SEARCHING FOR GOLGOTHA
As pilgrims descend on the Holy Land to celebrate Easter, TED HARRISON proffers a word of caution: if you’re looking for the location of Jesus’s crucfixion and burial then, tradition aside, you need to investigate a growing list of competing sites. Just w
Where is the site of the Crucifixion?
ITWAS A PLACE OF EXECUTION USED BYTHE ROMANS
The pilgrims who today carry heavy crosses in the footsteps of Christ may all be heading in the wrong direction. Golgotha, or Calvary as it is also known, the place of Christ’s crucifixion, may well not be where the guidebooks say.
Golgotha means ‘the place of the skull’ in ancient Aramaic. It was appropriately named as it was the place of common execution used by the Roman military occupying Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. It was to this place, according to Bible accounts, that Jesus was compelled to carry his cross on the first Good Friday.
John’s Gospel says that nearby the place of execution there was a garden with an empty tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathaea. He was a Jewish elder and covert admirer (perhaps a relative) of Jesus. After Jesus was pronounced dead, his body was taken down from the cross and placed in Joseph’s newly hewn tomb.
But where exactly was Golgotha? And where was the tomb that on the first Easter morning was so miraculously empty? To
ABOVE: Pilgrims carry wooden crosses in the Good Friday procession along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem’s old city. FACING PAGE: Thousands of Orthodox Christians gather in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Easter with the miracle of the Holy Fire. identify the very spot where the momentous events at the centre of their faith actually happened is to some Christians extremely important. Yet there are at least four theories that maintain that the locations authenticated by Christian tradition are in fact completely wrong.
AMATEUR ARCHÆOLOGIST
The main tradition goes back 1,700 years to Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine. She identified the two sites,
the tomb and Golgotha, which are today incorporated within the ancient Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
For centuries, the tomb and Golgotha have been guarded by monks of several denominations, who are so argumentative and disputatious (for a particularly violent monkon-monk brawl, see FT244:4-5) that they are not even trusted with the church key. The door is unlocked every morning by a member of one of two Muslim families.
Helena’s claim to have found the holiest of Christian sites, though widely accepted by Christians, has often been challenged. She was a Christian convert and famed for her charitable deeds and in 327, her 80th year, she set out on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This was not simply an act of piety – she was eager to see the places where Jesus had walked and to find tangible evidence of His life.
She found the Holy City in a sorry state: it had been ransacked by the Romans 200 years earlier. Many living there had been killed or had fled. There was a residual memory of where Jesus might have been buried, but Emperor Hadrian had built a temple on the site in honour of the Gods Jupiter and Venus.
Today, as St Helen, Helena is patron saint of archæologists, but there was little science in the way she set about looking for relics. With the guidance of a heavenly dream, she ordered Hadrian’s temple to be knocked down and once it was cleared ordered her men to start digging.
Almost immediately, they found three wooden crosses in an ancient cistern. Helena was convinced they were the crosses on which Jesus and the two thieves had been put to death, as nearby her men supposedly found the sign placed on Jesus’s cross by Pilate on which was written ‘Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews’ in three languages. The dig also revealed nails and clothing. But which one was the cross of Jesus? The answer came when a sick woman failed to be healed after touching two of them, but was cured after touching the third.
Part of the cross was left with Bishop Macarius in Jerusalem and the rest of the finds were taken back to Emperor Constantine. One story suggests that he had the nails fixed to his helmet and made into a bridle for his horse! Today it is claimed that
there are at least 30 places where the nails, or iron from the nails, are kept. One of the nails is said to be incorporated in the Iron Crown of Lombardy kept in the Cathedral of Monza, another piece is in Rome at the church of Santa Croce (along with a thorn from the Crown of Thorns) and a third is in the Duomo in Milan and is said to be shaped like a horse’s bridle.
HOLY RELICS
The belief that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built over the place of Jesus’s death and resurrection has been re-enforced over the centuries by stories of miracles. For 12 centuries, Orthodox Christians have claimed that a holy fire is divinely kindled in the pitch-dark tomb at Easter. The flame is then spread from candle to candle in the church to symbolise the Resurrection. The flame is taken, like an Olympic torch, around the city and wider Orthodox world. Muslims have long denounced the holy fire as a piece of trickery and non-Orthodox Christians, especially Protestants, are wary of what they see as mere superstition.
