Bones

Interesting news: the skeletal remains of the Apostle Paul may have been found in a tomb beneath the Basilica of St. Paul. Oral tradition had named this church as the site of Paul's tomb; now carbon dating has confirmed that the bones are from the appropriate time period.

A.N. Wilson's article (linked above) is a bit melodramatic and relies heavily on the chronology of Acts to reconstruct Paul's life. I tend to agree with Garry Wills that Acts is not a very reliable guide, and that Paul's letters, considered apart from Acts, tell a somewhat different story.

The discovery lends credence to the tradition that Paul was martyred in Rome during the anti-Christian backlash following the great fire that destroyed most of the city. The emperor Nero blamed Christians in order to counter rumors that he'd started the fire himself.

Incidentally, this event is the origin of the expression, "Nero fiddled while Rome burned." Nero fancied himself a great actor, singer, and master of a stringed instrument called a cithara. Though it is doubtful that he actually played the cithara while the city burned, people did resent his obsession with entering theatrical competitions instead of attending to his job.

Back to the article: Another point of interest is the possibility that a fresco found on the walls of the catacombs may be an accurate likeness of Paul. The linked article has a couple of photos of this fresco, which seems to be in good condition. (Note that the first photo does not show the fresco in question; it is seen in the two that follow.)

Comments

[Zerdini]

"Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk aroun'
Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk aroun'
Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk aroun'
I hear the word of the Lord!"

[Mark Alexander (the other Mark)]

On a recent trip to Italy my wife and I took the necropolis tour under St. Peter's Basilica. You must contact them months in advance to get permission.

It's an amazing tour. Our tour guide was a young man from California there to study Latin and Greek and tried to make the case that the bones were actually St. Peter's.

Whether or not one believes it, the tour is fascinating.

[jacob]

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:

http://www.amazon.com/Real-Messiah-Throne-Origins-Christianity/dp/1906787123/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246539906&sr=8-1

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 - www.therealmessiahbook.blogspot.com or go to his blog instead wwww.stephanhuller.blogspot.com.

Jacob

[Art]

I read an online essay a few years ago about all the similarities between Jesus and Horus. It really is amazing.

http://www.perankhgroup.com/the_true_identity_of_jesus.htm

I'm fairly well convinced that Christianity is some kind of strange matrix or mandala of several different religions that were popular during the first century that were somehow connected or wedded to the story of some bandy legged little Jewish Rabbi name Yeshua that had a near death experiencer after being cut down down from a cross. It's fairly obvious that Christianity is a highly embellished, culturally influenced, out of sequence near death experience. Change around the sequence of events a little bit and you got a fairly typical near death experience.