gdeering

Huffington Post, please post better sources if ya's got'em.

Early, but not THAT early art

Just doing it before Toto gets to it. Please don't read the comments at the end, they are very frustrating for atheists and theists alike.


Gregg

Huon

Superb ! Ben XVI at his best !

stephan huller

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/06...ter-paul-rome/ (tongue firmly in cheek)

MarkA

What tests and how did they confirm any such thing? I wonder if the decendents of Paul will present themselves for DNA confirmation?

Toto

Previous thread on dem bones of Saint Paul

Toto

It is interesting that these frescos were recovered from the church of St Tecla (Thecla, of Acts of Paul and Thecla fame, who was at one time the most popular Christian saint.) James McGrath has a blog post on a fresco of Paul and Thecla from a cave church that is evidently from the sixth century.

arnoldo

If authentic, the following artifact depicting a likeness of Peter and Paul is equally interesting;


Source: http://www.christusrex.org/www1/vati...Cristiano.html

Is there anyone who can translate the latin ( I presume) on this inscription?

Toto

Authentic? How would it be authentic?

Your link identifies is as a gravestone for the boy Asellus from the catacombs.

http://www.usask.ca/antiquities/bene...atacombs3.html

So it has nothing to do with Peter or Paul directly.

Huon

In the very recent thread "Paul and references to a minimal HJ", Toto quotes

1 Corinthians 7 :

1 Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry.[a] 2B ut since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. 3 The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. 5 Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6 I say this as a concession, not as a command. 7 I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.

If we believe this quote, Paul was not married. No direct descendants, no DNA.

mountainman

Which would make them the known renovation works of Pope Damasius aka Pontifex Maximus Damasius, the first non Emperor to hold that ancient Graeco-Roman role. It is known that extensive renovations to the Roman catacombs were undertaken by Damasius in the name of the 4th century "Pilgrimage Industry" (ie: Tourism).

The Good Shepherd

Notes from Graydon Snyder's "Ante pacem" ....

"The Orante and the Good Shepherd are the only two early Christian symbols in human form.
Both are very early and both are extensively used. After the peace, the Good Shepherd
became the most popular representation of Jesus Christ."

"Andre Parrot has traced the Near Eastern use of the Good Shepherd ("criophorus")
as far backs as 1000 BCE."

NOTE: The Good Shepherd carries a horned animal, not a sheep.