Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Background

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands in the Christian Quarter, in the northwestern part of the Old City of Jerusalem. Its name, meaning "holy tomb," derives from the tradition that both Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified, and the tomb in which he was buried and from which he rose from the dead are located here. In the Eastern Orthodox Church it is also called the Church of the Resurrection.

The Gospels report that the place where Jesus was executed was "nigh to the city" (John 19:20) and record that the tomb was a new sepulchre in a garden nearby (John 19:41-42). In the second century the Roman emperor Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem as a Roman city, and a pagan temple is said to have been erected on this site at that time.

History

• c. 326: At the request of Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, Constantine the Great ordered the temple demolished and a church built in its place. The emperor's mother, Helena, visited the Holy Land around this time. The story that she discovered the cross on which Jesus hung (the True Cross) is a later legend.
• 335: The church was dedicated. It consisted of a rotunda erected over the tomb and a basilica (an elongated rectangular hall of worship).
• 614: The church was burned and damaged when Persia (the Sasanian Empire) captured Jerusalem; it was subsequently restored.
• 1009: The church was largely destroyed on the orders of al-Hakim, caliph of the Fatimid dynasty of Egypt. Parts of it were rebuilt in the mid-eleventh century with the support of the Byzantine Empire.
• After 1099: The Crusaders, having captured Jerusalem, remodeled the building and rededicated it in 1149. The general framework of the present building dates from this period.
• Modern era: The church was restored after a fire in 1808. In 2016–2017 the small structure over the tomb, known as the Aedicule, underwent extensive renovation.

Consequences and Influence

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Ottoman Empire issued decrees allotting space and times of worship to each denomination. These arrangements, fixed by a decree of 1852, are commonly known as the "Status Quo." Primary custodianship is shared by the Greek Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church (through the Franciscans), and the Armenian Apostolic Church. The Coptic, Ethiopian, and Syriac Orthodox churches also use certain areas. Protestants hold no custodial rights. Because even a small object can scarcely be moved without agreement among the denominations, the church is frequently cited as a symbol of Christian division.

The Orthodox celebrate the Holy Fire ceremony here on the day before Easter, and Catholics celebrate the liturgies of Holy Week. The church is also counted among the principal destinations for Korean Christians on pilgrimages to the Holy Land.

Assessment

Whether this is the actual site of the execution and burial cannot be established with certainty. Many archaeologists, however, reportedly consider the tradition quite possibly authentic, noting that in Jesus' time the area was a quarry and burial ground outside the city walls.

In the nineteenth century some Protestants, including the British soldier Charles Gordon, proposed the "Garden Tomb" north of the city as the actual tomb, and Protestant pilgrims still visit it frequently. Some scholars, however, regard the Garden Tomb as an Iron Age tomb far older than the time of Jesus.

The Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches maintain a tradition of venerating the site as holy and making pilgrimages to it. Protestants generally regard it not so much as a place holy in itself but as a site that bears witness to the historicity of the crucifixion and resurrection. In support of this view they often cite John 4:20-23, which teaches that worship is not bound to a particular place.