Biblical Archaeology From the Ground Down: Golgotha and the Burial Site of Jesus

Well, welcome. My name is Dr. George Sparks, and I'm the host of Bible Archaeology from the Ground Down, sponsored by Bible Interact. Today we have a very interesting program, and we're going to discuss this with Dr. Graves, and it's about the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and also the Garden Tomb. Well, what's the difference? Is the difference in the age? Is the difference in the way they are constructed? And there can't be two places where Jesus was buried. That doesn't make sense at all. I invite you, the audience, along with me, to listen to this very important lecture on the tomb of Jesus. Now, Dr. Graves is a Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen. He has been involved in teaching the Bible and archaeology for over 35 years. He has taught at Oxford University, England, and Liberty University School of Divinity. He has provided tours at the Ashmolean as well as the British Museum, traveled extensively in the Middle East, and has been involved in the Mount Ararat Research Project. That's right, that's Noah's Ark. He has been involved at the Qumran—that's the Dead Sea Scrolls, where that's located—the Temple Mount, and also Shiloh. And Shiloh, of course, is where the tent was, the tabernacle, as well as the Ark of the Covenant for 400 years. These were in Israel, as well as excavating at Tel el-Hammam in Jordan for over 10 seasons. He has authored many books and articles. Welcome to the program, Dr. David Graves. Oh, as always, George, great to be with you, and look forward to our talk together. Well, like I introduced you to the audience, the subject matter today is going to be very, very interesting. Golgotha and burial site is what I've entitled it. The reason for that is there's really three different areas, or three different sites, that we need to consider when we talk about Golgotha and the burial sites. We're going to be looking at the Garden Tomb, we're going to be looking at Gordon's Calvary, or Golgotha, and then we're going to be taking a look at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. So those are the three items. It's all based with a lot of material from my book Archaeology of the New Testament, and I have all the footnotes and references there for anyone that wants to have a look at that. Now here we have a little bit of a map that I found online, but I thought it was pretty good because it has a lot of things listed here. This is Jerusalem in the time of Jesus in the dark green area, and you'll notice that the two areas we're going to talk about is the Garden Tomb up on the north, as well as Golgotha, but then there's a secondary location down with that other red circle, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and that's where the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea is believed to be. So that's the traditional location on the bottom, and the Christian location is generally placed up at the Garden Tomb in Golgotha. We're going to examine those a little bit and look at some of the arguments. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is in the Christian sector of modern-day Jerusalem today. We talked about King David's Palace the other day. It's number 18 there in the yellow to give everyone an idea of where, well, that's located down with the Hezekiah's Tunnel. I found this other map. This might also give you a little more detail of some of the things that happened during the Passion Week. For those that want to look around at that, it's from the Logos program. I use their software, and they have some very good material there. All their books can be searched online, but that's a map from their work. You can see the two locations there, Gordon's Calvary, as well as the traditional location for Golgotha, number 12. And here's another close-up just of the Christian quarter. Number one is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and then across the street is the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. That'll become important a little bit later. The Church of the Saint John the Baptist, and then you can do a little walkabout. So that's kind of the Christian quarter of Jerusalem today. The first thing we're going to talk about is the Gordon Calvary. It's been identified as Golgotha by Gordon. It was discovered by Charles Gordon in 1883. He identified this small rocky cliff outside of the Damascus Gate resembling a skull. I'll show a photograph there in a moment. You can sort of see two eyes and a skull from a distance, and it's northwest of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher near the Garden Tomb. And it's a possible location for the crucifixion. It's outside the city gates. Some have speculated that—here's another photograph of it. You can sort of see the two eyes and a nose and a mouth. It kind of looks like a skull. This is the photograph from 1960. It has changed over the years, so as it appears today is not how it appeared in the time that Gordon was there. We need to keep that in mind. Here's my photograph I took in 2009. You can sort of see two eyes, kind of a nose and a mouth. You have to have a bit of an imagination, somewhat like seeing Jesus' face, you know, on toast. It's those kinds of things. You have to squint a little bit and you can make it out. So Golgotha in Aramaic means skull, in Hebrew means calvary, and in Latin means calva, or bald head or skull. And some have suggested with Gordon that this is the location for the biblical Golgotha. While they translate the Aramaic in Matthew, Mark, and John, the place of the skull—Luke speaks just simply of the skull—assumes