Jewish Expert: Shroud Is 100% Real BY BILL HOFFMANN B
arrie schwortz had no idea when he was hired to be the of- fi cial documenting photogra-
pher of the Shroud of Turin in 1978 that it would change his life forever. “I started off thinking it was just a
gig. I’m a photographer, it’s a photo shoot — do it and walk away when you’re done,” Schwortz said. “But I came to believe the
Shroud is 100% real. In my heart I believe it’s authentic.” The story of how a religious
cynic with zero interest in a cen- turies-old piece of cloth became a believer is fascinating — and one that still stuns Schwortz to this day. An expert on imaging and micros-
form of a painting. I expected to take a quick look, see the brush strokes, and go home.’’ At the urging of Don Lynn, an im-
SCHWORTZ
aging expert from NASA whose proj- ects included the Voyager and Viking launches, Schwortz took the assign- ment. “Don, who was a good Catholic, looked me right in the eye and said, ‘Have you forgotten that the man in question was a Jew? Don’t you think God would want one of his chosen people on our team?’” Schwortz recalled. “I laughed and I said, ‘No, Don, I never thought that.’ He
copy at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, Schwortz was seen as an ideal choice to help a research team sanctioned by the Catholic Church to determine, once and for all, whether the Shroud was genuine. But he wasn’t interested. “I was very uncomfortable with the
subject matter,” he told an audience at the Vatican. The Pennsylvania-born son of Pol-
ish emigres, Schwortz had been raised in an Orthodox Jewish home, but lapsed as a practicing Jew after his bar mitzvah at the age of 13. “The question that went through
my mind was, why would a Jewish man want to get involved with what is argu- ably the most important relic of Christi- anity?” he said. “And I was a total skeptic and fi g- ured the Shroud was probably some
told me, ‘Go to Turin. Do the best job you can do. God doesn’t tell us in ad- vance what the plan is. But one day you will know.’ I went on those words and never regretted taking that advice.” The examination of the Shroud was
made on a special rotating stainless steel table surrounded by security. After years of research the team con-
cluded the imagery on the Shroud was not a painting and very likely a genuine picture of Jesus. But Schwortz still didn’t buy it, one
reason being that bloodstains on it were bright red, despite the fact blood usually turns black or brown after a few hours. “In 1995, after years of resistance on
my part, world-renowned blood expert Dr. Alan Adler answered the question,’’ he said. Adler explained the blood was found to contain a high level of bilirubin, an
EXAMINATION During the 1978 STURP probe photographer Barrie Schwortz examined the Shroud on a special rotating stainless steel table. Despite his initial skepticism Schwortz, an expert on imaging and microscopy, is now convinced that the Shroud is authentic.
orange-yellow pigment formed in the liver by the breakdown of hemoglobin. “He said, somebody who’s been tor-
tured like Jesus, who was beaten in the Garden of Gethsemane the night be- fore the crucifi xion, would go into ana- phylactic shock. The liver fl oods the bloodstream with bilirubin and blood of that nature stays red forever. “I realized I had no choice but to
accept that the Shroud was authentic. I was a big Arthur Conan Doyle fan when I was young, and I remember Conan Doyle once said through the lips of Sherlock Holmes: ‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’” Today, Schwortz plays an infl uential
role in Shroud research as editor and founder of the internationally recog- nized website
www.shroud.com. The largest Shroud resource on the
internet, it has had more than 12 mil- lion visitors from over 160 countries. Schwortz is also founder of the
Shroud of Turin Education and Re- search Association, a nonprofi t dedi- cated to preserving materials relating to the Shroud. Part of his job is to dispel misinfor-
mation that still circulates about the Shroud. He was able to debunk a radiocar-
bon test that dated the Shroud to the 15th century because of reweaving found on one corner. Thomas Ferguson Irish Linen, the
world’s foremost experts on linen, was called in and determined that constant handling by bishops had necessitated its repair, which was performed via a 15th-century technique called invisible reweaving. Schwortz said he is often asked
about his faith; what does he believe? “I truly believe that only God would
think to choose a Jewish man who had no emotional attachment to Jesus — who was a total skeptic with a pretty negative attitude — and put him on that team. “How many Jews can claim that it
was the Shroud of Turin that brought them back to their faith in God?”
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