Science has gone back and forth on the shroud's legitimacy since it was first publicly displayed in the 14th century. Skeptics have tried to discredit any claims that it is the actual linen cloth mentioned in all four gospels, but there are certain mysteries that even modern science cannot explain, such as how the image of a crucified man could get onto one side of the fabric, but not all the way through it.
New Testament scholar and shroud apologist Dr. Jeremiah Johnston of the Christian Thinkers Society says there is only one way science has explained that.
"Something chemically has happened, and we believe it happened at the moment of resurrection – 34,000 billion watts of energy in 1/40th of a billionth of a second," he recently told Tucker Carlson.
He says the image completely corresponds with what is known about crucifixion in the Roman Empire, specifically the crucifixion of Jesus as described in the Bible.
"The head, the blood, the back – all of those hash marks, the abrasions – I estimate there are 700 wounds on the crucified man of the shroud," Dr. Johnston relayed.
He calls the shroud the most studied artifact in the world; 102 scientific disciplines have studied it and produced peer-reviewed journals, studies, and cases for all the different aspects. But it is the work of a mathematician that has him convinced.
"Bruno Barberis, the mathematician, said there is a one in 200 billion chance it's anyone other than Jesus of Nazareth," Johnston relayed.
That calculation is based on the anatomical, historical, and pathological details seen on the shroud.
