What is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre?
A church building stands in the Old City of Jerusalem covering what tradition says are the two spots where Jesus was crucified and buried. The writers in this collection treat it as a piece of church history rather than of Scripture, and they raise two questions: is the site genuine, and should Christians have holy places at all?
Built by Helena and Constantine
The building goes back to the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine, who toured Palestine and cleared a pagan temple off the ground she believed was the tomb.
Church HistoryHelena, the Emperor's mother, deserves a passing notice. She embraced the religion professed by her son. Her devotion, piety, and generosity were great. She travelled from place to place; visited the scenes made memorable by the chief events of Scripture history; ordered the temple of Venus to be demolished, which Hadrian had built on the site of the holy sepulchre, and gave directions for a church to be built on the spot, which should surpass all others in splendour.
What the Diggers Claimed to Find
The excavation for the building produced far more than a tomb, and the finds became merchandise.
Church HistoryDuring the necessary excavations the Holy Sepulchre, it was claimed, came to light; and in the sepulchre were found the three crosses and the tablet, with the inscription originally written by Pilate in three languages... As it was doubtful which of the crosses the tablet belonged to, a miracle decided the claims of the true cross... These precious treasures, we need hardly say, proved an endless supply of capital for the trade in relics.
Doubts About the Site
The identification is judged the weakest of all the traditional spots shown to visitors in Jerusalem, chiefly because the building sits inside the city walls.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe Christian population gave names to the streets, and point out traditional sites of many events recorded in Scripture, but of course without the slightest authority. Of these arbitrary identifications the one that appears the most improbable is that of the CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE, said to cover the spots where the Lord was crucified and where He was buried, which is inside the city.
Why the Real Place Is Hidden
The same writer takes the lost location as deliberate on God's part, and points to the history of the shrine itself as proof of the danger.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe actual place is however unknown; and no doubt God has so ordered it, that it should not be made an object of idolatry, or turned into a holy shrine, over which there would have been great contention, as there has been, with bloodshed too, over the so-called Holy Sepulchre.
Pilgrims, Then Armies
Once the church was standing, travel to Palestine became a mass movement.
Church HistoryBut the supposed discovery of the real sepulchre, the digging up of the true cross, and the magnificent church built over the sepulchre by the devout Helena and her son Constantine, awakened in all classes a wild enthusiasm to visit the Holy Land. From this time (A.D. 326), the stream of pilgrimage continued to flow.
Centuries later the same tomb became the stated reason for war, and one historian judges the true errand was abandoned in the process.
Church HistoryThe evil genius of Rome presiding in her councils suggests a holy war for the purpose of rescuing the sepulchre of Christ from the hands of the unbelieving Turks... There was no thought of seeking to convert the unbelieving to the faith of Christ — the true mission of Christianity — but of weakening the power of the temporal monarchs.
Christians Have No Sacred Ground
Behind the whole question lies a claim about this present age: God's earthly centre is not now in operation.
C. H. MackintoshFrom the day of Pentecost, when God the Holy Spirit came down to form the church of God, the body of Christ, until the moment when our Lord Jesus Christ shall come to take His people away out of this world, there is no place, no city, no sacred locality, no earthly centre for the Lord's people. To talk to Christians about holy places or consecrated ground is as completely foreign to them — at least it ought to be — as it would have been to talk to a Jew about having his place of worship in heaven.
The Tomb Nobody Can Keep
Whatever the address of the real grave, the one fact the Gospels report about it is that it did not hold Him.
J T MawsonThe joy of heaven found expression in the angel's words, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." "Come, see the place where the Lord lay." An empty tomb at last! The pledge and token of victory over it for all who are Christ's.
Summary
- Origin. Helena, Constantine's mother, pulled down a temple of Venus on the supposed tomb site and had a splendid church built there.
- Additions. The dig was said to yield three crosses, Pilate's tablet and the nails, which fed a trade in relics.
- Doubt. Commentators call the identification arbitrary and improbable, mainly because the building stands inside the city.
- Consequence. The shrine drew centuries of pilgrimage, and then a war fought to recapture it — with contention and bloodshed over the site itself.
- Correction. Christians are given no sacred locality on earth; the one tomb Scripture points to is empty, and the living Christ is not to be looked for among the dead.