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The
Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem
By
Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin
For
most Christians, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem–the
traditional site of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection
of Jesus–is the most sacred place on earth. The huge domed
structure in the heart of the city’s Christian quarter has
a fascinating seventeen hundred year history of pilgrimage
and prayer.
Constantine
the Great was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity
in AD 312. Under the direction of his minister of religion,
Eusebius, Constantine inaugurated a program to Christianize
the Roman Empire, a fundamental part of which was the erection
of monumental Christian churches. The Christians of Jerusalem,
who had maintained a community in that city since the days
of Jesus, reported that in AD 135 the emperor Hadrian had
built a temple to Venus over the site of the tomb of Christ
in order to prevent Christians from worshiping there. At
Constantine’s orders, the Roman temple was razed and the area
excavated. Eusebius reports that “against all expectation
the venerable and hallowed monument [the tomb] of our Savior’s
resurrection was discovered” (Life of Constantine,
3.28). Recent archaeological excavations have discovered other
tombs in the Holy Sepulcher, thus confirming that the site
was indeed a first-century cemetery.
After
visions and miracles had apparently confirmed the site’s authenticity,
a massive basilica was constructed around the tomb. It was
the largest and most magnificent building in the Roman empire,
supported by huge polished columns, inlaid with precious marble,
gold and gems, and adorned with fine brocade tapestries and
curtains. For Eusebius and many of his contemporaries, the
Church of the Holy Sepulcher fulfilled biblical prophecies
predicting the building of the millennial temple in a New
(Christian) Jerusalem. Constantine’s Christian Roman Empire
was to be the millennial kingdom of God.
Though
Eusebius’s millennial vision of the Holy Sepulcher failed,
the church remained the most sacred site in Christendom, with
great mythic significance for many Christians. It became
the cosmic “center of the world,” regarded as the place of
Creation and of Adam’s death and burial. Adam’s tomb was
thought to be directly under Golgotha, so that “the first
fruits of the new life [Christ’s resurrection] and death’s
beginning come together at this place” (Ambrose).
Throughout
the church, small chapels, icons, mosaics and frescoes commemorate
the events of the crucifixion. A large crack visible in the
rock of Golgotha was said to be the opening into the underworld through which Jesus descended
after the crucifixion to rescue the righteous souls from Hades.
When Dante enters the gates of Hell in his Inferno,
he does so at Jerusalem.
With Christ’s subsequent ascent into Heaven, the Holy Sepulcher
became the nexus for salvation and eternal life. It was a
gate from the underworld, through which souls can escape Hell,
and the pathway for ascent into Heaven in the footsteps of
Christ. The entire Church is thus a complex metaphorical
representation of the crucifixion, the resurrection, and God’s
plan for salvation.
Over
the following centuries the church was repeatedly damaged
or destroyed by war, fire and earthquake, but it was always
rebuilt – though on an ever-diminishing scale. (The Church
today is less than half the size of Constantine’s basilica.)
The rock of the original tomb was destroyed at the orders
of the Egyptian caliph al-Hakim in 1008; the sepulcher today
is a reconstruction including only fragments of the original
tomb. Major reconstruction by the crusaders in the twelfth
century has given parts of the church a distinctly Gothic
flavor. Some of the walls of the church are covered by thousands
of small carved crosses, each engraved by a different pilgrim
over the centuries.
Today,
half a dozen different Christian denominations compete for
space and time within the same church. Under neutral Muslim
arbitration, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Syriac,
and Coptic Christians each control a section of the building,
with Ethiopian Christians relegated to a chapel outside the
main gate and a small monastery on the roof.
Nineteenth-century
Protestants, having no place to worship in the Holy Sepulcher
and disdaining the rituals and icons of Catholics and eastern
Christians, fortuitously discovered a rival tomb outside the
city–the Garden Tomb–which has become a focus for the commemoration
of the crucifixion and resurrection for many Protestants.
It offers a classic example of how a sacred event can encourage
rival denominations to create alternative sacred places for
its commemoration.
Martin
Biddle, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, (Random House, 2000)
Martin Biddle, The Tomb of Christ, (Sutton, 1999)
http://www.bibleplaces.com/holysepulcher.htm
(photographs and links)
http://www.mustardseed.net/html/pjrusepd.html
(360 degree virtual reality photos)
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