My theory on what the "Shroud of Turin" may be

I started this as a post to a thread on here that you can read here.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

And then after typing my response I just decided to post as a new thread and not hijack his.

So read it and think of this possibility.

I have been researching the complete history of the crusades and the major players during that period.

This includes the rulers of Europe,those at the Vatican, and the politics of what transpired in the middle east for a couple hundred years or more.

None of which is known about by the ignorant masses today and how it relates to what is happening today.

This all relates to the "shroud" and the "possibility" that it is a real burial shroud,but not of the historical "Jesus" but of this man.

Godfrey of Bouillon-first "King of Jerusalem".

Here is a description of him.

"tall of stature, not extremely so, but still taller than the average man. He was strong beyond compare, with solidly-built limbs and a stalwart chest. His features were pleasing, his beard and hair of medium blond."

A painting and statue depicting him is on the link.

Another possible person is this man.

Conrad of Montferrat

He also was a "King of Jerusalem" about a 90 years later than Godfrey.

A description of him.

A handsome man, with great personal courage and intelligence

Conrad was vigorous in arms, extremely clever both in natural mental ability and by learning, amiable in character and deed, endowed with all the human virtues, supreme in every council, the fair hope of his own side and a blazing lightning-bolt to the foe, capable of pretence and dissimulation in politics, educated in every language, in respect of which he was regarded by the less articulate to be extremely fluent.

This link will take you to his burial and also includes a painting of him.

Look at the shroud.

Is it a depiction of a person from that area,or a tall man with European features??

They both died there and were buried there.

Then you factor in the presence of these two orders in this region of the world.

Knights Templar

Knights Hospitaller

The add the political/religious situation in Europe with the Papal Authority and various kings and regions....

The procedure on preparing a body for burial back in these times,by people who wanted to preserve the body,could have been the same as preserving meat.

You would wrap it in many layers of cloth and pack it in salt.

medieval meat preservation

The Knights Hospitaller is a Christian organization that began as an Amalfitan hospital founded in Jerusalem in approximately 1023 to provide care for poor, sick or injured pilgrims to the Holy Land.

The monastic hospitaller order was founded following the First Crusade by the Blessed Gerard, whose role as founder was confirmed by a Papal bull of Pope Paschal II in 1113.[1] Gerard acquired territory and revenues for his order throughout the Kingdom of Jerusalem and beyond. His successor, Raymond du Puy de Provence, established the first significant Hospitaller infirmary near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Initially the group cared for pilgrims in Jerusalem, but the order soon extended to providing pilgrims with an armed escort, which soon grew into a substantial force.

They were monks that would have known how to prepare and even preserve a body!

In the hot dry climate of this area,the salt would have quickly drawn out the bodily fluids and left an imprint on the cloth!

Finding cloth to use as a burial shroud, for a person of the stature of either one of these two, that was VERY old even dating back to the time of the historical Jesus would have been very easy in this region!

Remember the numerous Crusades took part over a period of HUNDREDS of years.

Heck, we don't even know what exactly happened that long(300 years) ago in our times!

This all relates to something I actually read here(ATS) about a "secret" the Knights Templar had, that they held over the head of the Papal Authorities.

Could it be the truth about the shroud?

Could, in the waning period of the Crusaders influence in the Mideast and their concern that one of these two individuals bodies may be desecrated by Muslims if they got control of Jerusalem, that they(Knight Templar) removed them from their burial location and possibly took them back to Europe?

Or Malta or Cyprus?

Maybe they discovered when they removed the salt and the layers of linen that one of the preserved bodies had left this imprint on the cloth?

It could have been possible that this cloth was brought back from the Holy land and seeking favor from the local Papal Authority was presented as gift?

Historical records indicate that a shroud bearing an image of a crucified man existed in the small town of Lirey, France around the years 1353 to 1357.

That is almost two hundred years from when either of these candidates died!

That they told them it was the burial shroud of "The King of Jerusalem" and it was misinterpreted?

Or known, and kept secret to manipulate the ignorant masses?

These two candidates were warrior leaders, that has been established, they both fought in battles and possibly received wounds all over their bodies.

Those preparing the bodies would have presented the body in the manner it is shown on the shroud.

Remember these were very fanatical Christians on a religous mission to take back the Holy land.

And during the hundreds of years from the first to last crusades and the Christians presence in the middle east politics and things changed in Europe.

Factor in the different languages and dialects(most of those that had the ability to speak multiple languages were nobles and monks)!

Politics and religion during this period, were one and the same,just as they are now.

I know this theory maybe controversial,but I just went in to it,rationally and logically researching the histories of this period and specifically the Crusades.

The Shroud has always intrigued me and it is fairly obivous to even a untrained eye that it depicts a man who is European and buried with great respect and care.

Please debate this thread and NOT the fact that I used Wikipedia for research.

I did check for references at the bottom of each page to insure they were legitimate.

I did not use any thing from the "Catholic Encyclopedia"because I consider that nothing more than propaganda.

You are ignoring the vital feature that the image on the cloth is that of a body displaying wounds in his wrists, blood stains around his forehead and flagellation marks. In other words, the traditional wounds of Jesus! It cannot be merely due to a corpse of someone who died naturally.

The secret the Templars hid from the Roman Catholic Church was the fact that Mary Magdalene married Jesus and escaped from Palestine after his death with her family and settled down in the south of France, where legends about her persist to this day, and that the Knight Templars knew where she was buried and guarded her tomb. There is a possibility, thanks to recent discoveries solving the great mystery of Renne-le-Chateau (see the film "Bloodline")
www.bloodline-themovie.com...
that her tomb and body have been at last found.

reply to post by Oneolddude


my problem with the theory of jesus is this...jesus was not a caucasian man as seen in divinci or any other painting..he looked like a muslim does today black hair black beard dark skin infact...if jesus passed you by at an airport depending on your paranoia you might would think he was a terrorist!

on the other hand if he was caucasian green eyes and sandy blonde hair then that opens up my theories...but thats another story!

Jacques de Molay. Last Grand Master of the Knights Templar. Tortured and crucified by the King of France during the purge in the early 1300's. The rough time frame that the C14 tests place the cloth.

I would say that makes a little bit more sense. But it still is in no way a burial cloth. There just isn't enough distortion in the image for it to have been that. For instance, you put a cloth over somebody and then pull it over the top of them, and there will be a line of grease and sweat and whatever from the top of their head. No such thing on the Shroud of Turin.

The face looks like a bas-relief. Like you'd get from doing a pencil rubbing of a portrait on a coin. It would be an odd bas-relief, though, front and back.

The whole thing doesn't make sense, and not in a "holy miracle" kind of way. More like a "somebody screwed up" kind of way.