Arguably the most intriguing and controversial religious relic in the world, the Shroud of Turin, is facing major scrutiny from new 3D findings published in the academic journal Archaeometry. CBN’s Raj Nair spoke with Shroud expert Dr. Jeremiah Johnston to break down the controversy.
RAJ NAIR: All right, my brother, let’s get right to the controversy. What is in this new finding?
Breaking News. Spirit-Filled Stories. Subscribe to Charisma on YouTube now!
DR. JEREMIAH JOHNSTON: Yeah, well, I just kind of laugh when it’s being so boisterously said that the shroud has been debunked. What we’re discussing is a Brazilian designer that used a free software that anyone could use, a free 3D software, to attempt to prove that the shroud could never have been wrapped on Jesus’ body. That was the big finding. And of course, that was what was published, rightly as you mentioned, in the Journal of Archeometry. However, media has just absolutely gone ablaze saying that, oh, the shroud, based on this finding, did not cover the body of Jesus. The shroud has been debunked. Anyone who has spent two minutes studying the shroud begins to laugh because this is not a scientific study. This isn’t even a new finding.
To order Jonathan Cahn’s new book, The Avatar, visit Amazon.com.
The STURP (Shroud of Turin Research Project) team in 1978, which consisted, Raj, as you know, of 33 of the world’s greatest scientists, most of which who were not believers, concluded that the shroud could not have been caused by contact with the body through a scorch or through a bas-relief. And so what Cicero Moraes, the Brazilian designer, is saying, he essentially took a low relief sculpture and he used all this in 3D modeling, okay? And he wrapped the shroud around it and he said, well, this would have caused the mask of Agamemnon effect. Jesus’ body would not have looked so sharp. It would have been so much more distorted. And that’s what his 3D model is pointing out, except he completely ignores the chemistry. He completely ignores all the forensic aspects of what we now know of the shroud. And so it really is laughable to think that this would call into question any of the scientific findings.
It’s interesting that when this big article was released was right during the international conference on the Shroud of Turin in St. Louis, Missouri, where I and many other thinkers, scholars, and those that actually read and create the science and actually attest to it, we were actually studying and having the conference when this thing came out. So the timing is intriguing as well.
NAIR: So in your opinion, this whole 3D statue thing just doesn’t fit the bill?
JOHNSTON: Oh, it doesn’t hold water, not just in my opinion. Let me be very clear. In the scientific findings of the 1978 STURP project, the Shroud research team proved that the image in the cloth that you are showing visuals of, the image in the cloth could not be created through physical contact using a low relief sculpture. It proved that, not through scorching, not through heat. It proved there is no pigment, there is no dye. This is not a man-made image. That is what the scientist proved.
And so the fact, I give Cicero credit, he’s come out with a novel approach while ignoring all of the forensic data saying, hey, it couldn’t have happened. And again, that’s not how we do science. That’s not how we do scholarship. That’s not how I do scholarship. I always, always reproduce my opponent’s findings in their best possible light. That certainly did not happen. He essentially ignored all of the science about the shroud formation and said, oh, here’s how it could have happened. And again, any of us who’ve read about it just kind of laugh about it.
Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!
And it gives us a neat opportunity to remind people that the shroud is the most studied artifact in the world. It’s not just a relic, it’s an artifact because you can study it with the physical sciences. But Raj, just to remind you and your amazing audience, it’s also the most lied about artifact in the world. This is an artifact that outside of scripture, it attests to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In many ways, the shroud is the fifth gospel and no other artifact does that. It tests to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus outside of scriptures. And I think that’s why it’s always talked about and always interested in these different claims.
To read the full story, visit our content partners at CBN News.
Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2025 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.
