Before sundown on the day he was crucified, Jesus was buried. But he was not "buried" in the sense of being placed in the ground and then covered with earth. Rather, Jesus' body was laid in a small cave that was carved into the side of a rock formation in the vicinity of Jerusalem. It was wrapped in a linen burial cloth, or shroud, and carried into the tomb through a small entrance. There it was laid on a shelf that had been cut into the wall of the cave. Then a heavy round stone was rolled across the cave opening to steal the tomb.
Many centuries later a French knight claimed he had the linen cloth that had been used to cover Jesus' battered body at the time of his burial. Photographs of the cloth reveal stains that look like the face and body of a brutally beaten man. Whether or not this was Jesus' burial cloth has been the subject of much debate among scientists and biblical scholars since the claim was first made. Tests using scientific dating methods suggest that the cloth is fake because it dates from a much later time. But some experts believe that microorganisms living in the ancient fabric were responsible in a false test reading and that the cloth is much older.
Today, the 14-by 3-½ -foot shroud is stored in a special silver chest in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy. The questions that cannot be answered are: Who took the cloth? And, How did it get into the hands of a Frenchman centuries later?!!
