The tomb of St Paul in Rome
Why wouldn’t they be St Paul’s? Who else would be buried
under St Paul’s Basilica? Gen Grant?
At the beginning of the 4th century, with the end of the persecutions and the promulgation of the Edicts of Tolerance in favour of Christianity, Emperor Constantine ordered the excavation of the cella memoriae, the place where Christians venerated the memory of Saint Paul the Apostle, beheaded under Nero around 65-67 A.D. Above his grave, located along the Ostiense Way, about two kilometers outside the Aurelian Walls surrounding Rome, Constantine built a Basilica which was consecrated by Pope Sylvester in 324.
Of course the bones found in St. Paul’s tomb were St. Paul’s. If the bones hadn’t been those of St. Paul, it wouldn’t really have been St. Paul’s tomb, would it?
Please. We all know from the Crevo threads that carbon dating isn’t reliable. 8^)
Carbon dating doesn’t reveal DNA. The Pope’s reliance
on this as if it proves these are the Apostle Paul’s remains
is insufficient. The best you can say is that it supports
the belief that these are the Apostle Paul’s remains.
Not quite infallible ...
A fantastic opportunity for DNA sequencing. I hope they do it!
C14 alone will only say that the remains came from a particular time period.
Sequencing of “known” remains though could reveal a lot about origins and relationships.
Traditions of men
I suspect Paul would be wondering why we’re bothering to honor or venerate him. His work in Christ as the evangelist and his letters to the church are what are important, not the bones he happened to use up while in Christ’s service.
"Small fragments of bone were carbon dated by experts who knew nothing about their provenance and results showed they were from someone who lived between the 1st and 2nd century. This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that these are the mortal remains of Paul the Apostle."
Interesting if true, but it seems a bit of a jump from "someone who lived between the 1st and 2nd century" to "this is Paul".
Crazy and irresponsible. Have these tests been evaluated by an independent party? And even so, how can that prove the bones belong to Paul?
Rome Catacomb Reveals "Oldest" Image Of St Paul
Pope: Scientific analysis done on St. Paul's bones
Oldest Icon of St. Paul Discovered
On St. Paul and Justification
On St. Paul and the Second Coming
On St. Paul and the Resurrection
On St. Paul and the Cross
On Paul's Christology
On How St. Paul Knew Christ
St. Paul's Teaching on the Church
On Paul's Dealings With Peter
On Paul and the Other Apostles
On Paul, an Apostle of Christ
St. Paul's Faith Based Not on Conversion of Thought, but Personal Meeting With Christ, Pope Says
Paul's Conversion
[St.] Paul's Biography
On Paul's World and Time Period
Pope Benedict said to plan examination of St. Paul
The Conversion of St. Paul
Remains of St. Paul may have been found
Paul's Teaching on the Church
Vatican archaeologists unearth St. Paul's tomb
Paul's Teaching on the Holy Spirit
Paul of Tarsus, Continued: He Lives From Christ and With Christ
Paul of Tarsus: Be Imitators of Me, As I Am of Christ
HOMILIES PREACHED BY FATHER ALTIER ON THE FEAST OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL
St. Paul's Vision
Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul -- January 25
Original Sin According to Saint Paul
St. Paul the Eccentric
While this is interesting information, it has no impact on my faith.
The bones could be anyones’s since there is no way to identify Paul’s bones as belonging to Paul.
And it must be true because the DNA tests are fprth coming. This is the difficulty of having relics
Forgive me, but this debate is ridiculous my evangelical friends. If this was a rock some secular archaeologist said was from the first temple it would be nothing but hurrahs from you. However, since the Roman Catholic church has something to do with this it’s nothing but harumph harumph! If unbelievers want to poo poo the relevence of this then that’s fine, but don’t call yourselves christians then act like the man never existed or his gravesite is unimportant to christians.
Whats the big deal? The debates on FR in the past
have been whether or not Peter lived in Rome.
Matter of fact have the Pope proclaim they are Peters’ bones and then ya’ll can have a party and say I told ya so.