New book on archaeological evidence for Jesus rockets to top of bestseller list
A new book on the historical evidence for Jesus has skyrocketed to the top of the bestseller charts as a prominent New Testament scholar argues that overwhelming archaeological finds verify the authenticity of the Bible and the resurrection.
In "The Jesus Discoveries: 10 Historic Finds That Bring Us Face-to-Face with Jesus," author Dr. Jeremiah Johnston points to 10 major archaeological finds, including the controversial Shroud of Turin and the Dead Sea Scrolls, as historical artifacts that corroborate the biblical accounts.
The book reached No. 2 on Amazon Charts' bestseller list in nonfiction last week, and reached No. 3 on the New York Times Bestsellers List this week. Johnston has shared his research on several popular podcasts recently, including the "Shawn Ryan Show," reaching over 1 million views.
Johnston said he has spent the past four years traveling the world to consult with scientists and archaeologists who have studied these artifacts. He argues the findings provide compelling evidence for the New Testament, regardless of a person’s religious background.
"It turns out that we can learn 65 facts about the birth, the life, the ministry, the miracles and, of course, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus... before we ever open the Bible. And no other religious figure on planet Earth has ever been this well evidenced," he told Fox News Digital.
One discovery is the Shroud of Turin, a burial cloth some believe wrapped Jesus Christ, while others believe it is a 13th-century forgery. The shroud is unique compared to other burial cloths from the 1st century because it displays an image of a tortured, crucified man.
"The fascinating thing about the shroud of Turin is it has an image of a brutalized, tormented, crucified man on the front and back that when you see it in the photo negative, you're actually seeing it in a photo positive and it takes your breath away," Johnston said.
He said details on the cloth showing the man's injuries match the biblical narrative of how Jesus was killed.
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"The red blood cells have broken down in the bilirubin because he's been tormented. It has high levels of ferritin and creatinine. And then you see that there is a wound on the left side, piercing through rib five and six," Johnston said. He noted the shroud shows piercings through the man's wrists and ankles, rather than through his palms and feet, as art from later centuries often depicts the crucifixion.
He also says that pollen samples taken from the cloth are native to the Jerusalem area. He argues no one has been able to replicate the cloth's "mysterious properties, including its anatomical accuracy, lack of pigment and three-dimensional characteristics."
"The image is only 0.2 microns thin. You realize that's one-fifth of the thickness of a piece of our hair?" Johnston said. "That's how superficial the image on the shroud is."
Johnston spoke to Italian physicist Paolo di Lazzaro, a senior researcher at the ENEA Research Center in Rome, who spent five years trying to recreate the image.
Lazzaro's testing found it would take "a burst of 34,000 billion watts of radiant energy delivered in one-40 billionth of a second to create the image," according to Johnston.
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Johnston believes the findings suggest a supernatural event created it.
"That's why I say the Shroud of Turin is not a death cloth; it is a resurrection cloth. That is the moment when Jesus' physical body came back to life," he claimed.
The shroud has only been carbon-dated once, in 1988, returning a date of 1260-1390 AD. Johnston said recent peer-reviewed studies have "discredited" that dating, arguing the sample was a contaminated area that had been patched. He said newer technologies using Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering (WAXS) have "confirmed a 1st century date."
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He points to other evidence suggesting the shroud is older than the radiocarbon date, such as a similar image of Jesus on the front of a seventh-century solidus from Emperor Justinian II.
The shroud is just one discovery Johnston discusses in the book. He also details an artifact dubbed the "Jesus Cup," which is dated to 50 AD. The cup is inscribed in Greek with a phrase describing Jesus as an enchanter or magician, which Johnston says shows Jesus' reputation as a healer was well known throughout the Roman Empire.
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Other artifacts in the book include the James Ossuary, the Magdalen Papyrus, and finds confirming the existence of Pontius Pilate.
Johnston said he wanted to help Christians and nonbelievers see historical evidence for Christianity.
"Not a shred of the New Testament would have been written" if Jesus' apostles had not had an evidence-based belief that they saw him alive after he died, he said.
"We should be skeptical of anything we commit our lives to," he said. "The beautiful thing is, the deeper you go with your questions into Christianity, the more rock-solid our faith becomes."