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February 19, 2005
The Vatican, Paul’s Grave, and Noah’s Ark
The Vatican will make a public announcement soon that archeologists have positively identified the tomb of St. Paul the apostle, according to Catholic World News. (h/t: WorldNetDaily via Considerettes.)
From Catholic World News:
“A sarcophagus which may contain the remains of St. Paul was identified in the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, reports Giorgio Filippi, an archeology specialist with the Vatican Museums. The sarcophagus was discovered during the excavations carried out in 2002 and 2003 around the basilica, which is located in the south of Rome. Having reached what they believe is a positive identification of the tomb, Vatican experts will soon make a public announcement of their discovery.”
From WorldNetDaily.com:
“Giorgio Filippi, a specialist with the Vatican Museums, said a sarcophagus that might still contain the apostle's remains was identified in the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome. ‘The tomb that we discovered is the one that the popes and the Emperor Theodosius [A.D. 379- 395] saved and presented to the whole world as being the tomb of the apostle,’ Filippi said. He has no doubt, Paul was buried on the site, ‘because this basilica was the object of pilgrimages by emperors; people from all around the world came to venerate him, having faith that he was present in this basilica.’"
I’ve been to active archeological sites in Israel and I fined archeology a fascinating discipline. The painstaking examination of layers of rock and soil has told us much about human history, and it has done much to verify the truth of the Scriptures. But there are dangers.
The Dangers of Discovery
Unfortunately, this kind of discovery presents a major problem. The burial site will be a site of worship, not of the Christ preached by Paul, but of Paul himself. Veneration of the saints is already a far too common diversion from the worship of Christ.
Another issue is the use of archeological discovery as an evangelism tool. Whenever there is a find—-and there have been many—-that affirms biblical accuracy, Christians and Jews celebrate the confirmation of their faith. Nothing wrong with that. It’s healthy.
But it isn’t the evangelism tool some think it would be.
Noah's Ark
All of this reminds me of a project that I worked on seven years ago. I took a call at the public relations agency where I worked from one of the best-known figures in evangelicalism, now deceased. I will let him remain unnamed, because the corpus of his life work is laudable, and he was one of the most humble servants of Christ I’ve ever met.
It was late 1998 and this Christian leader felt that God was calling him to facilitate the discovery of Noah’s Ark, because it would show that the Bible is true and would prompt mass conversions around the world. The timing was important because this leader believed it was important to complete the task of world evangelization by the year 2000.
He was offering a $1 million prize to the individual or group that provided inconvertible evidence of the existence of Noah’s Ark. Now by this time there had been books written and movies made that recounted the proof that adventurers had that remains of the ship were on Mount Ararat or nearby. But they weren’t treated with any great interest, and it hadn’t resulted in millions of new believers.
Our client thought a better approach was to advertise the contest in Turkey. “Certainly there are people in the villages of the Turkish mountains who know about the whereabouts of Noah’s Ark.” A million dollars would loosen their tongues.
He wanted proof that would convince skeptics, media, and the world community.
So we created ads, in Turkish, and had them placed in several newspapers in Turkey. And, indeed, we received a lot of mail and emails. Much of it in Turkish (which created significant translated expenses). And lots of fuzzy photographs.
Nothing rose to the level of certainty. After about a year, the project was declared over. The new millennium arrived without the benefit of Noah’s Ark.
What if the proof had been convincing? What if the ossuary recently found is that of James the brother of Jesus? And what if the Vatican archeologists have found Paul’s body?
What will be the impact on world evangelization? A similar scenario was posed by Jeusus in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). In hell, the rich man asks for Abraham's permission to send Lazarus back to warn his five brothers, for “if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.”
The response: “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”
Nor will many unbelievers be convinced by archeology. (I still hope it really is Paul’s grave.)
Posted by Jim at February 19, 2005 12:29 PM
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Comments
It's hard to understand why anyone would expect mass conversions from the discovery of Paul's tomb. All it proves is that Paul once lived, and is dead. We already knew that.
Conversion involves knowing that Christ was once dead, and now lives. Archaeology will never prove that.
Posted by: Kent at February 21, 2005 12:43 PM
St. Paul's bones are one thing, but the ark will never be found, because I am one believer who does not take the ark story literally. There are just too many holes and scientific impossibilities in the story.
It is a mythic story which takes heavily from the Epic of Gilgamesh, written almost a thousand years before.
Posted by: Bob Diethrich at February 22, 2005 08:40 AM
Paul,s tomb or not there will be many who will not believe.if christ himself told them with his own words,they would not believe.crist could lift them up in the clouds and they would not believe.
but then what can you say of folks like this?nothing except turn your back to them.my opinion is they don't deserve that good.but opinions are like a------- everbody has one
Posted by: ollie at December 9, 2006 09:27 PM