St Paul’s bones rediscovered
Posted on Jul 1st, 2009 by E P Wohlfart |
The martyrdom of St Paul
A 2,000 year old murder mystery has been solved and the oft questioned witness reports proved correct. At least that’s what the Vatican is currently stating.
Pope Benedict XVI recently announced that the bones of St. Paul, martyred around 65 CE, have been identified in a tomb beneath St. Paul’s Basilica in Rome.
Archaeologists originally discovered the tomb in 2006. Rather than opening the sarcophagus, and risking harming its contents, a choice was made to send a probe through the stone. Within were found textiles, incense and skeletal remains that have now been carbon dated by independent scientists.
The bones beneath the basilica were found to have belonged to a person alive sometime between the first and second century. The Vatican is taking this and the tomb’s location directly below the altar and epigraph to PAULO APOSTOLO MART as irrefutable evidence that the remains found are indeed from St. Paul. “This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that these are the mortal remains of Paul the apostle,” the Pope said on Sunday.
The tradition that the Pope is referring to is the claims that the martyred St. Paul was buried in a vineyard. Some 250 years later, the Emperor Constantine supposedly found his grave and ordered the building of St. Paul’s basilica on top of it.
The sceptic, however, has much reason to be in doubt. Much data which could support or disprove the Vatican’s claims has yet to be released. Further analysis could give us the age and sex of the individual as well as reasonable ethnic heritage and should upper vertebrae be available in the tomb clear indication ought to be seen of Paul’s martyrdom through beheading. The Vatican’s conclusive evidence could look suspiciously circumstantial.
St. Paul was born a Jew in the eastern parts of the Roman Empire, a persecutor of Christians prior to his conversion. He is curiously regarded as an apostle, despite never actually having received the gospel from the living Christ. He converted after seeing Jesus in a vision. Never having known Christ in life, his understanding of the teachings was sometimes rather different from that of the disciples. Even so, Paul is probably the most influential Christian thinker of all time.
About the author: E P Wohlfart is a twenty-something freelance writer with a Classical Archaeology degree, a laptop and a maxed-out library card. Aside from administrating PastPresenters.com, which she started in 2008, she works with several historical publications and is a regular contributor at Suite101. 
Why should anyone care about this fake discovery when a much more important holy relic has already been discovered in Stephan Huller’s book, the Real Messiah.
Huller went to Venice and proved that the Throne of St. Mark in the Basilica San Marco dates to the beginning of Christianity. It proves that Christianity started in Egypt rather than Rome (the title ‘Pope’ or Papa is universally acknowledged to have been appropriated from Alexandria).
Huller’s throne is a real historical object, i.e. it is not a fake. You can see it with your own two eyes the next time you go to Italy. It is also being made into a TV documentary for a US Cable network.
Again, why waste your time with this nonsense about ‘bones of St. Paul’ (the authoritative canon does not specify a location for Paul’s death); it is completely fake.
You don’t have to buy Huller’s book. Here are some photos of the throne – or go to his blog instead.
Jacob
Hello Jacob,
Thank you for commenting.
I write about the supposed St Paul discovery because it’s in the news right now, making headlines, and people will inevitably hear about it. And when they hear of it, wouldn’t it be awfully nice if they also heard the opposition? I would think you would be all for that since you think it’s bogus.
As for Huller’s book, I don’t see how one has anything to do with the other. A significant discovery in a field – as Huller’s is if one chooses to believe his argument – does not negate others. We don’t stop talking about ancient Rome because it’s all moot point now that we’ve found Pompeii.
Cheers,
Emma