- The opening of Jesus' tomb in Jerusalem
may be imminent, and if Christendom is not enthralled by the prospect,
it is little wonder. The whole point of the Christian faith is that the
tomb is empty. As the angel announced, "He is not here; he has risen."
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- Still, there is expectancy that the tomb
will reveal artwork or other signs of veneration by the earliest believers
in Christ's resurrection. No one has laid eyes on the tomb for nearly two
centuries, and the dawn of the third Christian millennium seems to be a
fitting time to rediscover the site.
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- The tomb is believed to rest within an
edicule (or "little house") within Jerusalem's Church of the
Holy Sepulcher. The surrounding shrine is an ornate 19th century construction
in danger of collapse. It was damaged by fire in 1808 and further weakened
by an earthquake in 1927, after which a makeshift framework of steel girders
was erected to prop it up.
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- The reason the grave has gone so long
unopened is because competing church authorities with rights over the sepulcher
have seldom agreed on anything. But they did authorize a new dome in 1996
and now plan extensive internal renovations.
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- Martin Biddle, a 62-year-old Oxford professor
of medieval archaeology, predicts the next step will be to bring down and
rebuild the edicule, exposing the tomb. Biddle and his wife have spent
a decade surveying the site, using ancient sources and modern photogrammetry.
They are convinced that beneath four internal coverings is the burial place
excavated by the Emperor Constantine in 325.
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- "Originally the tomb was burrowed
into a rocky hill slope," Biddle recently told Stuart Wavell of the
Sunday Times of London. "Constantine cut away all the rock except
a plug containing the rock-cut tomb. It was that plug which he embellished
with marble decoration, and the remains of which are inside the edicule."
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- Constantine's shrine survived for 600
years before its destruction in 1009. Since then, there have been three
further constructions enclosing the tomb.
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- "Once the outer skin is off,"
Biddle predicts, "I think that will leave a kind of jagged tooth,
which will be the wreck of the previous edicule. Then, poking out of that
will be the remains of the original rock-cut tomb, about five feet high.
It will probably include a shelf sticking out from a rock wall."
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- The tomb appears to have been accessible
to believers for a century following the crucifixion, until Hadrian had
it covered with rubble to erect a pagan temple in 135. Then, about 30 years
before Constantine's excavation, the scholar Eusebius located Golgotha,
the place of Jesus' crucifixion, leading the emperor's engineers to discover
the gravesite.
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- Biddle does not believe the tomb will
tell us anything we do not already know about Jesus. "I believe Jesus
was a historical figure who is very well-evidenced," he says. "Not
many people have four different, almost contemporary biographies that survive."
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- David Yount's latest book is ''Spiritual
Simplicity'' (Simon & Schuster). Visit him at www.erols.com/dyount.
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