Guido Pagliarino - Sindòn The Mysterious Shroud Of Turin

"Now there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man,, who had not consented to their decision and action; and he was looking for the Kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud, and laid him in a tomb cut in a stone, where no one had yet been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning” (Luke, 23, 50 - 54).

“After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes , about seventy-five pounds in weight . So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths 12 with the spices , as in the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified , there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there (John, 19, 38 - 42).

John also writes about the discovery, on Sunday morning after the Friday of crucifixion, of the burial cloths of Jesus in the empty tomb where Christ had been before his resurrection 13:

"Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved 14, and said to them, 'They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have have laid him!'. So, Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stoping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then, Simon Peter came, following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;

for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead" (John, 20, 1 - 9). 15

So strips, or bandages (as in the 1974 Italian version)?! Not shroud?

Well, I told you I had left a clue; more precisely, I had talked about translation. According to the original Greek translation, the two apostles, in addition to the "soudarion", identified as the burial handkerchief placed on the head 16, found othònia (plural), namely generic linen cloths, therefore not strips (bende) as from the 1974 Italian translation 17, which is not literal. Since othònia means generic linen cloths, and is a word in the plural, it may refer to a sheet together with a handkerchief-shroud and strips 18; but definitely it does not mean only strips or bandages. It should be noted that Luke, Mark and Matthew do not describe the fabric of the Shroud of Jesus; only John, the last evangelist to write a Gospel between A.D. 80 and 100, fills the gap:

Here the 2008 Italian translation by CEI (Conferenza Episcopale Italiana),in Italian language, with the difference between 2008 and 1974 versions of John: 20, 1-9.

Il primo giorno della settimana, Maria di Màgdala si recò al sepolcro di mattino, quando era ancora buio, e vide che la pietra era stata tolta dal sepolcro. Corse allora e andò da Simon Pietro dall'altro discepolo, quello che Gesù amava, e disse loro:”Hanno portato via il Signore dal sepolcro e non sappiamo dove l'hanno posto!”. Pietro allora uscì insieme all'altro discepolo e si recarono al sepolcro. Correvano insieme tutti e due, ma l'altro discepolo corse più veloce di Pietro e giunse per primo al sepolcro. Si chinò, vide i teli (linen cloths) (in the 1974 translation by CEI “bende”, that is “bandages”) posati là, ma non entrò. Giunse intanto anche Simon Pietro, che lo seguiva, ed entrò nel sepolcro e osservò i teli posati là, e il sudario -che era stato sul suo capo- non posato là con I teli, ma avvolto in un luogo a parte. Allora entrò anche l'altro discepolo, che era giunto per primo al sepolcro, e vide e credette. Infatti non avevano ancora compreso la Scrittura, che cioè egli doveva risorgere dai morti.

When John intends to refer expressly to a term similar to strips, such as when he narrates the raising of Lazarus (John, 11, 44) he uses the Greek word keirìai instead of othònia.

History of the Shroud until A.D. 1356 and the first definite historical record in the same year

The history of the Shroud was recorded year by year from A.D. 1356 onward (see Chronology). For the previous centuries, we have only traditions passed down, theory and few written papers.

In A.D. 340, Cyril of Jerusalem described the Sepulcher's red rock with white veins and the Shroud - he did not mention the word bandages - which wrapped Jesus according to the evangelists, as “witnesses of Resurrection”; but he did not tell us he saw directly that cloth, thus we cannot connect it to the Shroud of Turin. In A.D. 570, hence about two hundred years later, a man called Antonino da Piacenza claimed, on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, that the “sudarium” which wrapped Jesus' head was kept in a monastery near the river Jordan: however, the pilgrim meant a handkerchief, not an imprinted image, thus we can rule out that it was the Cloth of Turin, and even a generic shroud. Moreover, many alleged relics freely went around during those centuries, such as the nails of Christ, the wood of the Cross, the spear of Longinus which would have pierced Jesus' side, various towels containing Mary's tears, and other sacred remains 19.

A mandylion, a cloth with the face of Jesus, was exhibited in Edessa, today Şanliurfa (Urfa) in south-eastern Turkey, in A.D. 544. It has been speculated that it was the Shroud folded in overlapping layers in order to show only the Face, or little more. Is it the Shroud of Turin? In certain images representing the mandylion (Spas Neredica near to Novgorod in Russia, Gradac in Serbia, Laon Aisne in France), it appears as a rectangular lozenge reliquary with a bearded and long hair face in the middle. In 1984, the sindonologist J. P. Jackson detected some uninterrupted marks throughout the Cloth of Turin, corresponding to a folding into eight rectangular parts measuring 110 x 55 cm each: with the Shroud folded in that way, its Face would have appeared on the top, roughly in the middle of the frame, with the torso and a small part of the chest under it 20. It is perfectly plausible that for decency reasons, because of the scandal to show the naked and tortured body of Christ according to the mentality of that times, in Edessa decided to exhibit only the Face of the relic, assuming it was the Shroud. On the other hand, for the same reason the paintings and mosaics did not depict Jesus without clothes at that time, and there were no images of Jesus crucified, or at least wearing a loincloth: they will be produced centuries later.

There is an ancient legend about the origin of the Edessa's image:

The mandylion was an image miraculously produced by Jesus as a gift to Abgar V, known as Ukama (“the Black”), King of Edessa from A.D. 13 to 50. Since he was suffering from leprosy, he sent messengers to Jerusalem during the Easter week for inviting the Nazarene to his court to be cured. Christ, who could not go due to the imminent crucifixion, healed King Abgar through the view of an icon, which delegates carried to the king. According to another version, the mandylion was a portrait painted in tempera by a man called Anania, who was sent to Jesus by Abgar V. Another legend says that Jesus, who was not satisfied with the Anania's work, dipped his fingers into the colors to modify the icon and make it identical to his face. However, Abgar V healed when he saw the image; and therefore he converted to Christianity, along with his son Ma’nu V (who was king for a short time after his father died). But Abgar's nephew Ma’nu VI, who took the throne in A.D. 57, reverted to paganism and started to persecute Christians. Even today, an icon painted in tempera with an egg-white base, which would be the one sent by Jesus to King Abgar, is venerated at the Genoese church of San Bartolomeo degli Armeni. Obviously, the Shroud is not a painting, and therefore the mandylion is not the Shroud. The one showed in Genoa is rather an ancient Byzantine icon inspired by the mandylion and probably produced in Edessa.