THE GOSPEL SITES
Passover being finished, and the Galileans having set out in a pilgrim
caravan for their homes in the north, the Temple courts were no longer
crowded, and the rabbis sat in the spring sunshine on the steps of the
great Gate Nicanor, teaching their pupils as usual.[286] But with them
sate that wondrous Child “in the midst of the doctors, both hearing
them and asking them questions.” Across the broad “Court of the Women”
came the anxious mother, to the gate where twelve years before she had
offered “a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the
Lord: a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons,” and where the Babe
was held in the arms of Simeon, son of the famous Hillel. The gentle
reproach, “Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father
and I have sought thee sorrowing,” received the gentle answer, “How
is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be among my father’s
people?”
This scene in the Temple court is one of the very few as to which we
can have no doubt, though the steps of Nicanor are hidden from us,
under the platform, to-day. Speaking generally, it is notable that
the Gospels do not define the exact position of places, in and near
Jerusalem, to which they refer in passing. The first Christians turned
their eyes up to heaven, not down to earth. They thought of the return
of their Master, not of the Way of Sorrow, the Place of the Skull, or
the empty tomb. They knew, and their first readers knew, where these
were, but to us they have left no indication. We do not know where
was the “upper chamber” in which our Lord ate His last supper of the
Passover. We do not know where was the little “farm” Gethsemane--the
“oil-press”--except that it was a “garden” beyond the valley of the
Kidron. We can only conjecture the sites of the Prætorium, or of the
palaces where Annas and Caiaphas lived, and where Herod Antipas lodged
as a Galilean visitor at the time of the Passover. We are uncertain as
to where the Pool of Bethesda may have been, and we dispute as to the
Way of Sorrow, the Mount of Calvary, and the Sepulchre. It is well that
we should not know; and that we should not localise at any footprint,
or on any rock, that which was meant to be for all the world. Yet we
cannot help guessing and searching, if by any means we may really find
the places where the feet of Jesus must have trodden the hard, rough
rocks, or the smooth pavement of Antonia. We experience the same doubts
and difficulties which early pilgrims felt, and we must not forget that
they had no more to guide them than we have when we study the Gospels.
They had indeed less knowledge, because they did not see, as we do,
that the valleys had been filled by the ruins of the ancient city long
before their day. Some thought that the Prætorium was Antonia, others
thought later that it was on Zion. They changed the site of Bethesda
more than once. They always thought it necessary to suppose that the
city must have been much increased in size by Hadrian, because their
bishops showed them the holy tomb and Calvary within the Jerusalem of
their own time.
[Sidenote: KNOWN SITES]
There are some places mentioned in the Gospels as to which we
have roughly some idea of position. We know that the tables of
the money-changers, and the seats of those that sold doves, were
somewhere in the outer court of the Temple. The “treasury” was one
of those boxes, placed in the Court of the Women, where offerings of
money--even the two mites of the widow--might be made. “Solomon’s
Porch” was apparently the cloister on the eastern wall, and is not to
be confused with the “Beautiful Gate” (Kîpunos) on the west.[287] We
can also picture to ourselves the view of Jerusalem seen from Olivet
when the disciples pointed to the mighty masonry of the Holy House, of
which not one stone is left standing on another.[288] “O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent
unto thee.... Behold, your House is left unto you desolate.” But it is
because of the history of that day of sin and sorrow, when the three
crosses were raised in the cold morning after Passover night, that we
now read and write so much about the Holy City; and our present inquiry
is the most important of all.
The white chalky slopes of Olivet were terraced and dotted with grey
olive trees then as now, with here and there a fig garden and a
solitary palm. But looking west there was only hard rock under grey
walls--hard and stubborn as the hearts of the people, and as unlike
the purple copses and dove-haunted oak woods of Galilee as was the
sacerdotalism of priests to the teaching of the Son of Man. Above the
mighty ramparts the great “wing wall” (not a “pinnacle”) of the House
itself towered 150 feet over the gate towers and cloisters of the inner
court. The black smoke of the fig-tree logs rose high above the great
Altar. The scarps of Antonia frowned down on the Temple from the north.
