St Paul and his bones

My good friend, the Reverend Dr Lim Kar Yong, our local St. Paul expert went to Rome a few days ago and then the Paul announced that St.Pauls remains are found. Coincidence?

From Times Online

June 29, 2009

Basilica bones are St Paul's, Pope declares after carbon dating tests

(Patrick Hertzog)

The tomb of St Paul in Rome

Richard Owen in Rome

Pope Benedict XVI said last night that bone fragments found inside the tomb of St Paul in Rome had been carbon dated for the first time, "confirming the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul".

He said that archaeologists had inserted a probe into the white marble sarcophagus under the Basilica of St Paul's Outside the Walls which has been revered for centuries as the tomb of St Paul.

The pontiff said: "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."

The Pope, who said the discovery "fills our souls with great emotion", made the unexpected announcement during Vespers at St Paul's Basilica last night, marking the end of the Pauline year held in honour of the apostle. He said that as well as bone fragments, archaeologists had found grains of red incense, a piece of purple linen with gold sequins and a blue fabric with linen filaments in the tomb.

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King Herod Revealed

Masada-King Herod's 3 tiered palace

This interesting article from National Geographic, December 2008

The Holy Land's visionary builder.

By Tom Mueller

Photograph by Michael Melford

 Eight miles south of Jerusalem, where the last stunted olive trees and stony cornfields fade into the naked badlands of the Judaean desert, a hill rises abruptly, a steep cone sliced off at the top like a small volcano. This is Herodium, one of the grand architectural creations of Herod the Great, King of Judaea, who raised a low knoll into a towering memorial of snowy stonework and surrounded it with pleasure palaces, splashing pools, and terraced gardens. An astute and generous ruler, a brilliant general, and one of the most imaginative and energetic builders of the ancient world, Herod guided his kingdom to new prosperity and power.

read more

King Herod Revealed

Masada-King Herod's 3 tiered palace

This interesting article from National Geographic, December 2008

The Holy Land's visionary builder.

By Tom Mueller

Photograph by Michael Melford

 Eight miles south of Jerusalem, where the last stunted olive trees and stony cornfields fade into the naked badlands of the Judaean desert, a hill rises abruptly, a steep cone sliced off at the top like a small volcano. This is Herodium, one of the grand architectural creations of Herod the Great, King of Judaea, who raised a low knoll into a towering memorial of snowy stonework and surrounded it with pleasure palaces, splashing pools, and terraced gardens. An astute and generous ruler, a brilliant general, and one of the most imaginative and energetic builders of the ancient world, Herod guided his kingdom to new prosperity and power.

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Top 15 Finds in Archaeology

Top Fifteen Finds from Biblical Archaeology

Dr. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., is President and Colman M. Mockler Distinguished Professor of Old Testament, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary published in CONTACT (Winter 2005/2006)
It is difficult to reduce several hundred rather major archaeological finds to a mere 15 that top the list. Indeed, Michael D. Coogan attempted to list the "10 Great Finds" in the 20th anniversary issue of the magazine Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR, vol. 21.3, May-June 1995, pp 36-47). Some of my top picks will coincide with his, but all 15 will be listed here because of the way each has affected the interpretation of Scripture. With some attention to their importance, I will list the 15 in order of greatest significance.

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Top 15 Finds in Archaeology

Top Fifteen Finds from Biblical Archaeology

Dr. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., is President and Colman M. Mockler Distinguished Professor of Old Testament, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary published in CONTACT (Winter 2005/2006)
It is difficult to reduce several hundred rather major archaeological finds to a mere 15 that top the list. Indeed, Michael D. Coogan attempted to list the "10 Great Finds" in the 20th anniversary issue of the magazine Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR, vol. 21.3, May-June 1995, pp 36-47). Some of my top picks will coincide with his, but all 15 will be listed here because of the way each has affected the interpretation of Scripture. With some attention to their importance, I will list the 15 in order of greatest significance.

read more

.

Archaeology and the New Testament

Archaeology and the Reliability of the New Testament

by Dr. Sean M. McDonough, Associate Professor of New Testament, who taught New Testament at Pacific Theological College in Suva, Fiji Islands, where he also served as Chair of the Biblical Studies Department before coming to Gordon-Conwell in 2000. Published CONTACT (Winter 2005/2006)

Much of the discussion in New Testament archaeology surrounds the identification of specific places mentioned in the biblical texts. Sometimes this can yield important insights. For example, the five-porticoed pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem (John 5) was thought by some to be a fiction invented by John to symbolize the Pentateuch or some other five-membered set. But archaeological study has demonstrated that John spoke about the pool because it was there, and he said it had five porticoes because it did. Just last year, excavators in Jerusalem uncovered another pool mentioned in John’s gospel: the pool of Siloam to which the blind man of John 9 was sent.

read more

.

Archaeology and the New Testament

Archaeology and the Reliability of the New Testament

by Dr. Sean M. McDonough, Associate Professor of New Testament, who taught New Testament at Pacific Theological College in Suva, Fiji Islands, where he also served as Chair of the Biblical Studies Department before coming to Gordon-Conwell in 2000. Published CONTACT (Winter 2005/2006)

Much of the discussion in New Testament archaeology surrounds the identification of specific places mentioned in the biblical texts. Sometimes this can yield important insights. For example, the five-porticoed pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem (John 5) was thought by some to be a fiction invented by John to symbolize the Pentateuch or some other five-membered set. But archaeological study has demonstrated that John spoke about the pool because it was there, and he said it had five porticoes because it did. Just last year, excavators in Jerusalem uncovered another pool mentioned in John’s gospel: the pool of Siloam to which the blind man of John 9 was sent.

read more

.

Archaeology and the Old Testament

Archaeology and the reliability of the Old Testament

This article by Dr. John Sailhamer, Professor of Old Testament
and Hebrew at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina was published in CONTACT (Winter 2005/2006) , a publication of Gordon-Cornell Theological Seminary


Biblical narratives as a whole cannot always be treated as eyewitness accounts. Much of the book of Kings, for example, records events several hundred years earlier than the time of its composition. That does not mean that these narratives are spun out of thin air. Here is where evangelicals may serve a valuable (if unappreciated) purpose in the larger scheme of things. They, as few others, are prepared to take these biblical texts at face value and ask how they fit into what historians and archaeologists tell us happened.

read more

.

Archaeology and the Old Testament

Archaeology and the reliability of the Old Testament

This article by Dr. John Sailhamer, Professor of Old Testament
and Hebrew at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina was published in CONTACT (Winter 2005/2006) , a publication of Gordon-Cornell Theological Seminary


Biblical narratives as a whole cannot always be treated as eyewitness accounts. Much of the book of Kings, for example, records events several hundred years earlier than the time of its composition. That does not mean that these narratives are spun out of thin air. Here is where evangelicals may serve a valuable (if unappreciated) purpose in the larger scheme of things. They, as few others, are prepared to take these biblical texts at face value and ask how they fit into what historians and archaeologists tell us happened.

read more

.