Scientists removed a marble slab from the Savior's burial bed. And they found it underneath...

Restoration has begun at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. During it, a marble slab was removed from the stone bed on which the body of Jesus Christ rested. She has covered this bed since 1555.

The blood of Jesus Christ will be sought in the Holy Sepulcher

One of the participants in the historical event, archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert, said that many stones were found under the slab. However, he does not exclude that under the stones a rocky surface was preserved, on which, in fact, the body of Jesus Christ was laid. At least the ground penetrating radar study is encouraging. Under the place where the slab lay, the wall of the cave in which the tomb was located is “visible”, and its floor is also visible. As Heibert assures, the wall is one with the surrounding rock. That is, it was not built artificially. Therefore, the cave was really carved into the rock, as the Bible tells about it. And the likelihood that it was she who became the Holy Sepulcher is very high.

And the most exciting thing: there is a very small, but still hope that somewhere in the cave, maybe on the floor, since it has been preserved, it will be possible to find the blood of Jesus. After all, there were many bleeding wounds on his body. The largest one is on the chest - from the spear of the guard who pierced the heart of the crucified Christ.

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Jesus was laid there

Jesus was buried in a new tomb that belonged to Joseph of Arimathea.

“In the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. They laid Jesus there...", says the Gospel of John.

The tomb was a cave with a shelf about 2 meters long and about 80 centimeters wide cut into the wall at a height of 60 centimeters. On this shelf lay the body, wrapped in a shroud bought by the same Joseph from Arimathea. Here Jesus Christ was resurrected on the third day.

“And he took him down, wrapped him in a shroud, and laid him in a tomb hewn out of the rock,” Luke testifies in his Gospel.

Scientists are now looking for this very shelf on which Jesus’ disciple Simon Peter saw only “the linen cloths lying.” It was just covered by a marble slab - initially white, but over time it had become quite yellowed. The stones under the slab are likely traces of the activity of thousands of pilgrims, each of whom tried to break off a piece from the tomb.

Whether the cave itself is well preserved is a moot point. It may have been thoroughly destroyed. But it could have survived. This is what the historian Eusebius of Caesarea wrote about this in his time in his work “The Life of Constantine” - this refers to the Emperor Constantine, who in the 4th century, together with his mother Helen, organized the search for the tomb of Jesus:

“Some atheists and wicked men intended to hide this saving cave from the eyes of people, with the insane intention of hiding the truth through this. Having used a lot of labor, they brought earth from somewhere and filled the whole place with it. Then, raising the embankment to a certain height, they paved it with stone, and under this high embankment they hid the divine cave. Having completed such work, they only had to prepare a strange, truly tomb of souls on the surface of the earth, and they built a gloomy dwelling for dead idols, a hiding place of the demon of voluptuousness Aphrodite, where they brought hateful sacrifices on unclean and vile altars.”

By order of Constantine, the sacred cave was dug up. By 335, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built above it. In the center of the temple is the Edicule - a kind of chapel that stands just above the tomb. Restoration has begun there.

AND AT THIS TIME

The Holy Sepulcher may be located in a completely different place

In 1980, during the reconstruction of the East Talpiot area, a crypt was discovered that was dated to the first half of the first century AD - that is, the time when Jesus Christ was crucified.

In 2007, documentary filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici entered the crypt. Then, together with James Cameron - the creator of Titanic, Titanic 3D, Terminator, Aliens and Avatar - they shot and showed a film called The Lost Tomb of Christ. With which Cameron and Jacobovich tried to prove that the tomb in East Talpiot is the real Holy Sepulcher. And not the one that is now being restored and in which the Holy Fire descends annually.

In the crypt there were ossuaries - stone boxes in which the bones of the deceased were placed after they had dried out, having lain for some time on a shelf in the tomb. There were inscriptions on the ossuaries that indicated that they contained the remains of a certain Jesus (“Jesus, son of Joseph”), one of his brothers - Josiah, the remains of two Marys (presumably the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene), the remains of a certain Mati ( perhaps the Apostle Matthew). And the remains of a man named Judas ("Judas, son of Jesus").

