© 2017 Dennis Marshall
© 2017 The Urantia Book Fellowship
First of all, let me declare that I enter this discussion without prejudice. For though I was raised a Roman Catholic, I left the church around age sixteen and never had put much stock in virgin births, visions of Mary, or the Shroud of Turin.
A religious metamorphosis led me through atheism, agnosticism, Buddhism, and a flurry of other “isms” culminating in an epiphany that suggested I check out “that Jewish carpenter”. Included in the experience was an understanding that incense, canons, rote prayer, priests, relics, and saints were not necessary to understand, believe, and act upon what I would thus learn.
Several years afterward, in 1971, I happened upon the Urantia Papers and they have since remained my go-to source for all things “Jewish carpenter”.
However, around 1980 I came across a National Geographic magazine at a friend’s house dedicated to a scientific study of the Shroud of Turin (STURP). They gathered forensic scientists, professional art investigators, professional skeptics, and experts in fabric, paint, and photography. I read the issue and was quite surprised that, while they couldn’t scientifically prove that the Shroud was genuine, they were equally unable to certify that it was not authentic. The team’s conclusion was that radiocarbon dating was recommended.
In spite of the glacial pace of the Vatican bureaucracy, in 1988 permission was granted to radiocarbon date portions of the Shroud by three separate institutions. The results gave dates ranging from AD 1260 to AD 1390. This certainly took the air out of many sails and appeared to settle the issue for good. It wasn’t long before criticism of the radiocarbon dating process began, but for those of us with pretensions of being scientific, radiocarbon dating was trusted, especially when the results from three separate and credible institutions were relatively consistent.
Myself, I was in a quandary. The radiocarbon dating, though convincing, didn’t explain the inability of the equally scientific National Geographic study to come to a conclusion about how the Shroud was created. So, I decided to let the question of the Shroud’s authenticity rest while I busied myself with other interests.
Because I remained torn between two seemingly irreconcilable scientific positions, I tried to keep abreast of any new research of the Shroud that might help clarify the situation, but none of the explanations altered my uncertainty regarding the two seemingly contradictory scientific studies.
At some point I read an account about how Dr. Raymond Rogers, one of the principal participants and skeptics of the STURP study, had changed his mind about the credibility of the original radiocarbon dating. Apparently, two French investigators who work with fabric realized that the tested section of the Shroud was actually an amalgam of different materials. If you look at the Shroud’s full-body frontal view, the area that the sample was cut from was the bottom left of the Shroud (bottom left of image). Perhaps those in charge thought it was the least damaging area to remove from the Shroud, but as you look at the image you can see that nothing fluoresces in that lower section of the Shroud. It is essentially a data free section of the data rich Shroud.
What Shroud researchers Joseph Marino and Sue Benford noticed was that the lower left section of the Shroud appeared to have mended the original linen/flax material with the addition of dyed cotton material by a method known to textile experts as a French Weave. This process involves unraveling both the original fabric and its intended patch. Their respective threads are then re-woven into a seamless result. This means that portions of both fabrics are intermingled for a substantial area between the two separate fabrics. The researchers suggested that perhaps this was why the material samples were differentially radiocarbon dated from AD 1260 to AD 1390. They further suggested that if the replacement material was medieval, the radiocarbon dating results should suggest a more medieval date the further each sample was located from the main body of the Shroud.
Well, Dr. Rogers went ballistic. More nonsense, he thought. But since he still retained parts of the original samples, he arranged another radiocarbon dating test that he was certain would confirm the original testing results. However, it turned out that the French weave premise was valid, and Dr. Rogers penned an apology along with his results, setting the Shroud world on its head yet again.
However, this new testing didn’t really prove anything except that the original radiocarbon dating tests were unable to be accepted as uncompromised. The good news is that there are charred segments of the Shroud that were saved in AD 1534 when the Poor Clair nuns patched the Shroud after it was saved from a burning church. These charred pieces from the center of the Shroud had been saved in small boxes and could be made available for radiocarbon dating, thus avoiding any further compromise to the remaining Shroud. This is fortuitous because before anything can be radiocarbon dated, it is first burned to pure carbon before it is tested. So…if and when the Vatican gets around to releasing some of the charred pieces to be tested, you and I will be unable to decide which (or both) scientific studies seem to be the truth.
Urantia Book readers will find several admonitions that advise against the leaving on Urantia (Earth) of anything materially related to Jesus that could wind up being worshiped.
Advice of Immanual to Michael (Jesus)
To the end that you may not unnecessarily contribute to the creation of subsequent stereotyped systems of Urantia religious beliefs or other types of nonprogressive religious loyalties, we advise you still further: Leave no writings behind you on the planet. Refrain from all writing upon permanent materials; enjoin your associates to make no images or other likenesses of yourself in the flesh. See that nothing potentially idolatrous is left on the planet at the time of your departure. (my emphasis)
While you will live the normal and average social life of the planet, being a normal individual of the male sex, you will probably not enter the marriage relation, which would be honorable and consistent with your bestowal; but I must remind you that one of the incarnation mandates of Sonarington forbids the leaving of human offspring on any planet by a bestowal Son of Paradise origin. (my emphasis) [UB 120:3.7-8]
The first thing Jesus did after thinking through the general plan of co-odinating his program with John’s movement, was to review in his mind the instructions of Immanuel. Carefully he thought through the advice given him concerning his methods of labor, and that he was to leave no permanent writing on the planet. Never again did Jesus write on anything but sand. On his next visit to Nazareth, much to the sorrow of his brither Joseph, Jesus destroyed all of his writing that was preserved on the boards about the carpenter shop, and which hung upon the walls of the old home. (my emphasis) [UB 136:4.2]
…Meanwhile the four soldiers assigned to the Master’s crucifixion, as was the custom, had divided his clothes among them, one taking the sandals, one the turban, one the girdle, and the fourth the cloak. This left the tunic, or seamless vestment reaching down to near the knees, to be cut up into four pieces, but when the soldiers saw what an unusual garment it was, they decided to cast lots for it. Jesus looked down on them while they divided his garments,and the thoughtless crowd jeered at him.
