Burried beneath the Basilica of Saint Paul is a marble sarcaphogus that many believe hold the actual bones of the Paul who is featured so prominently in the New Testament. A recent carbon dating of the bones inside the tomb reveal that they probably do, in fact, date to the 1st or 2nd century – old enough to be Paul’s bones.

Pope: Scientific analysis done on St. Paul’s bones
By NICOLE WINFIELD
The Associated Press
Sunday, June 28, 2009; 8:31 PM

ROME — The first-ever scientific test on what are believed to be the remains of the Apostle Paul “seems to confirm” that they do indeed belong to the Roman Catholic saint, Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday.

It was the second major discovery concerning St. Paul announced by the Vatican in as many days.

On Saturday, the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano announced the June 19 discovery of a fresco inside another tomb depicting St. Paul, which Vatican officials said represented the oldest known icon of the apostle.

Benedict said archaeologists recently unearthed and opened the white marble sarcophagus located under the Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome, which for some 2,000 years has been believed by the faithful to be the tomb of St. Paul.

Benedict said scientists had conducted carbon dating tests on bone fragments found inside the sarcophagus and confirmed that they date from the first or second century.

“This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul,” Benedict said, announcing the findings at a service in the basilica to mark the end of the Vatican’s Paoline year, in honor of the apostle.

So now the Vatican is announcing that these results “confirm” the belief that they have the actual bones of Paul of Tarsus. Certainly, the results do indeed support that idea, along with the long tradition that he was in fact buried there. But of course this doesn’t actually “confirm” that the bones are Paul’s. They could be anybody’s bones from the 1st or 2nd century that people later thought were the bones of Paul.

But then again, I am used to Christian’s and other religious believers making leaps in logic.

For Catholics, though, it doesn’t really matter whether or not the bones are actually those of Paul anymore than it seems to matter that the Shroud of Turin most definitely did not come from Jesus’ tomb. What is important is upholding the myths and legends for the power they hold in propping up the faith of the faithful.

Now, the Old Testament prophet Elisha’s bones had the magical power to bring back dead bodies that happened to touch them (2 Kings 13:21):

As a man was being buried, a marauding band was seen and the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha; as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he came to life and stood on his feet.

If Elisha’s bones could do that, then I would expect the bones of freaking Saint Paul to at least be able to match that feat. Think the Vatican would be willing to put those old bones through that test?