Then, in 2007, they made some noise, but never came to a conclusion whether the found burial could be considered the grave of the “Holy Family”.

Biggest Con: The name Jesus was very popular in the first century. It is engraved on 98 other ossuaries known to archaeologists. That is, most likely the wrong grave was found.

The most compelling argument in favor: Andrew Ferwenger, a Canadian professor of statistics and mathematics at the University of Toronto, analyzed all the names that came across burials in Judea two thousand years ago. And he assessed the chances that people with Gospel names accidentally ended up all together in one crypt in East Talpiot. The probability that this is some other family is 1 in 600. In other words, in 599 cases out of 600, mathematics suggests that we are talking about the Holy Family.

The remains were studied by Dr. Carney Mathieson from the paleo-DNA laboratory at Lakehead University (Ontario, Canada). Found that one of the Marys could be the mother of Jesus. And the second Mary is in no way related to him. But they are buried in the same family crypt. This means they could be husband and wife. And “Judas, son of Jesus” is the fruit of their love.

That Jesus and Mary Magdalene had children is one of the most scandalous assumptions made by Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code. Perhaps it has some basis.

Jacobovici points out: the tomb in Talpiot is located on the site that belonged to Joseph of Arimathea.

Now the crypt is sealed with a concrete slab. Jacobovici and Cameron, it seems, failed to prove that he is the real Holy Sepulcher.

Vladimir LAGOVSKY

At the end of October 2016, which is located in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem (Israel).

This happened for the first time since the mid-16th century, reports The International Business Times.

Why did scientists wait so long, and what prompted them to open the tomb in 2016?

Story

The Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem is the most revered shrine in the Christian world. Christians believe that the body of the crucified Jesus Christ rested for 3 days on a stone slab kept here. The slab (bed) measuring 2 x 0.8 meters was located in a cave carved into the rock - this is how the Jews buried their dead in the first century AD, writes “Popular Mechanics”.

In 326, Empress Helena, now revered as a saint by many Christian churches, undertook a pilgrimage to Golgotha. As a result of excavations carried out under her leadership, a cave with a burial and a cross on which, as Christians believe, Jesus Christ was crucified, 4 nails and a tablet with the inscription: IESUS NAZARENUS REX IUDAEORUM (“Jesus of Nazarene, King of the Jews”) were discovered. Elena founded a temple around the bed, where Christian pilgrims from all over the world began to flock. The temple looked like a domed marble chapel.

The room in the temple that has survived to this day symbolizes the cave in which the body of Christ was buried. Now there is the bed itself, part of the cave walls and part of the entrance. The former cave was destroyed in 1009.

The right to conduct Christian and Jewish worship in the temple founded by Helen became a powerful political instrument of the Middle Ages. The territory of Golgotha ​​changed hands many times, from Byzantine emperors to Arab rulers - and back. In 1009, the chapel was destroyed by Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah; European Christians used this event as one of the main propaganda tools during the organization of the First Crusade. The crusaders built a new temple around the bed, preserving the supports of the chapel.

After this, Christians could freely conduct rituals and services near the Holy Sepulcher, even during periods when Jerusalem passed into the hands of Arab conquerors. During the earthquake of 1545, the sanctuary was badly damaged, after which the funeral Lodge was covered with a marble slab to protect it from pilgrims who wanted to take a piece of the relic with them.

The goal of scientists

The restoration of the temple began only in the 19th century, but a new earthquake in 1927 again destroyed the buildings around the Lodge. After World War II, a large-scale restoration of the entire temple complex, which had developed over centuries of construction and destruction, began, but even then the slab hiding the bed remained in place.

And only in 2016, archaeologists came to an agreement with 6 churches: Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian, Coptic, Syrian and Ethiopian, to remove the slab from the tomb and study the burial bed.

Opening of the tomb.
Screenshot from video

The main question that experts have to answer is: why did Elena decide that it was here that the body of the crucified Christ rested?

“The marble slab had been displaced, and we were surprised by the large amount of rock material underneath,” said study participant Fredrik Hiebert of the National Geographic Society. According to him, there will be “a long scientific analysis to finally see the original surface of the stone on which, according to legend, the body of Christ was laid.”

