The Empty Garden Tomb of Christ
But on the
first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices which
they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they
entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
And it happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood
near them in dazzling apparel; and
as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them,
"Why do you seek the living One among the dead?
"He is not here, but He has risen. Remember
how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be
delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise
again." Luke 24: 1-7
This sign is carved in the
door to the Garden Tomb.
View of the Garden and the Tomb
The Garden Tomb Entrance,
notice the grove where the stone covered the entrance.
The tomb stone for the Garden Tomb was found in a
first century A.D. building surrounding the crucifixion site several hundred feet away. It
is 13 feet, 2 inches in diameter and around 2 feet thick. Dimensionally, it fits
perfectly into the trough in front of the tomb, and also fits the exact spacing between
two iron pegs designed to hold the stone in place (see sketch above). The stone was
held in place with a rope or iron chain being fastened to two iron pegs driven into the
stone face. It is the largest known tombstone yet discovered and MUCH larger than
that covering King Herod's tomb which was 5 1/2 feet in diameter. So when the Bible
says a "great stone,"(Matthew 27:60) it means exactly that.
The angel upon forcefully rolling away the stone,
sheared the iron pegs holding the stone in place. The photo above shows the sheared
off stub still left in its hole. This show of strength was hardly the act of timid
disciples in stealing a body in front of a cohort of Roman soldiers as some allege.
View looking from the right side of
the actual resting place of Jesus Christ
View Looking from the foot of the
burial chamber of Jesus Christ
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