St Paul's tomb unearthed in Rome

thanks for the news

FallingWaters said:

"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?

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I wonder why they needed to do this at all. Doesn't Acts say that Paul was in Rome? Is this so it his tomb can become an object of worship?
Seems like we should be focused on Christ instead of Paul.

I do not believe those who pray at the tomb would describe their prayers as worship of the tomb or of St. Paul.

FallingWaters said:

The article said that some people had expressed a desire to see it.
The tomb is 3 miles outside of Rome, near where he was beheaded.
I studied the life and letters of Paul through Bible Study Fellowship for women.
I became very fond of him. His love and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ was very evident.
I admire him greatly because of his incomparable contribution to Christianity through his writings and evangelization.

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I am also very fond of Paul and respect his passion for evangelism. I just think the tendency of most people is to worship things and to make tombs and articles of faith like that objects of worship. This happened very early on in church history where objects thought to come from the apostles or those who knew the apostles became articles of worship themselves. Paul spent his whole christian life focused not on himself but on Christ.
This whole idea that some christians are "saints" and some aren't also bothers me. My Bible says that if your a believer than your a saint.
J