Tomb of Jesus explained

The tomb of Jesus is the place where Jesus was entombed[1] after his death. According to the gospel accounts, the tomb originally belonged to Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy man who, believing Jesus was the Messiah, offered his own sepulcher for the burial of Jesus.[2]

Possible locations for the tomb of Jesus include the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Garden Tomb.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.[3] It contains, according to traditions dating back to the fourth century, the two holiest sites in Christianity: the site where Jesus was crucified, at a place known as Calvary (or Golgotha), and Jesus' empty tomb, where he is believed by Christians to have been buried and resurrected.[4]

The marble covering protecting the original limestone slab upon which Jesus was thought to have been laid by Joseph of Arimathea was temporarily removed for restoration and cleaning on October 26, 2016.[5]

In the Apocrypha

Within the apocryphal text known as the Gospel of Peter, the tomb of Jesus is called "Joseph's garden".[6]

Other locations

The Garden Tomb

The Garden Tomb is a rock-cut tomb in Jerusalem, which was unearthed in 1867 and is considered by some Protestants to be the tomb of Jesus. The tomb has been dated by Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay to the 8th–7th centuries BC.[7]

Talpiot Tomb

The Talpiot Tomb (or Talpiyot Tomb) is a rock-cut tomb discovered in 1980 in the East Talpiot neighborhood, five kilometers (three miles) south of the Old City in East Jerusalem. It contained ten ossuaries, six inscribed with epigraphs, including one interpreted as "Yeshua bar Yehosef" ("Jeshua, son of Joseph"), although the inscription is partially illegible, and its translation and interpretation is widely disputed.[8] It is widely believed by scholars that the Jesus in Talpiot (if this is indeed his name) is not Jesus of Nazareth, but a person with the same name, since he appears to have a son named Judas (buried next to him) and the tomb shows signs of belonging to a wealthy Judean family, while Jesus came from a low-class Galilean family.[9]

Roza Bal

The Roza Bal is a shrine located in the Khanyar quarter in downtown area of Srinagar in Kashmir. The word roza means tomb, the word bal mean place.[10] [11] [12] [13] [14] Locals believe a sage is buried here, Yuzasaf (alternatively Yuz Asaf or Youza Asouph), alongside another Muslim holy man, Mir Sayyid Naseeruddin.

The shrine was relatively unknown until the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, claimed in 1899 that it is actually the tomb of Jesus.[15] This view is maintained by Ahmadis today, though it is rejected by the local Sunni caretakers of the shrine, one of whom said "the theory that Jesus is buried anywhere on the face of the earth is blasphemous to Islam."[16]

Kirisuto no haka

Shingō village in Japan contains another location of what is purported to be the last resting place of Jesus, the so-called "Tomb of Jesus" (Kirisuto no haka), and the residence of Jesus' last descendants, the family of Sajiro Sawaguchi.[17] According to the Sawaguchi family's claims, Jesus Christ did not die on the cross at Golgotha. Instead his brother, Isukiri,[18] took his place on the cross, while Jesus fled across Siberia to Mutsu Province, in northern Japan. Once in Japan, he changed his name to Torai Tora Daitenku, became a rice farmer, married a twenty-year old Japanese woman named Miyuko, and raised three daughters near what is now Shingō. While in Japan, it is asserted that he traveled, learned, and eventually died at the age of 106. His body was exposed on a hilltop for four years. According to the customs of the time, Jesus' bones were collected, bundled, and buried in the mound purported to be the grave of Jesus Christ.[19] [20]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: National Geographic. Romey, Kristin. November 28, 2017. Exclusive: Age of Jesus Christ's Purported Tomb Revealed. https://web.archive.org/web/20171128124430/https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/11/jesus-tomb-archaeology-jerusalem-christianity-rome/. dead. November 28, 2017.
  2. Web site: The Little-Known Legend of Jesus in Japan. Lidz. Franz. Smithsonian. en. 2019-10-19.
  3. Web site: Complete compendium of Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Madain Project. 18 March 2018.
  4. Web site: Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem . Jerusalem . Sacred-destinations.com . 21 February 2010 . 7 July 2012.
  5. News: Romey. Kristin. October 31, 2016. Unsealing of Christ's Reputed Tomb Turns Up New Revelations. https://web.archive.org/web/20210222074707/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/jesus-christ-tomb-burial-church-holy-sepulchre . dead . February 22, 2021 . National Geographic. Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City. 2 February 2023.
  6. Book: Walter Richard. The Gospel According to Peter: A Study. Longmans, Green. 1894. 8. 2022-04-02.
  7. Gabriel Barkay, The Garden Tomb, published in Biblical Archaeology Review March/April 1986
  8. Web site: Heiser . Michael . Evidence Real and Imagined: Thinking Clearly About the "Jesus Family Tomb". 2007-06-08 . 9–13.
  9. News: Cooperman. Alan. 2007-02-28. 'Lost Tomb of Jesus' Claim Called a Stunt. en-US. The Washington Post. 2021-05-14. 0190-8286.
  10. Ghulām Muhyi'd Dīn Sūfī Kashīr, being a history of Kashmir from the earliest times to our own 1974 – Volume 2 – Page 520 "Bal, in Kashmiri, means a place and is applied to a bank, or a landing place."
  11. B. N. Mullik – My years with Nehru: Kashmir – Volume 2 1971 – Page 117 "Due to the presence of the Moe-e-Muqaddas on its bank the lake gradually acquired the name Hazratbal (Bal in Kashmiri means lake) and the mosque came to be known as the Hazratbal Mosque. Gradually the present Hazratbal village grew ..."
  12. Nigel B. Hankin Hanklyn-janklin: a stranger's rumble-tumble guide to some words 1997 Page 125 (Although bal means hair in Urdu, in this instance the word is Kashmiri for a place – Hazratbal – the revered place.) HAZRI n Urdu Lit. presence, attendance. In British days the word acquired the meaning to Europeans and those associated with ..."
  13. Andrew Wilson The Abode of Snow: Observations on a Journey from Chinese Tibet to ... 1875 reprint 1993– Page 343 Bal means a place, and Ash is the satyr of Kashmir traditions."
  14. Parvéz Dewân Parvéz Dewân's Jammû, Kashmîr, and Ladâkh: Kashmîr – 2004 Page 175 "Manas means 'mountain' and 'bal' means 'lake' (or even 'place'). Thus, the ..."
  15. [J. Gordon Melton]
  16. [Times of India]
  17. Web site: From Japanese text of the sign included in this article. https://web.archive.org/web/20191211004059/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/GraveSign.jpg. dead. December 11, 2019.
  18. Web site: Japan Travel: Jesus in Japan. 2006-12-13. Metropolis . https://web.archive.org/web/20060825022848/http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyotravel/tokyojapantravel/3523/tokyojapantravelinc.htm . 2006-08-25.
  19. Web site: The Japanese Jesus Trail. 2006-12-13. September 9, 2006. BBC.
  20. Web site: Land of the Rising Son. 2006-12-13. May 1998. Fortean Times. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20070310200846/http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/110_japson.shtml. 2007-03-10.