OK, now we really get into the fanatical Roman Catholic/Christian stuff. Pictured above is the Stone of the Dead. Normally, these were kept in the graveyard for Jews. The body would be brought to the graveyard, laid on the Stone, washed, and then entombed.
However, when Jesus was crucified, the Romans were looking to humiliate any Jews being subjected to this. So they always did crucifixion on Friday. Bodies had to remain on the crucifix through the day, and by the time Saturday rolled around, well, that was the Sabbath so you couldn't move the body then. Because bodies were brought to the Mount of Olives, most stayed rotting in the sun for two days... the ultimate humiliation. Those Romans knew how to conduct psychologic warfare.
Well, it just so happened that Jesus' followers convinced the city administrators to bring the Stone of the Dead to the crucifixion site. Etchings made by the Crusaders around 1000 AD showed the Stone in their church maps, confirming its presence. So this Stone was where Jesus' body was laid to be washed. While impossible to actually confirm, the evidence is fairly indisputable. This is considered a second degree relic, meaning a saint's body has touched it. Most visitors to the church place an object on the stone and rub its oils on the object, making it a third degree relic. I declined to give my iPhone third degree relic status. (Odds are Steve Jobs will do that in 8 months anyway.)
From there you proceed upstairs to here:
This altar covers an opening into a bed of rocks where Jesus' crucifix stood. Supposedly. There were three crucifixes (if you recall from the New Testament, two criminals were crucified alongside him). Anyway, you can crawl under the altar and touch the hole where the crucifix stood. Yes, mom and grandma, I touched the hole. Maybe now my left hand won't go to hell.
Next to the altar is a split rock, or cataract. When Jesus died, supposedly the ground shook and split, and his blood spilled into the crack to baptize the skull of Adam in his blood for forgiveness for the Original Sin. The Crusaders excavated into the area below the crucifixion, and you can follow this cataract deep into the basement of the Church.
This is the tomb of Jesus. Originally, it was to be the Tomb of Joseph of Arithamea, but there would be no way to get Jesus' body to the Mount of Olives before sundown, so Joseph allowed his body to be entombed here. We did not go in... you can see the line. Besides, I didn't really feel like looking at an empty hole.
Now, for anybody out there hurt by blasphemy, skip these next few paragraphs. According to Joel, Joseph was a pretty rich guy. And while a Roman guard was placed to guard the tomb, back in those days a guard could be convinced to "see nothing" for a few hours. So when on the third day Jesus rose and Mary and Mary Magdalen found the tomb empty and proclaimed he had risen from the dead... well, it could just be that Joseph had a few slaves come and move Jesus over to the Mount of Olives under darkness. According to Joel, the Israeli archeologists had found exactly that, and claimed to have found the actual tomb of Jesus. Alas, we did not have time to see it today. So believe whatever you want.
One of our last stops in the Church was here, in this grotto deep below everything. It was here that Helena, mother of Constantine, who convinced him to convert to Christianity, in her trip to find the site of Jesus' crucifixion and build her church there (what became the Church of the Holy Sepulchre), found three crucifixes and was convinced she had the right site. Mind you, this was 300 years later, and odds are that the Romans had probably started using new crucifixes over that time (rather than 300 year-old ones). But hey, it is what it is.
Two final pics from today... the first of which I apologize for the blurriness:
I snuck this shot above the teeming masses at the Wailing Wall. A Jewish holiday weekend started today, Rosh Chodesh Shevat, so pictures were not allowed at the Wall (on the far side of the image). To avoid being accosted, I shot this behind my back with no flash, so it turned out pretty crappy. You'l have to take my word for how amazing it was. Thousands of Jews waiting to pray at the wall.
The wall is the western border of the temple built by King Herod. The original Jewish temple stood where the Dome of the Rock now stands; it houses the rock that Abraham was challenged by God to sacrifice his son, because Gabriel appeared and offered a ram in Isaac's place. The Muslims control the Temple Mount, so this wall is as close as the Hebrews can get to their most holy place. Yeah, I can't imagine why they don't like each other either.
Thousands of Jews pray at this wall every year. And, as Joel noted, all it will take is one day for some Muslims at the top to start firing stones over the wall and all hell will break loose. Wonderful.
This is the Dome of the Rock by night. You can see the Dome on the left... according to the Muslims, Mohammed flew a winged horse to this site and then ascended into heaven on a golden ladder sent down by Allah, after receiving words of wisdom from the prophet Moses and Abraham himself. The Jews think this is all hogwash and believe Islam has incorporated this story into their beliefs for no reason other than to make a declaration of rights to Judiasm's most holy site. Again, we wonder why they don't get along.
The ruins directly in front of us are a series of temples built by the Monophysite empire. This was a brief time in Jerusalem's history that apparently is uninteresting to most because it does not involve any modern religions. Alas, I didn't get more information.
Whew. That's all for today... I have to get to bed. I don't even know where we are going tomorrow yet, but obviously I'll have tons of pictures when we get there!
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