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Mar 24, 2017 · The remnants of Jesus’ rock-cut tomb are encased within the Edicule, which sits at the center of church’s main Rotunda. It has been desecrated or destroyed at least four times throughout...
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, [a] also known as the Church of the Resurrection, [b] is a fourth-century church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. [1] . It is considered to be the holiest site for Christians in the world and has been the most important pilgrimage site for Christians since the fourth century .
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Apr 24, 2024 · Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Altar of the Crucifixion at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The Rock of Calvary is seen encased in glass. (more) This site has been continuously recognized since the 4th century as the place where Jesus died, was buried, and rose from the dead.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Overview
- Was this really the tomb of Christ?
- Outside the city walls
- Months of restoration, decades of study
For just 60 hours, researchers had the opportunity to examine the holiest site in Christianity. Here's what they found.
JERUSALEMPreliminary findings from the investigation into the site where the body of Jesus Christ is traditionally believed to have been buried appear to confirm that portions of the tomb identified in the fourth century A.D. are likely still present today, having survived centuries of damage, destruction, and reconstruction of the surrounding Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City.
The most venerated site in the Christian world, the tomb today consists of a limestone shelf or burial bed that was hewn from the wall of a cave. Since at least 1555, and most likely centuries earlier, the burial bed has been covered in marble cladding, allegedly to prevent eager pilgrims from removing bits of the original rock as souvenirs.
When the marble cladding was first removed on the night of October 26, an initial inspection by the conservation team from the National Technical University of Athens showed only a layer of fill material underneath. However, as researchers continued their nonstop work over the course of 60 hours, another marble slab with a cross carved into its surface was exposed. By the night of October 28, just hours before the tomb was to be resealed, the original limestone burial bed was revealed intact.
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"I'm absolutely amazed. My knees are shaking a little bit because I wasn't expecting this,” said Fredrik Hiebert, National Geographic's archaeologist-in-residence. "We can't say 100 percent, but it appears to be visible proof that the location of the tomb has not shifted through time, something that scientists and historians have wondered for decades."
While it is archaeologically impossible to say that the tomb recently uncovered in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the burial site of an individual Jew known as Jesus of Nazareth, there is indirect evidence to suggest that the identification of the site by representatives of the Roman emperor Constantine some 300 years later may be a reasonable one.
The earliest accounts of Jesus' burial come from the Canonical Gospels, the first four books of the New Testament, which are believed to have been composed decades after Christ's crucifixion around A.D. 30. While there are variations in the details, the accounts consistently describe how Christ was buried in a rock-cut tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy Jewish follower of Jesus.
Archaeologists have identified more than a thousand such rock-cut tombs in the area around Jerusalem, says archaeologist and National Geographic grantee Jodi Magness. Each one of these family tombs consisted of one or more burial chambers with long niches cut into the sides of the rock to accommodate individual bodies.
"All of this is perfectly consistent with what we know about how wealthy Jews disposed of their dead in the time of Jesus," says Magness. "This does not, of course, prove that the event was historical. But what it does suggest is that whatever the sources were for the gospel accounts, they were familiar with this tradition and these burial customs."
Jewish tradition forbade burial within the walls of a city, and the Gospels specify that Jesus was buried outside of Jerusalem, near the site of his crucifixion on Golgotha ("the place of skulls"). A few years after the burial is said to have occurred, the walls of Jerusalem were expanded, putting Golgotha and the nearby tomb within the city.
When Constantine's representatives arrived in Jerusalem around A.D. 325 to locate the tomb, they were allegedly pointed to a temple built by the Roman emperor Hadrian some 200 years earlier. Historical sources suggest that Hadrian had the temple built over the tomb to assert the dominance of Roman state religion at the site venerated by Christians.
According to Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, the Roman temple was razed and excavations beneath it revealed a rock-cut tomb. The top of the cave was sheared off to expose the interior, and a church was built around it to enclose the tomb. The church was completely destroyed by the Fatimids in 1009 and rebuilt in the mid-11th century.
Excavations inside of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during the 20th century revealed remains of what is believed to be Hadrian's temple and walls from Constantine's original church. Archaeologists also documented an ancient limestone quarry and at least half a dozen other rock-cut tombs, some of which can be seen today.
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During the past few days, the burial bed has been resealed in its original marble cladding and may not be exposed again for centuries or even millennia. "The architectural conservation which we are implementing is intended to last forever," says Moropoulou. Before it was resealed, however, extensive documentation was performed on the surface of the rock.
Archaeologist Martin Biddle, who published a seminal study on the history of the tomb in 1999, believes that the only way to really know, or understand why people believe, that the tomb is indeed the one in which the Gospels say Jesus' body was laid, is to carefully review the data collected when the burial bed and cave walls were exposed.
"The surfaces of the rock must be looked at with the greatest care, I mean minutely, for traces of graffiti," Biddle says, citing other tombs in the area that must have been of considerable importance because they are covered with crosses and inscriptions painted and scratched onto the rock surfaces.
"The issue of the graffiti is absolutely crucial,” Biddle says. “We know that there are at least half a dozen other rock-cut tombs below various parts of the church. So why did Bishop Eusebius identify this tomb as the tomb of Christ? He doesn't say, and we don't know. I don't myself think Eusebius got it wrong—he was a very good scholar—so there probably is evidence if only it is looked for."
Oct 26, 2016 · Restorers working in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre uncover stone slab venerated as the resting place of Jesus Christ. By Kristin Romey. October 26, 2016. • 7 min read. Jerusalem —...
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Nov 24, 2020 · Home. Travel. Israel. Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Jerusalem, Jerusalem District, Israel. Built on the believed site of the crucifixion, tomb and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is possibly the holiest site in Christianity. Sarah Roller. 24 Nov 2020. @SarahRoller8. About Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Mar 31, 2021 · Take a pilgrimage to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the holiest site in Christendom, in the Spring 2021 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. Situated in the northwestern section of Jerusalem’s Old City, the church commemorates the traditional location of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection. With 22 chapels, a crypt, and many other ...
