The Nazarene’s Self-Image by a Natural Process
Giovanni Fazio*
Associate Professor, University of Messina, Department MIFT, Italy
Submission: July 11, 2022; Published: August 10, 2022
*Corresponding author: Giovanni Fazio, Associate Professor, University of Messina, Department MIFT, Viale Ferdinando Stagno d’Alcontres 33, I-98166 Messina, Italy
How to cite this article:Giovanni Fazio. The Nazarene’s Self-Image by a Natural Process.Glob J Arch & Anthropol. 2022; 12(3): 555836. DOI: 10.19080/GJAA.2022.12.555836
Abstract
XX Century ago, in Jerusalem (Roman province of Judaea) a supernatural event happened: the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene. An event instantly (Miracle) that is, obviously, indecipherable for the Natural Sciences. All this happened while the Burial Linen remained imageless on the stone in the tomb. In fact, in the four Gospels, no one mentioned an image on the above funerary sheet. It appears only after the latency time typical of one stochastic process. A long time, years or decades, that begins with the thermal energy emission from the corpse of the Nazarene (the only source present in a 1st century sepulcher) and ends with the formation of His self-image. The latter, most likely, is the first in history.
Keywords: Turin Shroud; Thermal energy; Stochastic process; Body Image formation; Self-image
Introduction
The Shroud of Turin is still today the archaeological find most intriguing for the one that can represent for the Christian people and for its complexity. This great interest was born and developed after May 1898, when the first photography of Secondo Pia was taken.
The Shroud Body Image appeared with reversed color; in other words, it had the properties of a photographic negative. However, the above date is considered the start of the research in the modern sense. In the beginning, there was already a choice of field that directed many scholars towards the hypothesis that the sheet was the Burial Linen of Jesus Christ. This, principally, happened for the complete correspondence between how it is written in the Holy Tests relatively at the Passion of Our Lord and the Blood Image. We underline only that the Shroud Blood Image does not show a typical Roman crucifixion. In fact, two wounds are not in line with the above torture: the former at the cost, the latter in the forehead-nape region. Two wounds in the Gospels are described in detail [1].
Other scholars, considering that the Shroud appeared in the Middle of the XIV Century, had chosen the hypothesis as false. In fact, in that period Europe was redundant with false objects linked to the life of Jesus of Nazareth. These, principally, came from the Middle East but in part were also produced in Old Continent by Medieval forgers. So, for these people, the burial linen was part of these false Relics.
In the first half of the XX Century, only forensic medicine produced results. Successively, a very important interdisciplinary work on the Turin Shroud, performed in 1978 by the STURP team (Shroud of Turin Research Project), showed that the fake hypothesis could be discarded. This authoritative group, in that year, realized an unrepeatable bump in the Shroud knowledge [2-6]. We also cite Zugibe FT [7], Columbia University, one of the most prominent forensic experts in the USA. He has described better than all other scholars Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross. We were always certain that the man of the Shroud is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Reading the articles of Zugibe strengthens this thinking.
Despite the many results obtained, in 1978, by the STURP team investigation that rejected the Medieval forgery hypothesis, the supporters of the fake continued in their work. So did even those convinced that the Turin Shroud was a Relic linked to the life of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene. All this happened while other scholars, and among these also us, appeared looking for a rational explanation in line with the laws of the Natural Sciences.
Even the proposed hypothesis of the supernatural event is not acceptable. The Miracle happens instantly and the Natural Sciences are unable to understand it. This means that the modifications happen at infinity speed. Incomprehensible for a physicist who can only affirm if such an event happened [8]. We know that on the Shroud is codified information on the corpsesheet distances. Therefore, the image formation is not a Miracle due to the emission, from the corpse wrapped in the burial linen, of subatomic particles (protons) or electromagnetic radiation (far UV). However, the idea of a supernatural event has been proposed by [9,10] and has been accepted by many scholars on both sides of the Atlantic.
The protons as the vacuum ultraviolet radiation obey the laws of Physics and cannot have incompatible behaviors with the above Science. Thus, the hypothesis of the protons has been rejected by a simple calculation using the Bragg-Kleeman rule relative to the ionizing particles that penetrate the linen and the air [11]. In detail, we demonstrated as a proton that penetrates the linen for 200 nm [12], can only cross the air for a few hundred μm [13]. Therefore, no coloration and no Image can be obtained on the linen excluding the corpse-sheet contact areas.
In the case of electromagnetic radiations, the start happens with the emission, from the body wrapped in the funerary sheet, in the wavelength region of the Vacuum UV at the confine of the soft X-ray. We show our disagreement with [14,15]. In every case, the photons are not able to hit the fibrils that must be yellowed to yield the above Image separating them from those that must maintain the background optical density.
Analysis and Discussion
Now let’s get into the merits of this work. What has been written above has served to support the natural formation of the Shroud Body Image. In fact, the Medieval forgery hypothesis was destroyed by the interdisciplinary engagement of the STURP team, while the radiative one (that hides a Miracle upstream) is unable to explain the formation of the Image of our concern [8,15].