However, many Christians across the traditions have confidence in the findings of St Helen’s amateur archæology, despite the fact that it was based on a nocturnal revelation rather than a ground radar survey. Pieces of the True Cross, which she identified and which confirmed to her that she had found Golgotha, are amongst the most highly prized relics in Christendom.
While some of the wood was enclosed within a statue of the Emperor, much was distributed around the Empire. Twenty years after St Helen’s return to Rome, Cyril of Jerusalem wrote: “The wood of the cross has been diffused throughout the world”. Before long, great prestige was attached to owning even a sliver and Roman emperors and Church authorities have, over the years, been able to buy loyalty and gratitude by giving bits away. The practice of buying and selling pieces of the Cross continued in Mediæval times. Mark Twain observed that when he toured Europe he saw enough ‘holy’ wood in the churches he visited to make 50 new Crosses.
The Monastery of Xeropotamou on Greece’s Mount Athos claims the largest single piece, along with a number of smaller segments. On the large piece, weighing 320g (11oz), it is said that the holes made by the nails of crucifixion are visible. It is only displayed on special feast days, although a second piece is sometimes allowed to be sent away from Mount Athos to carefully selected destinations to be revered by the faithful. The True Cross, it is believed, not only has miraculous powers to heal, it also exudes a heavenly perfume (for more on holy odours, see FT350:30-37).
A lost fragment of the Cross was believed to have been discovered in Turkey in 2013. Modern archæologists excavating a 1,400-yearold church in Balatlar, by the Black Sea, found a stone chest that contained various artefacts they believed were holy objects. Professor Gulgun Koroglu, who was in charge of the excavations, confirmed the discovery: “The appearance of the chest suggests that it was a repository for the relics of a holy person.” That the wood found comes from St Helen’s discovery is possible, but despite years of tradition, her claims have been widely disputed.
OUTSIDE THE CITY WALL
The Bible provides few clues as to the location of Golgotha, perhaps because to the early Christians the location was well known and no detailed description was thought necessary. It was outside the city walls, says St Paul, who, although not a witness to the events, knew many of those who were. “Jesus suffered outside the gate,” he wrote in his epistle to the Hebrews. Yet, to counter that evidence is the widely held view that Paul himself did not in fact write this epistle attributed to him; although an unknown author might also have had direct access to the first apostles.
As any visitor to modern Jerusalem will know, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre lies within the walls of the old town. It is reached by navigating a maze of narrow streets filled with shops and market stalls. The presentday walls, however, are not the original and were built by the Ottoman Turks in the 16th century. Two thousand years ago, the walled city was smaller. The first century historian Josephus described the route of the wall and it is clear from his account that the present-day Church of the Holy Sepulchre would indeed have been ‘without the city wall’. Golgotha was not included within the city’s fortified boundary until new defences were completed in AD 44 under orders from Herod’s grandson Agrippa I. LEFT: Skull Hill, also known as Gordon’s Calvary, from an 1897 drawing by BH Harris in Pictures of the East: Sketches of Biblical Scenes in Palestine and Greece (London, 1897).
St Helen’s belief that the tomb and the site of the Crucifixion were in close proximity to each other is based on a single Bible passage. Only John, of the four Gospels, makes this point: “At the place where he was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new tomb, not yet used for burial.” Nevertheless, pilgrims to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre find both reputed sites so close to each other that they are under the same roof.
Even though the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the main focus of pilgrimage for Christians and the culmination of the devotional walk known as the Via Dolorosa, historical evidence for its authenticity is very flimsy. And yet this highly questionable claim underpins the holiness of Christianity’s most sacred relics and places.
