Risk of Collapse at Jesus’ Tomb Unites Rival Christians
JERUSALEM — It was a typical day at the shrine around what many believe is the tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem’s Old City. A Greek Orthodox choir sang inside a room facing the baroque structure. But the voices were drowned out when chanting Armenian priests and monks circling the shrine raised theirs.
“Sometimes they punch each other,” Farah Atallah, a church guard wearing a fez, observed with a shrug.
Mr. Atallah is a seasoned witness to the rivalries among the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and Roman Catholic communities that jealously share — and sometimes spar over — what they consider Christianity’s holiest site, inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Amid the rivalry, the unsteady 206-year-old structure, held together by a 69-year-old iron cage that honors the keystone of Christianity, the tomb from which Christians believe Jesus was resurrected, is an uncomfortable, often embarrassing symbol of Christian divisions, which have periodically erupted into tensions . In 2008, monks and priests brawled near the shrine, throwing punches and pulling one another’s hair.
But in recent weeks, scaffolding has gone up a few feet from the shrine in the gloomy shadows of the Arches of the Virgin, the first step in a rare agreement by the various Christian communities to save the dilapidated shrine, also called the Aedicule, from falling down.
The March 22 agreement calls for a $3.4 million renovation to begin next month, after Orthodox Easter celebrations. Each religious group will contribute one-third of the costs, and a Greek bank contributed 50,000 euros, or $57,000, for the scaffolding, in return for having its name emblazoned across the machinery.
The idea is to peel away hundreds of years of the shrine’s history, clean it and put it back together. Simple enough, but delayed for decades because of the complicated, centuries-old rules and minute traditions — called the status quo — that define the way Jerusalem’s holy sites are governed, in which the very act of repairing something can imply ownership.
“One of the serious issues in the church is that the status quo takes place over every other consideration, and it’s not a good thing,” said Athanasius Macora, a Franciscan friar. “Unity is more important than a turf war.”
The inspiration for this unity was the threat of losing it altogether. Alarmed by reports that the shrine was at risk of collapse, the Israeli police barricaded it for several hours on Feb. 17, 2015, throwing out the monks who guard it and preventing hundreds of pilgrims from entering.
The message was clear: Fix it, or else.
So after a year of much study and negotiation, monument conservation experts plan to first remove the iron cage that Jerusalem’s colonial British rulers built in 1947 in a prior effort to keep the Aedicule from collapsing, after a 1927 earthquake and rain left the structure cracked, its marble slabs flaking.
They will take apart, slab by slab, the ornate marble shell built in 1810, during Ottoman rule of Jerusalem. The conservationists will then tackle the remains of the 12th-century Crusader shrine that lies underneath. That was erected after the Shiite ruler of Egypt, al-Hakim, destroyed the first Aedicule in 1009. The original was built by Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, the Christian Roman emperor who did much to elevate the status of Christianity through the empire.
Finally, the workers will repair cracks in the remains of the rock-hewed tomb underneath, where most Christians believe Jesus was placed after he was crucified. (There is a rival Tomb of Christ just outside the Old City walls, patronized mainly by Protestants. But that is another story.)
Antonia Moropoulou, the conservation expert heading the project, said the shrine would remain open to visitors during most of the painstaking process.
Hundreds of pilgrims waited to enter one recent day as Catholics said Mass near the Aedicule, blocking the entry with wooden pews. The shrine is topped with a large gray cupola, and it is decorated with gold, icons, pillars, candles, heavy bronze lamps, inscriptions and a large painting of Christ.
“This is a very super experience of my spirit,” said Anil Macwan, 30, a lay Catholic preacher from India. “The world cannot give me the feeling I get from this tomb, this place. It is a very sacred place.”
Two women from the Eternal Sacred Order of the Cherubim and Seraphim, in Nigeria, wearing matching blue dresses and head scarves, walked shoeless into the Aedicule, crossing the Chapel of the Angel, with its walls of elaborately carved marble and proclamations in Greek. They bent through the low door into the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher, where, under oil lamps, two white marble slabs denote the location of Jesus’ rock tomb.
The two women fell to their knees, raised their arms in supplication and fervently whispered prayers. They wiped their hands and photographs of children on the slabs.
