Apostle Philip’s tomb found in Turkey? Maybe not

by Sean McLachlan on

The news wires are humming with yet another spectacular archaeological discovery, this time of the tomb of the Apostle Philip.

St. Philip was one of Christ’s twelve apostles and is said to have been martyred and buried in Hierapolis, now Pamukkale in southwestern Turkey. The city was an ancient spa town owing to the local hot springs and also a center for pagan temples. St. Philip is said to have come here to preach Christianity.

Italian archaeologist Francesco D’Andria and his team believe they have discovered his tomb. The description of the tomb and the writings they found on it all match up to it being St. Philip’s burial place, they say.

But this might be more media frenzy and wishful thinking than a real discovery, along the lines of the recent “discoveries” of Caligula’s tomb and the Crucifixion nails. First off, the Catholic Encyclopedia casts doubt on whether Philip the Apostle was buried in Hierapolis at all. The Catholic Church doesn’t recognize the tradition of his being martyred in Hierapolis because it comes from the Acts of Philip, a source written centuries after Philip’s death. Also, the tomb hasn’t been opened, making it hard to say anything definitive. None of the news reports I read go into detail about what inscriptions the archaeologists found.

I’m not questioning the archaeologists’ techniques or credibility, merely complaining about bad reporting. Perhaps D’Andria did talk to reporters about the inscriptions he found, but none of them covered that. Indeed, all of them state as fact that Philip the Apostle was buried in Hierapolis, and many state as fact that this is Philip’s tomb. As happens so often with news stories about archaeology, reporters leap to attractive conclusions without checking their facts.

Hopefully D’Andria and his team really did find Philip the Apostle’s tomb. This will add yet another reason to visit Hierapolis, which is already a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From the quickie news reports, though, it’s hard to say for sure.

[Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

The Twelve Tribes Cafes: are they worth it?

by Elizabeth Seward on


Visit the website representing the members of the religious group, The Twelve Tribes, and they’ll cheerily tell you all about themselves. Visit one of the cafes the group, now located in the USA, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, Argentina, Brazil, and Australia, owns and the workers will warmly welcome you and feed you while you uncover the details of their religious beliefs in pamphlets and papers, some of which are difficult to miss because they’re tacked on bathroom walls. Check out the Yelp reviews for the respective cafes, bakeries, and delis and you’ll find myriad mixed reviews. Some people leave before they order, scampering off scared by the uncommon religious propaganda. But other people seem to love the cafes, no matter their ideological differences.

As I write this, I’m sitting upstairs at Common Grounds–a Twelve Tribes cafe in Hyannis, Massachusetts. To follow is the breakdown of what I know so far about these people, their cafes, and whether or not you should drink their juice.

%Gallery-126493%Who they are:
An international confederation of religious communities. Founded by Gene Spriggs in 1972, the group’s original base was Chattanooga, Tennessee. The group attempts to recreate the First Century Church from the Book of Acts.

What they say:
(Everything below was copied directly either from their website, free paper, or menu)

  • We follow the Messiah, Yahshua, the son of the living God. He gave up His life for us so that our sins could be forgiven. This is why we love Him. Our love for Him is expressed in our daily care for each other…
  • We believe and follow the teachings of the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, in a very real and practical way. We believe that God is good and just, and will judge all men according to their deeds…
  • We live together in households, clans, and tribes, sharing our possessions in common. We strongly support marriage, and we teach our children at home. We dress modestly, eat wholesome food, work hard, pray together, and celebrate our life in music and dance…
  • We hate the death, war, strife, hatred, starvation, murder, injustice, greed, and selfishness that is leading the whole world to destruction. We want to see all of this come to an end. We want many, many more people to hear the voice of hope we have heard, to come and see the life. We are thrilled to be able to invite you to come and see that it is a reality.
  • Community, as we use the term, means those who love one another so greatly that they are of one heart and mind, holding all things as common property, living together, taking their meals together, devoted to one another because they’re devoted to the One who saved them from death and misery.
  • The ones we are most concerned about are the ones who think they are fine.
  • We live in an environment that is separate from the world while remaining right in the middle of it.
  • If you worry that many catastrophes may happen soon, you’re right.
  • We regard all hardship as discipline, which will eventually cause us to be conformed into the likeness of our Master.
  • When the world sees Yahshua’s disciples dwelling together in unity, denying themselves for the good of their brothers, it proves something.
  • A woman is to desire her husband and let him rule over her. She is to bear their children in pain. A man is to toil and sweat to provide for his family, not live off the labor of others. He is to rule over his wife. Sexual relationships are to be limited to the covenant of marriage.

