Similarly, the image shows more tefil-


lin strapped to the man’s left arm. The use of aloes and myrrh for burial was


also part of ancient Jewish burial customs. Two Italian researchers who also


pears to be present under the man’s jaw, drawing considerable similarities to the single sheet dictated by the Mishnah to be placed over individuals executed by the government. In a 2017 interview, numismatist Agos-


Astonishingly, the researchers claimed to have uncovered the letters YKAI in the coins, thought to be the visible part of the word “TIBERIOY KAICAPOC,” the Greek words for Emperor Tiberius, who reigned during the time of Jesus.


tino Sferrazza argued that the small bulg- es present around the man’s eyes on the burial Shroud were Roman leptons, a low- value coin that archaeologists only recent- ly discovered were used in Jewish burials around the same time of Jesus’ death. Sferrazza claims that his team has been


able to identify a curved, augural staff used in Roman religion called a “lituus” over the man’s right eye, with the image of a sacrificial cup present on the left. Astonishingly, the researchers claimed


to have uncovered the letters YKAI in the coins, thought to be the visible part of the word “TIBERIOY KAICAPOC,” the Greek words for Emperor Tiberius, who reigned during the time of Jesus. Although that appears to be where


many of the similarities end, digging deeper proves to pay off once more. Under traditional Jewish burials, a


body is expected to undergo a ritual water bath, which does not appear to be the case for the man depicted in the Shroud image. The only permissible exceptions to that


rule would be that the person underwent a violent or tortured death; the person was executed; the person is a Jewish outcast; or the person was killed by an official act of the government — exceptions that all apply to Jesus. Still, there were numerous signs that


the man who was buried had been re- posed in a traditional Judaic manner. The Shroud image shows what appears


to be a strap running across the forehead, holding at its center a box. As was the cus- tom, Jews would place a phylactery (also called tefillin) on a deceased forehead con- taining Holy Scriptures in a leather box or pouch.


58 NEWSMAX | APRIL 2023


worked on STURP found that immuno- fluorescence methods have also demon- strated the presence of traces of aloes and myrrh. These traces occur both in areas corresponding to bloodstains and in other areas as well.


SCIENCE OR FAITH? In 2013, Professor Giulio Fanti, a leading researcher of the Shroud at Italy’s Universi- ty of Padua, applied modern spectroscopic methods to Shroud fibers taken during STURP in the 1970s. His analysis found that the ancient cloth was created between 300 B.C. and 400 A.D. — well within the time of Jesus’ historic life. Fanti himself admits his own study is


not definitive as to the authenticity of the Shroud. But Fanti points out the obvious el-


ephant in the room — the thorny crown that sits atop the head of the man on the Shroud. As he explained: “Thousands of men


were crucified by Romans, but one only, Jesus, was crowned with thorns. And the Shroud shows many wounds on the fore- head, temples, and nape due to a crown of thorns. “For me, even if science doesn’t confirm


the name of that man, I have recognized him from a more general point of view.” In 1998, Pope John Paul II visited Turin


Cathedral to speak about the Shroud and its meaning for humankind. “The Shroud shows us Jesus at the


moment of his greatest helplessness and reminds us that in the abasement of that death lies the salvation of the whole world,” John Paul said. “The Shroud thus becomes an invitation


to face every experience, including that of suffering and extreme helplessness, with the attitude of those who believe that God’s merciful love overcomes every poverty, ev- ery limitation, every temptation to despair.” For Christians and non-believers


there remains real value in the Shroud, the best evidence that there is a better way for all of us.


JAKUB PORZYCKI/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES


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