Why people believe it's the Biblical site of the resurrection

The Garden Tomb in Jerusalem is considered by some to be the site of the burial and resurrection of Jesus. Located outside Jerusalem's Old City Walls, quite near the Damascus Gate it sees many tourists visiting each year. Being such a key attraction, Paul Calvert thought he'd find just why people believe it to be the tomb spoken about in the Bible. He spoke with Peter Wells, the Director of the Garden Tomb.

Paul: So exactly what is this Garden?

Peter: The Garden Tomb is an oasis of peace and calm for many people, a total contrast to all the hustle and bustle and the noise outside. Often Christian groups have walked through the old city of Jerusalem walking through those narrow crowded alleyways and they come here into an open space, a peaceful garden, the chance to sit down, and the chance to reflect and meditate on the things that they've seen around the land. What is the Garden? Well it is what many people believe could have been the Garden of Joseph of Arimathea and therefore the Garden where Jesus was buried after the crucifixion. So it's a Christian Holy site. It's also a tourist site and it's a place that more and more local people, Israeli's and Arabs enjoy coming to visit.

Paul: How was the Garden Tomb discovered?

Peter: Actually it was almost by accident. In 1867 a Greek owned the land; he was digging away one day, as he needed a bit more water for his olive trees and his vines. As he was digging down wanting to dig a water cistern to save the water, he came to the solid rock of the tomb. A lot of people came to look and said 'you can't put your cistern there, that's a Jewish tomb'. Anyway it was too much like hard work digging through the solid rock, so he put the rubble back in. A bit later on in the 1880's General Gordon the Famous British General from the Victorian era was increasingly convinced that the skull image which is known as skull hill on the other end of our Garden was indeed the place of the crucifixion. Remember, they took Jesus to the place of the skull and they crucified him. So it was Gordon and others who became sure that that was Calvary instead of the traditional site, which is now inside the old city wall known as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Paul: So what features do you have here in the garden tomb?

Peter: As well as the skull image which is now above an Arab bus station, we've got some crosses inside from the Crusader period and a very large water cistern holding 200,000 gallons of water. We've also got the 3rd largest water cistern and we've got one of the largest wine presses ever found in Israel. We've got a tomb cut out of the solid rock, not a natural cave. The tomb of Jesus just to remind you was cut out of the natural rock, a tomb where no one had ever lain before. It was a wealthy person's tomb, all that ties in with this one.

When you go inside you go into a large weeping chamber and inside as well as the weeping chamber there are two graves, one on the left and one on the right. The one on the left which you can see from the outside in the early morning light, has a place for the head to rest and a place for the feet; the one on the right, which you can't see from the outside, may well have not been finished so it does tie in with all the details of scripture. You remember how Peter and John came running down on that Sunday morning and looked in the tomb. John says that he saw from the outside looking in, not the body of Jesus but the grave clothes of Jesus, so in this tomb here you will certainly see all that in the early morning light.

Paul: So with an empty tomb here what sort of thing do you do for Easter?

Peter: Celebrate! I start at about 3am on Easter morning because the team gets up early making sure everything is clean and ready as the doors are open for 6am for our sun rise service. Then we have many services in many different languages throughout the day.
Of course Easter is all about the story of the empty tomb, but we also remember that on Good Friday Jesus was crucified on that awesome horrendous cross outside the city wall. There's nothing to celebrate on Easter Sunday unless we remember the enormity of the price that he paid, dieing for the sin of the world. We proclaim that Jesus is alive.

I love what's written on the Tomb door "He is not here for he has risen".