(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)
It’s a pretty ordinary-looking Arab area in East Jerusalem, outside the walls of the Old City. Since my first residence in the neighborhood all the way back in the first part of 1978, I’ve walked along Saladin Street — or, better, Salah al-Din Street — far more times than I can count. I’ll almost certainly be on it again in about three weeks. These days, though, I walk it with a different sense than when I first did.
Obviously, as several have pointed out to me this past week, the most important thing about the first Easter Sunday is that the tomb was empty — not the precise location of that empty tomb.
I don’t disagree at all.
Still, information about the geographical setting of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection can help to make a very ancient story more vivid, more real. And that, I think — beyond even our natural desire to know things — makes questions about Calvary and the place where our world was transformed entirely worthy of consideration.
This piece, by my friend and BYU colleague Jeff Chadwick, has significantly affected my views on the subject:
https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/volume-4-number-1-2003/revisiting-golgotha-and-garden-tomb
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In