Beyond these great buildings were the white-washed domes of the city,
and farther yet the great square towers by Herod’s palace. Perhaps a
glimpse might be caught of the trees in its gardens, and of the wicked
bronze statues from which its fountains poured; of the great halls, and
cloisters, and fluttering doves. And outside, to the north, was the
precipice and rounded summit of the Place of a Skull. Below the feet of
the disciples was the Kidron gorge, the sepulchre of King Alexander cut
in its cliff, and perhaps hard by in the flatter ground to its north
the olive-yard of Gethsemane, and the rocky slope of the Agony to come;
while on the western side was the spring of Bethesda, with its great
reservoir in front, and its five cloisters, near the “Sheep Place,”
where the flocks were gathered to the watering.
[Sidenote: BETHESDA]
As regards this last site there is, of course, much difference of
opinion. Bethesda could not be at Siloam, for that pool is mentioned
by its old name in the same Gospel.[289] Bethesda in Hebrew means “the
house of the stream,” and all we know about it is that it was near the
“Sheep Place,” and that it had “five cloisters.” Here the blind, halt,
and withered lay “waiting for the disturbance of the waters.” It is
remarkable that the text of the three oldest manuscripts of the fourth
Gospel--the Alexandrian, Vatican, and Sinaitic uncials--here differs
in several respects from that of later copies; and the three differ
from one another. The Alexandrian alone has the words, “for an angel
of the Lord washed at a certain season in the pool,” instead of the
verse as it stands in our English Bible. The Sinaitic text calls it “a
sheep pool,” and names it Bethzatha. The Vatican reads Bethsaida; and,
strangely enough, all three uncials omit the words “waiting for the
disturbance of the water,” for it is very unlikely that this remarkable
indication was not given in the original. It evidently existed in
some text as early as 330 A. D. (that is, earlier than either of the
uncials), for the first pilgrim, who places Bethsaida at the “Twin
Pools,” says that “they have five porches where those who had been
ill for many years were healed, and the water was perturbed as though
boiling.” A fifth-century writer speaks of the water as being red, and
probably follows Eusebius and Jerome, who say: “Twin pools are shown,
one of which is usually filled by the winter rains, but the other in
wondrous wise is red, as though the bloody water testified to the
ancient use; for they say that the victims used to be washed therein
by the priests, for which cause it was named”--that is, “the Sheep
Pool.”[290]
It is beyond dispute that the Twin Pools in the Antonia fosse--perhaps
the _Strouthios_, or “Bird’s Pool” of Josephus, already cut by
Herod--were those to which the fourth-century tradition pointed, and
their claims are thus superior to those of the twelfth-century site
farther north, or of the Templars’ site--the modern Birket Isrâîl--to
the east. The latter pretty certainly did not exist till the time of
Hadrian at earliest. It is also clear that the eastern of the two pools
might depend on the rains, and that the western, which was fed by the
aqueduct that led from outside the city walls where, on the north-west,
the rain-water of the northern fosse was collected, may have been
red and muddy from the red surface soil washed down. But this hardly
describes the sudden “disturbance” for which the sick waited. It has
been supposed that the Twin Pools were adorned by pillars, on four
sides and on the central rock wall which divides them; but no remains
of such pillars exist now on the site, and the central wall is less
than 6 feet wide, and would therefore only serve to support a single
line of columns, which does not represent a _stoa_, or “cloister,” such
as is mentioned in the Gospel. Thus even the oldest traditional site
does not fully meet all requirements. There is only one place which
seems to do so--namely, the Kidron spring, now called by Christians
“the Virgin’s Well,” and by Arabs “the Mother of Steps.” Here, as
already described, occurs an intermittent “disturbance of the waters,”
and the Jews still bathe in the cavern when the water suddenly surges
up to fill it. They say that it is a cure for rheumatism. Josephus
calls this spring “Solomon’s Pool,” using the same word (_Kolumbêthra_)
used in the Gospel, and he evidently regarded it as the Gihon where
Solomon was anointed. Till of late it might have been objected that
there was no reservoir here such as might have been surrounded by
five cloisters above the steps which led to the “troubled” waters of
Bethesda. But the excavations of 1902--already noticed--showed that a
large pool formerly existed before the cave, under the present mound
with its two modern flights of steps leading down to the water. The
only real objection to this site thus disappears, and we may regard
Bethesda as having been the later name of the older Gihon, and as one
of the few well-fixed Gospel sites.
