This is a good article, well written. I don’t agree with everything Onysko says, particularly about image formation, but I do agree with him that the Shroud is the real deal.
By Joanne Berger DuMound, Sun News
January 14, 2010, 1:59PM
KYLE
LANZER/SUN NEWSThe Shroud of Turin, which will be publicly displayed in Italy this year, is permanently shown behind bulletproof glass in an argon gas environment. David M. Onysko holds a picture of the person he believes is the image on the burial cloth — Jesus Christ.
Miracles share a part of David M. Onysko’s life.
The Middleburg Heights resident believes the first he has experienced is what he calls the “Man in the Shroud.”
It is better known as the Shroud of Turin, a centuries-old cloth that bears the image of a crucified man.
Onysko, a lecturer who has studied the shroud for 30 years, believes, like millions of others, the image is Jesus Christ.
Another miracle is his being able to view it — twice.
KYLE LANZER/SUN NEWSMiddleburg Heights resident David M. Onysko saw a picture of the Shroud of Turin about 30 years ago and was awestruck by its image. Since then he has attended several scientific conferences and has lectured about the burial cloth.
He hopes another occurs this spring when the Shroud will be displayed for an unprecedented third time in 12 years at St. John’s Cathedral in Turin, Italy. It will be shown from April 10 to May 23.
Onysko, an unemployed physical education teacher, first saw the shroud personally in 1998, under a coincidental set of circumstances. He had been lecturing on the phenomenon for years, and went to Italy hoping to view it. But, due to a family emergency, had only one day available before returning to the U.S. to do so. That day was set aside for the worldwide media, of which he was not included.
“I prayed to God, saying, ‘You can do anything. I will trust You that I will see it,’” he said.
He believed his prayer was answered.
During his visit, Onysko met an Australian who knew of his lecturing. One event led to another and he not only received a pass for that “media” day, but the ticket had a l½ month time limit. He also attended a press conference at which he asked a question.
“I believe God wants me to bring the gospel story, the Passion — the suffering, death, burial and resurrection — of Christ and relate it historically, scientifically and theologically,” he said. “Science doesn’t contradict the Bible. It confirms it. It was science that said that was Jesus Christ of Nazareth. I know who it is.”
Onysko will bring his lecture at 6:30 tonight to Seekers Coffee House & Caf , 13365 Smith Road and 7 p.m. Feb. 5 at Grace Christian & Missionary Alliance Church, 7393 Pearl Road. Both are in Middleburg Heights.
The three-dimensional cloth
The shroud is considered the most studied artifact in human history. It is 14 feet long and 3 feet wide, containing images of a bloodied, crucified man lying in a burial pose. The grave cloth shows the front and back of the crucified man. It also reveals the many wounds that cover his body. The man was pierced in his right side, had punctured wounds in both wrists and feet, deep wounds around his head and about 200 barbell-shaped bruises on his back and front, including other markings.
Testing of the bloodstains on the cloth showed they were from real human bleeding from wounds on a body that came into direct contact with the cloth.
“He wore a helmet of thorns, clearly detected in the shroud’s image. What other man in history, and the Romans crucified thousands, experienced a crown of thorns? It was unique to Christ,” Onysko said. “The preponderance of evidence points to its authenticity.”
He also said the spear wound, between the man’s fifth and sixth rib, “precisely” measures the width of a first-century Roman lance. This, and other aspects of the cloth, shows three-dimensional information.
The possible cause of the image
The most astonishing fact about the shroud is that it is a photographic negative. It doesn’t look lifelike in person. But reverse the dark and light areas and the likeness of an actual body appears.
This then begs the question, how did such an image appear on the cloth? The image rests on the top two or three cloth fibers. The linen fibers also are yellowed, prematurely aged.
“We know that heat causes dehydration. Well, scientists have determined the mechanism that caused the image was some type of oxidation and dehydration of the linen fibers. It was some type of light and/or heat mechanism,” Onysko said. “It cannot be duplicated. Scientists won’t call it a resurrection. They termed it a flash photolysis. But I know some who will.”
He said the mechanism that caused the image produced much greater energy than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“The Bible said God is light. Jesus Christ is referenced in many scriptural passages with the pure brilliance of light,” Onysko said. “How do you duplicate the resurrection? This is Jesus Christ of Nazareth who rose from the dead.”
Authenticity of the cloth
KYLE LANZER/SUN NEWSA close-up photograph of the facial image shows deep thorn wounds covering the forehead and what Onysko believes are coin marks over the eyelids.
A radiocarbon testing of the cloth in 1988 showed it dated back between 1260 and 1390. But Onysko said the sample portion tested was from a side strip, a selvedge, which was sewn onto the shroud after it was saved from a fire in France. He also said the shroud was made of “fine” linen, like the type the rich Joseph of Arimathea purchased who, according to Scripture, helped take Christ down from the cross and prepare him for burial.
Onysko said Dr. Ray Rogers, a nuclear scientist who worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory that developed the atomic bomb, studied the shroud and proved the sample did not represent the main body of the shroud, identifying an invisible weave. The sampling also had a different chemical composition than the main part of the cloth.
“That is all the world needed to hear,” Onysko said.
He also highlighted that pollen spores lifted from the cloth came from plants growing in a specific area in Jerusalem.
Tonight’s presentation will last about 45 minutes. He will have 8-feet by 4-feet photographs of the shroud, a power-point presentation and various items that enhance his lecture.
“I allow people to make their own decision. I try to be as objective as I can but also intellectually honest,” he said. “The doubting Thomases of the 21 century with their modern technology do not know how the image was made.”
And, as far as miracles in seeing the shroud this year?
“God willing, I will go,” he said.
Onysko’s Web site is manintheshroud.org. He may be reached at (216) 688-0040.
Contact DuMound at (216) 986-7538 or jdumound@sunnews.com.