St Paul's tomb unearthed in Rome

FallingWaters · Dec 7, 2006

"For the past three years, archaeologists have been excavating underneath the altar to remove two huge slabs of marble and now, for the first time in almost 1700 years, the sarcophagus of St Paul is on public view. The original inscription on the top reads: Paolo Apostolo Martyr - Latin for "Paul Apostle Martyr"."

BBC article

The news maks it sound like they found something that was lost, but in reality, the church has known it was there for hundreds of years. It was covered over and they had no access to it; they decided to uncover it so that people could see it.

They don't have plans to open it.

I wonder if we could find out from his DNA just how short he really was?

Voegelin · Dec 7, 2006

"St Paul was an influential early Christian who travelled widely in the Mediterranean area in the 1st Century."

The BBC is a delight to read.

imind · Dec 7, 2006

Voegelin said:
"St Paul was an influential early Christian who travelled widely in the Mediterranean area in the 1st Century."

The BBC is a delight to read.

lol

pretty extraordinary find.

repentant · Dec 7, 2006

Yea, shows how the early Christians venerated his relics....

Bulldog · Dec 9, 2006

repentant said:
Yea, shows how the early Christians venerated his relics....

How so?

Mandrake · Dec 9, 2006

From the article:

"The holes through which the ancient pilgrims would have pushed pieces of cloth to touch the relic are clearly visible."

FallingWaters · Dec 9, 2006

Mandrake said:
From the article:

"The holes through which the ancient pilgrims would have pushed pieces of cloth to touch the relic are clearly visible."

Do you think people were trying to get healing virtue onto their cloths by doing that?

Acts 19:11-12
"Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them."

Voegelin · Dec 11, 2006

The tomb of St. Paul was descerated by Muslims in 846 A.D.

They stole everything of value.

The Leonine Wall, which stands today, was built a decade later to prevent another raid.

FallingWaters · Dec 11, 2006

Voegelin said:
The tomb of St. Paul was descerated by Muslims in 846 A.D.

They stole everything of value.

The Leonine Wall, which stands today, was built a decade later to prevent another raid.

That's too bad. Thanks for the info.

Voegelin · Dec 11, 2006

FallingWaters said:
That's too bad. Thanks for the info.

Yeah...we'll never know what early Christians put in those tombs. Lost of lot of our history to Islamic looters. The Muslim attack on Rome in the 9th century is never mentioned by those who castigate Christians for launching the first crusade at the end of the 11th century.

Neither is the naval battle of Ostia in 849 A.D. which took place off the port of Rome. A Christian League composed of ships from Naples, Gaeta and the Papacy drove off another Muslim attack on the Eternal City.

repentant · Dec 11, 2006

Yes, the peaceful Muslims...

CrimsonTideChristian · Dec 16, 2006

Man, Islam is only taking this world down the drain. Thank God I know Jesus.

chaoschristian · Dec 16, 2006

So, unopened as it is, there is no confirmation that human remains are inside?

repentant · Dec 16, 2006

chaoschristian said:
So, unopened as it is, there is no confirmation that human remains are inside?

Haven't heard..

Funny how a major story like this and it's not mentioned anywhere on the news channels. Well I guess that's because the media and everything else is run by Evraioi..

FallingWaters · Dec 16, 2006

Voegelin said:
The tomb of St. Paul was descerated by Muslims in 846 A.D.

They stole everything of value.

The Leonine Wall, which stands today, was built a decade later to prevent another raid.

chaoschristian said:
So, unopened as it is, there is no confirmation that human remains are inside?

I don't know but this other post says they took everything of value.
Perhaps they did not consider his bones or bone dust to be worth the trouble.

FallingWaters · Dec 16, 2006

chaoschristian said:
So, unopened as it is, there is no confirmation that human remains are inside?

I just read that the Pope's permission would have to be sought in order to study the contents.
The red tape will probably take some time.
Apparently, they tried to x-ray it but the stone was too thick.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16155676/

This is actually an excellent article with information- including drawings- I have seen nowhere else.

Voegelin · Dec 16, 2006

The odd thing about this is the press reports the tomb as some kind of an archaeological find. Christians have known where it was...like...forever.

In case any Columbia School of Journalist graduates are lurking...here's a hot tip: St. Peter is buried under the Vatican.You can read about the history of both tombs here:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13374a.htm

FallingWaters · Dec 17, 2006

Voegelin said:
The odd thing about this is the press reports the tomb as some kind of an archaeological find. Christians have known where it was...like...forever.

In case any Columbia School of Journalist graduates are lurking...here's a hot tip: St. Peter is buried under the Vatican.You can read about the history of both tombs here:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13374a.htm

Yeah. Isn't that weird? They keep saying it was found, when in fact, it was never lost!
It's like the guy who wrote the headline didn't read the article.

Or maybe all they care about is catching people's attention, and unburying something that wasn't missing is too boring.

Thanks for the link.

FallingWaters · Dec 18, 2006

chaoschristian said:
So, unopened as it is, there is no confirmation that human remains are inside?

I think they believe his remains ARE inside.
Here's a quote from the msnbc article:
"marble sarcophagus believed to contain the remains of the Apostle Paul"

The news says that the marble sarcophagus dates back to A.D. 390.
I don't understand why, since he was beheaded in A.D. 67.

My Who's Who In the Bible (Bonanza Books, 1980) says Paul was executed on the left bank of the Tiber, some three miles from Rome, on the road to the port of Ostia. Then he was buried in a cemetery.

A tradition says he was buried in the family tomb of a Matrona Lucilla.

His followers put a memorial over his grave.
Around A.D. 320 Emperor Constantine built a small basilica over Paul's tomb.
A large basilica was built over his tomb in A.D. 386.
It burned down in 1823.
Another was built in its place.
WIKI

FallingWaters · Dec 18, 2006

NOW we're cooking with propane!

""In A.D. 390 Emperor Theodosius enlarged the building and encased Paul's remains in a sarcophagus located on view in the middle of the basilica—the same sarcophagus we found.""

That explains the time discrepancy.

Great article where I found this:
National Geographic.com

St Paul's tomb unearthed in Rome

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