[Sidenote: THE COUNCIL HOUSE]
Careful study also serves to cast some light on the sites connected
with our Lord’s Passion, including those of the palaces of Annas and
Caiaphas, the Prætorium, the palace of Herod, and the Golgotha. It
should be noted that the Sanhedrin[291] assembled first in the “Chamber
of Hewn Stone,” which was near the south-west corner of the Priests’
Court. But forty years before the fall of Jerusalem--according to
rabbinical tradition--when the power of life and death had been taken
from this assembly by the procurators, “the Sanhedrin transferred
itself and established itself in vaulted buildings”[292] (or “in a
vaulted building”), by which we may well understand the “Council House”
(_boulê_ or _bouleutêrion_), which--as we have seen--was possibly the
“ancient hall” found by Sir Charles Warren outside the West Gate of
the Temple. Josephus also notices the house of a high-priest (Ananias)
apparently as being near the Hasmonæan palace (rebuilt by Agrippa II.
in the north-east corner of the upper city), or close to the “Council
House.”[293] These indications are valuable, because the time between
the first appearance of Jesus before the procurator and the hour of
crucifixion is limited. If the latter occurred at 9 a.m., and the first
appearance before Pilate “in the morning”--that is to say, after 6
a.m.--we have only three hours, during which time the various events
of the trial occurred. These included the first examination by Pilate,
the transference to Herod’s palace, the mocking, the return to Pilate’s
tribunal, the scourging and crowning with thorns, after a second
examination, and Pilate’s interviews with priests and people; finally,
the slow procession of the cross to Calvary, and the preparations for
crucifixion. When the author of the fourth Gospel speaks of the “sixth
hour” as that when the words “Behold your King” were uttered, we can
only suppose that some clerical error has arisen, as this contradicts
the older Gospel.[294] The time is so short for the various events that
the various places mentioned should be sought in close proximity to one
another.
For this reason we are led to suppose that the Prætorium was the castle
of Antonia.[295] The Greek word (_praitôrion_) borrowed from Latin
means “the house of a prætor,” or more generally the residence of a
governor. We do not actually know where the procurators lived when they
were in Jerusalem, but in 65 A. D. we find that the first object of
Florus, on entering the city, was to establish himself in Antonia, and
it was not till he failed to reach this citadel that he took refuge
in the upper city. Peter’s prison seems also to have been in Antonia,
since the gate opened thence into the city. Paul was certainly taken
to this “castle” (_parembolê_), up the steps whence he spoke to the
mob. The site of these steps is marked by a cutting in the middle of
the south scarp of Antonia which is now walled up, and the mob had
thus invaded the broad court of the citadel, extending from the scarp
to the Temple cloisters. Antonia was the station of an “Italian band”
which policed the excited Temple crowds, and we read that Jesus was
led by the soldiers “to the Praitorian hall.” But the fourth Gospel
gives a yet clearer indication, for it identifies the “pavement” with
the Hebrew Gabbatha, or “height,” where was the _bêma_ or tribune--the
raised pulpit of the judge. It is not at first evident what a
“pavement” has to do with a “height,” but the word (_lithostrôton_)
does not mean a tessellated floor but only something “covered with
stones,” and Josephus tells us that at Antonia “the rock itself was
covered over with smooth pieces of stone from its foundation, both
for ornament, and that any one who would try either to get up or go
down it might not be able to hold his feet upon it.” Thus an apparent
mistranslation of “Gabbatha” is perhaps in reality an indication that
the Prætorium was in the citadel of Antonia.
[Sidenote: THE PALACES]
The “upper palace”--that of Herod the Great, on the west side of the
upper city--seems always to have been held by the procurators as a
fortress, and when Herod Antipas came to Jerusalem he probably--like
Agrippa II.--lived in the old Hasmonæan palace close to the bridge, as
this enabled him to go to the Temple without passing through the city.