that the place was in the shape of a skull. But the Bible doesn't say that it was in the shape of a skull. It just says it was the place of the skull, or perhaps a place of a cemetery. That's where you place the skulls. Gordon in 1883 identified this spot because he thought it looked like a skull, and that's what drew him. And the location was further corroborated by an ancient tomb that was located not far from the cliff, the garden tomb. But now as we delve into the archaeology of it a little bit, we see that Kathleen Kenyon later pointed out, given the severe erosion of the hill because of the modern quarrying, it's unlikely that it retained its appearance over the 2,000 years the same. So it may not have had an appearance of a skull in the time of Jesus. Also, the text does not state that it resembled a skull or that it was even on a hill. So the archaeological evidence to connect this particular site of Gordon's Calvary to the crucifixion. So nothing there that connects it directly. The only thing that connects it is our imagination, really. There's Dame Kathleen Kenyon. I've colorized her black-and-white photograph. However, it's known from ancient sources that the crucifixion took place outside the city walls of Jerusalem, John 19 tells us, in a public place, perhaps near a busy road, because they wanted to show off the crucified individuals, the Romans did. They wanted to show them off to the local population as a deterrent from committing crimes. And also the text says in a place where he was crucified, there was a garden. And in the garden, a new sepulcher, or a new tomb, wherein was never man yet laid. So it hadn't been used in the past. It was a brand new tomb that we should be looking for, and outside the city gates. Well, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, located within the city, old city of Jerusalem, that is the traditional place of the crucifixion. Here's the image here on the right. It's got a big crowd around. Usually they have a big crowd mulling around that area. In the 1960s, archaeological research in conjunction with Josephus' description of the city walls indicated that this site was indeed outside the city walls in the first century. So that has now been well established. I showed the map there earlier, where you can see that this would have sat outside of the city walls of ancient Jerusalem at the time of Jesus. The garden tomb is also located on the north side of Jerusalem, outside the city wall, and has been associated with the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. But again, there's no direct correlation from archaeology other than this is a tomb that existed in the first century, but there's no archaeological evidence to support the location. So we're just going on speculation at this point. In the popular handbook of archaeology in the Holden and Geisler says the first temple tomb created hundreds of years before Jesus and part of a quarry containing 8th century BC tombs. So it's an old tomb, it's not a new tomb, and we need to remember we need a new tomb for it to be Jesus' tomb. Consequently, it cannot be the correct tomb since Jesus was placed in a newly created tomb according to scripture. But it does give us an idea of what the tombs look like. It's a fun place to go and sit there in the court and meditate and think about the burial of Jesus and the crucifixion of Jesus. So it has a nice atmosphere. But as far as archaeology is concerned, this was not the tomb of Jesus, in my opinion. Of course, they would take usually an ossuary when someone died, and they took their bones, they collect them all, and they would put them in a niche somewhere. We talked about the burial practices and the ossuaries, I think, on a previous podcast, and some of them have the name of Jesus on them. There's 22 ossuaries with the name of Jesus on them. Well, you know, there certainly were not 22 Jesus of Nazareth. And if Jesus was placed in one of these bone boxes, then he didn't resurrect from the dead. So that can't be the case. But that's part of the burial practices from the first century. There's another shot of the garden tomb. They've got it fixed up pretty nice. This would not have been the garden that existed in the first century just for folks looking at this. So this is not the garden referred to in Scripture. And there's a beautiful artistic photograph. The photographer did a really nice job with all the colors. You can see the stone rolling away, how they would have had a similar stone for these kinds of first century tombs. There's my photograph of it, 2009. The rock-cut tomb was unearthed in 1867. And Gabriel Barcai points out that the tomb does not contain any features indicative of the first century tomb where Jesus was buried. Barcai argues that the tomb was likely created in the 8th to 7th century BC. The Italians argue instead that it should be dated to the Hellenistic, the 4th to 2nd century BC. The reuse of the old tomb was not an uncommon practice in the ancient times. And this would seem to indicate that the biblical text that speaks of a new tomb was not reused. And so the tomb is likely the tomb that was made by Joseph of Arimathea, according to John and Matthew. And there's two forms of first century rock-cut tombs constructions. I think I've mentioned this in a previous podcast. The long narrow niche, cut at right angles, and then you have the low bench cut parallel to the wall, archosyllium in Latin. There's an archosyllium there, found in Rome. So the New Testament describes Jesus's tomb as outside the city wall. Today, the site of the church is within the current walls of the old city of Jerusalem. But in antiquity, the first century, it