Tomb of Jesus: Opened for the first time in hundreds of years

Located in the Old City of Jerusalem, the Bitter Road, which Jesus walked through 14 times with a heavy cross, is now known as the "14 Stations of the Bitter Road", and many people come to pilgrimage every day at each stop. (Southern Weekend Wang Yishu/Photo)

The Tomb of Jesus, also known as the "Holy Sepulchre," is located in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem. The most important relic inside the tomb is a Jesus morgue. Recently, the tomb of Jesus has been opened by archaeologists, and the morgue that has been sleeping for hundreds of years has come to light. The stone was transferred from the crucifixion of Jesus himself to the stone used as a "funerary bed" in the cave.

By chance, I followed the Footsteps of French archaeologists to Jerusalem and made a systematic investigation of the structure, preservation, and religious function of the tomb of Jesus. In the spring of 2015, it was originally scheduled to follow UNESCO to Turkey and Syria to participate in the conservation of cultural relics, but due to the sudden tension in Syria, the trip was temporarily unable to take place. In the midst of loss and worry, I received a call from Mr. Zink, Life Secretary-General of the French Academy of Sciences, informing me that I had received a special fund for archaeology jointly funded by the French Academy of Sciences and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Affairs.

Because of this opportunity, two months later, in the summer, I flew to the heat of Israel and took over the research work of the French Archaeological Institute in Jerusalem. From paris, the center of humanism, to jerusalem, where the hymns are shrouded, life is at first extremely uncomfortable. Jerusalem's strong religious atmosphere is sometimes breathless, the sound of mosque prayers at three o'clock in the morning makes people sleepless, the Early Morning Christian Choir opens its voice as promised, the Jewish tradition begins to gather towards the Wailing Wall at night, and the different religious rituals are like marquees in this thousand-year-old city.

The apparent harmony cannot mask tensions between different religious groups, and the French Archaeological Institute, where I live, is located in the Old City of Jerusalem, in the Arab East Jerusalem area, which should be Palestinian territory according to the 1947 Palestinian-Israeli partition resolution. But after five Arab-Israeli wars, the Arab-populated areas were completely occupied by the Israelis. Walking out of the gate of the institute, the Arab vendors in front of Damascus and the Jewish youth patrol on Yehuda Street were no more than a hundred meters apart, but they did not communicate with each other. Even among archaeologists, scholars from all faiths disagree. A good friend, a professor of traditional Jewish archaeology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who was very poor in order to prove the existence of David, the ancestor of Israel; another friend, a Catholic professor from Europe, tirelessly followed in the footsteps of Jesus in the holy city; and myself, as a scholar from China, who had received many years of classical education, naturally stood in an academic point of view and remained skeptical of biblical archaeology wrapped in religious clothing.

The French Archaeological Institute in Jerusalem is also the center of research on the tomb of Jesus, the oldest archaeological organization in Jerusalem, and the institute was established before the establishment of the State of Israel. The organization has received permission from the Greek Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church to conduct several archaeological studies at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I tried to put aside the ideological controversy and unveil the mystery of the tomb of Jesus from a scientific objective point of view.

The structure of the Tomb of Jesus has undergone many repairs and transformations, and the existing structure resembles a huge Russian matryoshka doll. According to the Hebrew Bible, after Jesus was crucified, he was placed on a stone platform in a cave that was carved out of a cliff. After Jesus' body had been placed on the stone platform for several days, when the apostles returned to the cave, they found that the tomb was empty and that Jesus' body was gone. The Biblical Gospel of Luke records the angel's message of witnessing jesus' resurrection to women through the grave: "He is not here, he has been resurrected." This is the last "resurrection" miracle displayed by Jesus, indicating that Jesus has been resurrected and ascended to heaven, and the "empty tomb" has become an important symbol of christian faith. Since the tomb of Jesus is an "empty tomb" and there is no body buried with it, it is very difficult to verify the tomb of Jesus, so the exact location of the tomb of Jesus is also questionable in history, and the debate is endless.

About 300 years after Jesus' death, in 326 AD, the first Roman emperor to christianity, Constantine, sent his mother Helena as a representative to Jerusalem to confirm the exact location of Jesus' final burial place. Emperor Constantine built a small shrine on top of the cave where Jesus was buried. The original cave top was flattened so that pilgrims could stop inside the shrine and admire the stone platform where Jesus was placed through the opening at the top of the cave. Also known as the "Holy Shrine", this shrine underwent a reconstruction in the early 19th century due to a fire. Located in the center of the Basilica of the Resurrection of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the "Holy Shrine" is a must-visit for pilgrims and is now used as a monastery by two ecclesiastical organizations.

The Tomb of Jesus is now under the jurisdiction of three religious organizations, namely the Hellenic Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Armenian Orthodox Church, which are three separate branches of the Christian Church. Three religious organizations own and use the land on which the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is located, and the Government of Israel has no right to conduct archaeological excavations and scientific research on the site. This is also the reason why the tomb of Jesus has not been professionally excavated. In addition, three branches of Christianity, namely the Ethiopian Christian Church, the Holy Arab Christian Church and the Coptic Christian Church, have also established small chapels around the tomb of Jesus, and a total of six religious organizations hold religious activities at the tomb of Jesus. Due to the constant strife between the many tribes of Christianity throughout history, the jurisdiction of the Tomb of Jesus has also changed several times. Relations between the various denominations have long been tense, and this current model of common management is the result of a long struggle and compromise between the parties, which has not been broken since the 15th century.

