John The Baptist's Bones FOUND?

aolnews.com:

Archaeologists in Bulgaria claimed to have located a sarcophagus containing the bones of John the Baptist, drawing enthusiasm from politicians but doubts from some experts.

Read the whole story: aolnews.com

Comments

[AbeMartin]

08:24 AM on 08/08/2010

Great story and a stupendous business opportunity for impoverished Eastern European communities. Franchise St. John the Baptist relics. Yup. Follow the model developed by Ray Kroc who took over ownership of the first McDonald's restaurant back in the 1950's. Built McDonald's restaurants in different cities, selling hamburgers, french fries and a soft drink for 15 cents each. And do the same thing with relics, pieces of the True Cross and of course, burial shrouds embossed with human images.
Chinese factories are already tooling up to make antique reliquaries complete with inscriptions.

[somsoc]

11:14 PM on 08/07/2010

John the Bast@rd, really now, about a valid as finding bones of Jebus the myth

[SlyKermit]

11:18 PM on 08/07/2010

Jesus and John the Baptist were real people and recorded by historians at the time, because of their significance - John the Baptist, though, received a LOT more attention than Jesus did

[Patrick Romandy-Simmons]

03:14 AM on 08/08/2010

Oh please name these so-called historians and were these records are.

[somsoc]

01:17 PM on 08/08/2010

Sorry child, but there is not a single contemporary account of jebus, and none that is contemporary for John the BasT@rd.

[Patrick Romandy-Simmons]

03:13 AM on 08/08/2010

What's next? "Frodo Baggins Bones Found?"

[somsoc]

01:17 PM on 08/08/2010

Hey, I have seen him, he is real.

[SlyKermit]

11:07 PM on 08/07/2010

I don't see how this can be proved in any way - he had more followers at his death than Jesus did, so the odds of something like this being made and being worshiped at the time, is a good one. It's just not likely his bones, considering where they wound up

[naschkatze]

10:42 PM on 08/07/2010

I love the headline in Jonathan Turley's blog, "John the Bulgarian?".

[TheFriendlyAtheist]

05:30 PM on 08/07/2010

Hmm...the bones of John the Baptist huh? Interesting man, this John. Jesus himself said he was the greatest man that ever lived, and Jesus came to him to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. Of course the later gospel writers would add a qualifier to the words of Jesus because of the controversy they entailed: if John was greatest man ever born of a woman then were did that leave Jesus? Also added later was the fictive account of John being the cousin of Jesus and jumping in the womb when the pregnant Mary came to visit, all made up to give preeminence to Jesus over John. It is clear from the text of the gospels that John had been preaching for many years before the arrival of Jesus on the scene; offering forgiveness of sins through repentance and baptism with no need of a Man God sacrifice, a proposition that was approved by Jesus himself as being from God, which calls into question any need of a sacrificial death on the part of Jesus.

[syntax facit saltum]

12:11 PM on 08/11/2010

Your scriptural accounts are a little off there. "It is clear from the text"??! but you don't seem to care about what the text really says.

[R U Sirius]

10:57 AM on 08/07/2010

Bones, reliquaries, shrouds....if that ain't idolatry, I don't know what is.

[SlyKermit]

11:13 PM on 08/07/2010

The Catholic Church as an entity regularly violates the 10 Commandments in worship - they pray to statues, they lie, they steal innocence - nothing is below them

[Dunkleberger Karl]

11:18 PM on 08/09/2010

skykermit, the Cath, I know pray not to the statues, but to the saint, the object represents, It allows for the ,Petitioner to Focus, To allow energy to be sent and received!As most cristians know ,That goes against Idolatry, That a peice o God is with-in us all! IN Idolatry, the Belief is god, is within the statue! Peace of Christ be with you!

[Diogenis]

07:57 PM on 08/06/2010

The forearm of John The Baptist is in the Topkaki museum in Istanbul.

[formerroadie]

11:04 PM on 08/06/2010

He had two arms..... I have been to that museum. It's a crime that they keep those relics from the church.