would have been outside of the original walls. They were expanded and extended by Herod Antipas in the first century. Behat as an archaeologist, he concludes that the church of the Holy Sepulcher is located in an area which was outside the city walls in the days of Jesus, even though today it's inside. Therefore, this also is a plausible location for the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. It's been well documented by archaeologists that at the time of Jesus, the wall was smaller, and the walls then was on the east of the current site of the church. In other words, the city had been much narrower in Jesus's time. And as I said, Agrippa, Herod Agrippa, is recorded by history as extending the walls. I said Herod Antipas, I meant Herod Agrippa, sorry, to the north side of the current walls of Jerusalem. There's a nice shot of the courtyard again. In my opinion, this is a better option. And several tombs were cut into the ancient quarry on which the church of the Holy Sepulcher was built. So we have a tomb on the site. Unfortunately, the original tomb, which was venerated, was destroyed in the 11th century by the Muslims, the caliph. And now there's only an aetical, that's all that's really remaining there that we can see, because the rest of the tomb had been taken out. So here is a sort of a X-ray view. We see the Golgotha rock on the right down there in the bottom of the church was built on top of it, with a red current church on the top. Then you can see the slope, demolished in the fourth century in order to build the church. And then you see the tomb, Jesus's tomb down below underneath of it. And those are all accessible. And you can see them from the inside of Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Here is the sepulcher as it remains today, a lot of damage from pilgrims coming through and venerating the site. But it's a typical first century kind of tomb that we would expect to see cut out for the placement of Jesus's body in the rotunda of the church. And that's typical of the first century tomb. So that matches up where the other tomb doesn't seem to line up. Classical archecylium that would be from the first century. There's a close-up of it, courtesy of a friend of mine, Professor Peter Gentry, took the photograph. And that's my tour of the three sites. Any comments, George? Well, the pictures are wonderful. It did explain it very, very well. First of all, you got the garden tomb. And at the garden tomb, it's not a first century tomb. It's probably an eighth or seventh century tomb. It's too old and has already been used. It's not a new tomb as the gospels prescribed. So it's a disqualifier. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, first of all, is outside the city gates of the first century because you cannot have something unclean inside the city, such as a cemetery. That's positive. The tombs that you showed us inside are first century tombs. They look like they would be niches. The pochim, where you'd slide in the ossuaries, that fits first century qualifications. The tombs that would fit the ossuaries, I believe, are very short span. Maybe it's within like a little over 100 years where they were making ossuaries, that tradition. It was cut short because of the first Jewish revolt around 66, ending at Masada in 73. So this is a much better candidate. You can't tell if the tomb was new or used, but it's at the right place. The tombs put it at the right time, and it's the right style. It's not Roman's cremate. This obviously was a Jewish cemetery. And George, something of this importance would be venerated by the Christians very early, and this is a very early location that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher sits on. So I think to get that one right, I don't always agree with the tradition of the church for locations of places of things. For example, Lot's tomb in Jordan, down in the Jordan Valley, I think that's just made up. But it's a cave, and they put a monastery there. But in this particular case, I think they got it right with the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. So I think this is a good candidate, a better candidate than the Garden Tomb and Gordon's Calvary that would be outside the city wall. You mentioned that in the 11th century, where you said the suggested tomb of Jesus within the perimeter of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, what we're looking at right now, was destroyed. So now there's just that rotunda there. Is that correct? That's right. There's been a lot of damage, but what we have left is the carcassilium, the chambers that were freshly cut, in which they would have put the ossuaries. They would have had prepared that for Jesus's death. They would lay them out first on top of the carcassilium for the flesh to be eaten away from the bones, and then they would pick the bones up, and then they would place them in the bone box and slide then that into the carcassilium. So that's why the carcassilium, those little niches that were created in the rock, they would have been created and repaired for the burial of Jesus even before they would put the bone box in. I don't believe the bone box was ever used because there was no need for them because of the resurrection, but they would still have created the niches in that first century tomb. Yeah, that wouldn't be a good thing to find the ossuary of Jesus. It would not be a good thing. Not to be Jesus of Nazareth, but like you said, we've already talked about 22 or so ossuaries with the name translated Jesus on them. There was a point in the Gospels where a man was talking to Jesus. He said something like, let the dead bury the