The Man of the Shroud of Turin: Is He Dead or Alive?

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12775/SetF.2022.005

Keywords

Shroud of Turin, Nasolabial folds, signs of life

Abstract

It has been assumed that the person represented on the Shroud of Turin is dead and the image corresponds to a person dead from crucifixion. We have conducted an analysis of the cadaveric data of a body and the presence of face life signs and we could think that the image could corresponds to a living person. Therefore, it might correspond to a man starting a getting up gesture.  If we examine the Gospels, a remarkable symmetry is found between the data obtained from the image and the events described in the Gospels, regarding the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Author Biography

Bernardo Hontanilla Calatayud, University of Navarra

Catedrático de Cirugía Plástica, Estética y Reparadora

Departamento de Cirugía Plástica Estética y Reparadora

Clínica Universidad de Navarra

Facultad de Medicina

C/ Pío XII 36

31008 Pamplona

References

Barbet, Pierre. 1953. A Doctor at Calvary: The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ As Described by a Surgeon. New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons.

Barton, Fritz E. and Gyimesi Ildiko M. 1997. “Anatomy of the nasolabial fold”. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 10: 1276–1280.

Bevilacqua Matteo, Concheri, Gianmaria, Fanti Gulio and Rodella Sergio. 2018. “Rigor Mortis and News obtained by the Body’s Scientific Reconstruction of the Turin Shroud Man”. Journal of Forensic Science and Technology, https://doi.org/10.17352/pjfst.000010.

Buchner, Lawrence, Vamvakias, George, and Rom, Dror. 2010. “Validation of a photonumeric wrinkle assessment scale for assessing nasolabial fold wrinkles”. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 126: 596–601.

Bucklin, Robert. 1982. “The Shroud of Turin: viewpoint of a forensic pathologist”. Shroud Spectrum International 5: 3–10.

Fanti, Giulio and Marinelli, Emmanuella. 2005. “A probabilistic model to quantify the results of the research of the Turin Shroud”. Third Dallas International Confrenece on the Shroud of Turin. Dallas, Texas. Sept. 8–11. https://www.shroud.com/.

Fernández-Carvajal, Francisco. 1997. La Vida de Jesús. Madri: Ediciones Palabra S.A.

Fisher, Barry A., and Fisher, David. R. 2012. Techniques of crime scene investigation. Ed. Taylor and Francis group. 8th edition. Boca Ratón. Florida.

Hontanilla, Bernardo. 2020. “Signos de vida en la Síndone de Turín.” Sciencia et Fides. 8 (1): 9–30. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/SetF.2020.001.

https://llimargas.com/cuando-lo-obvio-no-es-cierto-el-caso-de-abraham-wald/

https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/es/speeches/1998/may/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19980524_sudario.html

Hui, David, Hess, Kenneth, Dos-Santos, Renata, Chisholm, Gary and Bruera, Eduardo. 2015. “A Diagnostic Model for Impending Death in Cancer Patients: Preliminary Report.” Cancer 121: 3914–3921.

Koolman, Jan., and Heinrich, Klua Rhom.R. 2003. Bioquímica. Texto y atlas. Madrid: Ed. Panamericana.

Lavoie, Gilbert. 2010. “Turin Shroud: A medical forensic study of its blood marks and image.” Proceedings of the International Workshop on the Scientific approach to Acheiropoietos Images. ENEA Frascaty, Italy, 4–6 may.

Llorente, Carlos. 2010. La primera semana santa de la historia. Madrid: Ediciones San Román.

Madea, Burkhard. 2006. The estimation of the time since death. The Student's Hand-Book of Forensic Medicine and Medical Police. Florida: Tylor and Francis group.

Maner, Yves. 2008. “The history of Military Graves from Antiquity to the 19th century.” http://www.cheminsdememoire-ordpasdecalais.fr/lhistoire/la-memoire-de-la-grande-guerre/lhistoire-des-sepultures-militaires-de-lantiquite-au-xixe-siecle.html.

Martins, Pedro, Ferreira, Francisca, Natal, Jorge, Renato, Parente, Marco, Santos, Agostinho. 2015. “Necromechanics: Death-induced changes in the mechanical properties of human tissues.” Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part H. 229: 343–9. DOI: 10.1177/0954411915581409.

Meacham, William. 1983. “The authentication of the Turin Shroud: An issue in archaeological epistemology.” Current anthropology 24: 283–311.

Palacios-Carvajal José. 2017. La Sábana Santa. Estudio de un cirujano. Madrid: Ed. Espejo de tinta.

Shivpoojan, Kori. 2018. “Time since death from rigor mortis: Forensic prospective.” J Forensic Science & Criminal Investigation 9, 1–10. DOI: 10.19080/JFSCI.2018.09.5557710010.

Torne, Charles. 2017. Grabb And Smith's Plastic Surgery. New York: Wolters Kluwer/ Lippinkott Williams and Wilkins.

Villalaín, José. 2010. “Estudio de la rigidez cadavérica que presenta la Síndone de Turín.” Cuadernos de Medicina Forense. 16: 109–123.

Wilkinson, Caroline and Rynn Chistopher 2012. “Post-mortem prediction of facial appearance.” In Craniofacial identification, edited by Caroline Wilkinson, Christopher Rynn, 166–83. New York: Cambridge University Press.

William, D., Edwards, Wesley, J. Gabel, M., Floyd, Hosmer. 1986. “On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ.” JAMA The Journal of American Medical Association 255: 1455–1463.

Zugibe, Frederick. 1995. Pierre Barbet Revisited. Reprinted from Sindon N. S., Quad. No. 8.

Zugibe's, Frederick Website: http://www.crucifixion-shroud.com/.

Scientia et Fides

Downloads

Published

2022-03-03

How to Cite

1.
HONTANILLA CALATAYUD, Bernardo. The Man of the Shroud of Turin: Is He Dead or Alive?. Scientia et Fides. Online. 3 March 2022. Vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 91-114. [Accessed 23 June 2025]. DOI 10.12775/SetF.2022.005.

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1 (2022)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Scientia et Fides

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

CC BY ND 4.0. The Creator/Contributor is the Licensor, who grants the Licensee a non-exclusive license to use the Work on the fields indicated in the License Agreement.

  • The Licensor grants the Licensee a non-exclusive license to use the Work/related rights item specified in § 1 within the following fields: a) recording of Work/related rights item; b) reproduction (multiplication) of Work/related rights item in print and digital technology (e-book, audiobook); c) placing the copies of the multiplied Work/related rights item on the market; d) entering the Work/related rights item to computer memory; e) distribution of the work in electronic version in the open access form on the basis of Creative Commons license (CC BY-ND 3.0) via the digital platform of the Nicolaus Copernicus University Press and file repository of the Nicolaus Copernicus University.
  • Usage of the recorded Work by the Licensee within the above fields is not restricted by time, numbers or territory.
  • The Licensor grants the license for the Work/related rights item to the Licensee free of charge and for an unspecified period of time.

FULL TEXT License Agreement

Stats

Number of views and downloads: 2521
Number of citations: 0