These various considerations may perhaps help us to trace the course
of events. In the darkness before dawn the traitor came, with the
servants of the high-priest, to the garden of Gethsemane somewhere on
Olivet beyond the Kidron. Jesus was led thence perhaps across Ophel,
and under the great bridge, to the “hall” of the high-priest, which may
probably have adjoined the Council House. He was seen first by Annas,
who ordered that He should be sent bound to Caiaphas. The latter had
hastily summoned “all the Sanhedrin,”[296] probably in the Council
House. This expression no doubt means the full Sanhedrin of seventy-one
members; for Caiaphas inquired of Jesus concerning “His doctrine,”[297]
and He was arraigned as a false prophet and false Messiah. Many false
witnesses were examined, and the examination may have been long, since,
according to the Mishnah, “every judge who extends examination is
to be commended.” A false prophet, according to the same authority,
could only be judged at Jerusalem and by the full Sanhedrin, and could
be tried and executed on a holiday, which in other cases was not
allowable.[298] Jesus could not, according to law, be condemned as a
blasphemer,[299] for that crime was defined as being the utterance of
the name Jehovah. Yet the fact that the Sanhedrin “rent their clothes”
shows that He was condemned unjustly on this accusation also. Peter
stood in the outer court of the building, where a brazier burned
because of the cold. His denial of his Master probably occurred at
the moment when He was being led from the council chamber to be taken
before Pilate,[300] this being at “cock crow,” though the procurator
was not to be approached till the morning[301]--that is to say, after
sunrise, which took place about 6 a.m.
The power of life and death had been taken from the Sanhedrin by the
procurators, so that it was not lawful for them to put any man to
death. They no longer held their meetings in the Temple court, and
though their decisions were obeyed by Israel, their private assembly,
in the precincts of the high-priest’s “hall,” had no force under Roman
rule. It was necessary to induce the Procurator himself at least to
consent to the punishment of Jesus by death, but the priests had
scruples which forbade their entering Pilate’s Prætorium at Passover
time. They passed through the Temple, where Judas met them and cast
down the thirty pieces of silver, and they waited in the open court
below the stairs and scarp of Antonia, with the gathering crowd of
fanatical Jews, just where (more than twenty years later) another mob
assembled and was addressed by Paul from the same stairs.
Pilate was the favourite of Sejanus, who was the favourite of Tiberius.
The appointment did much to incense the Jews against Rome; for,
judging from the various riots and massacres of Jews, Galileans,
and Samaritans which occurred during his ten years’ rule, he was an
incompetent governor; and from the Gospel narrative it appears that
he was afraid of the mob, and anxious to shift all responsibility on
others, while endeavouring to follow the advice of his wiser wife, who
bade him have “nothing to do with that just man.” He took his seat on
the _bêma_ within the castle, where no doubt the angry roar of the
multitude below the rock could be heard. His first attempt to evade
his duties was made as soon as he learned that Jesus was a Galilean,
and the trial was interrupted in order that the prisoner might be sent
to Herod Antipas. We may suppose, therefore, that Jesus was taken by
the soldiers of the governor down the great stairs, and along the
west cloisters, where a guard was only needed on the left hand, and
so across the great Tyropœon bridge to the neighbouring palace of the
Hasmonæans.
But Antipas had no jurisdiction in Jerusalem, though he was curious
to see the prophet of Nazareth, and “hoped to have seen some miracle
done by Him.” He questioned our Lord with many words, and the priests
and scribes “vehemently accused Him.” But he took no responsibility,
though--with his men of war--he “set Him at nought, and mocked, and
arrayed Him in a brilliant mantle, and sent Him again to Pilate”[302]
by the way whereby He came.
[Sidenote: THE PRÆTORIUM]
Again Pilate took his seat in the Prætorium, and questioned our Lord
whether He was King of the Jews. For the priests brought no charge
of blasphemy against Him before the procurator, but endeavoured to
represent Him as a dangerous rebel against Rome, and as claiming to
be “the King Messiah.” Another mode of escape suggested itself to the
vacillating governor. He “went out” to the stairs, and offered to the
mob the release of their King as a concession at Passover. Again he
failed, for the people began to understand that he was afraid--afraid
of the mob, afraid of what would be said in Rome, afraid of his wife’s
face, afraid to do his duty. He saw that “he could prevail nothing but
rather that a tumult was made.” No one listened to his question, “What
evil hath He done?” They demanded that Jesus be crucified, and Barabbas
released. Meanly Pilate yielded his authority, and vainly he washed
his hands. Barabbas was no doubt in Antonia also, and was brought out
to appease the people. Jesus was scourged, and the soldiers in the
Prætorium clad Him again in the purple robe of Antipas, crowned Him
with thorns, placed in His hand the reed, and mocked Him in the hall
which afterwards became the Christian “Chapel of the Mocking,” still
existing on the Antonia rock. He was brought out and shown to the
multitude below, with the words, “Behold the man.”