dead, you come follow me, which seems like a pretty cruel statement because the man said, permit me to go bury my father. Now, in the idea of the custom of an ossuary burial, that's going to take some time, will it not? Yes. You don't make these ossuaries just overnight. You don't go down to the market and pick one of these things up just off the side of the street. So they take a while to create and manufacture and a lot of craftsmanship goes into it. They're not made overnight. And this is going to be your opinion in that text, which seemingly is very confusing, where the man says, permit me to go bury my father. And then Jesus's reply was, let the dead bury the dead. Could it possibly be that the man was talking about the tradition of this ossuary burial practice? And maybe the implication was that the ministry of Jesus was not that long to permit somebody to be away. What would be your take on that particular scripture? I know I'm talking out of the lecture that you provided. I looked at that a number of years ago. I actually preached a sermon on it and I forget all the details of it, to be honest. But I think the idea of the dead burying the dead is sort of a reference back to this two-stage burial process where they put the body out first and have the flesh come off of it. So the dead is burying the dead in the sense that, and then they would put the bones in the ossuary later on, about a year later. So that's what they would mean by the dead burying the dead. So you think it does have something to do with this tradition of the ossuary burial practice? Yes, right. I think it's the first the dead burying the dead is that the flesh is being decomposing on the bones, off of the bones, in the niche where the body is laid for about a year. So the dead are burying the dead at that point. This is the scriptural narrative where it talks about where Jesus came a little bit late to the burial or time to heal Lazarus. In the text it seems like, well, Jesus came a little bit late. They said, well, we called for you and now here you are, but it's too late. Lazarus is dead. He's buried. And then Jesus replies something like he's just asleep. He calls Jesus out, excuse me, Jesus calls Lazarus out of the tomb. And then later on, this is the one, well, maybe one of two instances where Jesus was anointed. And the sister of Lazarus anoints Jesus with this alabaster, sub-translated alabaster box or alabaster vessel. And then Jesus replies, this is a waste because it could have been sold for like a year's wage or something. So very expensive ointment, possibly in a very unique container. And I think the implication was, you know, perfumes were used for the ossuary burial because they got to go back and here you got flesh that is decomposing. So you would have perfume in there to help mask the scent. But since Lazarus in this occasion was risen, the tomb is now open. You don't leave costly goods in the tomb. People might go in and steal it. Instead, this is used for Jesus. And I think Jesus gives an implication of this because he says to Judas, leave her alone. Keep preparing me for my burial. What would be your take on that one? Yeah, I would agree with you on that. The alabaster jar is a clean vessel. So it's like a stone vessel. Alabaster vessel, yes, stone vessel. So they're not made out of ceramic, which would be unclean. So in the Jewish context, this is something that is ceremonially clean and able to be used. And they would keep their spices and perfumes and so forth in there. And that's what they would use for the anointing. They would put the spices also on the body. That's good. I think in one of the scriptural narratives, it actually talks about how Jesus was being anointed from an alabaster vessel, and apparently it broke, it spilled. And then the woman that was anointing Jesus mopped it up with her hair. I don't remember but if you look on the rim, this is just a maybe and maybe possibly, we don't know for sure. Look how narrow this is. And if it was sealed really tight, you could snap this pretty easily. You could really because it's very thin right here. I can imagine if somebody was excited in a hurry and Jesus is at your house, I believe it'd be really easy to get excited and snap something. And now of course you're using, I'm using my imagination. And of course it spilled. It's like you're saying, when we use archaeology, it paints a scenery in our mind that's more accurate than Hollywood or maybe just our imagination. So I just took this opportunity to share this with everybody. Related to this, George, Smyrna, one of the seven churches, that word in Greek is myrrh. The only three places we have the use of myrrh in the New Testament is around Jesus's birth. The wise men bring the myrrh as a gift. We also only have it when Jesus is being crucified and they lift the vinegar up to him mixed with myrrh. And the third is when they bury Jesus and they use the spice myrrh in part of the burial process. So really interesting. This is all dealing with Smyrna because it was a city of suffering. And here we have it in the suffering and exaltation of Jesus. I really enjoyed this time we had together and this podcast, the information that you relayed to us. This has been just wonderful. I appreciate it very, very much. Thanks, George. Archaeology can help us understand the Bible. This is Biblical Archaeology from the Ground Down with Dr. Graves, who just had a very, very busy week. He did two, I believe, six-hour days at Trinity Southwest University in his own presentations to the students out there. So once again, I really appreciate his time given to this program. Everybody have a great day. Remember to like and subscribe.