Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Paul's Tomb: Old News?

From the Christianity Today weblog comes this interesting tidbit:
Paul's monument was on the Ostian Way (Via Ostiensis), about two miles from the center or Rome. St. Paul's Outside the Walls was built on the spot Gaius mentions. The Catholic Encyclopedia reports, "Under Gregory XVI [1765-1846], the sarcophagus of St. Paul was discovered, but not opened. Its fourth-century inscription bears the words PAULO APOST MART (Paul, Apostle and Martyr)."

So, uh, is this news after all? Or is it kind of like saying "Grant said buried in Grant's tomb"?

So, if this site was already well-known, why was there a big media splash? Did they re-discover it? Or was it just a slow news day?

Maybe it's like the case of the ossuary (actually two ossuaries) with the inscription "Jesus son of Joseph," which gets re-discovered about every five years. Or the village of Malula in Syria that gets discovered by the media every Christmas because they still speak Aramaic, the language of Christ!

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