Another day, a line of Indian Muslims squished against South Korean tourists, Indian nuns and Arab-American Christians stretched past the Chapel of the Copts, a room attached to the back of the Aedicule, where a monk guarding the site was engrossed in his smartphone.
The three Christian communities vigilantly guard the property they already control to an extent that can feel baffling to outsiders coming to the Holy Sepulcher, a cavernous jumble of Byzantine and Crusader architecture, with soaring domes, sunken rooms, gloomy light, heavy bronze lamps, squat buttresses and elegant arches.
In the church entryway is a gaudy gold mosaic on a wall, owned by members of the Greek Orthodox Church, that distracts from the nearby Stone of Unction, the marble slab covering the site where Jesus was anointed.
Beside the mosaic is a ladder owned by Catholics, who will not move it. It is next to an Armenian-controlled walkway of a few feet leading to the Aedicule, where non-Armenian priests in vestments may pass, but not stand, because that would suggest they are challenging Armenian control.
The last significant renovation began in the 1950s , when the Jordanian authorities who controlled East Jerusalem at the time pushed Christian representatives into forming a technical bureau to address the 1927 earthquake damage. But the process broke down more than a decade later, according to Father Macora.
After the last embarrassing dust-up, in 2008, which was captured on YouTube, the rival communities began trying to fix their relations in earnest, repairing the toilets as a good-will measure. In 2014, Pope Francis met the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, at the Aedicule, to promote unity.
Still, “somebody had to push us,” said the Rev. Samuel Aghoyan, the Armenian Patriarchate’s representative at the Holy Sepulcher, who took to fisticuffs with a previous Greek Orthodox patriarch, Irineos I, inside the Aedicule on Holy Saturday, before Easter, in 2002. “If the Israeli government didn’t get involved, nobody would have done anything.”
Ms. Moropoulou, the conservationist leading the renovation, said she hoped it would maintain the intangible spirit “of a living monument.”
“This tomb is the most alive place,” Ms. Moropoulou said. More so, she added, “than anything I have seen in my life.”
She continued, “The greatest challenge is to preserve that.”
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Where to even start with this article? As an atheist, it is downright hilarious from beginning to end. Rival Christian groups in fisticuffs over the place they think Jesus's dead body was dumped? A Greek bank that donated money just to have its name emblazoned on the construction equipment? A monk guard who is engrossed in his smartphone? Non-Armenians may pass but not stand, because that might indicate a challenge to Armenian control? A rival tomb sponsored by Protestants?
It's nice when Christians can take a break from punching each other in the face to work towards a common goal, but it does beg the question: WWJP? (who would Jesus punch?) I'm sure that if Jesus comes back, he's going to be very unimpressed. He'll probably want to crawl back into the tomb and die all over again.
What is so unusual about different sects of a religion competing, arguing, insulting each other or even in the case of Muslims killing each other? The disdain of Orthodox Jews for Reform Jews and vice versa is an example, as is the criticism of different branches of Protestantism for others. Are all atheists convinced that their form of atheism as opposed to other forms of atheism is the only correct form, or are all atheists identical in their (non)belief?
Buzz - there is only one form of atheism, since non belief in gods is all that atheism is. If there were no religion, there wouldn't even need to be a word for atheism. Atheism is a reaction to religion. Some people are more outspoken than others when it comes to atheism - that doesn't make them different kinds of atheists. Unlike Christians, Muslims, HIndus, etc., atheists all believe the same thing.
Are all atheists convinced that their form of atheism as opposed to other forms of atheism is the only correct form, or are all atheists identical in their (non)belief?
No, there are "weak" atheists (pretty much the same as agnostics) and "strong" atheists (who know that there was no god...ever). I'm what's known as a "strong" atheist myself. Though we don't kill each other.
I found the YouTube video from 2008, but it's so violent that YouTube won't even play it unless you verify your age with an account. It's a serious brawl between a bunch of men in dresses, but unfortunately it won't let me link it.
Always anti-Christian articles ... These groups might even end up involved in fisticuffs . Big F'in deal . Meanwhile muslims are killing each other often . And what do you have to say ? Nada .
