known no occupant before, so we may be well assured that it knew none after it had been so honoured, but was preserved inviolate by its believing owner, who would provide himself another resting-place, probably in the same sacred garden. Indeed, there are still shewn at a small distance from the Holy Sepulchre two tombs in the rock', called the tombs of Joseph and Nicodemus; which certainly bear the marks of antiquity, and serve further to prove that sepulchral excavations existed here in ancient times. The Greeks believe that the Holy Sepulchre was formerly a rock grave, excavated in a mountain-side, as is the case with those e. g. in the Valley of Hinnom, but that the whole space about it was, by order of the Empress Helena, reduced to the level of the base of the cave, so that the cave stood erect in the middle of an even ground; that she further cased its four sides externally with marble, so as to give it the appearance of a building, and that the roof of the monolith was then pierced in several places to allow a vent to the smoke of the many lamps which continually burned within 2. This is probably the correct account, for the testimony of Eusebius is conclusive as to the existence of a cave, and such a cave as that which is now shewn; for it can hardly be supposed that a writer of that date would speak so confidently as he does in the following passage, unless the fact on which he was insisting had been generally known and universally received. His description is as follows: "The grave itself was I They are accurately delineated by Lord Nugent, Lands Classical and Sacred, Vol. II. p. 34. 2 Dositheus Hist. Pat. ßiß. B'. ꈶ. A'. Tap. e'. Compare Shaw's Travels, Vol. 1. p. 264, 2nd Ed. 1757. a cave which had evidently been hewn out; a cave that had now been cut out in the rock, and which had experienced (the reception of) no other body. For it was necessary that it, which was itself a wonder, should have the care of that corpse only. For it is astonishing to see even this rock, standing out erect, aud alone on a level land, and having only one cavern within it; lest had there been many, the miracle of Him who overcame death should have been obscured3." Such is the testimony of a bishop of Palestine who lived at the time when the Sepulchre was recovered, and who is regarded as a credible witness of facts, and not over credulous; it is, moreover, an incidental reference of the most unsuspicious character, and such as would generally be considered most satisfactory; for he is speaking on another subject, and introduces mention of this quite incidentally, not at all with a view to establish the identity of the spot, but as an argument for the truth of the Resurrection. Coeval with Eusebius was the Pilgrim of Bordeaux, who visited Jerusalem while the Martyry of the Resurrection was in the course of erection, and he describes the Sepulchre as a crypt, distant a stone's-throw from the little hill Golgotha1. Very little later than Eusebius was St Cyril, who furnishes fuller details of the adornment, while he distinctly attests the existence of a rocky cave. In forcing a Christian interpretation on the language of the Canticles, after the fashion of those times, though it will appear strained and fanciful to our notions, he thus 3 Theophania, p. 199. 4 Itin. Hierosol. ed. Wesseling, pp. 593, 4. The Church was commenced in A.D. 326, and dedicated A.D. 335, and the writer was at Jerusalem A.D. 333. speaks: "The cleft of the rock,' he calls the cleft which was then at the door of the salutary Sepulchre, and was hewn out of the rock itself, as it is customary here in the front of Sepulchres, for now it appears not, the outer cave having been hewn away for the sake of the present adornment; for before the Sepulchre was decorated by royal zeal there was a cave in the face of the rock!." Then, after an interval of two centuries, a western pilgrim tells us that the very monument is cut out of the native rock. The rock is described as "like a millstone, and infinitely ornamented: so that the monument itself is in fashion as a Church covered with silver, and an altar is placed before the monument?." Very much more distinct is the testimony of Arculfus, towards the close of the same century; but as it will be adduced by Professor Willis, I shall only cite so much as refers to the fact of such a Sepulchre as at present exists, and such as had been described by preceding authors: and this testimony is the more important because in the interval between this and the last-cited author, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre had been desolated by the Persians and Jews3, and it is necessary to prove that the Sacred Cave was not destroyed. He distinguishes between the Monument and the Sepulchre; extending the former name to the whole cave, and confining the latter to that ex 1 S. Cyrilli Catech. xiv. ix. p. 208. Ed. Bened. This writer was certainly an eye-witness of the changes which he describes, for he was born at or near Jerusalem, in A.D. 315, ordained Deacon by Macarius A.D. 334, Priest by Maximus A.D. 345, and delivered his Lectures in Lent, A.D. 347 or 348. Vid. 2 Antonini Placentini Itin. XVIII. p. 356, 7. ap. Præfatt. ad Bollandum. Tom. I. He wrote cir. A.D. 600. 3 A.D. 614. See Vol. 1. p. 300, &c. cavation where the body was deposited. The Monu ment he aptly terms a round hut (tegurium) cut out in one and the same rock, cased externally with choice marble, having a gilded roof, on which stood a large Cross of gold. The door was on the East; the chamber was a foot and a half higher than the ordinary stature of a man; the Sepulchre was on the North side of the chamber, excavated in the same rock, raised three palms above the floor of the hut. It was a single, not a double grave; not cut in shape to fit the body, but a simple couch for one corpse, opening on the South, with a low overhanging roof skilfully wrought1. The interior of the cave was not at that time overlaid with any kind of adornment, but exhibited the native rock in its original state, and still bore throughout the traces of the tools used for its excavation; the colour of the rock appeared to be a mixture of white and red. The existence of the cave was appealed to as a fulfilment of Scripture Prophecy; for the prophet, speaking concerning the Lord Jesus buried in it, says, "He dwelt in the lofty cave of an exceeding strong rock" and its adornment is thought to be foretold by the same prophet, where he writes, "and His restingplace shall be glorious"." Entirely consistent with the account of the French bishop is that of the English Saint, Willibald, in the following century 6. Again we have the Sepulchre cut in the rock; the rock standing erect on the ground, square below, contracted above, surmounted by a Cross; with the door at the East; the couch for the body cut in the rock of the Sepulchre, on the North side and on the right of the entrance. And here it will be well to introduce the description of the Sepulchre by Paschasius Radbertus in his Commentary on St Matthew', which he professes to have taken from the accounts of many travellers of that time1. It will shew the then commonly received opinion of the plan and structure of the Sepulchre, which the Commentator considered necessary for the right understanding of the Evangelic narration of the Sepulture and Resurrection. Citing the words, "and he rolled a great stone to the door of the Sepulchre, and departed," he remarks, "Whence we may understand that the Monument of Christ was not so cut as are monuments in this land, because it is said to have had a door. Hence we believe that to be true which many who have seen it have delivered, that there was a round house beyond the door of the Monument within, cut in a very spacious rock, of such altitude that a man standing within could scarcely touch the roof with his out-stretched arm, and that door is on the East, to which that very great stone was rolled. Concerning which Monument," he proceeds, " since we have begun to describe its form and character for the understanding of the visions, it is necessary that we enlarge. For its entrance was, as I said, on the East; and to those who entered from thence, the place specially Lib. XII. ap. Magna Biblioth. Vet. Pat. Tom. 1x. pars 2; p. 1229. Coloniæ, 1618. The date of this writer is A. D. 848. |