St Paul's tomb unearthed in Rome

[Knight-Dragon]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6219656.stm

Archaeologists working for the Vatican have unearthed a sarcophagus containing what they believe are the remains of St Paul the Apostle.
The tomb dates back to at least AD390 and was found in a crypt under a basilica in Rome.

It has long been thought that the crypt contained the tomb of St Paul but the altar had hidden it.

St Paul was an influential early Christian who travelled widely in the Mediterranean area in the 1st Century.

Excavations at the site began in 2002 and were completed last month.

Ancient pilgrims

The cathedral of St Paul's Outside the Walls is the largest church in Rome after St Peter's.

For the past three years, archaeologists have been excavating underneath the altar to remove two huge slabs of marble and now, for the first time in almost 1700 years, the sarcophagus of St Paul is on public view.

The original inscription on the top reads: Paolo Apostolo Martyr - Latin for "Paul Apostle Martyr".

The holes through which the ancient pilgrims would have pushed pieces of cloth to touch the relic are clearly visible.

"What we can see at the moment through a grating, a new grating that's been put there, is the side of the sarcophagus of Paul which seems to be white marble-like material," said Father Edmund Power, the abbot of the Benedictine Monastery.

St Paul travelled widely through Asia Minor, Greece and Rome in the 1st Century.

His letters to the early churches, found in the Bible's New Testament, are arguably some of the most influential on Christian thinking.

St Paul is said to have been beheaded in AD65 by the Roman Emperor Nero.

His sarcophagus will be on public view for the foreseeable future but the church is yet to rule out the possibility that one day the interior itself will be opened and examined.

 

[luiz]

I wonder if there is a way to make some sort of exam to determine if indeed it is St. Paul who is the interior of the sarcaphagus. That would be awesome.

 

[DAv2003]

I wonder if there is a way to make some sort of exam to determine if indeed it is St. Paul who is the interior of the sarcaphagus. That would be awesome.

I read that the Vatican is debating the matter. They would like to know the identity but he had been buried in the Vatican itself and you wouldn't want to disturb a grave there.

 

[puglover]

It would be cool if it really was Paul the Apostle. Perhaps some DNA testing is in order?

 

[ParkCungHee]

I don't quite see how DNA testing would prove it to be St. Paul, as we don't have a sample of St. Paul's DNA to begin with.

 

[magritte]

We could probably prove the age of the corpse easily enough +/- 50 years. It might be possible to prove the ethnicity from DNA testing--Paul was from Tarsus, so maybe he'd be distinguishable from a Roman.

If it turns out to be a 1st century person from Anatolia, I'd be willing to believe it was Paul.

 

[Irish Caesar]

...and you wouldn't want to disturb a grave there.

Personally, I'm not a fan of disturbing a grave anywhere. What could anyone learn from seeing his bones if we don't know what St. Paul looked like in the first place?

 

[luiz]

Personally, I'm not a fan of disturbing a grave anywhere. What could anyone learn from seeing his bones if we don't know what St. Paul looked like in the first place?

If the DNA and other exams point to a turk of the 1st Century AD, we could learn alot.

 

[Xanikk999]

Im just hoping theres some conspiracy or some tablets that say christianity was a hoax.

Imagine St. Paul reporting that he never saw christ resserected and agreed to create the hoax!

Maybe jesus was a lunatic? Who knows i can only hope...

 

[Irish Caesar]

If the DNA and other exams point to a turk of the 1st Century AD, we could learn alot.

If they do, it doesn't really prove anything for us. Sure, that would be more evidence pointing to the remains being those of St. Paul, but it doesn't guarantee that. And if the tests show that it's just some average Roman guy buried there? We don't know where Paul was born, or his ancestry, only that he lived in Tarsus before becoming a Christian.

 

[Plotinus]

Paul wasn't a Turk! He was a Roman citizen, but that doesn't mean much.

There's really no way anyone could tell if these are Paul's bones, although of course there are ways they could tell that they aren't (wrong age, for example). Personally I'd be pretty dubious. Even assuming that Paul was indeed martyred in Rome in the mid 60s, which is not certain, I think it unlikely that his relics would have been identified and kept. It was not until later (the second and third centuries) that Christians tended to do that. In Paul's day, Christians still thought the world was about to end at any moment, so they weren't in the habit of keeping things for the sake of posterity. I'd say it's more likely that, in the fourth-century craze for uncovering relics and sites from Christianity's origins, someone found what they thought were the relics of Paul. It's quite possible that they had what seemed like good reasons for thinking this - perhaps the body really was that of a first-century Anatolian - so even if tests proved that the bones fitted Paul's most probable profile, I don't think that would be good evidence that they are Paul's, only that the finder wasn't completely stupid or duplicitous.

 

[luiz]

Paul wasn't a Turk! He was a Roman citizen, but that doesn't mean much.

He was a turk in the sense that he was born in Turkey, ethnically IIRC he was a jew.

But there are some tests (not DNA) that can point out to the region that a person spent the first years of his life, so if it's indeed Paul the exams should point to Turkey.

 

[Plotinus]

It wasn't Turkey then. The Turks are a specific people who later moved into that area, which is why it is now called Turkey; Paul was not one of them, any more than Boudicca was English. Still, we don't really know precisely where Paul came from, when he was born, or much about him.

 

[puglover]

I don't quite see how DNA testing would prove it to be St. Paul, as we don't have a sample of St. Paul's DNA to begin with.

As others said, if we took DNA we'd be able to figure out if this guy was a real 1st century man, or if he was just some medieval peasant with a false epitath slapped onto his coffin.

 

[luiz]

It wasn't Turkey then. The Turks are a specific people who later moved into that area, which is why it is now called Turkey; Paul was not one of them, any more than Boudicca was English. Still, we don't really know precisely where Paul came from, when he was born, or much about him.

You misunderstood me. I'm talking about tests that point out the geographical region that person spent his early years.

So if the body spent his first years in what is now called Turkey, we could know.

 

[ParkCungHee]

No, because we still don't know Paul's heritage, only that he came from what is now Turkey.

 

[luiz]

No, because we still don't know Paul's heritage, only that he came from what is now Turkey.

Again, I'm not talking about ethnicity or heritage, but about the place where the person spent the first years, the ones in which the bones grow. Some elements of the bone can point to the place where the person spent his first years.

So it doesn't matter if St. Paul was an australian aboriginal. If he spent his first years in what is today Turkey, we can tell by analysing the bones.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Intresting news.
I look forward to seeing how this turns out ...

 

[Louis XXIV]

If they do, it doesn't really prove anything for us. Sure, that would be more evidence pointing to the remains being those of St. Paul, but it doesn't guarantee that. And if the tests show that it's just some average Roman guy buried there? We don't know where Paul was born, or his ancestry, only that he lived in Tarsus before becoming a Christian.

There is some truth to stories that are told (Nineveh was discovered because locals called the area "Jonah's City"). Assuming tests don't outright disprove his identity, I'd be inclined to believe it. Of course, if they do disprove it, its obviously not him and people should know that.