Yet again Pilate hesitated, and went in to re-examine his prisoner,
seeking some means of escape from crime. But the power of which he
boasted was gone, and Jesus answered, “He that delivered me unto thee
hath the greater sin”--no doubt meaning Caiaphas, who worked on the
fears of the procurator through the mob that cried, “Thou art not
Cæsar’s friend.” For the last time he came forth to appease the people,
saying, “Behold your King,” and “gave up” Jesus to the Jews, who “had
no king but Cæsar,” conniving at the unlawful death doom (while seeking
not to admit his consent) by providing a guard. The white-robed figure
came down the broad flight of steps to where the cross was already
prepared, and bearing this He passed through the courts of Antonia
to the most northern of the Temple gates, and so down to the rough
pavement of the street, which ran northwards west of the sanctuary to
the city gate. This we may regard as the true Way of Sorrow, lying
below the street to-day.
[Sidenote: CALVARY]
We come therefore to the final question, where we should look for
Golgotha, and for the new tomb in the garden hard by. No one doubts
that these sites lay outside the city. The first and fourth Gospels
and the Epistle to the Hebrews alike make this conclusion quite
certain.[303] The first tells us that the guard of the sepulchre came
“into the city” afterwards; the second that Calvary was “nigh to the
city”; the third that “Jesus ... suffered without the gate.” It was
near this gate apparently that Simon the Cyrenian was found “coming
out of the field,” and forced to carry the cross. The only other
indications of the position of Golgotha are, that it was apparently
near a road and visible to those that “passed by,” and that it was
probably on a height because it was to be seen “afar off.”[304] There
is no reason to doubt that it was the usual place of execution, which
was familiar to the Gospel writers, and the same place outside the city
where Stephen and James were afterwards stoned.[305]
We must remember that although the punishment of crucifixion was not
one of the four death penalties of the Jews, yet it was not exclusively
a Roman mode of torture. It was usual among the Greeks in Alexander’s
age, and among Carthaginians a century later. It had been used by
Alexander Jannæus--as already mentioned--who was a pure Hebrew, and
who crucified eight hundred Jews. It was also customary, according to
the Mishnah, to crucify those who had been stoned: “They sank a beam
into the ground and a cross beam proceeded from it, and they bound his
hands one over the other, and hung him up.”[306] It was thus a Jewish
practice; and Pilate, though he provided the “title” to be borne before
the condemned--“The King of the Jews,” written in Hebrew, in Greek, and
in Latin--did not order the Crucifixion, but “gave up” the Son of Man
to His foes. There also seems to be no reason why a separate place of
execution, other than that generally used, should have been peculiar to
Roman executions at any time.
[Illustration: THE SUPPOSED SITE OF CALVARY.
From the Author’s sketch, looking north-west.]
[Sidenote: THE HOUSE OF STONING]
The “House of Stoning” was the Jewish place of death. It is mentioned
in the Mishnah,[307] and it was not at the judgment hall, but some
distance from it and out of sight; for a man was stationed at the
door of the hall, with a cloth in his hand, “and another man rode a
horse at a distance from him, but so that he might see him.” Thus if
any one desired to bring further evidence at the last moment for the
acquittal of the condemned, the cloth was waved, and the “horseman
galloped” after the prisoner, and brought him back to be tried again.
This description shows that a considerable distance separated the
“House of Stoning” from the vicinity of the Temple. At the place of
execution there was also apparently a precipice, for it was “the height
of two men,” or nearly 12 feet, and the two witnesses who cast the
first two stones seem to have stood above the victim on this cliff. It
must also have been outside the city in accordance with the law,[308]
but unfortunately the Rabbis have not told us in which direction. It
was close to a garden, in which was the private sepulchre of Joseph of
Arimathæa, “wherein was never man yet laid,” and this serves rather
to point to the north, which is the only direction in which we
have any notice of gardens outside Jerusalem[309]--the hill of Gareb
(or “plantations”) mentioned by Jeremiah being also on the north. The
north was regarded by the Jews as the unlucky side, and even down to
the sixteenth century the Ṣahrah, or “plateau” north of the city, is
described by an Arab writer as a place of evil repute,[310] while in
the fifth century the place of Stephen’s death by stoning was thought
to have been outside the north gate of Jerusalem. We have thus a
consensus of Jewish, Christian, and Moslem tradition on this subject.
