and so it goes...: academia

26.6.08

academia

today we visited the garden tomb at 17:00 and then the church of the holy sepulchre at 19:00.

both sites claim to be the place of Christ's death and resurrection.....golgotha and the tomb..... but one seems slightly more legitimate than the other.

the garden tomb is located right next to a bus stop on the northern end of the old city. though the tomb is a "rolling stone tomb," it completely lacks authenticity in the archaeological and academic world. for one, the tomb dates to at least 700 years before Christ.....thus not qualifying as a "new, fresh tomb" as scripture requires. other evidence includes a cistern built by the crusaders that was supposedly used to water the garden at the time of Jesus, as well as a rock shaped like a skull that probably only exists as a result of fairly recent incidents of erosion.



the church of the holy sepulchre resounds with supporting evidence. mainly......the pilgrimage of many thousands of Christians to this spot (since the time of Constantine). also, this site was attacked, thus destroying an unfortunate amount of physical evidence regarding the site. therefore, although there is little physical evidence, because the place is deeply saturated in tradition, it seems a likely candidate for the site of the crucifixion and resurrection.





i must confess.....walking through the garden tomb frustrated me.......a person who thinks before she feels. why is so much time and money devoted to a site that is so blatantly inaccurate?

but dr. mullins explained it....

up until about 150 years ago, protestant christians had no location for pilgrimage, and no place in jerusalem to feel fully at home and connected with God. muslims have the dome of the rock, jews have the wall, and catholics claimed the sepulchre. therefore, the garden tomb serves as a place of worship rather than academia. the holy sepulchre is full to the brim of icons and images.....it glitters with candles, lamps, gold and silver everywhere....clearly causing distractions for worshipers not accustomed to eastern orthodox liturgy.

it's very humbling to come to a place where i thought i had the upper hand.....those ignorant fools who think they have the right location.....they should research.....

yet....i don't need to protest the use of the garden tomb for worshipers.....for academia is not usually the pilgrim's interest. and honestly, archaeologists cannot say which tomb (of multiple found) is considered "the tomb."

it's difficult to find harmony between the heart and mnd.

5 comments:

Hanskee said...

Love's redeeming work is done
Alleluia
Fought the fight, the battle won
Alleluia
Death in vain forbids him rise
Alleluia
Christ has opened paradise
Alleluia

...and He did it... right there where you were.

There are no words.

Amber Woods said...

I'm glad there are pictures of both!

keast said...

unfortunately, those are not my pictures, friend

Anonymous said...

i never thought about Christians not having a place for pilgrimage in Jerusalem...

i guess to me just getting to go, to see all those places you have, to be where there has been so much history, is enough

its the closest i could hope to get to literally walking in his steps! =)

Anonymous said...

if i killed a nobody who would remember where he died? especially if his friends run and hide? no one truly know where Jesus was crucified. besides one of the monks or friars was hitting a girl on her back when she bent to touch the rock because he thought she was taking a photo! so why would a 'holy man' act that way? and whats wrong with taking a photo? all the incense and gaudy decorations took away from the sanctity of the place. Anyway how do we know the garden tomb is not the real place. After all the bible says the guards were bribed to tell a lie that Jesus body had bee taken by the disciples. Maybe some one wanted to distract people from the real site because they knew the power of Jesus. I was not allowed to take a bible into the old city of Jerusalem. but catholics could take their prayer books. See how afraid they are of the Bible and REAL prayers, Jesus asked us not to pray vain repetitive prayers (like catholics). why kiss a rock? rubbing a rock for what? Jesus is in our hearts no need to turn all this to some kind of voodoo