Scientists note that analysis of the original rock can give them the opportunity to determine the original shape of the tomb, as well as the history of the formation of the object as one of the main symbols of Christianity.

Work on the restoration of the Holy Sepulcher is planned to be completed by the spring of 2017. The total financial costs will exceed $4 million. King Abdullah II of Jordan also donated funds for the restoration.

Scientists record all manipulations on video. It is expected that this material will later be used as a basis for a television documentary. So far, only one excerpt has been posted on the Internet, which depicts the rise of the slab.

Research work was carried out continuously for 60 hours after, for the first time in 450 years, a marble slab was removed from the Holy Sepulcher in the Edicule - a chapel in the Jerusalem Church of the Resurrection of Christ.

As the scientific portal notes, the most revered place in the Christian world, the burial bed, is carved into the wall of a cave made of limestone. In 1555, according to scientists, the tomb was covered with marble lining in order to protect it from those frantic pilgrims who wanted to dismantle the funeral bed for souvenirs.

When specialists from the National Technical University of Athens, with the support of Israeli and Armenian colleagues, removed the marble cladding on the night of October 26, they first saw a large layer of stone debris underneath it. However, after continuing their work non-stop for 60 hours, the researchers found another marble slab underneath with a cross carved into its surface. Presumably this was made during the Crusades.

At the same time, the burial bed turned out to be completely intact, despite the fact that the walls of the cave in which it was located, as already mentioned, were destroyed along with the original building of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at the beginning of the 11th century by order of the then ruler of Jerusalem, Caliph Hakim.

Members of the archaeological team brought the slab to the surface to clean and digitize it before reinstalling it in the Edicule.

"I'm absolutely amazed. My knees are shaking a little because I didn't expect it," archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert told National Geographic magazine at the site. “We cannot be 100 percent sure, but there seems to be clear evidence that the tomb was not damaged during all this time. After all, scientists and historians have been asking this question for many decades,” the researcher added.

In addition, archaeologists confirmed the presence of limestone in the walls of the cave inside Edicule, and also made a small window so that believers could see the shrine for the first time in several centuries.

The Bible says that after the crucifixion, the body of Christ was placed in one of the caves carved into the mountain for burial. It was there on the third day that his miraculous resurrection took place.

The earliest accounts of Jesus' burial come from the canonical Gospels, the first four books of the New Testament, which are believed to have appeared decades after Christ's crucifixion. However, the accounts found at the time consistently describe how Christ was buried in a rock tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy Jewish follower of Jesus.

Jewish tradition prohibits burial within city walls, and the Gospels indicate that Jesus was buried outside Jerusalem, near the site of his crucifixion on Calvary. A few years after the burial, the borders of Jerusalem were significantly expanded so that Golgotha ​​and the nearby tomb were within the city.

It is also known that in the 4th century, the holy Queen Helen, Equal to the Apostles, ordered the beginning of excavations at Golgotha. As a result, a cross was found on which Jesus was allegedly crucified. The queen ordered the foundation of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on this site.

According to Dan Bahat, Jerusalem's former chief archaeologist, "It is impossible to be absolutely certain that the site of the Holy Sepulcher is the burial place of Jesus, but we assume that there is no other site that can most likely lay claim to it."

Archaeologist Martin Biddle, who published a study of the tomb's history in 1999, believes that the only way to be sure that the Edicule actually contains the burial bed of Jesus Christ is to carefully analyze the data collected during the current research mission.

It seems that there is one less mystery in the world, and it’s time for archaeologists and theologians to shake hands - after the opening of the tomb of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, there is no doubt about its authenticity!

Just over a month ago, representatives of six Christian churches allowed specialists from National Geographic to lift for the first time in many centuries the marble slab that covered the main shrine of Christians around the world. The goal of archaeologists is to confirm or refute the fact that the supposed tomb of Christ today can be considered the real burial place of Jesus of Nazareth, or whether the tomb and its contents are irretrievably lost to history and believers, after numerous earthquakes and destruction of the church by conquerors.

