The Gospels tell us that after Joseph of Arimathea claimed Jesus body from the Romans, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and placed it in his own new tomb nearby.

For centuries legends have persisted about this cloth in which Jesus was buried. A 10th century painting of a man named Abgar of Edessa, ruler of the kingdom of Osroene (in what is now Turkey), holding a white cloth with the image of Jesus Christ on it. At the turn of the 13th century a crusader knight by the name of Robert de Clari claims to have seen Christs burial shroud, bearing his image, in Constantinople, where it was said to be raised every friday.

This Video Below has been taken from the film Our search for the Tomb of Jesus. Simon Brown interviews Ken Trestrayl the tour guide at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem. Also Barrie M. Schwortz regardind the Shroud of Turin.

The cloth that we know today as the Shroud of Turin originates with the descendent of another Templar Knight, Geoffroi de Charny, who displayed it in a Paris museum. Controversy surrounded the artifact back then just as it does today, and it was removed from display by the authorities, changing hands several times before falling into the ownership of a Louis of Savoy, an Italian duke who allowed it to travel from city to city, kept in a lavish case lined with red silk, decorated with silver and locked with a golden key.

In the 16th century there was a fire in the chapel in which the shroud was being stored, which caused a drop of molten silver to burn through the folded cloth. Attempts were made to repair the damage, which can still be seen clearly.

The Shroud of Turin shows the image of a man, front and back as would be expected if it were wrapped around a body for burial purposes. The outline of the man is clearly visible, though very subtle with no definite lines or angles, but you can see the mans face, crossed hands, shoulders, legs and feet distinctly. The shroud is marked by blood stains which match precisely the wounds that a man crucified by the Romans would have suffered - scourge wounds from the flagram or whip, puncture marks around the head where Jesus was said to have worn a crown of thorns, and the darkest blood stain of all near where the mans heart, which would have been caused by the spear that pierced him while he hung. There are blood stains also on the wrists of the man of the shroud, which would have been where the Romans drove nails through when they crucified him, not through the hands where many contemporary paintings show these wounds to be. The images of the mans cheek bones appear swollen, as if he had been beaten, which we know Jesus was. All in all, the wounds of the man of the shroud correspond exactly to the biblical description of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

How the image on the Shroud of Turin was formed remains a mystery even to todays scientists. In 1978 a team of American scientists and researchers, the Shroud of Turin Research Project, were allowed to conduct a series of scientific experiments in order to try to determine the origins of the shroud. Their conclusions are regarded today as the most comprehensive set of scientific data about the shroud anywhere in the world, and some of the team continue to seek answers to questions regarding its authenticity. STURP issued its final report in 1981, which states as follows

MAJOR DISCOVERY The GREAT Missing Stone. THE missing link to The TRUE TOMB OF JESUS, which Joseph of Arimathaea Cut for his own New Tomb Has Now Been Discovered!! And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away, for it was very great. Mark 16:4. Click here to read this Discovery