[Tantumergo]

"the fact that we have a Mary, Martha, and Lazarus together with a Simon Bar-Jonah all together in a cemetery specifically reserved for Jerusalem-area Jewish Christians."

Are you really so naive as to believe this crock of crap?

I suppose in the tomb nextdoor they found the bones of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary as well!!! Not to mention Moses, Elijah and King David.

FYI the largest population of Jews outside of Jerusalem was in Rome - not surprising really, it being the capital of the empire. It would be only natural for those taking the gospel to the circumcision to end up in Rome.

This is why there was already a community of Christians in Rome before either Peter or Paul got there. The point isn't that Peter and Paul established the Church in Rome, but that they consecrated it with their blood poured out in martyrdom.

Do you really think that Paul could have written a letter to "the Romans" if there wasn't already an established Church there?

Do you really think that the Romans would have executed Peter anywhere other than Rome, considering that he was the leader of the new sect?

As for the impossibility of St. Peter preaching the gospel to the gentiles, who do you think received the revelation from God to baptise the gentiles?

The likelihood of there being any truth at all to this article is about as much as there was for that recent thread about the manna appearing again in Egypt. Looks like you've been had by the Onion!

[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

The likelihood of there being any truth at all to this article is about as much as there was for that recent thread about the manna appearing again in Egypt. Looks like you've been had by the Onion!

Actually, the Jerusalem Christian Review is a major Jerusalem Christian Religious news service, and so far as I know not one Roman scholar to date has contested the authenticity of the burial cave and ossuaries in question. Obviously, not all Roman scholars believe that these are the ossuaries of the Simon bar Jonah and the Mary, Martha, and Lazarus -- although some do -- but such reservations hardly imply that the cave and the ossuaries themselves are fraudulent as, say, the Donation of Constantine.