And journalists from The Independent report amazing news from the field:

“After researchers lifted a marble slab for the first time in 500 years, they discovered another limestone slab, on which, in all likelihood, lay the body of Jesus Christ! But that’s not all... Then archaeologists discovered a find about which nothing was known to date - a second gray marble slab with a cross engraved by the Crusaders in the 12th century...”

According to the four Gospels, Jesus was buried in a cave near the site of his crucifixion on Mount Golgotha, which belonged to Joseph of Arimathea. It is known that according to Jewish tradition, the dead could not be buried within the city, so limestone is a characteristic sign that the burial was outside Jerusalem, surrounded by the rocks of this rock. In addition, on Golgotha, not far from the current location of the Temple, a quarry was discovered, the stones of which were used to construct a funeral bed.

“The most surprising thing for us was the discovery of the second marble slab, after we removed the first layer of dust,” says archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert, “it was gray with a cross in the middle, and not like the creamy white marble that had been used to seal the tomb since 1500- 's, in order to prevent the theft of the relic..."

“...When we realized what we had found, our knees began to shake! This seems to us to be visible proof that the place that pilgrims worship today is the same grave that St. Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, who made Christianity the dominant religion, found back in IV!”

Christians believe that three days after the crucifixion, Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead. And Fredrik Hiebert witnessed how, after the opening of the tomb, Christian leaders were the first to visit the main shrine:

“They came out with a big smile on their face! After them the monks came in and everyone came out smiling. We became very curious. We also entered the tomb and saw a lot of rubble, but no artifacts or bones!”

Published 01.11.16 08:41

The discovery made by scientists in the tomb of Jesus Christ resolved a centuries-old dispute between historians.

As I wrote last week, archaeologists from the funeral Bed of Christ in the Edicule - the chapel over the Holy Sepulcher in the Jerusalem Church of the Resurrection of Christ (Church of the Holy Sepulcher), installed in the 16th century and has not been raised since then. The slab over the Lodge was erected due to the fact that in those days pilgrims tried to break off part of the relic for themselves. After removing the slab, scientists discovered a lot of stone fragments underneath it.

According to TASS, after analyzing the stones, scientists intkbbach They found another slab with a carved cross above them, which was presumably installed during the Crusades. At the final stage of the work, archaeologists discovered a burial bed carved into limestone. It turned out that it was preserved intact, despite the fact that the walls of the cave in which it was located were destroyed along with the original building of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at the beginning of the 11th century by order of Caliph Hakim.

As archaeologists have established, the stone on which, according to Holy Scripture, the body of Christ rested, has remained intact since its installation.

“We cannot say with 100% certainty, but there is visible evidence that the tomb has not been moved [since the burial of Christ]. This is something that scientists and historians have debated for centuries,” said archaeologist Fredrik Gibert. His words are quoted by RBC with reference to National Geographic magazine.

Experts studied the ancient monument for 60 hours until then, and on the evening of October 28, the slab was again installed in its original place.

Scientists were able to conduct a thorough inspection and filming of the monument, and their findings were documented for further study. According to the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem, the restoration of the Edicule is being carried out by specialists from the National Technical University of Athens in coordination with employees of the University of Florence and experts from Armenia.

It is known that the burial place of Jesus Christ was discovered three centuries after the Crucifixion by envoys of the Roman Emperor Constantine, who proclaimed Christianity the state religion. The cave in which the Holy Sepulcher was located was found under the foundation of a pagan temple, built on the orders of Emperor Hadrian, who ordered the creation of a new colony on the site of Jerusalem, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

"We cannot say with absolute certainty that the place where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher stands is the burial place of Jesus, but we certainly have no other place that corresponds as accurately to it, and we have no reason to reject the authenticity of this place "National Geographic quotes Israeli Jerusalem archeology expert Dan Bahat as saying.

Last week, a video from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher appeared on the Internet. The footage shows archaeologists removing a marble slab from the place where, according to legend, Jesus Christ was buried.

Opening of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. VIDEO

According to the Gospel, after the death of Christ, His body was placed in one of the burial caves carved into the mountain. According to scripture, it was there that the resurrection of Jesus took place on the third day.

Saint Helena conducted excavations on Mount Golgotha ​​in the 4th century. She managed to find the cross on which Christ was crucified there, after which the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was founded on this site.