Christians kill each other all the time in the US, not because of their religion, but despite their religion. Christians can't run around bragging about how the US is two thirds Christian, unless they accept that everyone who calls themself a Christian IS a Christian. That includes the vast majority of people who get arrested for murder, assault, rape, theft, etc. etc. US prisons report having 0.10% atheist population.
Christians kill each other all the time in the US
In case you didn't notice , your seed is not about US based sects . Your tendency to group all events based on a convenient label has become far too obvious .
(who would Jesus punch?)
Who would mohammed behead ? These days they use firearms though ...
US prisons report having 0.10% atheist population.
Unlike muslims and christians atheists do NOT do prison outreach programs .
"In case you didn't notice , your seed is not about US based sects ."
Right. In other countries with significant Judeo-Christian makeup, atheists do all criminality. That sounds reasonable.
Was that sarcasm ? It looked more like dodging the issue ...
The issue? I'm pretty sure your 'issue' is that this isn't an Islam-bashing article. Fuck Islam, and Fuck Mohammed, misery be upon him. Happy?
Who would mohammed behead ? These days they use firearms though ...
No, they still behead quite a lot of them too. Or stone them to death. And Mohammad should be capitalized too.
Hal,
I just found this interesting. Artifacts and how they are restored has always fascinated me. The fact that everyone wants something of great value, is not a surprise.
I agree. It's too bad that religious in-fighting has had such an impact on this thing. It's literally a turf war between rival rival gangs. Watch the video on YouTube if you think I'm kidding.
The fact each group has a belief connection to an artifact, yet unable to get along is unfortunately indicative of faith and religion around the world.
Happy to hear they've finally gotten their act and finances together to preserve this shrine.
Shouldn't they have to prove that a person named Jesus Christ was actually entombed (or even existed in the first place) there?
Prove it to whom? Themselves? lol
Are you kidding?
Many people don't feel that proof is necessary in order to have faith. Einstein didn't need proof for his theories to be correct, he had faith that they were, and one of his most valued theories has recently been proven to be correct. Consider that before you pooh-pooh what others believe in.
Einstein's theories are like the theory of gravity. Einstein's theories are reproducible, peer reviewed, and grounded in science. I would like think that a higher level of proof then faith alone would be required where people have died and that more people will likely die. IMHO.
It is not possible within the present intelligence and available facts to PROVE that God exists. If belief and faith provide comfort to anyone then more power to them, but if it does not, as in your case, so be it - no argument from me.
If belief and faith provide comfort to anyone then more power to them, but if it does not, as in your case, so be it - no argument from me.
I thank you for that. If a person gets their comfort from faith, even though I certainly do not, so be it and no argument from me, as long as the give none to me.
"It is not possible within the present intelligence and available facts to PROVE that God exists."
If God is what Christians and Jews think he is, then God most certainly does have the capability to prove that he exists. The doctrines that they observe to be sacred, divine, and infallible even say that in the past God directly interacted with humanity. If that's true, then God could clear all this confusion up in the snap of a finger - but instead, he must prefer to sit back and watch us kill each other over the simple information that he refuses to divulge.
Many people don't feel that proof is necessary in order to have faith
I think you can even take it a step further. By definition, if you say that you're "taking it on faith" that means you don't have proof. (If you did have proof about something, would you really say "I'm taking it on faith"? Of course not).
There is no reason to assume that Jesus legend was based on only one person :
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristina-kaine/the-bible-unlocked-it-too_b_9602658.html?
The Bible Unlocked: It took Two Jesus Children to Make THE Jesus
Of course Jesus is real! In fact, he appeared on a piece of my toast this morning!
22 People Who Found Jesus In Their Food
There is a pretty big difference in the way the Israelis protect ancient sites and artifacts, and the manner is which the Palestinians don't :
And then of course how the radical Muslims destroy the architecture and artifacts of our ancient history, even when such sites are protected by UNESCO:
Our ancient history is being demolished by Islamists:
Buzz, why are you bringing up Muslims in an article that isn't about Muslims?
Are you trying to make yourself look prejudiced?
For the purpose of comparison due to the location of the site. The article included comments on the support of Israel for the project, or at least their protection of it.