The Garden Tomb

Not to be confused with "Skull Hill" in Sabah, Malaysia.
Garden Tomb
بستان قبر المسيح (Arabic), גן הקבר (Hebrew)
The entrance to the Garden Tomb
The Garden Tomb in Jerusalem
LocationJerusalem
Coordinates31°47′1.87″N 35°13′47.92″E / 31.7838528°N 35.2299778°E / 31.7838528; 35.2299778
TypeRock-cut tomb
History
Founded8th–7th century BCE (disputed)
PeriodsIron Age II
CulturesKingdom of Judah
Site notes
OwnershipGarden Tomb (Jerusalem) Association
Public accessYes
WebsiteThe Garden Tomb
Popular Protestant pilgrimage site

The Garden Tomb (Arabic: بستان قبر المسيح, Hebrew: גן הקבר, literally "the Tomb Garden") is an ancient rock-cut tomb in Jerusalem that functions as a site of Christian pilgrimage attracting hundreds of thousands of annual visitors, especially Evangelicals and other Protestants), as some Protestant Christians consider it to be the empty tomb from whence Jesus of Nazareth resurrected. This is in contrast to an older tradition that locates the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus at a site known as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (located about 600 meters south of the Garden Tomb).[1][2][3][4]

The Garden Tomb and its surrounding gardens are adjacent to a rocky outcrop known as Skull Hill. In the mid-nineteenth century, some Christian scholars proposed that Skull Hill is Golgotha, where the Romans crucified Jesus. A couple decades later, in 1867, the Garden Tomb was discovered and later proposed to be the tomb of Jesus.[1][2][3]

More recently, the Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay points out that the tomb does not contain any features indicative of the 1st century CE, when Jesus was buried, and argues that the tomb was likely created in the 8th–7th centuries BCE.[5] The Italian archeologist Ricardo Lufrani argues instead that it should be dated to the Hellenistic era, the 4th–2nd centuries BCE. The re-use of old tombs was not an uncommon practice in ancient times, but this would seem to contradict the biblical text that speaks of a newly hewn tomb which Joseph of Arimathea made for himself (Matthew 27:57–60, John 19:41).

The organization that owns and maintains the Garden Tomb is a non-denominational charitable trust based in the United Kingdom named The Garden Tomb (Jerusalem) Association, a member of the Evangelical Alliance of Israel and the World Evangelical Alliance.[6][7] The association refrains from claiming that the Garden Tomb is the authentic tomb of Jesus, and instead emphasizes the site's utility as a visual aid for the gospel accounts and its function as a place of Christian worship.[8]The site draws hundreds of thousands of annual visitors, especially Evangelicals and other Protestants.[1][9][3]

  1. ^ a b c Kochav (1999)
  2. ^ a b Walker, Peter (1999). The Weekend that Changed the World: The Mystery of Jerusalem's Empty Tomb. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 133–134, 193–204. ISBN 0-664-22230-7.
  3. ^ a b c Monk, Daniel Bertand (25 February 2002). An Aesthetic Occupation: The Immediacy of Architecture and the Palestine Conflict. Duke University Press. pp. 170–. ISBN 9780822383307.
  4. ^ Pippert, Wesley G. Jesus Christ's resurrection: Garden Tomb or Church of Holy Sepulchre?, upi.com, USA, April 7, 1985
  5. ^ Barkay (1986)
  6. ^ The Garden Tomb
  7. ^ Walker, Peter (1999). The Weekend that Changed the World: The Mystery of Jerusalem's Empty Tomb. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 128–130. ISBN 0-664-22230-7.
  8. ^ Website of The Garden Tomb (Jerusalem) Association
  9. ^ Walker, Peter (1999). The Weekend that Changed the World: The Mystery of Jerusalem's Empty Tomb. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 133–134, 193–204. ISBN 0-664-22230-7.