Pope: Bone fragments found in tomb are Paul's

[Play The Man]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,...est=latestnews

ROME — The first-ever scientific test on what are believed to be the remains of the Apostle Paul "seems to confirm" that they do indeed belong to the Roman Catholic saint, Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday.

It was the second major discovery concerning St. Paul announced by the Vatican in as many days.

On Saturday, the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano announced the June 19 discovery of a fresco inside another tomb depicting St. Paul, which Vatican officials said represented the oldest known icon of the apostle.

Benedict said archaeologists recently unearthed and opened the white marble sarcophagus located under the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls in Rome, which for some 2,000 years has been believed by the faithful to be the tomb of St. Paul.

Benedict said scientists had conducted carbon dating tests on bone fragments found inside the sarcophagus and confirmed that they date from the first or second century.

"This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul," Benedict said, announcing the findings at a service in the basilica to mark the end of the Vatican's Paoline year, in honor of the apostle.

I thought that this was a very interesting story.

lol@ "confirms the unanimous and uncontested tradition"

that's pretty ridiculous, there is no way to know who those bones belong to. for all they know, it could be anyone. that's almost as ridiculous as religious historians claiming they found the cloth that was wrapped around jesus's body that was found in a cave from when he was dead

Originally Posted by que

lol@ "confirms the unanimous and uncontested tradition"

that's pretty ridiculous, there is no way to know who those bones belong to. for all they know, it could be anyone. that's almost as ridiculous as religious historians claiming they found the cloth that was wrapped around jesus's body that was found in a cave from when he was dead

well, the point was that the body was indeed as old as it has said to be ... much of Chrisitanity is based on faith, how do we know Jesus really existed, there is no scientific proof, how do we know the bible stories are real? it is based on faith ... scientists can twist and turn anything to make it fit want they want .... could this be anyone? sure, but the science shows that it was a body from around the time the people said it was ...

[Tyburn]

In the Early Church, most of the Bishops and Priests were Martyred. Their bodies were stolen by the Christians and kept safe in the only place available (Being burried within, or under a church as a relic.)

Now, under the Vatican lie a MASS of Graves, many of them span that period when the Church in Rome was part of The Early Church, before the Roman Church if that makes sense. Until the State of Rome approved Christianity and made the Church in the Capital the Premier, Rome simply had a church like any other territory.

The Reason why Saint Paul is thought to be there is because wasnt his Execution supposed to have been around that locality. The problem isnt, is Saint Paul burried there...the problem is...which out of the many people collected and diposited as relics are actually him?

With the Apostolic Succession its easy, because Each Pope had a seal, a Unique Monogram which represented them, this assume that the retrospective Seals between Saint Peter, and the First "pope" Three Hundred and Fifty Years later got the burrials in the correct order.

But Saint Paul isnt within that Linage, he was never Bishop of Rome, He was a Flying Bishop in the locality between Rome and Saint Andrews Orthodox Church.

So there is simply no way of knowing which of the Graves outside of the Episcopal Line belong to which Saint except through sketchy Symbolism and a Tradition captured from an unreliable oral order spoken for nearly A millenia before anyone thought to write it down.

The most they can say Scientifically, is that the Body is that of a Male, the Age is about right for the age Saint Paul would have been when he died, and the dating show him to have lived in the correct time frame, The signs of Death are concurent with the execution method....So extraordinarily...I'd be more inclined to believe it was Saint Paul if the Vatican said "The Relic is missing His Head"

[Play The Man]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6597914.ece

This is a picture of the recently-discovered, earliest known (4th century) portrait of the Apostle Paul mentioned in the story.