Turin Shroud Scholar: Reexamination of Historical Texts Point to Cloth’s Early Existence

Longtime Shroud of Turin researcher Joseph Marino, author of two books and more than 60 articles and conference presentations on the Shroud, has just published an article that compiles numerous historical references to Jesus’ burial linens from the second century through the first half of the 14^th century.

The Shroud continues to stir significant interest worldwide. On Feb. 26, The Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., unveiled an interactive, state-of-the-art exhibit on the Shroud. The exhibit, “Mystery and Faith: The Shroud of Turin,” will run through July 31.

Additionally, this Easter season, a new Shroud film titled “Who Can He Be?” will be released by British award-winning director and producer David Rolfe.

Marino’s new 45-page article, “Documented References to the Burial Linens of Jesus Prior to the Turin Shroud’s Appearance in France in the Mid-1350s,” published on April 8, adds to the growing body of evidence indicating the Shroud of Turin could be the actual burial cloth of the historical Jesus of Nazareth. As a sample of what readers will find in the article, in the sixth century, nearly a thousand years older than the carbon date, an ancient liturgical text translates John 20:5 in the following manner: Peter and John ran to the tomb and saw the recent imprint of the dead and risen man on the linens. There are one or more references for each century from the 2^nd through the 14^th, clearly demonstrating the existence of the Shroud from right after the time of Jesus through its appearance in France in the mid-14^th century.

A former Benedictine monk, Marino has studied the Shroud for 45 years. He was involved in groundbreaking research, which demonstrated that the 1988 C-14 results were invalid. Marino, working alongside his late wife, Sue Benford, found anomalies in the weave pattern in the sample which had been dated. In 2005, in response to Marino and Benford’s research, the late Ray Rogers, head of the chemistry section of the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project, authored a peer-reviewed paper,  “Studies on the Radiocarbon Sample from the Shroud of Turin” in which he concluded that the C-14 sample was not representative of the main cloth, thus invalidating the results.  This was further corroborated by the raw data from the three labs, which against all norms they refused to release immediately, were finally obtained through a Freedom of Information request in 2017 made by French researcher Tristan Casabianca.  It was published in the peer-reviewed journal  Archaeometry, on March 22, 2019. Analysis of the data shows it was clearly manipulated. Had all the data been released in 1989, it would have failed statistical analysis as a reliable test.  The latest historical research compiled in a 45-page document strongly supports an age of the cloth much older than the the14^th century, as erroneously determined by the carbon dating labs in 1988.

To schedule an interview with Marino, contact Mitchell Communications at (845) 421-8165 or  paulamitchell0217@gmail.com or Joseph Marino directly at (614) 477-1480 or JMarino240@aol.com.

About Joseph Marino

World-renowned Shroud of Turin scholar Joseph Marino is the author of two books and more than 60 articles and conference presentations on the Shroud, which many believe is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. A former Benedictine monk, Marino has studied every aspect of Shroud for more than 45 years and was involved in groundbreaking research, along with his late wife, Sue Benford, which convinced the late chemist Ray Rogers that the sample tested for the 1988 C-14 test was not representative of the whole cloth. That, in the eyes of many researchers, invalidated the medieval date assigned to it by the labs.
Photo (2) credits: ©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc.
Featured Photo: Ray Rogers, John Jackson and Prof. Giovanni Riggi, members of the 1978 team that performed the first ever in-depth scientific examination of the Shroud, take a first look at the underside of the cloth in over 400 years.
Secondary Photo: STURP researcher Mark Evans makes photomicrographs of the Shroud during the 1978 scienific examination of the cloth.