A portion of the contentious Shroud of Turin, which is said to depict the figure of Jesus Christ, has been ‘proven’ to be legitimate.

If you’re wondering whether Jesus was a real person, there’s plenty of historical evidence to suggest that he existed around the period the legends about him claimed.

What could be a little more contentious is whether or not he was God’s son, but that’s a whole other topic we won’t get into right now.

Instead, the question is whether any item that is believed to bear the image of Jesus and was previously associated with him is authentic or not.

The Turin Shroud is believed to be the burial fabric wrapped over Jesus after his crucifixion, and if so, it would be a significant Christian relic.

Of course, one of the major issues with religious relics is that the market for them was quite popular; if you combined all of the alleged parts of the ‘real cross,’ the stake of wood on which Jesus was crucified, you’d have enough wood to build numerous crucifixes.

Dr. Jeremiah Johnston, a biblical expert, claims to have proven that part of the blood on the Shroud of Turin is human.

According to the Daily Mail, he claims that a 1990s test revealed that some blood on the Turin Shroud was type AB, which is ‘present in just six percent of the population, proven as human and male.’

He also says tests show the blood on the shroud came from a human male with type AB blood before and after death.

The Shroud of Turin, however, remains very disputed, even if the blood on it is genuine human claret, because additional tests of the relic show it is far too young to have belonged to Jesus.

In 1988, examinations on the cloth revealed a 95% possibility that it was created between 1260 and 1390, and considering that we count the years based on Jesus himself, it seems far too recent to be real.

So, even if the fabric was soaked in human blood before and after death, it doesn’t prove that the victim was wrapped in it after crucifixion.