Recall that on October 26, specialists from the National Technical University of Athens removed the marble lining and for the first time in the last 500 years opened the cave of the Holy Sepulcher. Under it, they found a pile of stones and dust, and when they removed this layer, they found a limestone shelf, on which, perhaps, the body of Jesus Christ and another marble slab lay. It was decorated with an elaborately carved cross.
This find is proof that the place of worship of today's pilgrims is indeed a tomb found in the 4th century under Emperor Constantine, - said archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert- The fact is that in its history the Church of the Holy Sepulcher has been repeatedly destroyed by fires, earthquakes and hostilities. And we were not sure that it was restored every time in the same place.
We talked about what these findings mean. with biblical archaeologist Andrey Desnitsky. He is a doctor of science and a leading researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Andrei Sergeevich, scientists have found evidence that the Holy Sepulcher is located in the place that the Byzantine Empress Elena discovered in the 4th century as a result of excavations on Golgotha. But the question arises, how exactly did Elena herself initially establish the burial place of Jesus? How professional was she?
Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, who made the first archaeological journey to the Holy Land, was not an archaeologist, she did not try to restore history. She was a believing Christian and strove to find Holy places, to find items related to the Gospel events in order to bow to them. She succeeded to a great extent because gospel events it was separated by approximately 200 years. There were no living eyewitnesses. But there were people alive who remembered how his grandfather told him a story, which he in turn learned from his grandfather. It's a long time, but not a terribly long time, and something may remain in people's memory. So she might have discovered something. Actually the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and some other places date back to her journey.
- That is, there were people who could say: Jesus was interrogated in this house, and along this street he went to his execution?
No, by the year 70 AD, after the Jewish revolt, Jerusalem was completely, literally, wiped off the face of the earth and the Roman city of Elia Capitolina was built in its place. Moreover, Jews were forbidden to live there. In other words, absolutely everything in the city was destroyed. And today, when pious pilgrims believe that Via Delorosa in Jerusalem is the street along which Jesus Christ walked to the place of crucifixion, they are greatly mistaken. This is definitely not the same street, because it was destroyed to the ground and the houses were built much later.
Achievements modern science allow forensics to solve crimes that happened so many years ago. What did scientists expect when they opened the Holy Sepulcher? For example, hypothetically, a particle of the blood of Christ can be found?
Regarding the opening of the tomb: in fact, Christians believe that the tomb was opened by the Resurrection of Christ 2,000 years ago. What has been recently studied in Jerusalem is not the tomb of Christ, it is a small Kuvuklia - a chapel that was built in the 16th century by the Franciscans on the site where there was a cave, long destroyed by that time. At the same time, in the 16th century, a marble slab was laid, because a huge number of pilgrims flocked here, who probably wanted to pick off a stone from the place where Christ lay. And of course there was nothing left. Imagine what it is: 13 centuries of pilgrimage (if you count from the time of Queen Helena)! Therefore, we decided to improve this place so that it would be neat, beautiful and no one could pick anything. Nothing significant was found under the stove. What could be looked for? You see, science is driven by simple human curiosity. Not every study ends with a result. In many ways, this is a matter of chance. For example, the history of the discovery of the most famous archaeological find of the 20th century of those places is the Dead Sea Scrolls. They were found when a Bedouin shepherd boy was looking for his missing goats. Approaching one cave, he threw a stone there to check if some animal was hiding there. The stone broke the jug. The boy heard this sound of a beating earthen vessel, he became curious, he climbed inside and found a jar that really contained scrolls. This discovery was made by chance, no one was looking for the scrolls, and no one looked into these caves for 2 thousand years. Surely, many more interesting things will be found ahead. The task of science is to climb everywhere with a curious nose, but not to expect that amazing finds will be found in every place - not at all!
As you know, restoration work is being carried out in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Restoring the tomb of Jesus Christ, scientists removed the protective marble slab from the stone on which the Body of Christ lay. This slab was installed on the burial bed of Christ's Sepulcher in 1555 to protect the shrine, as the pilgrims tried to chip off a piece of the Holy Sepulcher for themselves, thereby destroying it.
