[GCC Catholic]

Have you looked at the monastery at Dominus Flevit in Jerusalem where the bones of a 6'2" 85 year old fisherman are buried in an ossuary with the name "Simon Bar Jona" etched on the side.???

You piqued my interest, so I took a few minutes this morning to look up a couple things.

I found the website for the monastery. They mention Ossuaries (and have a few pictures), but don't assert that any belongs to any particular person. I would think that if they seriously entertained that the bones MIGHT be St. Peter's, they would say something on the website.

More importantly, I found a couple of very recent writings (June 2007) from the University of the Holy Land. They seem to think that the inscription on the Ossuary is not "Simon Bar Jona" but rather "Simon Bar Zilla" (or Simon Barzillai). Their conclusion was such:

This new reading does, of course, exclude “Simon Bar Jonah” as a reading for this ossuary inscription, and returns the discussion of the potential location of Simon Peter’s bones back to their traditional place, Rome.

The writings (one paper, one blog posting) can be found here:

http://www.uhl.ac/Lost_Tomb/ShimonBarzillai/
http://www.uhl.ac/blog/?p=188

[GCC Catholic]

Ping to 155.

Recent findings on Domunus Flevit ossuaries.

[Uncle Chip]

The initial problem in reading this ossuary inscription began when Bagatti assumed that the inscription was written in the Jewish script normally utilized by the local Jewish population.

Help me understand the fundamental argument being put forward here:

Is the author saying that if the inscription was written in Aramaic script, then it would be "Simon Bar zilla", but if the inscription was written in Hebrew/Jewish script, then it would be "Simon Bar Jona". Is that the crux of the author's argument????

[stfassisi]

This link you provided http://www.uhl.ac/Lost_Tomb/ShimonBarzillai/ was very informative. Perhaps you should post it as a new thread?

This conclusion was also very accurate

This new reading does, of course, exclude “Simon Bar Jonah” as a reading for this ossuary inscription, and returns the discussion of the potential location of Simon Peter’s bones back to their traditional place, Rome.