The Shroud of Turin isn’t just one more “holy relic,” an object of unknown origins and dubious claims; it is an ancient artifact that has defied modern science. We must take it seriously, for it passes every test that has been put to it. The image in the Shroud does not reflect the portraits of Jesus in Medieval art. The wounds don’t match the depiction of the wounds of Jesus. The face of the crucified man in the Shroud resemble the earliest known portraits of Jesus, not the much better known portraits in the Medieval period. The Shroud contains microscopic pollen that is native to first-century Israel. The blood stains are those of a human who suffered trauma. No pious Christian artist of a later time could have known these things.

How the image is present in the Shroud cannot be explained. And now, thanks to new Wide-Angle X-Ray Scattering (WAXS) dating technology the Shroud’s first-century date has been confirmed. The Shroud is an important historical artifact that should be studied along with all of the surviving evidence from antiquity that sheds light on the New Testament Gospels, on the activities of Jesus, and, above all, on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

In short, there is no compelling objection to the antiquity and authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. There is also no reason to think that the image of the man in the Shroud is anyone other than Jesus of Nazareth, who in the first century was crucified under the authority of Pontius Pilate, who was resurrected on the third day, and who appeared to Saul of Tarsus as blinding light.

Given all that we know, we should conclude that the Shroud of Turin is indeed the burial shroud of Jesus and that this astounding artifact provides weighty evidence of the truth that his followers have proclaimed since that first Easter Sunday: “Jesus Christ is risen indeed!”