Scientists who removed the marble slab from the burial bed of Christ claim that the basis of this process is the desire to restore the shrine of the Christian world. They also hope to find out how the mother of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine, Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Elena, learned that this place is the Holy Sepulcher.
Some representatives of both the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church (which is not surprising - hereinafter in parentheses, the editorial note of the "RF") do not see anything reprehensible in the opening of the burial place of Jesus Christ. For example, Archpriest Maxim Kozlov (known for his liberal views), Deputy Chairman of the Educational Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church, stated that this event is purely in the field of church archeology. “From a religious point of view, I don’t see anything remarkable here at all,” he added (frivolously).
To the remark that scientists simply want to amuse their own curiosity, the chairman of the synodal missionary department of the Moscow Patriarchate, hegumen Serapion, replied that curiosity is characteristic of a person and he cannot be forbidden to learn something new. “In particular, people are interested in how Saint Helena acted when she was looking for the Holy Sepulcher and Life-Giving Cross that was the tomb of Jesus,” he explained (without a shadow of a doubt).
So, neither from a religious nor from a human point of view, this event has no basis for discussion. Is it so? I don't know, I'm not a theologian, but how simple Orthodox Christian I ask questions that really confuse me.
Firstly, was the Tomb of Christ opened only out of curiosity? I highly doubt and am of the opinion that the “researchers” will try to confirm the information from the film “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” shot in 2007 in Canada with all sorts of lies. And in this film, the authors claim that on the basis of strictly "scientific" archaeological and criminological studies, DNA analysis and statistical calculations, it is "proved" that the biblical Jesus is buried in the tomb of Talpiot with his family. As it is now known, Talpiot is a residential complex in Jerusalem. In 1980, a construction team opened a tomb there. The researchers claim that five of the ten coffins found in the Talpiot crypt were inscribed with names believed to be associated with key figures in the New Testament: Jesus, Mary, Matthew, Joseph and Mary Magdalene. The sixth inscription, written in Aramaic, is translated as "Judas son of Jesus." Thus, new scientific facts”and supposedly DNA analysis carried out in one of the most advanced laboratories, which indicate that the Talpiot tomb contained “the remains of Jesus of Nazareth and his family - Mary Magdalene and the son of Judas.”
But even if we discard my version of the plans to open the real tomb of Jesus Christ as untenable, there are still many serious questions. Who needs all this and why? Scientists? For what? To find evidence that this is exactly the Holy Sepulcher? Or does the Church, which gave permission to conduct scientific experiments on Christ's bed, need scientific proof of the holiness of this place? Is it not enough for both of them that the Holy Fire descends here every year?
And since it has come to the point that holiness must be confirmed by scientific expertise, then let's take the relics of various saints for DNA analysis and attach a certificate of conformity to them?
But after all, the Holy Sepulcher needs restoration - opponents may object to me. And who could determine that the bed of Christ, hidden for centuries, needs to be restored, and again - why? Maybe a Russophobe Muslim who sponsors terrorists in Syria and supports the massacre of both Muslims and Christians there, King Abdullah II of Jordan? After all, it was he who invested as much as 4 billion dollars (!!!) in the general restoration work in Kuvuklia. Yes, the restoration work was supported by almost all Christian denominations. But this is embarrassing for me, because Lord's Sepulcher- This is the holy of holies. And it’s hard for me to imagine that the Holy of Holies of Christians around the world, sponsored by the billionaire thug Abdullah, is invaded by unknown people, trampling their feet on the shrine and justifying this by the need for restoration and research work. And for me - it's just a desecration of the shrine. Have we forgotten how the Bolsheviks "examined" the relics of saints in Russia? But then Orthodox Rus' to the best of her ability, she stood up to protect her shrines. Carrying out such scientific works” none of the clergy justified it in any way, and in general, Christians considered this blasphemy and blasphemy.