It was well that the Roman soldiers took possession of the Master’s clothing. Otherwise, if his followers had gained possession of these garments, they would have been tempted to resort to superstitious relic worship. The Master desired that his followers should have nothing material to associate with his life on earth. He wanted to leave mankind only the memory of a human life dedicated to the high spiritual ideal of being consecrated to doing the Father’s will. (my emphasis) [UB 187:2.8-9]
These passages make it clear that if the Shroud is genuine then it is a genuine mistake. Since the ministering spirits had to seek permission to remove Jesus’ body, I think it’s safe to say that they didn’t have carte blanche to interject as they pleased and were powerless to remove the burial cloths. There are many instances in The Urantia Book where the ministering spirits were not permitted to remediate problems in the mortal realm (the frog story), especially when the free will of humans was involved.
It is also clear that Immanuel’s concern was well founded in as much as even the uncertified (by the Catholic church) Shroud has still resulted in cathedrals, adoration, and much relic worship that focuses attention and energy not on the message of Jesus but towards what is essentially a piece of cloth.
Urantia Book readers will find in the book twelve mentions of Jesus’ burial cloth that do not seem to contradict the circumstances necessary for the creation of the Shroud.
They carried the body into the tomb, a chamber about ten feet square, where they hurriedly prepared it for burial. The Jews did not really bury their dead, they simply embalmed them. Joseph and Nicodemus had brought with them large quantities of myrrh and aloes, and they now wrapped the body with bandages saturated with these solutions. When the embalming was completed, they tied a napkin about the face, wrapped the body in a linen sheet, and reverently placed it on a shelf in the tomb. (my emphasis) [UB 188:1.4]
The tomb of Joseph was empty. Not because the body of Jesus had been rehabilitated or resurrected, but because the celestial hosts had been granted their request to afford it a special and unique dissolution, a return of the “dust to dust” without the intervention of the delays of time and without the operation of the ordinary and visible processes of mortal decay and material corruption. (my emphasis)
The mortal remains of Jesus underwent the same natural process of elemental disintegration as characterizes all human bodies on earth except that, in point of time, this natural mode of dissolution was greatly accelerated, hastened to that point where it became well-nigh instantaneous. (my emphasis) [UB 189:2.7-8]
…in the recess of stone where they had laid Jesus, Mary saw only the folded napkin where his head had rested, the bandages wherewith he had been wrapped lying intact and as they had rested on the stone before the celestial hosts removed the body. The covering sheet lay at the foot of the burial niche. (my emphasis) [UB 189:4.6]
They had been by themselves over the Sabbath, and they conjectured that the body had been moved to another resting place. But when they pondered such a solution of their dilemma, they were at a loss to account for the orderly arrangement of the grave cloths, how could the body have been removed since the very bandages in which it was wrapped were left in position and apparently intact on the burial shelf? (my emphasis) [UB 189:4.9]
John, being younger than Peter, outran him and arrived first at the tomb. John tarried at the door, viewing the tomb, and it was just as Mary had described it. Very soon Simon Peter rushed up and, entering, saw the same empty tomb with the grave cloths so peculiarly arranged. And when Peter had come out, John also went in and saw it all for himself, and then they sat down on the stone to ponder the meaning of what they had seen and heard. (my emphasis) [UB 189:5.2]
Peter at first suggested that the grave had been rifled, that enemies had stolen the body, perhaps bribed the guards. But John reasoned that the grave would hardly have been left so orderly if the body had been stolen, and he also raised the question as to how the bandages happened to be left behind, and so apparently intact. And again they both went back into the tomb more closely to examine the grave cloths. (my emphasis) [UB 189:5.3]
Nicodemus and the others doubted their story, doubted that Jesus had risen from the dead; they conjectured that the Jews had removed the body. Joseph and David were disposed to believe the report, so much so that they hurried out to inspect the tomb, and they found everything just as the women had described. And they were the last to so view the sepulcher, for the high priest sent the captain of the temple guards to the tomb at half past seven o’clock to remove the grave cloths. The captain wrapped them all up in the linen sheet and threw them over a near-by cliff. (my emphasis) [UB 190:1.2]
If it turns out that the Shroud is authentic, what will it mean to readers of the Urantia Papers? Actually very little. Even in this very paper, we have already been admonished to eschew the adoration and worship of material artifacts whether they are Bibles, Qurans, Urantia Books, relics or whatever, and focus on the truth in the message such objects contain.
Dennis Marshall discovered The Urantia Book in New Orleans in 1971, He is now retired after thirty years teaching Architectural Engineering Technology at Indiana University/Purdue in Fort Wayne Indiana. He is currently serving as president of the study group begun by Meredith Sprunger.