1At that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the grain fields. His disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, “Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”
3But he said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4how he entered into God’s house and ate the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath day the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6But I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. 7But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you wouldn’t have condemned the guiltless. 8For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
9He departed from there and went into their synagogue. 10And behold, there was a man with a withered hand. They asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?” so that they might accuse him.
11He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if this one falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, won’t he grab on to it and lift it out? 12Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day.” 13Then he told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out; and it was restored whole, just like the other. 14But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how they might destroy him.
15Jesus, perceiving that, withdrew from there. Great multitudes followed him; and he healed them all, 16and commanded them that they should not make him known, 17that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying,
18“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my Spirit on him.
He will proclaim justice to the nations.
19He will not strive, nor shout,
neither will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
20He won’t break a bruised reed.
He won’t quench a smoking flax,
until he leads justice to victory.
21In his name, the nations will hope.”
22Then one possessed by a demon, blind and mute, was brought to him; and he healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. 23All the multitudes were amazed, and said, “Can this be the son of David?” 24But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “This man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons.”
25Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. 26If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 28But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then God’s Kingdom has come upon you. 29Or how can one enter into the house of the strong man and plunder his goods, unless he first bind the strong man? Then he will plunder his house.
30“He who is not with me is against me, and he who doesn’t gather with me, scatters. 31Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. 32Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age, or in that which is to come.
33“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit. 34You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. 35The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things. 36I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. 37For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
38Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”
39But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. 40For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the huge fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here. 42The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, someone greater than Solomon is here.
43“When an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest, and doesn’t find it. 44Then he says, ‘I will return into my house from which I came;’ and when he has come back, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45Then he goes and takes with himself seven other spirits more evil than he is, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Even so will it be also to this evil generation.”
46While he was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, seeking to speak to him. 47One said to him, “Behold, your mother and your brothers stand outside, seeking to speak to you.”
48But he answered him who spoke to him, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” 49He stretched out his hand toward his disciples, and said, “Behold, my mother and my brothers! 50For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
THE TOMB OF JESUS THE MESSIAH1
Two sites compete for the burial place of Jesus of Nazareth, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, located on a path between the Jaffa Gate and the Damascus Gate, and a few blocks from the Garden Tomb. 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 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 15:12-22).
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 the 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 unappealing. The Garden Tomb satisfies many of the requirements of the place of Jesus’ burial and resurrection, including the 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 CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHER (Church of the Resurrection for Eastern Christians)
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.2 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 the 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, situated near a place of crucifixion and situated within a garden. This was the place where early Christians took Queen Helena when she came to Jerusalem and requested to know the location of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
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:3
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 7.4 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 groove 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.5
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher satisfies items 1-4. 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.6 It was long remembered in the minds and hearts of the Christians of the first century and afterward, and is the place accepted by Christians of all faiths for nearly two thousand years.
My article on "The Tomb of Jesus" may be found in Joseph M. Holden and Norman Geisler, The Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible, pp. 315-318. ©2012 H. Wayne House. All Rights Reserved ↩︎
Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Jerusalem) (last visited November 18, 2011). ↩︎
The following 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, Basilica of the Anastasis, (last visited November 18, 2011). ↩︎
The book has 7-8, but this is an error. The Garden Tomb is a first temple tomb, used in the 8th century B.C. A case for the Garden Tomb may be found at The Resurrection Garden, (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). ↩︎
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). ↩︎
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. ↩︎