Deliverance from the Cross — Page 64
positive picture appears on the photographic negative. On the negative imprint, the bloodstains also appear as the negative of the picture, while the contours of a body appear as a positive. Scientists take this phenomenon as proof that the imprint is not the work of an artist. It is difficult enough to reproduce the positive of a picture with such delicate light shadings, but to achieve a perfect negative by artificial means is quite impossible. The biggest enlargements of the photographs established that there is no trace of any dye whatsoever on the fabric. It would seem that the Shroud acted as a kind of photographic plate because it had been impregnated with a solution of aloes, which reacted chemically on the spices which, as the Gospels describe, Joseph of Arimathaca and Nicodemus used on the body of Jesus for his resuscitation. As a result, the Shroud bears the image of the body which was laid on it. It also reveals that bleeding from the body took place after it was laid in the Shroud. In 1959 The German Research Convention For The Shroud of Jesus petitioned Pope John XXIII to permit a small portion of the Shroud to be removed so that further tests, made possible by modern scientific discoveries and techniques, could be carried out. They wanted the bloodstains to be subjected to chemical and microscopic examination; the texture of the Shroud itself could be examined in the light of X-rays, infrared rays, and ultraviolet rays; and an exact dating 64