1Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand, 2by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also. 9For I am the least of the apostles, who is not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the assembly of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 11Whether then it is I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.
12Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised. 14If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith also is in vain. 15Yes, we are also found false witnesses of God, because we testified about God that he raised up Christ, whom he didn’t raise up if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead aren’t raised, neither has Christ been raised. 17If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. 18Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.
20But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruit of those who are asleep. 21For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. 22For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s at his coming. 24Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father, when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy that will be abolished is death. 27For, “He put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when he says, “All things are put in subjection”, it is evident that he is excepted who subjected all things to him. 28When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.
29Or else what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead aren’t raised at all, why then are they baptized for the dead? 30Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour? 31I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 32If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then “let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” 33Don’t be deceived! “Evil companionships corrupt good morals.” 34Wake up righteously and don’t sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
35But someone will say, “How are the dead raised?” and, “With what kind of body do they come?” 36You foolish one, that which you yourself sow is not made alive unless it dies. 37That which you sow, you don’t sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, maybe of wheat, or of some other kind. 38But God gives it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own. 39All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. 40There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial differs from that of the terrestrial. 41There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.
42So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable. 43It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.
45So also it is written, “The first man Adam became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46However, that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual. 47The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven. 48As is the one made of dust, such are those who are also made of dust; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 49As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let’s also bear the image of the heavenly. 50Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s Kingdom; neither does the perishable inherit imperishable.
51Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. 53For this perishable body must become imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55“Death, where is your sting?
Hades, where is your victory?”
56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Two sites are in competition for the burial place of Jesus of Nazareth, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, near the Jaffa Gate, and the Garden Tomb, near the Damascus Gate. The former site has ancient tradition supporting it but within the confines of a church that obscures a place of crucifixion and burial, while the latter has a more visible tomb near what is alleged to be the location of the crucifixion. Determining which of these two is, in fact, where Jesus rose from the dead is important for the Christian faith, since Christianity is tied to history. Regarding the resurrection of Jesus, Paul said that if he has not risen (understood, in the flesh), then we are yet in our sins and the apostles are liars (1 Cor 15:1-19)
In the late nineteenth century British General Charles Gordon discovered a site outside the Damascus Gate that is now called Gordon’s Calvary, or Skull Hill, where he believed that Jesus was crucified. Near this site was also a tomb within a garden that he believed to be the tomb of Jesus. Unlike the traditional site located in an ancient church surrounded by ornate crosses and incense thuribles that detract from a former location of garden and rock quarry from which tombs were carved, the Garden Tomb is in the open, easily recognized as a place of burial, and in a beautiful garden.
The Garden Tomb resides in a beautiful quiet setting, and is frequented generally by Protestant Christians who find the darker surroundings of an ancient church steeped in ritual. The Garden Tomb satisfies many of the requirements of the place of Jesus’ burial and resurrection, including situation in a garden, outside the city walls and near what is arguably a place of crucifixion. The mystical manner in which Gordon sought to connect the place of crucifixion and burial with the temple mount and pool of Siloam has been a point of criticism. He placed a skeleton with its head at Skull Hill, its backside on the temple mount, and the feet at the pool of Siloam, viewing this as a confirmation of its identification. This is highly speculative, and is not argued by staff at the Garden Tomb.
The ancient and traditional site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus has many points of support also, but there is no tomb to observe. The tomb there, which early had been separated from other tombs in the stone quarry, making it a place of homage, was destroyed in the early 11th century A.D. by order of Muslim caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.[1] In spite of there being no tomb, with a structure (called an Edicule) standing where the tomb once stood, the tradition for this site is very strong, going back to the second century A.D. When the emperor Hadrian had defeated the Jews (A.D. 135), and banished them from Jerusalem, in his attempt to replace Judaism and Christianity, he built a temple to Venus over where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher stands, a temple to Jupiter over where the Temple once stood, and a shrine to the god Adonis at the location of the Church of the Nativity. This was a standard practice of emphasizing triumph of one religion over another in the ancient world (a practice that has continued in Islam through the centuries). The Church of the Holy Sepulcher (known as the Church of the Resurrection by the Greek Orthodox) satisfies many requirements defined in Scripture. The existence of a tomb outside the city wall, situation near a place of crucifixion and situated within a garden. This was the place that early Christians took Queen Helena when she came to Jerusalem and requested to know the location of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
In order to be the historical location of the burial and resurrection site of Jesus, certain factors must be present. Both of the two competing sites (the only two) fulfill conditions, but only one fulfills them all. The conditions for the correct tomb are:[2]
1. It had to be near the site of the crucifixion.
2. It had to be located in a garden.
3. It had to be outside the city walls of Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified in the early A.D. 30s.
