Jesus' garden tomb is located outside the city walls of Jerusalem and close to the Damascus Gate. Many believe this tomb location, and not the traditional site of the burial at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, is the place where the burial of Jesus' body after he died on the cross took place. In 1842 A.D., Otto Thenius proposed that a location known as the "place of the skull" was the Calvary (Golgotha) where the crucifixion of Jesus occurred. In 1867 A.D., the discovery of the garden tomb occurred near this believed location of Jesus' death. The connection of the place of the skull with the garden tomb believed to be where the burial of Jesus took place received prominence from British general Charles Gordon. In 1883, General Gordon found a rocky escarpment (now situated behind a bus station) which from several angles resembled the face of a skull. Golgotha, the name of the place where Jesus was crucified, is a Aramaic word meaning skull: "And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his (Jesus') cross. And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull." (Mark 15:21-22, KJV)
Gordon concluded that the rocky escarpment he believed looked like a skull was likely to have been Golgotha. This is why another name for this location is Gordon's Tomb. The Garden tomb itself has two chambers, the second to the right of the first, with stone benches along the sides of each wall in the second chamber, except the wall joining it to the first, and along the back wall of the first chamber. The benches, though heavily damaged, are still discernible. The edge of the groove outside the tomb has a diagonal edge. As was prophesied in Isaiah (Isaiah 53:8-9) Jesus was buried in the tomb of a rich man even though he was believed to be a criminal:
"Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. "When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed." (Matthew 27:57-60, NKJV)
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