It is unnecessary to describe the knoll, north of the Damascus Gate,
which is now a Moslem graveyard, or the cliff on its south side in
which is the so-called “Grotto of Jeremiah”; for the place is familiar
to all who have visited the Holy City, and from many well-known
photographs and drawings. It is called the Heidhemîyeh (or “cutting”)
by Syrians, and it was very clearly outside the city in the time of
our Lord, and even later, as we shall see in describing the course of
the third wall. It is a site suitable for a public execution, having
round it a flat amphitheatre of sloping ground. It is visible “afar
off” on either side, and it is immediately east of the great north
road. It is regarded still by the Jews of Jerusalem as being the
ancient “House of Stoning,” and though this tradition cannot be traced
in the scanty notices of the city to be found in the pilgrim texts of
Jewish travellers, yet it is by no means modern, and it exists among
the Sephardim families from Spain who have lived for centuries in
Jerusalem. The circumstances thus enumerated give good grounds for the
conclusion that this remarkable hill is not only the true site of the
“House of Stoning,” but the actual site of Calvary, and as such it has
been long regarded by many who have felt it impossible to accept the
traditional sites shown in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.[311]
This site I advocated in 1878; and it was afterwards pointed out[312]
that others, whose works I have never seen, had fixed on the same
spot, including Otto Thenius in 1849, and Mr. Fisher Rowe in 1871; but
neither of these writers has apparently mentioned the Jewish tradition.
In 1881 Dr. T. Chaplin kindly arranged for me to go, with a respectable
Spanish Jew, to see the reputed tomb of Simon the Just, and this guide
pointed out the hill in question when we passed it as the ancient
“House of Stoning.” After the publication of my suggestion in 1878,
the idea was adopted, first by Mr. Laurence Oliphant, and afterwards
in 1882 by General Gordon. The very general acceptance of the site was
due no doubt to the great influence of the last named; but he added
theories of his own, and thought that a tomb in the cliff--now known as
the “Garden Tomb”--must be the true site of the Holy Sepulchre.
[Sidenote: THE GARDEN TOMB]
General Gordon had not then been long in Palestine, and he was
not aware that this tomb had been described already, and had been
attributed to a much later age than that of our Lord. He was not versed
in Palestine archæology, and the arguments brought forward by the
supporters of this opinion are not convincing. The fourth Gospel[313]
says that “in [or “at”] the place where He was crucified there was a
garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre” which was “nigh at hand,”
but not of necessity in the cliff of Calvary, which would indeed be
a very unlikely position for a private tomb. Others have urged that
since the “deacons of the Church of the Marturion,” named Nonus and
Onesimus,[314] were buried near this place, and one of their texts
speaks of a deacon as “buried near his Lord,” there must have been
an early Christian tradition pointing to this site. But the church
so described was that built by Constantine, and the texts are not
earlier at most than the fourth century, when the whole Christian world
accepted the present traditional sites of Calvary and the Sepulchre.
The “Garden Tomb” is not a Jewish tomb, and there is good reason to
suppose that it is not older than the twelfth century A. D. It was
first excavated in 1873, when I visited and described it.[315] When
opened, it was found to be filled to the roof with bones, and when
these were cleared away by Herr K. Schick, two Latin patriarch’s
crosses, in red paint, were found on the east wall of the inner
chamber. These could not have been painted before the twelfth century,
since the Greek cross is always found alone earlier in Palestine.
East of the tomb there are marks of vaults supported against the rock.
It is well known that the Hospice of the Templars[316] was here built,
for pilgrims visiting Jerusalem, not earlier than the end of the
twelfth century, and it was called the Asnerie, or “place for asses,”
because the asses used by the travellers were here stabled. The remains
of mangers were still visible in 1881, at the south-west corner of this
building, in the flat ground below the cliff to the south. The hospice
thus appears to have been about 200 feet square, and the tomb in all
probability was connected with it, as a sepulchre for pilgrims or for
Templars. The immense accumulation of corpses, here hurriedly buried,
may have been due to the Kharezmian massacre in 1244 A. D. The inner
chamber of this tomb, to the east, had three graves on the floor. It
does not in any way answer to the tomb described in the Gospels, nor is
it at all like the Greco-Jewish tombs of the first century A. D.