What others say:

  • “I was once a member of the twelve tribes and I tell you now, they are a high-control cult that twists scripture to suit their own needs. As far as you must accept Jesus, they consider him a demon. Further, when I left the cult they told me I would be dead in two years because the holy spirit cannot live outside of their community. That was three years ago. Stay away from this group and if you can organize prayer groups to disband them I recommend it. The world will be a much better place without them…for one.”—Mark.
  • “I do not plan on joining this group, however they are great people and I suggest going and finding out what they are really about. I may go back to find out more with the same people, simply because it seems they live a simple, yet fulfilling lifestyle.”—Observer.

Check out other comments on the group on these websites:

GoodMason.com
TwelveTribes-Ex.com
TheAntiTourist.com

More or less, what others say is mixed. The Twelve Tribes appears to be a polarizing group. People seem to think they’re either a manipulative cult or good people with a good message.

What they serve:
Pretty undeniably delicious food and beverages. Also, “the fruit of the spirit”.

Where they are: Check out their own list of where they are located.

So… is it worth it? I say yes. The food is good, the wifi is strong, the caffeine is even stronger, and, generally speaking, the two places I’ve dined in were nice, welcoming, and comfortable. I say go, but go with information about the people who operate the cafe in hand.

Photo of the Day – Temple of Heaven

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Today’s photo, taken by Flickr user toffiloff, transports us to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, China. The photographer’s perspective, gazing up from the bottom of the stairs at the magnificent Taoist structure, seems to reinforce the building’s spiritual force. A solitary bird in the upper right of the image, floating gently in the breeze, adds an additional layer of visual interest.

Have any great photos from your recent travels? Why not add them to our Gadling group on Flickr? We might just pick one of yours as our Photo of the Day.

Become a monk or Muslim for a month

by Meg Nesterov on

If you really want to “go local” on your next vacation, have you considered changing your religion? A new program in Turkey offers guests a chance to be Muslim for a month in order to foster cultural awareness. The term month is used loosely – guests can choose from nine- and twenty-one-day programs, including visits to some of Istanbul‘s most famous mosques, lessons on Islam and Sufism (famed for their Whirling Dervishes), an invite to an Islamic wedding, and side trips to some of Turkey’s most important Muslim sites. While in Istanbul, guests stay in a 400-year-old Sufi lodge and take in many of the non-religious sites of the city.

The Blood Foundation started with a “temple stay” program in Thailand, where guests can learn about Thai Buddhism, volunteer with a school on the Burma border, and stay with a hill tribe family.


Monk for a month is also offered for two and three weeks, and involves daily meditation and following the Ten Precepts of a novice monk.

Gadling readers, would you want to experience another religion on your travels?

Photo courtesy Flickr user huygens.

Crucifixion nails found in Israel? Probably not.

by Sean McLachlan on

There’s been a shocking archaeological discovery in Israel. Nails from the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ have been found!

Well, no, probably not.

The claim comes from Israeli Canadian documentary filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici, the Washington Post reports. Jacobovici has done several documentaries on Christian subjects and came across an archaeological report from 1990 mentioning the discovery of nails in the tomb of a man named Caiaphas. For those who know their Bible, this is the same name as the Jewish high priest who plotted to arrest Jesus and then gave him to the Romans. The name is right, the date of the tomb is right, so the nails must be those from the Crucifixion, right?

The Post quotes Jacobovici as saying, “There’s a general scholarly consensus that the tomb where the nails were found likely belonged to Caiaphas. Nails at that time were a dime a dozen, but finding one in a tomb is exceedingly rare.”

Actually neither of these statements is true. The Post quotes an Israeli archaeologist as saying that the inscriptions in the tomb aren’t clear as to the occupant’s identity, and I myself have seen Roman nails turn up in tombs. They were pretty common objects, after all.

The timing of this announcement just before Easter and just before Jacobovici’s next documentary comes out (titled “Nails of the Cross” to air Wednesday on the History Channel), adds to the suspicion that Jacobovici is fooling either himself or us.

There’s also the question of why a Jewish high priest would take the nails of someone who he thought was a false prophet to the grave with him, or even how he got them in the first place since it was Jesus’ family and followers who removed Jesus from the Cross.

In the view of this former archaeologist, this story is more of the usual sensationalism masking as science that fills so much of the media. A bit like the spurious discovery of Caligula’s tomb.

Never fear. There are plenty are saints’ relics in Rome, including enough nails for a dozen Crucifixions. Gadling’s own David Farley has even written a book about the Holy Foreskin, which you can also visit in Italy. Actually there’s more than one relic claiming to be the Holy Foreskin, but that’s another story. . .

[Image of Roman nails courtesy user Takkk via Wikimedia Commons. These are not the same nails that came from the tomb mentioned in this article.]