And now they are trampling on the Holy Sepulcher - and nothing! Such actions, no matter how they are justified, are a desecration of a holy place, a violation of the law given by the Lord Himself: “And God said: do not come here; put off thy sandals from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (Ex. 3:5)
For the secular world, the opening of the slab of the Holy Sepulcher is an act of desacralization of the greatest shrine of the entire Christian world. In addition, this is an eschatological act that followed the unrecognized, but, apparently, the last " Ecumenical Council and the outbreak of World War III.
With all of the above, I am extremely embarrassed by the silence of the (Local Orthodox) Churches (and even other "churches", heretical, protecting sodomites, migrants and anyone and anything, but not real shrines) regarding the desecration of the Holy Sepulcher and even agreement with this. What is this, if not a sign of the onset of global apostasy?
If I am wrong in my conclusions, then with Christian humility I ask readers to correct me and forgive me for erroneous for Orthodox person views...
Let us add that the official Orthodox assessment of this blasphemous initiative is already available on the Internet. According to the Russian Calendar website, the diocese of Yekaterinburg commented on the opening of the tomb of Jesus Christ in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem: “For Orthodox Christians, everything that needed to be known has already been learned. And everything that needed to be opened has already been opened. And no new discoveries, except for the Second Coming, are expected in the next few thousand years.
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It seems that there is one less secret in the world, and it's time for archaeologists and theologians to shake hands - after the opening of the tomb of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, there was no doubt about its authenticity!
Just over a month ago, representatives of six Christian churches allowed National Geographic experts to lift, for the first time in centuries, a marble slab covering main shrine Christians all over the world. The goal of archaeologists is to confirm or refute the fact that the alleged tomb of Christ today can be considered real place the burial of Jesus of Nazareth, or the tomb and its contents are irretrievably lost to history and believers, after numerous earthquakes and the destruction of the church by the conquerors.
And The Independent journalists report amazing news from the spot:
“After the researchers raised the marble slab for the first time in 500 years, they discovered another one - limestone, on which, in all likelihood, the body of Jesus Christ lay! But that's not all... Then the archaeologists discovered a find, about which nothing was known to date - the second marble slab gray color with a cross engraved by the crusaders in the 12th century ... "
According to the four Gospels, Jesus was buried in a cave near the place of his crucifixion on Mount Golgotha, which belonged to Joseph of Arimathea. It is known that, according to Jewish tradition, the dead could not be buried within the city, so limestone is a characteristic sign that the burial was outside Jerusalem, surrounded by rocks of this rock. In addition, on Calvary, not far from the current location of the Temple, a quarry was discovered, the stones of which were used to build a burial bed.
“The most surprising thing for us was the discovery of the second marble slab, after we removed the first layer of dust,” says archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert, “it was gray with a cross in the middle, and not like that creamy white marble that sealed the tomb from 1500- years, in order to prevent the theft of the relic ... "
“... When we realized what we had found, our knees trembled! This seems to us a visible proof that the place that pilgrims bow to today is the same grave that St. Helena, the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine, who made Christianity, found back in IV IV. dominant religion!»
Christians believe that three days after the crucifixion, Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead. And Fredrik Hiebert witnessed how, after the opening of the tomb, Christian leaders were the first to visit the main shrine:
“They came out with a big smile on their faces! After them, the monks came in and everyone came out smiling. We became very curious. We also entered the tomb and saw a lot of rubble, but no artifacts or bones!”
Research work was carried out continuously for 60 hours after the marble slab was removed from the Holy Sepulcher in Kuvuklia, a chapel in the Jerusalem Church of the Resurrection of Christ, for the first time in 450 years.
As the scientific portal notes, the most revered place in the Christian world, the burial bed, is carved into the limestone cave wall. In 1555, according to scientists, the tomb was covered with marble facing in order to protect it from those frantic pilgrims who wanted to dismantle the burial bed for souvenirs.
When specialists from the National Technical University of Athens, with the support of Israeli and Armenian colleagues, removed the marble cladding on the night of October 26, they first saw a large layer of stone fragments under it. However, after continuing their work non-stop for 60 hours, the researchers found another marble slab underneath with a cross carved into its surface. Presumably this was done during the Crusades.