SKULL HILL
In 1842 a German theologian named Otto Thenius noticed a rocky outcrop, which was identified to him as ‘Skull Hill’. It has been widely believed that Golgotha got its name because it was a feature in the landscape that resembled a skull. Could this be the true site of the Crucifixion, Thenius wondered. Forty years later, General Charles Gordon was in Jerusalem and had the same idea (for more on Gordon’s search for biblical locations, see FT336:44-49). As he was a highly respected member of Victorian society, many British people took an interest in his suggestion. Yet, not unlike St Helen, Gordon was “guided by his mystical and deep devotion to the details of the Scriptures” By coincidence, nearby was an old Jewish tomb hewn out of rock, first noted in 1867 by Conrad Schick, a German archæologist and missionary. It fitted the Gospel descriptions. As a Protestant, Schick’s interest was in historical research rather than finding relics, but when his discovery was linked with General Gordon’s observations, the belief in an alternative Golgotha gained in popularity. The tomb, most conveniently, is in a garden, as described in the New Testament.
THE BIBLE PROVIDES FEW CLUES AS TO THE LOCATION OF GOLGOTHA
Thanks to the efforts of two Victorian ladies, Charlotte Hussey and Louisa Hope, the Garden Tomb Association was formally established in 1893. Purchasing the land was fraught with legal problems, thanks to a constantly changing political administration, but eventually it was bought and has since been a popular focus for Protestants. General Booth of the Salvation Army visited and preached there, as did the celebrated American evangelist Dwight Moody, who infuriated local Muslims by using a Muslim grave as a pulpit. “I have preached 30 years,” he declared, “but I have never felt the awe of God as I do now.”
For several decades scholars vigorously contested the claims. Sir Charles Wilson, who was in the city working for the Ordnance Survey, took a sceptical line in his 1906 book. He argued that the area in front of the supposed Golgotha had only been given its skull-like appearance during the Crusader period, when it was quarried for stone.
The garden today is a tranquil spot within a hectic city and a popular place of prayer and meditation.
GOING SOUTH
Professor Joan Taylor of Kings College London has also queried the St Helen legend: “I concluded that the evidence does not point us to the authenticity of the traditional site but rather to a site slightly further south.” Through an analysis of both the four main Gospels and apocryphal writings, she questioned the proximity of the tomb to the place of execution. “The tomb is not said to be very near the site of the Crucifixion,” she writes. It was further south than the traditional site, “but the traditional tomb of Jesus may very well be authentic.”
The place of the Crucifixion, Professor Taylor suggests, was an oval-shaped disused quarry located west of the second wall and north of the first wall. “Jesus was crucified in the southern part of this area, just outside Gennath Gate… He was buried some 200m away to the north, in a quieter part of Golgotha where there were tombs and gardens… When Constantine captured the eastern Empire and sought to commemorate his victory with the building of a magnificent basilica in Jerusalem dedicated to the sign of the cross, local Christians could point to the site of the tomb and the Temple of Venus as a fitting building zone. The site of the Crucifixion, on the other hand, seems to have been quietly forgotten.”
Interestingly, Constantine’s hagiographer Eusebius, in his notes on various biblical places he could still find in Palestine, wrote of Golgotha being beside the northern parts of Mount Zion. He never referred to the site of the Emperor’s basilica as Golgotha.
CRUCIFIXION COP
This year, a fourth theory has emerged as to the true site of Golgotha. Bob Cornuke is the president of the Bible Archæology Search Institute in Colorado and has travelled extensively in the Holy Land examining and questioning religious sites. He dismisses the provenance of both the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Garden Tomb as being “fraught with geographical flaws”. He proposes an altogether different place for the Crucifixion: namely a Palestinian neighbourhood outside Jerusalem called Silwan, which is about 600ft (180m) east of the City of David in Jerusalem.
The former cop has relied on his reading of the Bible and his examination of 19th century photographs and has published his findings in a book called Golgotha. Previously, he has claimed to have found the anchor of the boat
in which St Paul was shipwrecked, Noah’s Ark and Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. He has also searched for the lost Ark of the Covenant.
Cornuke began his quest for Golgotha by querying the position of Solomon’s Temple. It was not where most scholars believe, he claims, but about 600ft (180m) to the south. As a consequence of this, all the traditional sites of Christian, Islamic and Jewish history in Jerusalem have to be rethought, he says.
Not averse to upsetting orthodox believers, he suggests the Wailing Wall and the Dome of the Rock are not the genuine articles, and neither is the holiest sanctuary in the Church of The Holy Sepulchre.
