An Italian professor has created a 3D image of Jesus based on the Shroud of Turin, declaring it the 'precise image of what Jesus looked like on this earth'.
Giulio Fanti, who teaches mechanical and thermal measurements at the University of Padua and has studied the Shroud for several years, unveiled the 3D image last week.
"From now on, he may no longer be depicted without taking this work into account,' said Fanti, quoted by Aleteia.
'According to our studies, Jesus was a man of extraordinary beauty. Long-limbed, but very robust, he was nearly 5 feet 11 inches tall, whereas the average height at the time was around 5 feet 5 inches. And he had a regal and majestic expression.'
Fanti explained that the 3D image allowed for the many wounds on the figure believed by many to be Jesus to be examined.
'I counted 370 wounds from the flagellation, without taking into account the wounds on his sides, which the Shroud doesn't show because it only enveloped the back and front of the body,' he said.
'In addition, the three-dimensional reconstruction has made it possible to discover that at the moment of his death, the man of the Shroud sagged down towards the right, because his right shoulder was dislocated so seriously as to injure the nerves.'
The Shroud of Turin is held by the Catholic Church and many other Christians to be the cloth that Jesus was buried in after the crucifixion. It is believed to have been smuggled out of Jerusalem to what is now Turkey by one of the disciples and appeared in historical records around the year 1360 at the diocese of Troyes in France, before eventually being moved to Turin Cathedral in northern Italy in 1578.
Carbon dating tests were performed on the shroud in 1988, which placed its origins in the medieval era, but many, including Fanti, have declared that the results were faulty due to laboratory contamination and other flaws, with some arguing that the piece of cloth used had been repaired at a later stage.
Fanti co-authored a book in 2013 with the Italian journalist Saverio Gaeta documenting research on the Shroud and arguing that it was indeed from the time of Jesus and was likely to be authentic.