To support our ideas, we could introduce the thought of William of Ockham: an English Franciscan, philosopher and theologian. In fact, there is a philosophical razor known as the ‘Ockham Razor’ that affirms: “When various hypotheses have to be considered for an explanation, the most probable is the one that requires the last number of special assumptions.” A similar statement dates bach to Aristotle: “Nature operas in the shortest way possible.”
The sole source, present in a sepulcher of the I° Century, is the corpse capable of emitting thermal energy. This is transferred, from corpse to burial linen, until thermal equilibrium is reached. Its amount is very little. Just the necessary one to trigger a stochastic process [14]. We believe the above process enables the formation of the Shroud Body Image. Indeed, on the Shroud of Turin it is possible to observe and deduce the following:
i. The probability of a fibril yellowing is a function of the energy.
ii. The optical density value of a fibril is not a function of the energy.
These two characteristics are typical of a stochastic process and, at the same time, are similar to those concerning human beings, years or decades after absorbing a week of irradiation:
i. The probability of dying is a function of the energy transported by radiation.
ii.. The severity of the disease is not a function of the transported energy.
The comparison between the yellowed fibrils and the dead humans and between the optical density and the severity of the disease match. The optical density of the yellowed fibrils is about constant; the disease for the men has about the same severity. The density of the yellowed fibrils versus the corpse-sheet distance is well represented by the linear function [4,5]. This happens also for the dead humans versus the energy transferred by the radiation [16]. Therefore, the idea of a natural mechanism of formation of the Shroud Body Image, already our, is confirmed.
So, our vision of what happened in Jerusalem, XX centuries ago, is the following: from reading the Sacred Tests, we know that Joseph of Arimathea with Nicodemus took the corpse of the Nazarene, with the permission of Pontius Pilate (governor of the Roman province of Judaea) because the crucifix was already dead [1]. The Nazarene was placed on the stone in the sepulcher after sprinkling the corpse with aromatic oils, according to the Jewish burial custom. Here, the above transfer was naturally completed with the thermal energy distributed in the region where the Image lies. So, this event can be considered the start of a long process up to the formation, after years or decades, of the Shroud Body Image. However, we do not know how much time is necessary for the natural chemical modification to obtain the result. The experience, accumulated over time, says years or decades; even various decades.
Item i) affirms that the greatest probability of being yellowing of a fibril depends on the thermal energy transferred. This happens in the corpse-sheet contact areas. There, the burial linen receives the maximum of the energy emitted by the body. When the corpsesheet distance increases, the probability of yellowing decreases to become zero for R0 = 37 mm. This distance value was deduced by Jackson et al. [4,5] using the measurements performed, with a microdensitometer, by Vernon Miller (Brooks Institute, CA) and a fitting procedure. The probability can be written as P(z) = PM × (1 – z/R0) where P(z) is the probability of yellowing of a fibril at body-sheet distance z, PM is the maximum probability value reaching the contact areas (where z = 0) and R0 is the distance that makes P(R0) = 0.
The latency of these processes is long. So, after the passage of energy from the Nazarene to the burial linen, the stochastic process started and during the above time, only some fibrils were yellowed even though all of them were affected by the heat. Exactly, as it happens to men who have been weakly irradiated: only some of them died. However, after the latency time, the fibrils should turn yellow showing the image of a man, scourging and crucified, with the properties of a photographic negative. Successively, at the 2D characteristics, the 3D ones were added. Both give charm to the above image and, at the same time, arouse the interest of people and researchers. We believe that these two characteristics are present due to the yellowed fibrils distribution resulting from the stochastic actions.
In synthesis: on the Shroud, there is a Body Image. What is its origin? It is the thermal energy, the sole present in an ancient tomb in very little quantity. It, emitted by the corpse, was distributed on the Burial Linen. So, the action of the stochastic process, after latency, has yielded the Shroud Body Image. Therefore, the heat emitted by the Nazarene on the Shroud, in a long time, produced the first self-image in History.
Conclusion
We support a stochastic process as a mechanism of the Shroud Body Image formation. In fact, we discard both the false, that comes from the Middle East or produced with skill by the Medieval forgers, and the supernatural event, because Theology, Philosophy with the ‘Ockham Razor’ and Religion reject the above hypothesis [15].
Differently, our hypothesis is supported by a mechanism, which has a natural source, really present in the sepulcher, that triggered the above process [14]. Beyond this, no other energy source there can be. The stochastic mechanism after a long latency time yielded a Body Image when the Blood Image was already on the Shroud. This result represents and confirms the definitive rejection of the forger’s hypothesis. Therefore, the formation of the above Body Image started with the emission of thermal energy from the corpse of the Nazarene when his thermal state allowed it. Thus, the result that appears on the Shroud of Turin can be considered the first self-image in the history of mankind.
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