Exploring Greece, Israel, and Jordan— Part Sixty Two

The garden tomb is a nice site near the old city of Jerusalem to give one a visual image of the kind of tomb Jesus was likely buried in. It is a rock cut tomb with a rolling stone that fits the Gospel descriptions of what it would look like. Unfortunately it does not have an ancient pedigree, and there are many such tombs around Jerusalem. Yes, this tomb is outside the current old city walls, but they only date to Suliman’s time, and the church of the Holy Sepulchre’s locale was also outside the original old city walls. Yes it is near a cliff that from a certain angle sort of looks like a skull,

So, the most one can say based on the historical evidence is— perhaps this is the spot, but with more assurance we can say, this is what it would have looked like. I enjoy bringing groups here for the peace and quiet (although it is still next to the Palestinian bus station), and I am grateful to the evangelical Christians from the U.K. and elsewhere who run this place and provide the elements so groups can have holy communion in a garden setting. Well done. In our next post, however we will deal with a site near Jerusalem and Bethlehem about the authenticity of which, there is now little or know doubt. I’m talking about where Herod the not so great was buried.