The History Channel has been showing a documentary about a group of scientists that is studying the Shroud of Turin. The group's goal is to make a 3d image from the image on the Shroud of Turin. The image on the Shroud of Turin is repeatedly described as being "what many believe is the face of Jesus."
The Gospel of John tells us about the burial cloths used on Jesus. John 20:5-8 says that Peter and John ran to the tomb after Mary the Magdalene came and told them the body of Jesus was missing. John ran ahead and came first to the tomb, and bending down, he sees the cloth wrappings lying there. He didn't actually go in. Peter arrived and went into the tomb, and he sees the cloths lying there and the face cloth which was on Jesus' head, not with the rest but folded and laying apart from the others, folded up! John then entered the tomb and saw the same things as Peter.
When John recorded in his gospel these events that he had eye witnessed, he specifically stated that he observed the head cloth lying separately by itself and folded up. If he noted that detail, surely he would also have noted the detail that he saw the outline of Jesus' image on the burial clothes.
Some Internet articles said the head cloth was used on burial persons when the wounds on the head were too gruesome to be seen by the family. This sounds like what we would call a "closed casket" viewing.
However, when Lazarus was buried the head cloth was also used, and Lazarus died of a sickness. Lazarus also had the time for a proper burial, unlike Jesus. But when Jesus called Lazarus to come out of the tomb, John 11:44 says that Lazarus came out with his hands and feet bound with grave cloths and the head cloth still wrapped around his face!
Based on a close reading of the above passages in the Gospel of John, the Biblical account by eyewitnesses does not support the modern day account of the Shroud of Turin as being the burial cloth that bears the image of the face of Jesus Christ.
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