[Dbos]

03:23 PM on 08/07/2010

Chris Isaaks "Isee him everywhere everywhere I go"

[SneathLane]

12:34 PM on 08/06/2010

I've got a piece of the True Cross, with a notorized certificate of authenticity signed by the actual centurion who nailed Him up. I must sell this one-of-a-kind link to Our Savior to provide surgery for my invalid mother. For only $20,000 you too can have your faith exploited.

[Diogenis]

07:58 PM on 08/06/2010

I feel sorrow for you..

[mountain man col]

11:13 AM on 08/06/2010

The box was filled with bones in the fifth century? How could the person who filled the box with bones, Toma, verify that those bones were John the Baptist 400 years after his death?

In the year 4000, will some archeologist claim to have found the bones of Batman because a tooth is found in a box from 2400CE? Maybe, but hopefully people will be less credulous and superstitious by that time.

[Dunkleberger Karl]

05:12 AM on 08/07/2010

As john the Babtists was one of 2 pre christ christians, prominate in the bible, I suggest looking toward the Armenian church for answers,! Northern Israel is not a place the Templers thrived

[StealGeorgia]

08:59 AM on 08/06/2010

"Follow MEEE!"
"Follow the Holy Gourd of Jerusalem!"

[R U Sirius]

10:58 AM on 08/07/2010

Don't forget The Holy Hand Grenade.

[cannante]

06:25 AM on 08/06/2010

one of the two roles i obsess over.... john the baptist is a REALLY hard sing by strauss in salome (the other is zaccharia, another obsession worthy prophetic operatic role in nabucco).

part of the reason for my passions and how they get exercised LOL.

if this is true, we are talking about something really spectacular. "no greater man born of men"

there are many supposed heads of john.

my friend, prince jonathan doria pamphilj, explained to me that is how HIS family made its money in the crusades.... manufacturing relics....

this predates crusades.......... quite compelling.

[M Cubed]

11:47 AM on 08/06/2010

Gee, I wonder if the various owners of the skulls of John the Baptist--those in Munich, or in the Lorettos, or the others will consent to a DNA test to see if there are any matches.

Symbolically the various operatic roles you describe, as well as the impression of Giambattista on the Renaissance Florentine currency, speak so much louder to us of past times, beliefs, and aspirations than a set of questionable remains. Art transcends, while the bones remain. I will opt for the transcendence of an aria over a pile of bones any day.

#121.

[cannante]

05:15 PM on 08/06/2010

i was thinking the same thing.... but there are head fragments in the ossuary in bulgaria, which would indicate the full body intact upon internment.

while i blush at the implied compliment, thanks for that observation, i just commented earlier on the fact that community is one of the goods that can come from faith.

happy transfiguration!
pax et bonum

[bbriani3842]

11:46 PM on 08/05/2010

But for some reason, they couldn't find his head. . .

[Uncle Bob]

11:02 PM on 08/05/2010

did they carbon date it? And if so, will all christians suddenly accept carbon dating?

[ArtsyJane]

09:35 PM on 08/05/2010

I would like to know how they are going to determine if it's John the Baptist.

[bbriani3842]

11:52 PM on 08/05/2010

By the 'oly Ghost hovering over them. . . .

[Patrick Romandy-Simmons]

03:16 AM on 08/08/2010

Fanned

[Dunkleberger Karl]

05:21 AM on 08/07/2010

his Id Bracelet, sorry could not resist. But I dont believe we speak about the brain cup, the skull or the ,crainium! this is about the bones of the body,Remember All churches tell the story, but some edit the gruesome while othrs hold true to the event! If he has the bones and they are intact they are not johns bones!(not to include the small bones, and vertabra)the large bones , are ..... special!

[AntigoneRisen]

07:44 PM on 08/05/2010

Oh, geeze, not again. Just how many sets of bones did this guy have?

[M Cubed]

11:51 AM on 08/06/2010

My Dear Antigone--its not the former ownership of the remains, but that we treat them properly!

I, too, feel the same sort of mild humor at this situation. It will certainly not become a compelling reason for me to visit Bulgaria.

[traumabob]

10:05 AM on 08/07/2010

Probably just one set to begin with. But remember that loaves and fishes phenomenon.