This morning we had a lecture from John Peterson, a former Dean of the College, about the Church of the Holy Sepulchre/Resurrection. He said that those two names indicate two radically different theologies and understandings of the significance of this church. He commented that because of changes in the city walls in ancient times, this location that is now inside the city walls was outside the walls at the time of Jesus. It was a stone quarry pit that had been decommissioned around the 8th century BC and brought back into commission around the 1st century BC. Because the stones had faults running through them they were not up to the standard for building, so parts of the quarry had begun to be used for rock tombs. The fact that we know where the quarry is means we can be fairly certain that this was the place of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Christ.
John’s lecture was far too substantial for me to convey it fully here. Suffice it to say that he gave us a good idea
1) of the setting of the stone quarry in Jesus’ time,
2) of the first church of Constantine that was built there after his mother Helena found what she believed was the true cross buried on the site, and
3) of the second Crusader church of the Holy Sepulchre (a less impressive building than the original), which is still standing.
After the lecture we gathered to walk down to the old city for an orientation tour to give us an idea of the first church and its surroundings. After lunch we would be seeing inside the second (existing) church.
We gathered outside St George’s Cathedral. I took the chance to go inside to take a photo ( they do not allow photography during services). It is quite an impressive building in the English Gothic style.
Then we went to the old city. John gave some comments as we went through the souk, showing us how the streets had got narrower and narrower, and showing us where the old city wall would have been. We climbed the stairs to the ‘roof’ or platform over the place where the first church had been. One part of this goes over the second church. So the Ethiopian Orthodox roof space, where I had seen the wonderful Easter Eve service, is over the Armenian chapel in the Church of the Resurrection, which I was to see later today.
In order to get down to the Parvis (courtyard) of the Church of the Resurrection we went through the Ethiopian Orthodox chapel area. As we did that, John asked an Ethiopian monk there to read us the passage of Philip sharing the good news with the Ethiopian eunuch from Acts.
Out of respect I did not take a picture while he was reading. But later we were allowed to take photos of the quite distinctive art there.
This diptych is of the Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon.
After lunch close by, we came back to the Church of the Resurrection, this time to go inside it. We started by going up the stairs to the ‘hill’ area where the crucifixion took place. After a little waiting we all got to see the place where Christ was crucified. (I had been here once before.) Along the way we could see the flawed stone with fault lines in it, which was presumably the reason that the quarry had been closed down in the 8th century BC.
John also pointed out to us where Bishop Kerpikian, the Armenian Archbishop, found a boundary wall to the quarry, when he had archaeologists excavate behind a cupboard in the Armenian chapel. There was clear evidence of quarrying, some ancient pottery and beyond that, the boundary wall. An early Christian inscription was also found in this place, saying in Latin “Lord, we have arrived”. Some scholars date this to the first century AD, others consider it as late as the 4th century. We were not allowed to enter into this part of the church, but could see it through a grille.
We visited other places in the Church of the Resurrection, with John pointing out significant things about them. Notable among these was the place where Constantine’s mother Helena found ‘the true cross’ of Jesus buried in the quarry, and on the basis of which the first church was built in this place. We also saw some columns from Constantine’s church that had been re-used in the second church. And finally we went to the Syrian Orthodox Chapel of Joseph of Arimathea. It is significant that within this chapel there is a kokh tomb with a channel in front of it for a stone to be rolled in front of the tomb. This is exactly the type of tomb in which Jesus was laid. Could it have been the tomb of Jesus? We can’t be sure. But his tomb certainly was not the monumental tomb in the Church, which was only ever meant to be a memorial to say that Jesus died and was entombed in this area. Many pilgrims (as I myself did earlier in my visit to Jerusalem) get the wrong impression that the edicule (little building) is built over the actual place where Jesus was entombed.
Jesus would have been laid in the central chamber of a kokh tomb but not anointed and bricked into one of the kokhs (niches – literally ‘ovens’). So he was laid in the tomb but not buried in the fullest sense. Below you will find two photos – the first of empty kokhs in this tomb within the Chapel of Joseph of Arimathea, and the second photo of kokhs that have been bricked in. (The space in the tomb was very dark and enclosed so I used a flash, with the result that the photos are blindingly bright!)
This was a totally unexpected and surprising (and therefore fitting) finale to our visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre/Resurrection. The whole offering from John Peterson was a great success and we came away with a much better about the church, its history, its various parts and its significance.
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