Tests for Blood on Shroud of Turin

In 1981 Shroud researchers Dr. Alan Adler (Chemistry) and Dr. John Heller (Medicine) published the results of over 1000 tests which they performed on samples taken from the Shroud of Turin.  The Journal of the Canadian Society of Forensic Sciences included the article entiled, "A Chemical Investigation of the Shroud", in the September issue of that year (1).

At a conference sponsored by the Society of Forensic Sciences,  Dr. Adler provided a list of findings which he said confirmed the presense of blood on the shroud.  That list is as follows (2):

1. High iron content in blood stained areas by x-ray flourescence

2. Indicative reflection spectra

3. Indicative microspectrophotometric transmission spectra

4. Chemical generation of characteristic porphyrin flourescence

5. Positive hemochromogen tests

6. Positive cyanomethemoglobin tests

7. Positive demonstration of protein

8. Positive indication of albumin

9. Positive indication of bile pigments

10. Protease tests, leaving no residue

11. Positive immunological test for human albumin

12. Microscopic appearance as compared with controls

13. Forensic judgment of the appearance of the various wounds and blood marks

In the early 1990s, Dr. Victor Tryon, the director of the Center for Advanced DNA Technologies at the Texas University Health Sciences Center, obtained from Italian scientist and shroud researcher Giovanni Riggi, some small samples that Riggi had taken in 1988 from the area on the shroud which depicts the Crown of Thorns (3).  "Dr. Tryon and his wife Nancy, who was his chief technician, on examination of a 1.5 milimeter fragment on sticky tape, were able to confirm that it was blood from a human being, and were also able to detect double stranded DNA and found three quite unmistakable gene segments" (4).

Finally, in 1995, scientists from the Genoa Institute of Legal Medicine were able to examine  two Shroud threads that were 1.5 centimeters in length that had been taken from the foot region of the Shroud by Italian scientists when they worked with the STURP team in 1978.  Specifically, Professor Marcello Canale reported that they had been able to extract DNA form the treads (5).

These studies virtually insure that the blood stained areas of the Shroud of Turin are in fact Human blood, and in combination with the other forensic, medical, chemical, physical, historic, and archeological evidence to date, establish that the blood is that of a human male who has undergone crucifixion and death after being severely beaten and scourged.  Either this is in fact the burial shroud of Jesus Christ, or a medievil forger beat and crucified a human being exactly in keeping with the record established in the 4 gospels, and then transferred the images on the blood stained body by a process unknown to 21st century technology.  The wounds are absolutely precise, including even the angles at which the liquid blood would flow by gravity in the 2 most likely crucifixion positions.  To posit that a medievil forger could accomplish all of this would be to invoke a miraculous intervention.  In that case, it is more plausible and more logical to assume it is a "photographic" record of the actual crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

Ref:

1. Ruffin, Bernard C, "The Shroud of Turin": The most up-to-date analysis of all the facts, regarding the Churchs controversial relic.  Huntington, Indiana. Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, page 99.

2. Ibid. page 100.

3. Ibid. page 102.

4. Ibid. page 102.

5. Ibid. page 102.