[Illustration: TOMB WEST OF CALVARY.
From the Author’s sketch.]
[Sidenote: THE NEW TOMB]
For these reasons, while it is probable that the site is that of
Calvary, we must still say of our Lord as was said of Moses, “No man
knoweth of His sepulchre unto this day.” This indeed is the general
conclusion of recent writers, and even as regards Calvary we have only
probabilities to consider. It is not desirable to create new sacred
places, by the same enthusiasm without knowledge which led to the
creation of those of the fourth century. There is, however, a single
tomb, on the west side of the north road, which passes close to the
“House of Stoning” leaving it to the east; but I should be loath to
describe this as being more than a possible site at most for the “new
tomb.” This sepulchre I examined in 1881, and was led, by comparing
it with the other tombs of about the first century A. D., to the
conclusion that it was a Greco-Jewish tomb.[317] It is cut in the east
face of a rock, and has a chamber for six bodies. Outside, to the north
of its outer court, there is another chamber with a single loculus,
which might conceivably represent the “new tomb”; for though there are
many old Christian tombs in the vicinity, there is no other known which
is Greco-Jewish.[318] A cylindrical rolling stone (like a cheese set up
on its round edge) often closes the door of this class of tomb--as can
still be seen at the tomb of Helena of Adiabene, north of Jerusalem,
and elsewhere. The Garden Tomb can never have had such a stone, but at
the Greco-Jewish tomb in question guard stones outside both chambers
exist, which may have kept such stones in place before the doors.
In Palestine generally there are five kinds of rock tomb. In the north
the Phœnician class has a chamber with _kokîm_, or tunnel graves, at
the bottom of a deep shaft--as in Egypt. The usual Hebrew tomb has a
chamber entered from the face of the rock, with _kokîm_ dug endwise
from the walls. The inner, and therefore later, chambers of such tombs
have a different arrangement in examples which--from the Greek details
of the porches--must belong to the Greek or the Herodian ages. In such
chambers a rock sarcophagus under an arch is cut parallel to the wall
on each side. The “new tomb” was clearly of this class, since we read
that two angels sat, one at the head, the other at the foot of the
grave, which would be impossible in a tomb with _kokîm_ graves. The
Greco-Jewish class of tomb was certainly in use in the first century
A. D. The fourth class consists of rock-sunk graves, with a heavy lid
fitted above: this seems to belong to Roman times. The fifth has two
graves, one each side of a shaft, and this is known from inscriptions
to have been in use in the twelfth century. Leaden coffins were
sometimes used in these later tombs. The sepulchre west of the “House
of Stoning” belongs to the third class--the Greco-Jewish--but, since
similar arrangements are to be found in some later Greek tombs of the
Byzantine age, it is not here intended to be understood that this tomb
of necessity existed at the time of the Crucifixion.
The present chapter has been one of conjecture as to probabilities,
rather than of the description of undoubted monuments. This is rendered
inevitable by the circumstances. The results will not be admitted by
those who are convinced that the traditional sites are to be accepted;
but to those who are not so convinced, the arguments may appear more
suggestive. The only known patristic allusion to Calvary before 326
A. D. is that of Origen in our third century,[319] and he only refers
to a “Hebrew” tradition that Adam was buried at Golgotha. He must mean
Hebrew Christians, as the Jews never mention Golgotha by name at all,
and held that Adam was buried at Hebron, as Jerome also supposed--a
tradition repeated by the Jewish traveller Rabbi Jacob in 1258 A. D.,
and which was based on the old name of Hebron, Kirjath Arb’a, “the city
of four,” who were supposed to be Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.[320]
Even if some Hebrews supposed Adam to have died in Jerusalem, the
tradition is very improbable, and also tells us nothing as to the
position of Calvary.
The events of the Passion have been detailed at some length, with the
object of showing that the accounts in the four Gospels do not disagree
as a whole with one another, and that the close proximity of the sites
fits with the limited time that elapsed between the first trial in the
Prætorium and the Crucifixion of our Lord. Like the early Christians,
we must be content with a very general idea of the localities; and as
regards the “new sepulchre,” we must “let the dead bury their dead.”
FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER VII
[286] Neubauer, “Géog. du Talmud,” 1868, p. 142, quotes Tal. Jer.,
_Sanhed._, ii. 2 (“et dans d’autres passages”), for the doctors seated
on the steps to teach. Luke ii. 46–50.
