure if the Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus or not.

Source: Mail Online

Tags: Turin Shroud, Jesus