hallelujah hallelujah, hallelujah hallelujah welcome back to our special presentation. i m jon scott. archaeologists dig and sift the earth, looking for artifacts that will teach them about life in the past. here in the holy land, they have yet to find something inscribed this was jesus cup or jesus slept here. now, there have been significant finds. the problem is there have also been incredible fakes. a cave belonging to john the baptist, an ossuary, or burial box, that once held the bones of jesus brother the recent news of these discoveries startled archaeological and religious communities. but are they real? today the cave and the ossuary are viewed with more skepticism than confidence, in part because there s a long history of
based on the research that i ve been involved in, i think that we are looking at the historic burial cloth of jesus 2,000 years ago. but there was one part of the investigation that jackson had been unable to complete. an accurate dating of the material. then in 1988, the catholic church took the unprecedented step of giving permission for pieces of the cloth to be removed for carbon testing. samples were cut from the edge of the shroud and sent for testing in three independent laboratories. in london, zurich and arizona. the possibility that a piece of archaeology could prove to us that jesus christ was crucified, buried and raised from the dead, this is the most significant moment in human history.
now. clearly it would have been an important artifact for the disciples and then the early christians, so the notion that it would have been preserved makes total sense to me. my gut tells me that it s real. it doesn t seem likely to me that it s real, but it focuses our attention on something unavoidable about the jesus story, just how much he suffers. jesus may be glorious, enthroned in heaven, lord of lord, king of kings, but this moment of suffering and pain is etched into the turin shroud. it s his most human moment. for many, the shroud is also a poignant reminder of a man trying to do the right thing. i think a part of joseph s story is our story. even though he didn t understand the outcome, even though he
record by forging such important items as the burial box of james, the brother of jesus. the prosecution launch a case to prove that golan added the three most contentious words brother of jesus to the inscription. it is a genuine ossuary from that period of time. but what oded golan did was he made a supplement and making the whole new meaning of them. part of the prosecution s case is based on an examination by epigraphy experts who analyzed the lettering for any inconsistencies. if you look at the inscription very carefully, you ll notice there s a difference in depth, clarity and the presence in the first half the inscription and the second half of the inscription. i believe the chances of at least the second half being a modern forgery are at least 75%
legend says that this was another separate cloth, mentioned in the bible. and he saw the linen wrappings lying there and the cloth that had been on jesus head. we ve taken this to the laboratory, analyzed what the stains are made of, and most of them are one part blood and six parts pleural edema fluid which is a liquid that collects in the lungs when somebody dies of asphyxiation. scholars believe that most victims of crucifixion would have died of suffocation and the fluids associated with this would be left in the lungs. guskin s studies appear to shine new light into a part of the jesus story that was previously unknown using a near perfect replica of the cloth. now, what these experiments