Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem

Archaeologists have uncovered a stone slab believed to be the place upon which Jesus’ body lay for three days after His death.

Fox News is reporting on the finding which occurred while researchers were investigating the interior of the tomb inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Old City where Jesus is believed to have been buried. Preliminary findings have confirmed that portions of the original tomb remain intact and have withstood centuries of damage and reconstruction.

According to the original report appearing in National Geographic, the tomb appears to be a limestone shelf or burial bed hewn from the wall of a cave. It has been covered by a marble casing since 1555 A.D., but was exposed on October 28 of this year during a major restoration project at the church.

“An initial inspection by a team from the National Technical University of Athens revealed a layer of fill material beneath the marble cladding. Additional work revealed another marble slab with a cross carved into its surface,” Fox reports. “Just hours before the tomb was re-sealed Friday, the original limestone burial bed was found to be intact.”

But how do we know that this is the actual burial slab upon which Jesus’ body laid from three days before His resurrection?

As Fox explains, the Gospels say that Jesus was buried outside Jerusalem’s city walls, which was in keeping with Jewish tradition, and near Golgotha, the site of his crucifixion. Jerusalem’s walls were later expanded to place Golgotha and the tomb within the city.

“We know that this area was a Jewish cemetery at the time of Jesus,” said Jodi Magness, archaeology professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who is not involved in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre project. She noted that other tombs are located in the immediate vicinity.

A church was first built marking the spot during the fourth century A.D. by the Roman Emperor Constantine. It had been venerated by the local Christian community as the place where Jesus was buried. Constantine had to demolish a Roman Temple built by the Emperor Hadrian on the site and arranged to excavate the rock beneath it to expose the loculus, or burial niche, identified as Christ’s tomb.

“He cut back the entire rocky outcrop in order to enshrine that [loculus] within the rotunda [of the church],” said Magness. “All that was left was the base of the single loculus.”

“This is as close as we can get archaeologically,” she added, noting that a “300-year archaeological gap” exists between Christ’s crucifixion and Constantine’s enshrinement of the tomb.

The discovery was awe-inspiring, especially for those involved in the project.

“I’m absolutely amazed. My knees are shaking a little bit because I wasn’t expecting this,” said Fredrik Hiebert, National Geographic’s archaeologist-in-residence. “We can’t say 100 percent, but it appears to be visible proof that the location of the tomb has not shifted through time, something that scientists and historians have wondered for decades.”

Professor Antonia Moropoulou, Chief Scientific Supervisor, told National Geographic: “This is the Holy Rock that has been revered for centuries, but only now can actually be seen.”

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