At the same time, the burial bed turned out to be absolutely untouched, despite the fact that the walls of the cave in which it was located, as already mentioned, were destroyed along with the original building of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at the beginning of the 11th century by order of the then ruler of Jerusalem, Caliph Hakim.
Members of the archaeologists' team brought the slab to the surface to clean and digitize it before reinstalling it at Kuvuklia.
"I'm absolutely amazed. My knees are shaking a bit because I didn't expect this," archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert told National Geographic magazine at the site. "We cannot say 100 percent, but there seems to be clear evidence that the tomb has not been damaged during all this time. After all, scientists and historians have been asking this question for many decades," the researcher added.
In addition, archaeologists confirmed the presence of limestone in the walls of the cave inside Kuvukliya, and also made a small window so that believers could see the shrine for the first time in several centuries.
The Bible says that after the crucifixion, the body of Christ was placed in one of the caves carved into the mountain for burial. It was there on the third day that his miraculous resurrection took place.
The earliest accounts of Jesus' burial come from the canonical gospels, the first four books of the New Testament, which are believed to have appeared decades after Christ's crucifixion. At the same time, accounts found at one time consistently describe how Christ was buried in a rock tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy Jewish follower of Jesus.
Jewish tradition forbids burial within the walls of the city, and the Gospels indicate that Jesus was buried outside of Jerusalem, not far from the place of his crucifixion at Golgotha. A few years after the burial, the boundaries of Jerusalem were significantly expanded so that Golgotha and the nearby tomb were within the city.
It is also known that in the 4th century, the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Empress Elena ordered to begin excavations at Golgotha. As a result, a cross was found on which Jesus was allegedly crucified. The queen ordered the foundation of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on this site.
According to Dan Bahat, a former chief archaeologist of Jerusalem, "it is impossible to be absolutely sure that the site of the Holy Sepulcher Temple is the burial place of Jesus, but we assume that there is no other place that with a high degree of probability can claim it."
Archaeologist Martin Biddle, who published a study on the history of the tomb in 1999, believes that the only way to be sure that the burial bed of Jesus Christ is indeed located in Edicule is to carefully analyze the data collected during the current research mission.
Jerusalem.— Scientists continue to study the tomb, which is traditionally considered the burial place of Jesus Christ. According to the preliminary findings of the study, part of the tomb has survived to this day, having survived over the centuries numerous destruction, damage and reconstruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem surrounding it.
The most revered site in the Christian world, the tomb today consists of a burial bed carved into the limestone cave wall. Since at least 1555, and perhaps even earlier, the stone bed has been covered with marble facing - presumably so that pilgrims do not steal pieces of limestone for souvenirs.
When the slab was removed on the night of October 26, the conservation team from the National Technical University of Athens found only a layer of fill material on initial inspection. Researchers worked non-stop for another 60 hours, discovering a second marble slab with a cross carved into its surface. By the night of October 28, a few hours before the closing of the tomb, they saw the original limestone burial bed in an intact state.
Context
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Foreign Policy 19.06.2016“I am completely shocked. My knees even tremble a little, because I didn’t expect it,” said National Geographic archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert. "We can't say 100%, but it looks like visual evidence that the location of the tomb hasn't changed over time - something scientists and historians have been thinking about for decades."
In addition, researchers have confirmed the presence of the original limestone cave walls located inside the Edicule, or chapel that closes the tomb. A window was cut in the south inner wall of the chapel to open one of the cave walls.
“This is a sacred bed that has been bowed down for centuries, but only now has it been actually seen,” said Antonia Moropoulou, who is in charge of the conservation and restoration of Kuvuklia.
Is this really the tomb of Christ?
Archeology cannot say with certainty that the tomb, recently opened in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, is in fact the burial place of Jesus of Nazareth. However, circumstantial evidence indicates that representatives of the Roman emperor Constantine correctly identified the place of burial 300 years later.