Due to tensions between the various denominations in Jerusalem, archaeological excavations and protection of jesus' tombs have also been delayed for centuries. In 1958, after a long period of discussion, the three church organizations finally signed an agreement on the protection and restoration of the tomb of Jesus, but the specific conservation plan and funding were not finalized, and archaeologists could not carry out archaeological excavations, which was 50 years late. According to National Geographic, the current conservation plan for the tomb of Jesus will cost $4 million (about 27 million yuan).

Why is the tomb of Jesus, long underground, opened now? The incident began with the archaeological team of the National University of Science and Technology in Athens, Greece, which was conducting archaeological excavations around the tomb of Jesus, who believed that the opening of the tomb of Jesus was imminent. The team found that the morgue of jesus' tomb was covered by a huge marble slab covering 1555, perhaps even older.

To further understand the preservation of the overall structure of the cave where the morgue is located, and to carry out a systematic restoration of the entire Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the marble slab must be removed. Opening the tomb of Jesus and unveiling the mystery of the Moire of Jesus is a groundbreaking event for the archaeological and religious communities. This Greek archaeological team was the first professional organization to boldly propose the opening of the Holy Sepulchre.

After the initiative of the Greek archaeological team, the three major church organizations still maintain a cautious attitude towards the final opening of the tomb of Jesus, and any change in the status quo of the tomb of Jesus affects the nerves of the church. The three major ecclesiastical organizations, which claim to have a religious responsibility for "defending the Holy Land" in Jerusalem, often ordered the cessation of archaeological work in the middle of the process because of their opposition to changing the original appearance of jesus' tombs and churches.

In 2015, Israel's National Archaeological Commission conducted a routine inspection of the overall structure of the Tomb of Jesus and found that the structure was extremely unstable and in danger of collapsing. The Israeli National Police force subsequently temporarily closed the tomb of Jesus for security reasons. Rescue archaeological excavations and restorations of the Tomb of Jesus have reached an urgent point. The three major church organizations finally gave the green light to the archaeological activities of the Tomb of Jesus, which officially began scientific archaeological excavations in June 2016.

The archaeological work went well, and after the marble slabs were removed, archaeologists found a layer of archaeological fragments below. Recently, archaeologists completed the cleanup of this layer of debris and saw the original appearance of the Jesus Morgue! According to experts, this is a gray marble, on which there is still a 12th-century cross carving decoration, there are cracks in the middle of the stone slab, and there are traces of whitewashing under the stone slab. But the archaeological work is not over, and in the past week, the three major churches have only given archaeologists 60 hours to clean up the inner sanctum in the tomb of Jesus.

Regarding the future restoration and protection of the tomb of Jesus, Antonia Moropru, chief archaeologist of the National University of Science and Technology of Athens, said that after they have conducted detailed exploration and recording of the overall structure of the tomb, they will seal the tomb again, and will take measures such as mixing mortar to strengthen the tomb. The "Holy Shrine" that originally had a close-up view of Jesus' morgue was reinforced and fitted with glass windows to facilitate pilgrims to pay homage to Jesus' final burial place.

There are many opinions in the historical, archaeological and religious circles about Jesus and his people. However, there is a general consensus today that Jesus was a historical figure who lived in post-B.C. Palestine. He was born in the city of Bethlehem around 2 BC and later moved with his family to the area around Nazareth, eventually dying around 29 AD.

The place of Jesus' final burial, the biblical "land of skeletons," is called "Calvary Mountain" in Hebrew and "Calvary Mountain" Chinese, and the exact geographical location of the place is also uncertain. According to biblical accounts and biblical geographical references, the "Skull Land" was a relatively remote mountain during the Roman rule of Israel, located in the northwestern suburbs of Jerusalem. Not only did the mountain resemble a skull, but it was also the execution ground for the Roman rulers to suppress and execute Jews. Regarding the geographical location of the "Skeleton Land", there are more than twenty existing well-documented places. Among them, the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the African Christian Church, the Middle East Maron Church and other major Christian tribes have identified the tomb of Jesus in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as the final burial place of Jesus himself; while most Protestant church groups have identified the "Garden Tomb" north of Jerusalem as the final burial place of Jesus himself, because according to the funeral concept of Jesus' time, most of the dead are buried outside the city, rather than the current Church of the Holy Sepulchre located in the city center.

The view of the French Archaeological Institute in Jerusalem is that, according to biblical geographical descriptions, the location of the Tomb of Jesus may be located in the location of the "Garden Mound" north of the present-day city of Jerusalem, but judging from the historical and cultural relics preserved in the Roman era to the present day, the Tomb of Jesus should be located in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre and its surroundings preserve intact the historical remains of all eras since the time of Jesus, including small memorial churches built during the time of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of the Roman era, many buildings from the medieval Crusade era and the remains of pilgrims, and traces of several renovations of the Church of the East and the Franciscan Church during the Arab Islamic rule. These remains of various historical periods prove the historical authenticity of the tomb of Jesus from a historical and archaeological point of view.

Stroll through the Old City of Jerusalem, in the winding alleys of Jesus' life, in addition to the hustle and bustle of pilgrims' carriages and horses, archaeologists from all over the world continue to work hard underground. Their work is not only to restore the historical story of the time, but also to increase awareness among the various religions in Jerusalem, increase exchanges, find common historical origins, and promote peace and reconciliation.