Believers see the face of Jesus on the Shroud of Turin. Now a study says it’s something else.

Here’s what you’ll learn as you read this story:

• A recent study provides new insight into the origins of the object known as the Shroud of Turin.

• Many consider the sheet to be a sacred relic, bearing the seal of a dead man they believe to be Jesus Christ.

• Using open-source 3D modeling software, a researcher showed that, if the cloth had actually been placed on a real person, the impression it would have left would have looked distinctly different from the one on the paper.

This story is a collaboration with Biography.com.

The Shroud of Turin has been a subject of fascination for both believers and skeptics since its existence was first recorded in 14^th century

The garment in question appears to depict the face and body of an adult man with long hair and a beard — the style in which Jesus Christ has traditionally been depicted since about 6^th Century AD As such, there is now little doubt that the face people see on the Shroud of Turin is actually a deliberate depiction, rather than a trick of the eye as some other enthusiastic religious visions can sometimes prove. The question, rather, is how that impression began there.

Now, thanks to a determined researcher and some open source software, we may finally have found the answer.

Those who believe in the authenticity of the relic suggest that it was the cloth wrapped around Jesus’ body after his crucifixion and that his divine nature left this eternal imprint of his form.

But objections have long been raised against this hypothesis—and not just within the secular realm. Perhaps the most famous condemnation of the Shroud of Turin comes from John Calvin, 16^th– turn of the century French theologian who became the name of Calvinism. In his Treatise on RelicsHe responds almost mockingly to claims of the Shroud’s divine origin, asking:

“How is it possible that those pious historians, who carefully recounted all the miracles at Christ’s death, should have omitted to mention so remarkable a thing as the remains of the wrapping sheet of our Lord’s body? This fact is undoubtedly worthy of record.”

Calvin cites several biblical reasons why this could not have happened – from the fact that none of the disciples mentioned seeing such a mark on the Shroud, to the fact that the Roman soldiers were not exactly on friendly terms with the followers of Christ, so it is unlikely that they would have allowed them to abscond with such holiness. Also, he notes, St. John said Jesus was buried “according to the manner of the Jews.” If this had actually happened, the body and head would have been wrapped in two separate cloths instead of one.

“In short,” Calvin concluded, “…either St. John is a liar, or all who boast of being pious pious men are guilty of falsehood and deceit.”

Calvin did not go so far as to present an alternative theory. Maybe he didn’t want to guess. Perhaps he was too busy to spend time on the subject – he had much to write (and at least one heretic to testify against the fire soon).

Or maybe he didn’t have access to open source software like Blender.

Thankfully, Brazilian researcher and 3D designer Cicero Moraes had that software at work. And he used it to test a theory first proposed by Walter Macron in the 1980s: that the image on the Shroud of Turin is not an impression, but rather an “inspired painting,” possibly made using low-relief sculpture rather than a full three-dimensional figure.

At the core of this theory is an idea: if the cloth derived its markings from the three-dimensional figure, the image of the face and body would appear flat and distorted in the unfolded cloth.

To prove this, Moraes created a model in MakeHuman software under the criteria of “male, adult, ≈33 years old, thin and ≈1.80 meters tall”. Then, he transferred that model to the free, open-source software Blender to refine the details to match the Shroud of Turin.

Moraes then compared what the fabric looked like wrapped around the three-dimensional model (compared to when placed on a low-relief sculpture) and what kind of pattern it left behind.

Moraes’ models demonstrated that, when a three-dimensional object leaves an impression on a piece of cloth, those stains “generate a stronger and more deformed structure relative to the source.” What you see when you look at a print of a human face on a piece of cloth is a flattened three-dimensional object.

If you were to take a globe, smear it with ink, and wrap a cloth around it, when you opened the sheet, you would find an image that looked very different from the spherical shape of the globe.

But if you don’t want to get your perfectly good globe dirty, you can watch the video that accompanied Moraes’ study notes. Anyone can test it by covering their face with the pigmented liquid and placing a cloth or paper towel over it.

An article detailing Moraes’ findings has been published ArchaeologyAll software including approval of Mores employed. It concludes that the image on the Shroud of Turin is almost certainly a work of medieval art, rather than an authentic impression of a dead man.

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