To confirm to himself that he had found the right place, he had to see it for himself. It was, however, located in what he has described as a notoriously rough and poverty-stricken area. He encountered a hostile reception as he ventured in, but eventually met and persuaded a community leader to give him access. Before long, “I was actually standing at the foot of the stone cliffs I had come so far and had spent so much time and treasure trying to see: the cliffs of the Silwan village. I gazed up at several ancient split-open tombs, which were exactly as the Bible described! My mouth went chalk dry.”
A further description of an alternative site for Golgotha comes from a Californian preacher, now based in Germany, called Rodger Dusatko. He draws a list of Bible prophecies together and relies on the ancient description of Golgotha as resembling the cranium of a skull. “There is only one mount near Jerusalem which looks like a cranium, the skull-pan of a head. And this mound is only 330m (1,080ft) from where the Temple Entrance once stood.” It is close by the Lion’s Gate in the city walls. “From the mound it would have been possible to see the exact place on the north side of the altar where the sacrificial animals of Israel must be killed.”
That the Temple was visible from the site of the Crucifixion is central to Dusatko’s claim. “As Jesus died, three of the four Gospels testify that the Temple curtain ripped… it was the curtain at the entrance of the Temple. The Gospels also testify that the centurion and those with him on Golgotha saw the curtain rip. There is only one single place where those gathered would have had a close-up view of the ripping of the Temple curtain.” And that would have been from the top of the skull-shaped mound Dusatko believes was the true Golgotha, just outside the eastern wall of Jerusalem.
Like St Helen, Dusatko was led mystically to the site. It was Friday afternoon on 5 June 2009, he recalls. He was sitting on a bench at the base of the Mount and heard God’s words “inwardly very clearly: ‘I want to show you something’. So I told those I was with, ‘I must leave you for a time. But I will be back shortly’. Then the Lord directed me up the steep southern slope of Golgotha. As I was climbing, the Lord said, ‘This is Golgotha’.”
FOCI OF FAITH
So which of the theories is correct? Perhaps none of them – it’s a pity the Gospel writers were not more specific.
Most 21st century rationalists would be very wary of accepting dreams and divine revelation as evidence. St Helen’s identification of the modern Church of The Holy Sepulchre site needs therefore to be viewed with caution. But perhaps the story of the dream is a later embellishment to the story of her visit to Jerusalem; perhaps she was acting on some reliable oral history when she ordered the demolition of Hadrian’s pagan temple.
Of the theories reviewed, that of Professor Joan Taylor is the only one that is not motivated by a religious enthusiasm to find a holy place. She accepts that the traditionally acknowledged burial place of Jesus may well be the correct one, but suggests the place of execution was at a greater distance from it than St Helen supposed. Once St Helen had found three wooden crosses that matched what she was looking for, there was no need in her mind to look further.
Yet does any of it matter? To many in the Orthodox and Catholic tradition and to Protestant fundamentalists it does. For members of the ancient churches, who find great comfort in the adoration of holy relics, to have the St Helen story undermined would invalidate the authenticity of hundreds of sacred objects which have become foci of faith. Fundamentalists who take the Bible literally want to be able to identify the real places where real events happened to strengthen their belief in an inerrant scripture.
Yet to millions of Christians around the world the question “where was Golgotha?” matters not a jot. Knowing the site is not in any way essential to their faith.
NOTES 1 NBC Science News, 31 July 2013. 2 www.gardentomb.com/about/brief-history/ 3 Joan Taylor, Golgotha: A Reconsideration of the Evidence for the Sites of Jesus’ Crucifixion and Burial, New Testament Studies, Vol 44:2, April 1998, pp180-203;www. bible archaeology. org/ post /2010/01/11/ Golgotha-AReconsider at ion-of-the-Evidence-for-t he-Sites-ofJ es use 28099- Crucifixion-and-Burial. aspx. 4 Robert Cornuke, Golgotha: Searching for the True Location of Christ’s Crucifixion, Koinonia House, 2016; www.baseinstitute.org/Cornuke; www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTURg_3y6o8. 5 www.dusatko.de/golgotharediscovered.pdf