A bit early to post on this but almost on cue as the Catholic Church nears the 29th June celebration of the feast of St Peter and St Paul the Vatican has revealed the discovery of the oldest known image of St Paul discovered last year in some Roman catacombs from the 4th and 5th century AD. BBC article here Daily Telegraph article here and CNN article on this from here
Paul is on the left and Peter on the right in the photo on the left
Archaeologists used a new laser technology to remove layers of white carbon calcium deposited on the frescoes over the centuries without disturbing the paintings.
They are located in the catacombs of St. Tecla, one of the 40 Roman catacombs under Rome. It sits under a modern eight-story building in a working-class neighborhood. It is closed to the public and its entrance is mostly hidden.
The Vatican spent about 60,000 euros (about $74,000) on the archaeological work.
Click here for an article from the BBC on St Peter (You will need to scroll down to get to the specific section on Peter).and another one better one here on St Paul.
Extract from the second one is shown below
Was Paul anti-women?
"The tradition is that women were submissive at that time, but at the end of the Epistles to the Romans a letter of Paul's tells a different story. The letter is to be delivered by Phoebe, the first deacon we know of in the Christian church. She is also a benefactor or patron and very significant figure.
Paul also talks about Aquilla and Priscilla. Priscilla is usually named first when he mentions the couple which implies that she is the head of the household. He also talks about Andronicus and Juniar, one of whom may have been a female apostle.In fact we may have a situation where the apostle, the church founder, perhaps even the founder of the church of Rome, included a woman and the main leadership in Rome was by women."Professor Jimmy Dunn, former professor of New Testament, University of Durham
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