[287] The tables (_Sheḳ._, vi. 45); the seats (_Sukkah_, iv. 1); the
boxes (_Sheḳ._, iii. 2); and the stalls (Tal. Bab., _Aboda Zara_, 8
_b._; _Rosh hash-Shanah_, 31 _a_). Matt. xxi. 12; Mark xi. 16; Luke
xix. 45, xxi. 1; John ii. 14, x. 23; Josephus, “Ant.” XX. ix. 7;
“Wars,” V. v. 1; Acts iii. 2.
[288] Matt. xxiii. 37, xxiv. 1–2; Mark xiii. 1–2; Luke xxi. 1–5.
[289] John v. 2–4, ix. 7. The “tower of Siloam” (Luke xiii. 4) was
probably one of those on the city wall near the pool.
[290] Bordeaux Pilgrim (333 A. D.); Eucherius (_c._ 427–40 A. D.);
Onomasticon, s.v. _Bethesda_.
[291] See Derenbourg, “Palestine,” 1867, p. 465; Mishnah, _Middoth_,
iv. 7, and _Seder Olam_, and Tal. Bab., _Aboda Zara_, 8 _b_, _Rosh
hash-Shanah_, 31 _a_, are quoted by Derenbourg.
[292] _Ḥanuioth_, see Gesenius, “Lex.,” Jer. xxxvii. 16; _Ḥanuth_ in
Tal. Bab., _Rosh hash-Shanah_, 31 _a_, in the singular; Josephus,
“Wars,” V., iv. 2, vi. 3.
[293] Josephus, “Wars,” II. xvii. 6.
[294] Mark xv. 25; John xix. 14.
[295] Mark xv. 16; John xviii. 28, xix. 9, 13; Josephus, “Wars,” II.
xv. 5, V. v. 8; Acts xii. 10, xxi. 31, 37, 40.
[296] Matt. xxvi. 59.
[297] John xviii. 19.
[298] _Sanhed._, i. 5, v. 2, x. 4.
[299] _Ibid._, vii. 5.
[300] Luke xxii. 61.
[301] Matt. xxvi. 74, xxvii. 1; Mark xiv. 72, xv. 1; Luke xxii. 66,
xxiii. 1; John xviii. 27, 28.
[302] Luke xxiii. 6–12.
[303] Matt. xxviii. 11; John xix. 20, 41; Heb. xiii. 12.
[304] Matt. xxvii. 32, 39; Mark xv. 21, 29; Luke xxiii. 26, 49.
[305] Acts vii. 58.
[306] Mishnah, _Sanhed._, vi. 4.
[307] _Ibid._, vi. 1–4.
[308] Deut. xxii. 24; John xix. 41.
[309] Josephus, “Wars,” V. ii. 2; Jer. xxxi. 39.
[310] Mejîr ed Dîn (_c._ 1521 A. D.).
[311] “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., 1883, pp. 428–35.
[312] Prof. T. Hayter Lewis, “Holy Places of Jerusalem,” 1888, p. 113.
[313] John xix. 41, 42.
[314] See _Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly_, April, 1890, p. 69.
[315] “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., p. 385.
[316] “Citez de Jhérusalem,” after 1187 A. D.
[317] See “Ord. Survey Notes,” plate xxv., for the tomb of Helena of
Adiabene; “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., p. 433, for plan of
the tomb in question.
[318] See Matt. xxvii, 60, 66; Mark xv. 46; Luke xxiv. 2; John xx. 1,
12. Herr K. Schick stated that when this tomb was excavated, a slab
was found in it, on which was a Greek cross, with the words _Thêkê
Diapherous(a)_, or “a private sepulchre.” The tomb is very roughly cut,
and may have been hewn as late as the fifth century A. D., unless it
was re-used.
[319] Origen, “Catena” (see Sir C. Wilson’s article, _Pal. Expl. Fund
Quarterly_, January, 1902, p. 71): “As regards the Place of a Skull,
Hebrew tradition has come down to us that Adam’s body was buried
there.” Jerome, on Matt. xxvii., says that Adam was buried at Hebron
(Reland, “Pal.,” ii. p. 709).
[320] Tal. Bab., _Erubin_, 53 _a_.