Date: 326 AD.
Place: A location that was outside the original city walls of Jerusalem in Christ’s time—but which is now inside the walls, and which is destined to be occupied eventually by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Background - Recent history: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre holds the limestone slab that tradition says the body of Jesus Christ was laid on. Most archaeologists thought the slab was either not there or was far younger, until 2017 when a National Geographic team was allowed to uncover the spot, revealed the slab, and found that some mortar used to protect the slab dated to the time of the Emperor Constantine.
Background - Roman history: Roman records say that after Constantine’s conversion to Christianity his men razed a pagan temple that the Emperor Hadrian had deliberately built over the site of Christ’s Tomb to obliterate it. Constantine’s men excavated the filled quarry beneath the site, searching for the Tomb. The historian Eusebius recorded enigmatically that what they found ‘provided clear and visible proof of the wonders of which that spot had once been the scene’ . . . but Eusebius did not say how it provided proof!
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The Roman centurion scowled at the diggers. ‘Get a move on,’ he said. ‘You’ve dug one mound of soil away in four hours. And you’re still standing on a slope that looks like a sand dune. You’re supposed to be Caesar’s fittest, his team for the special government mission. Shall I tell him he was mistaken?’
One of the soldiers paused on his spade and dared to answer. ‘Give us a break, sir. It’s like a furnace down in the bottom of this quarry. And the Emperor Constantine—Hail, Caesar!—isn’t here and doesn’t know how far we have dug down already. We’re almost at rock bottom—literally. We’ve nearly emptied the entire quarry in the last two months. There’s only a few of us still fit to carry on!’
Another of the diggers looked up. ‘And that’s not counting the time it took us to demolish that disgusting pagan temple that old Emperor Hadrian had built on top of the quarry.’
‘Less of your lip, soldiers.’ The centurion mopped his own dripping brow. ‘And there is no need to insult the Emperor Hadrian’s temple, even if you are all supposed to be Christians now.’ He inspected the recent excavation. ‘And mind what you stick your spade into. My latest instructions are extremely clear.’
‘Yes, sir?’ As experienced labourers, the soldiers all knew to take the chance to stop and lean on their spades and listen.
‘We are to empty the whole of the ancient quarry area, revealing all caves right to the bottom.’
‘Is that where they say we should find what we’re looking for, sir? This Tomb we need to find?’
‘Yes. The experts say that we will find a lower level of tombs down here.’
The shortest of the diggers shook his head and spat to one side. ‘More tombs? Like the caves we found on the upper level that all had bones in them? Old Jew bones they were, I suppose.’
‘Or old jawbones?’ Someone guffawed.
‘Quiet!’ The centurion scowled. Be respectful. And those tombs weren’t the one. We knew that because they did have bones in them.’
‘Not only that,’ said someone else. ‘They also had the names of their owners inscribed over them. Who was this Judah Ben-Hur, anyway? There were enough bones in his cave to make up an entire Jewish tribe.’
The short digger spat again. ‘I hope there’s a label; otherwise, how will we tell when we find IT?’
The centurion frowned. ‘That’s my problem. But we’re looking for a grave with no bones in it, for a start.’
‘So? Someone took them out and threw them away. Just because a grave is empty doesn’t prove that the Son of God was once buried in it.’
‘Granted. Yet the traditions of this quarry have been passed down by local Christians ever since Hadrian’s time.’
‘So you told us. But how could anyone remember what was underground where for that long?’
The centurion pointed. ‘Do you see that rock spike sticking up over there? That spike was never covered by Hadrian’s men; and the believers here in Jerusalem have worshipped beside it for two hundred years.’
‘Is there any other evidence?’
The centurion was thoughtful. ‘If the grave of Jesus Christ is not here, then why did Emperor Hadrian bring a small army to fill this quarry in, to hide it? And if it really is here, something tells me we will recognise it when we find it. Now get going. But if you start to uncover any more cave openings, you are to find me and tell me immediately. Take great care how you excavate. We’re now in the most important part of the quarry. So don’t even scratch the rock of the quarry wall itself, when you start uncovering the next cave.’
