The Gospels of Matthew,[48] Mark[49] and Luke[50] state that Joseph of Arimathea wrapped the body of Jesus in a "linen cloth" or "linen shroud" or just in "linen"[51] (Greek: sindon) and placed it in a new tomb. The Gospel of John says that the body was wrapped in linen cloths (Greek: othonia), with a significant quantity of myrrh and aloes.
The Gospel of John[53] states that after the Resurrection of Jesus, "Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself." The Gospel of Luke[54] states: "But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.”
Sindonology (from the Greek σινδών—sindon, the word used in the Gospel of Mark[80] to describe the type of the burial cloth of Jesus) is the formal study of the Shroud.
Secondo Pia's 1898 photographs of the shroud allowed the scientific community to begin to study it.
The documented history of the shroud dates back to 1354, when it began to be exhibited in the new collegiate church of Lirey, a village in north-central France.[4]: 80–81 The shroud was denounced as a forgery by the bishop of Troyes, Pierre d’Arcis, in 1389.[4]: 90–96 It was acquired by the House of Savoy in 1453 and later deposited in a chapel in Chambéry,[4]: 141–142, 153–154 where it was damaged by fire in 1532.[4]: 166 In 1578, the Savoys moved the shroud to their new capital in Turin, where it has remained ever since.[4]: 191 Since 1683, it has been kept in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, which was designed for that purpose by the architect Guarino Guarini and which is connected to both the royal palace and the Turin Cathedral.[4]: 233 Ownership of the shroud passed from the House of Savoy to the Catholic Church after the death of the former king Umberto II of Italy in 1983.
Resources
What Does the Shroud of Turin Mean? by Robert Perry -https://web.archive.org/web/20250805020341/https://circleofa.org/library/what-does-the-shroud-of-turin-mean/
Robert Perry’s conclusions about the shroud: “The Shroud contained a real human body, which suffered actual wounds and stained the cloth with genuine blood. This body was crucified, almost certainly by the Romans, and was buried in a manner consistent with ancient Jewish burial practices. The body was very likely Jewish and was almost certainly that of Jesus of Nazareth. The image on the cloth is not composed of material added to the cloth. Instead, it appears to be a kind of scorch, caused apparently by the dead body emitting some form of radiant energy, which resulted in a kind of photographic negative.”
”…it would be difficult indeed not to identify this extraordinary event with another extraordinary event that supposedly happened to the same body in that same tomb: the resurrection. Who could read the above description and not think of the resurrection? For this reason, I view the Shroud as a photographic record of the resurrection.”
“What we see, then, is a breathtaking reversal, in which the most horrible death is replaced by a glorious rebirth. The most tragic misfortune is replaced by untold blessing. The depths of earthly horror give way to a wonder that transcends earthly laws. An irrevocable end becomes a miraculous beginning. We see this theme of reversal not only in the events communicated by the Shroud, but also in the Shroud itself. As a burial cloth, the Shroud is the very symbol of the finality of death. A body wrapped in a shroud is symbolically enveloped by death. How symbolic, then, that on this very cloth the light of the resurrection has apparently emblazoned its imprint. The image of rebirth has imprinted itself onto the very symbol of death. What better way to symbolize life triumphing over death?”
Rather than seeing them as a ritual transaction with God in which our sins were paid for, it claims that they were a final performance of his message, a lived-out parable designed to instill his teachings as deeply as possible into our minds and hearts. Maybe this is who Jesus really was, a teacher of the most powerful kind, whose vision challenges us to our very core. Maybe he staged his exit from this world as a physical demonstration of his extreme, apparently unrealistic teachings. And maybe, just maybe, the Shroud of Turin is the gospel he left us, as photographic proof that everything he said was absolutely true.