The Turin Shroud
For many years, the authenticity of The Turin Shroud, the supposed burial cloth of Jesus has been the subject of much debate. In 1988, fragments of the Shroud were carbon dated and found to be too recent to be of the time of Jesus. A new publication by Dr. Barbara Frale, a Shroud supporter and employee of the Vatican, argues that certain inscriptions on the Shroud in Aramaic prove the Shroud to be genuine.
However, there is one obvious flaw in the Shroud that sceptics and supporters have failed to see and it is in the image itself. The creators of the Shroud, subscribed to the popular image of Jesus as having long hair. However, in reality Jesus had short hair as did all of the Jewish men and priests at the time, and it is for this reason that the Turin Shroud is a fake.
Not only did Jesus have short hair, but it would have been a disgrace for him to have long hair like that of a woman. In the same way, it was considered wrong for a woman to have short hair like that of a man. In 1 Corinthians 11: 14-15 we are told “Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering.”
So for Jesus to be accepted by his followers and allowed in the Synagogue, he had to have short hair.
Having short hair complied with Jewish law which stated that the hair had to be cut every 30 days and should be kept above the ears and collar. Some people however, try to argue that Jesus was under Nazarite vows and therefore wouldn’t cut his hair. This isn’t true as Nazarite vows normally only lasted for 30 days which isn’t enough time to grow the hair significantly. Not only this, but in Matthew 11: 19 Jesus drank wine and in Matthew 9: 25 he touched the hand of a girl who had recently died and raised her to life. Neither of these could he have done if he were a Nazarite.
The popular misconception of Jesus having long hair may originate from Leonardo da Vinci’s portrayal of Jesus at the last supper. For most of his life, Leonardo da Vinci was an atheist and took every opportunity to ridicule God, Christ and Christianity.
Portraying Jesus as having hair like a woman was the ultimate insult and yet strangely is an image that has been popularised by the church.
The consequence of this is, that every painting, statue and image of Jesus that we are so familiar with, unwittingly portrays him as a disgraceful character.
The Turin Shroud supports this error, so it is this that exposes it as a fake because Jesus like all the Jewish men, priests and prophets, had short hair.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
