The Shroud of Turin

Carbon-14 Dating
1988 Carbon dating results appeared to expose the Shroud as a medieval fake, but the dating was controversial

The Shroud Negative
The Shroud of Turin is made of fine linen and is 3.5 feet wide and a little over 14 feet long. It bears the image of a crucified man, with injuries consistent with Biblical accounts of Jesus' crucifixion.

The Shroud of Turin - The DNA of God?

Controversy raged following the 1988 carbon dating incident, but research continued. There was some debate about if it was blood or paint upon the Shroud and this was an area of further work.

In 1995, threads that had been taken from the Shroud during the 1978 STURP investigations were examined at Genoa’s Institute of Legal Medicine. These threads had been taken from the foot area of the Shroud. Professor Marcello Canale, reported the following:

“‘We have extracted the DNA present on these tiny threads and have amplified this with a chain reaction that allows us, via a particular enzyme, to keep on replicating the DNA an infinite number of times. It is a method that can be used even in the case of a single cell…The DNA chain is very long, and we are able to identify very small sectors representing individual characteristics which can ultimately enable us to identify the individual from whom they derive.’”

Dr. Victor Tyron and his wife, Nancy Mitchell Tyron of Texas University’s Center for Advanced DNA Technologies, performed an independent test for DNA.

They first established that the threads contained human blood, and then that DNA was present in the blood.

Invalid Dating Result
Current modern research shows the sample taken for the dating was not a part of the original cloth, but a rewoven area of the cloth. Thus the dating is invalid.