The Holy Sepulchre

This is very tough Rad obviously. But, it was Queen Helena, (Constantine's mother) who travelled with Eusebious to the Holy Land in an effort to find all the Holy places.
The evidence that Jesus died there would be a tough one to really know. They say there are pointers to it in the Bible.

I believe the LDS Church is making extensive investigations into this Rad as they claim that area it totally wrong.
For example. Archeologists say that the stone covering the tomb would have had to weigh about 2 tons. They also say Jesus would have had to have died near a roadside as passersby mocked Him.
I must check up and find out if the LDS Church has found anything new. Personally, I reckon that is not the right place.

There was an episode of "Secrets of the Dead" about the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I believe that they concluded that part of the church was very old, probably dating to the Constantine period, but that they couldn't make any conclusive discovery at that time. The archaeologists also believe that this is the most likely place for the tomb and golgotha. There was hope that in the future they could explore the structure some more during renovations which are badly needed. But the church is controlled by six seperate denominations which makes it hard to get anything done.

Secrets of the Dead

Ver, very interesting Rad. I can't conclude anything as it appears that there is a bit of controversy surrounding the Tomb of the Sepulchre today.

Radagast said:

Elsewhere, I posted something about the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre:



This was built by Constantine in 335 on the supposed site of Christ's tomb. I was wondering if anyone knew of the evidence for/against that.

-- Radagast

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Hello Radagast...

Perhaps I will get time later today to add to this discussion... but for the present, take a look at the photograph that you posted, and if you see the ladder in the picture, it is still there today.

There is such controversy between the five governing denominations concerning the property of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, that when there was a dispute over the repairs that concerned the ladder, that the ladder was left until the dispute was settled, and the ladder still remains in that same position, and was still in place last week when I took this picture.


~serapha~

Radagast said:

Lovely picture!

If you do have information "from the ground" so to speak, I'd be very grateful.

-- Radagast

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Hi there!





http://www.answers.com/topic/church-of-the-holy-sepulchre

<grins>

I read the previous article, and it references an issue of BAR from May/June 1986, and when I pulled my copy of the magazine to read the article, there stands the same ladder, having been in place now for more than 20 years.


~serapha~

Here's what appears to be the history of the church...



http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/mfaarchive/1990_1999/1999/9/the%20tomb%20of%20christ

Most archaeologists argue for the Church of the Holy Selpulchre because of the fact that the location was preserved by the building of pagan temples over the original site. It was a limestone quarry, which was later filled with evidences of being a garden from 700 BCE. The word "tradition" enters the discussions in many area, in particular to include the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as the burial place of Nicodemus AND Joseph of Arimathea (Carbo's listing)...

If you could locate the BAR article it is loaded with archaeological information from Virgilio Carbo's work (three volumes) on the location.


The Madaba Map carries the location of the church, but again, that would probably be a "traditional" teachings concerning the location, though the Madaba Map has been found to be accurate in identifying other biblical locations.


~serapha~

Radagast said:

As I see it, the two key points are:

(1) there really are 1st Century tombs under the Basilica, although the one identified as Christ's was seriously damaged in 1009.

(2) the location is outside the walls as they were in 30 AD.

Putting the archaeological evedence together with the historical, I'm personally convinced!

Thanks again,

-- Radagast

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Hi there!




You are, of course, entitled to your opinion.

If it's a poll, I still vote for the garden tomb.


~serapha~