4. It had to be hewed out of a stone quarry.
5. It had to be an exceptional tomb since it was a rich man’s tomb.
6. It had to have a rolling stone.
7. It had to have an outer chamber and inner chamber in view of the biblical accounts regarding the women, apostles, and angels at the tomb
8. It had to be a new tomb, thus hewed in the first century A.D.
The Garden Tomb satisfies numbers 1-4, and 7.[3] Item 5 is questionable since there are larger tombs than the small Garden Tomb. Item 6 is uncertain since a rolling stone was not found at the site and the trough in front of the Garden Tomb is not a grove for a rolling stone but is rather a water trough going all the way across the front of the tomb. Item 8 is the most significant since there is no doubt that the Garden Tomb is a 1st temple tomb, created hundreds of years before Jesus and part of a quarry of 8th century B.C. Tombs; consequently, it cannot be the correct tomb, since Jesus was placed in a newly created tomb.”[4]
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher satisfies items 1-4.[4] The tomb resided near a place of crucifixion, and evidence of a garden has been found. The city walls at the time of Christ did not extend beyond the site of the tomb during the time of Jesus, and there are several other tombs found near where the tomb of Christ stood before the Islamic caliph destroyed it. Since there is no tomb to investigate, there is no way to substantiate items 5, 6, or 7, but one would expect that the tomb of Jesus would have the features of other first-century A.D. tombs. An outer chamber of a tomb is found just a few feet away from the current commemorative site of the tomb, built on the place of the former tomb. The tombs in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are first-century A.D. tombs, so this would satisfy number 8.
We cannot know for certain the location of the death, burial, and resurrection, but most of the evidence, including Hadrian’s early marking of the spot, points to the traditional site as the correct location.[5] It was long remembered in the minds and hearts of the Christians of the first century and afterwards and has been accepted by Christians of all faiths for nearly two thousand years.
[1] http://orthodoxwiki.org/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre_(Jerusalem) (last visited November 18, 2011).
[2] The list is from H. Wayne House and Timothy Demy, “8. Where did Jesus die and rise again?,” Answers to Common Questions about Jesus (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2011), 25. Also see Topographical description of the region of Golgotha, Basicilia of the Anastasis, www. holyland.ccreadbible.org/holysepulchre/ (last visited November 18, 2011).
[3] The book (mentioned in footnote 2) has 7-8, but this is an error. The Garden Tomb is a first temple tomb, used in the 8th century B.C., and is part of a quarry of first temple tombs found adjacent at École Biblique, a Dominican study center and monastery. Consequently, it does not satisfy number 8 in the list. A case for the Garden Tomb may be found at The Resurrection Garden, http://www.oxfordbiblechurch.co.uk/pages/books/mount-moriah-golgotha-the-garden-tomb/chapter-4a.php (last visited November 18, 2011). But see W. Harold Mare, The Place Of Christ’s Crucifixion And Burial, Associates for Biblical Research, Bible and Spade (1974) Volume 3 (Ephrata, PA: Associates for Biblical Research, 1974; 2005).
[4] Jerusalem Report: "Israeli Scholars Date Garden Tomb To The Israelite Monarchy," Associates for Biblical Research, Bible and Spade (1982) Volume 11 (Ephrata, PA: Associates for Biblical Research, 1982).
[5] For more on the long and important history of the site and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, see Martin Biddle, The Tomb of Christ. Stroud (UK): Sutton Publishers, 1999. See also Dan Bahat, “Does the Holy Sepulchre Church Mark the Burial of Jesus?” Biblical Archaeology Review 12:3 (May-June 1986): 26–45.
The Tomb of Jesus the Messiah https://hwhouse.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/10-the_tomb_of_jesus_the_messiah.pdf; You may also find this article in an excellent book on Biblical Archaeology, Joseph M. Holden and Norman Geisler, The Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible: Discoveries That Confirm the Reliability of Scripture, pp. 315-318.