The four Gospels describe Jesus’ passion and death by crucifixion. The details line up with what happened to the man on the Shroud.

According to the Gospels, the Jewish leaders and a bloodthirsty mob presented Jesus to the Roman Procurator, Pontius Pilate. They demanded that Jesus be crucified. Pilate wavered, but the fury of the crowd persisted.

So Pilate decided to hand Jesus over for a public scourging. He hoped this would satisfy the blood-thirsty crowd without having Jesus put to death.

The Gospels do not describe the scourging of Jesus in detail. But the Shroud provides explicit details of what scourging was like.

There are over 360 dumbbell-shaped wounds caused by scourging. They cover the front and back of the man, including the back, buttocks, arms, and legs.

The man of the Shroud was scourged naked. His wounds indicate that he was scourged in an upright position, while two scourgers lashed his body with alternating blows. They used a Roman flagrum, which was a multi-thonged whip with lead balls, tips of bone, or broken glass attached at the ends.

The parallels between the Gospels and the Shroud of Turin don’t stop here. Next we’ll look at another detail: the crown of thorns.