The first indications of the burial of Jesus are given by the Four Gospels, or the first four books of the New Testament, which were compiled around the year 30 AD, several decades after the crucifixion of Christ. There are discrepancies in the details, but these books quite consistently and consistently describe how Christ was buried in a stone-hewn tomb that belonged to a wealthy Jewish follower of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea.
Multimedia
Scientists have opened the tomb of Christ
National Geographic 10/28/2016In the Jerusalem area, archaeologists have found more than a thousand of these stone-cut tombs, says archaeologist and National Geographic grantee Jodi Magness. Each of these family tombs had one or more tombs with long niches carved in stone on the sides, on which the bodies of the dead were laid.
“It all fits in well with what we know about how wealthy Jews in Jesus’ day buried their dead,” says Magness. — Of course, this is not a historical proof of this event. But this suggests that whatever sources formed the basis of the Four Gospels, the narrators were familiar with this tradition and with funeral customs.
Outside the city walls
Jewish tradition forbade the burial of the dead inside the city, and the New Testament clearly states that Jesus was buried outside of Jerusalem, not far from the place of his crucifixion at Golgotha. A few years after the burial, the boundaries of Jerusalem were expanded, and Golgotha, along with the tomb, were inside the city.
When representatives of Constantine arrived in Jerusalem in about 325 in search of the tomb, they were allegedly pointed to a temple erected 200 years earlier by the Roman emperor Hadrian. Historical sources indicate that Hadrian ordered the construction of a temple over the tomb in order to establish the dominance of the Roman state religion in the place that the Christians revered.
According to the theologian Eusebius of Caesarea, the Roman temple was demolished, and during the excavations under it, a stone-cut tomb was discovered. The upper part of the cave was cut off so that its inner part could be seen. And a temple was built around it to close the burial place. The Fatimids in 1009 completely destroyed this temple, but in the middle of the 11th century it was restored.
In the 20th century, excavations were carried out inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, during which remains were discovered, according to scientists, of the temple of Hadrian and the walls of the first church of Constantine. Archaeologists have also found an ancient limestone quarry and at least half a dozen other stone-cut tombs, some of which can still be seen today.
© AFP 2016, Gali Tibbon Reinforcing the Edicule of the Tomb of Jesus in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem
The presence of other tombs from that period is important archaeological evidence, Magness notes. “They show that in the time of Christ the area was indeed a Jewish cemetery outside the walls of Jerusalem.”
Former Jerusalem chief archaeologist Dan Bahat said: “We cannot be absolutely sure that the stone bed under the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is indeed the burial place of Jesus, but we certainly do not have another object in relation to which one could claim that the same with the same reasons, and we have no reason to deny the authenticity of this place.
Months of restoration work, decades of research
After 60 hours, the burial bed was again covered with a marble slab, which hid it for centuries or even millennia. “The architectural conservation work that we are doing should keep this object forever,” says Moropoulou. But before the slab was returned to its place, numerous research works were carried out on the surface of the stone.
Archaeologist Martin Biddle, who published a landmark work on the history of the tomb in 1999, believes that the only way to know or understand the reasons why people believe that this is the tomb where the body of Christ was laid according to the New Testament is to carefully study the data. collected during the time when the burial bed and the walls of the cave were open.
“We need to carefully, scrupulously examine the surface of the stone for the presence of inscriptions,” says Beadle. He refers to other tombs in the area of great importance, as they are covered with crosses and inscriptions that were painted or scrawled on the surface.
“The issue of inscriptions is extremely important,” says Beadle. “We know that there are at least half a dozen other stone-cut tombs beneath various parts of the temple. So why did Bishop Eusebius call this particular tomb the tomb of Christ? He does not speak, and we do not know. I do not think that Eusebius was wrong, because he was a very good researcher. So there is certainly evidence - they just need to be found. ”
Meanwhile, the conservation team from the National Technical University of Athens continues restoration work at Kuvuklia. They will fortify, clean and document every inch of the temple for at least another five months, collecting valuable information that scientists will study for years to come to better understand the origin and history of one of the world's most sacred relics.
The materials of InoSMI contain only assessments of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the editors of InoSMI.