‘Easier said than done.’
The centurion looked around angrily to see who had muttered the complaint, but all faces were turned carefully away from his. The centurion paused, examined the mounds of soil and gravel with a keen eye and started to turn away. Then he turned back. ‘But before I go, something important.’ He looked upward and they followed his eyes toward the quarry wall above, where several unstable masses of overhanging loose rock and bushes cast dark shadows. ‘Don’t forget to watch out for falling rocks.’
Even as he spoke, a small boulder fell onto the top of one earth slope piled against the quarry wall. The impact started a tiny avalanche. As the sandy soil slid away, a black hole was suddenly revealed above it.
The youngest of the diggers spoke up. ‘Hey! That looks like another cave, sir.’
The diggers clustered around rapidly, while eyeing the crumbling rock spur above it with caution. Three of the men shovelled away more of the gravel and sand from the bottom of the slope; and the loose material above, now unsupported, began to slide down. The dark opening became larger.
The officer held out a hand. ‘That is another cave. Give me a spade.’ He took off his outer tunic and started to dig out the entrance himself. Stirred by his commitment despite themselves, the rest of the party threw their energy into the work too. They formed an efficient team, digging away into the doorway of the cave that slowly emerged, and handing the loose material out bucket by bucket. Soon they were working in the mouth of the cavity. Then they came to a halt, a small group standing together inside the darkness of the sepulchre.
‘Sir? This cave doesn’t go any further. It’s not like the others. They all had several chambers.’
The centurion stared around. ‘And there is only one grave slab, and there are no niches in the walls for bones. Every other Jewish tomb we have dug out had niches in the walls to hold the ossuaries—the bone-boxes—that the Jews kept their family bones in. But here there’s just the one slab—’
‘But there is no proof.’ The short digger stared around. ‘I see that there are lots of scratchings and inscriptions all around the entrance of this one; perhaps the experts can interpret those, perhaps not. If not, we will never know. Not unless our feelings alone can prove that the Lord Jesus was laid here. It certainly feels like a very holy place. But—’
The youngest of the diggers, barely more than a lad, looked worried. ‘I’m nervous, sir. May I go outside for some air?’
The centurion nodded. The young man put down his bucket and walked out into the sunshine. He had only just disappeared from their view when there was a cracking sound from above. They heard the start of a startled shout, then a sickening thud followed by a bang of rock on rock. Then there was the dull sound of a body falling heavily.
The centurion dropped his bucket and leapt for the entrance, with the rest of his team on his heels. Outside in the sunshine the young man lay, his broken body splayed, with the huge boulder that had cracked his skull and broken his neck lying in a growing pool of his blood.
They all stood still for a moment, with mouths open in horror. Gently, the centurion bent and pulled a corner of the young man’s toga over his unseeing eyes. He knelt and picked up the corpse. He looked around, hesitated, then carried it back into the cave and laid it on the slab.
There was a long silence. The team all stood silent outside the cave, gazing across the quarry. The centurion joined them. He closed his eyes. ‘Lord of life, we commend to Your loving hands the soul of our young friend. We know that he will share in Your resurrection life. Now, may we all find mercy, too.’
The centurion was about to continue his prayer when a voice spoke behind him. ‘Sir?’ He opened his eyes in surprise. On the threshold of the cave stood the young man, bearing no visible injury, with a shining look on his face. ‘Sir? I think this is the right tomb. In fact, I’m sure of it. This is the Empty Tomb, where the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. I know it because my heart is on fire. This is where it all happened.’
The short digger’s mouth was wide open. ‘It’s not possible. How … how?’
The centurion stood like a statue for a few seconds. Then he gave a slow smile. ‘Of course. This is the only way in which we could be sure we have found Christ’s true Tomb. Don’t you all see? You are standing outside the only Tomb, ever, in which death simply could not exist. He is the resurrection and the life.’
(George B. Hill [9/6/2020])