Scientific investigations of believed remains of two apostles

https://www.eurekalert.org ^ | 1-FEB-2021 | UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN DENMARK

[Red Badger]

IMAGE: A PIECE OF THE FEMUR, BELIEVED TO BE OF ST JAMES THE YOUNGER, MOUNTED ON A WOODEN PEG AND WITH A GILDED RING

CREDIT: KAARE LUND RASMUSSEN/SDU

[Red Badger]

PinGGG!..................

[cuban leaf]

They can throw that in with that shroud thingee. Not to mention those pieces of toast with Jerry Garcia’s image on them. :)

[Beowulf9]

“Thus, the preserved relic, the femur, is not that of St. James. It originates from an individual some 160-240 years younger than St. James, explains Professor Kaare Lund Rasmussen, University of Southern Denmark, adding:

- Though the relic is not that of St James, it casts a rare flicker of light on a very early and largely unaccounted for time in the history of early Christianity”.

[fidelis]

” In the first few centuries of Christianity, life was difficult for the Christian minority, but gradually towards sixth century Christianity became the dominant religion and after Emperor Constantine on his deathbed declared Christianity the state religion, churches were erected all over the Roman Empire.”

This fiction just keeps getting perpetuated. The facts are that Constantine converted after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in AD 312, but was not baptized until he was on his deathbed.

Also, Constantine issued the Edict of Tolerance that made the free practice of all religions legal (including Christianity), but he did not make Christianity the state religion. That was for a later emperor to do.

[Red Badger]

Maybe it was not THE St. James, but another: Really, Nice Guy James...........

[Red Badger]

I’ve never understood the veneration of relics, bones and preserved body parts....... gruesome and kinda disrespectful, IMHO.............

[knarf]

God understands it;

Exodus 20

And God spake all these words, saying,

2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

[PrairieLady2]

The “Saints” were thought to continue to have thr power of God in them, even in death. Therefore, a Church containing a “holy” relic would have the power of God himself. The saints were thought to be one step closer to God than the ordinary person, so by their relics, those who came in contact with that alter, were extra blessed or empowered by that saint.

[Red Badger]

If one believes in such things..........

[Bob434]

The power of God must have diminished a whole lot then, because we are not seeing anyone capable of raising g the dead, healing amputees, being transfigurated, walking on Water, etc these days. At best all we see today are people possibly being hea.ed in response to prayer in ways that are perfectly imljne with natural possibilities. Nothing super attractive,, ike should happen IF the power of God truly resided in churches in the same fashion that His power resided in the apostles.

[sphinx]

The best known set of remains, of course, are St. Peter's, which were rediscovered in situ in an ancient Roman necropolis. This was located along the Via Cornelia, which led out of Rome and at the time ran next to the Circus of Nero, where Peter was martyred. (St. Peter's Basilica shares a portion of the Circus' foundation wall.) The necropolis was in turn buried to create a the building platform when Constantine started construction on the first St. Peter's Basilica in 319. That's as close to an undisturbed time capsule as one can get on ancient remains, this side of Pompeii. Or a shipwreck. Attribution to a specific individual can't be done with absolute certainty, but the archaeology is pretty solid. The original grave was already a small shrine by the second century, with a small Roman style mortuary monument erected over the original hole in the ground. This is all directly under the high alter in the current St. Peter's and was buried and left undisturbed for over 1,600 years.

If you get a chance to visit Rome and St. Peter's and the Vatican Museums are on your list, be sure to sign up early for the necropolis tour. This is NOT part of the regular St. Peter's tour. It is an inherently limited access space and, in addition to being a tight space physically, the surviving frescos on the surviving Roman tombs are quite fragile. Only a couple of hundred people a day are allowed through. There's no trick to signing up; you just need to make your reservation early because the necropolis tours fill up fast.

[fruser1]

They should run the DNA through a criminal database just to see what comes up.

[IrishBrigade]

‘...for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me...’

nothing like holding a grudge over generations...

[knarf]

Is THAT what you came away with ?

[Scrambler Bob]

I’ve never understood the veneration of relics, bones and preserved body parts....... gruesome and kinda disrespectful, IMHO.............
= = =

Rignt.

But let’s look at fossils and dinosaur footprints, etc. that represent ‘real science’.

With that in mind.

I would not be surprised that some body parts of Apostles would have survived to this day.

Not to be worshiped, but as evidence.

[Red Badger]

They probably do, but they are just bones.................

[Scrambler Bob]

Shroud

Let’s run some DNA.

Get the ancestry.

Just what would Jesus’s DNA show?

Might blow 23andme into oblivion.

[Scrambler Bob]

They probably do, but they are just bones.................
= = =

Is there any DNA?

Process it and let 23andme announce results.

Not that I want any proof, but let’s throw a monkey wrench into the gears.

[Darteaus94025]

The Shroud of Turin continues to survive all attempts to debunk it as anything other than authentic.

“Needs additional testing” means I can’t disprove its authenticity.