For over two millennia, the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth, has outlived empires, wars and fires. It is known as the Shroud of Turin. Then came the modern age and with it two surprising discoveries about the Shroud. At the turn of the 20th century, when the Shroud was photographed for the first time, the negative of the photo showed the image of a crucified man. But more was to come. At the turn of the 21st century, in this age of microbes and pandemics, microbiology showed that the image on the Shroud was created by the very flesh and blood of Jesus. It is the Jesus Microbiome. As such, the Shroud literally incarnates pivotal events in the New Testament narratives in real-time. It can rightly be described as the Fifth Gospel - an Instagram from the first century sent by Jesus himself.

The Jesus Microbiome is a breakthrough book unveiling radically new but scientifically demonstrable, universally replicable and factually definitive findings on the most mysterious and controversial piece of cloth on earth: the Shroud of Turin. The implications of these never-before publicized findings are historic in nature for this book shows that:

• The image on the Shroud of Turin was literally created from the flesh and blood of Christ and the underlying processes that led to this particular form of image creation can be replicated today.

• Microbiome = the body of microorganisms that inhabit a specific environment. Although well-intentioned, the Carbon 14 dating study performed on the Shroud over three decades ago (1988) was unavoidably flawed because the investigators were unaware of what is now known about microbiomes and failed to demicrobialize the Shroud. No decontamination = no valid dating.

• Since the Shroud incarnates pivotal events in the New Testament narratives in real-time it can rightly be described as the fifth Gospel - an Instagram from the first century sent by Jesus himself!

The Jesus Microbiome is not just another book about the Shroud. It is a journey into the first century through the 21st where the ancient world comes to life again through the medium of the microbiome.