The tomb of Jesus is the place where Jesus was entombed [1] after his death. According to the gospel accounts, the tomb originally belonged to Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy man who, believing Jesus was the Messiah, offered his own sepulcher for the burial of Jesus. [2]
Possible locations for the tomb of Jesus include the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Garden Tomb.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. [3] It contains, according to traditions dating back to the fourth century, the two holiest sites in Christianity: the site where Jesus was crucified, [4] at a place known as Calvary (or Golgotha), and Jesus' empty tomb, where he is believed by Christians to have been buried and resurrected. [5]
The marble covering protecting the original limestone slab upon which Jesus was thought to have been laid by Joseph of Arimathea had been temporarily removed for restoration and cleaning on October 26, 2016, as a result revealing the original slab for the first time since 1555. [6]
Within the apocryphal text known as the Gospel of Peter, the tomb of Jesus is called "Joseph's garden". [7]
The Garden Tomb is a rock-cut tomb in Jerusalem, which was unearthed in 1867 and is considered by some Protestants to be the tomb of Jesus. The tomb has been dated by Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay to the 8th–7th centuries BC. [8]
The Talpiot Tomb (or Talpiyot Tomb) is a rock-cut tomb discovered in 1980 in the East Talpiot neighborhood, five kilometers (three miles) south of the Old City in East Jerusalem. It contained ten ossuaries, six inscribed with epigraphs, including one interpreted as "Yeshua bar Yehosef" ("Jeshua, son of Joseph"), although the inscription is partially illegible, and its translation and interpretation is widely disputed. [9] It is widely believed by scholars that the Jesus in Talpiot (if this is indeed his name) is not Jesus of Nazareth, but a person with the same name, since he appears to have a son named Judas (buried next to him) and the tomb shows signs of belonging to a wealthy Judean family, while Jesus came from a low-class Galilean family. [10]
The Roza Bal is a shrine located in the Khanyar quarter in downtown area of Srinagar in Kashmir. The word roza means tomb, the word bal mean place. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] Locals believe a sage is buried here, Yuzasaf (alternatively Yuz Asaf or Youza Asouph), alongside another Muslim holy man, Mir Sayyid Naseeruddin.
The shrine was relatively unknown until the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, claimed in 1899 that it is actually the tomb of Jesus. [16] This view is maintained by Ahmadis today, though it is rejected by the local Sunni caretakers of the shrine, one of whom said "the theory that Jesus is buried anywhere on the face of the earth is blasphemous to Islam." [17]
Shingō village in Japan contains another location of what is purported to be the last resting place of Jesus, the so-called "Tomb of Jesus" ( Kirisuto no haka ), and the residence of Jesus' last descendants, the family of Sajiro Sawaguchi. [18] According to the Sawaguchi family's claims, Jesus Christ did not die on the cross at Golgotha. Instead his brother, Isukiri, [19] took his place on the cross, while Jesus fled across Siberia to Mutsu Province, in northern Japan. Once in Japan, he changed his name to Torai Tora Daitenku, became a rice farmer, married a twenty-year old Japanese woman named Miyuko, and raised three daughters near what is now Shingō. While in Japan, it is asserted that he traveled, learned, and eventually died at the age of 106. His body was exposed on a hilltop for four years. According to the customs of the time, Jesus' bones were collected, bundled, and buried in the mound purported to be the grave of Jesus Christ. [20] [21]
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also known as the Church of the Resurrection, is a fourth-century church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is considered to be the holiest site for Christians in the world and has been the most important pilgrimage site for Christians since the fourth century.
The True Cross is said to be the real cross that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on, according to Christian tradition.
Calvary or Golgotha was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, Jesus was crucified.
Shingō is a village located in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. As of 28 February 2023, the village has an estimated population of 2,192 in 895 households and a population density of 15 persons per km2. The total area of the village is 150.77 square kilometres (58.21 sq mi).
Church of the Sepulchre of Saint Mary, also Tomb of the Virgin Mary or the Church of the Assumption, is a Christian church built around an ancient Jewish rock-cut tomb in the Kidron Valley – at the foot of Mount of Olives, in Jerusalem – believed by Eastern Christians to be the burial place of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Status Quo, a 250-year old understanding between religious communities, applies to the site.
The Via Dolorosa is a processional route in the Old City of Jerusalem. It represents the path that Jesus took, forced by the Roman soldiers, on the way to his crucifixion. The winding route from the former Antonia Fortress to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre—a distance of about 600 metres (2,000 ft)—is a celebrated place of Christian pilgrimage. The current route has been established since the 18th century, replacing various earlier versions. It is today marked by 14 Stations of the Cross, nine of which are outside, in the streets, with the remaining five stations being currently inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The Hazratbal Shrine, popularly called Dargah Sharif, is a Muslim shrine located in Hazratbal locality of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, India. It contains a relic, Moi-e-Muqqadas, believed to be the hair of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It is situated on the northern bank of the Dal Lake in Srinagar, and is considered to be Kashmir's holiest Muslim shrine.
The Roza Bal, Rouza Bal, or Rozabal is a shrine located in the Khanyar quarter in downtown area of Srinagar in Kashmir, India. The word roza means tomb, the word bal mean place. Locals believe a sage is buried here, Yuz Asaf, alongside another Muslim holy man, Mir Sayyid Naseeruddin.
The Garden Tomb is a Christian pilgrimage site in Jerusalem that contains an ancient tomb, also named the Garden Tomb, considered by some Protestants to be the empty tomb whence Jesus of Nazareth resurrected. This belief contrasts with an older tradition according to which the death and resurrection of Jesus occurred at a site known as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Garden Tomb is adjacent to a rocky knoll known as Skull Hill. In the mid-nineteenth century, some Christian scholars proposed that Skull Hill is Golgotha, where the Romans crucified Jesus. Accordingly, the Garden Tomb draws hundreds of thousands of annual visitors, especially Evangelicals and other Protestants.
Jerusalem's role in first-century Christianity, during the ministry of Jesus and the Apostolic Age, as recorded in the New Testament, gives it great importance, both culturally and religiously, in Christianity. Jerusalem is generally considered the cradle of Christianity.
The Lost Tomb of Jesus is a pseudoarchaeological docudrama co-produced and first broadcast on the Discovery Channel and Vision TV in Canada on March 4, 2007, covering the discovery of the Talpiot Tomb. It was directed by Canadian documentary and film maker Simcha Jacobovici and produced by Felix Golubev and Ric Esther Bienstock, while James Cameron served as executive producer. The film was released in conjunction with a book about the same subject, The Jesus Family Tomb, issued in late February 2007 and co-authored by Jacobovici and Charles R. Pellegrino. The documentary and the book's claims have been rejected by the overwhelming majority of leading experts within the archaeological and theological fields, as well as among linguistic and biblical scholars.
Youza Asaf, Youza Asaph, Youza Asouph, Yuz Asaf, Yuzu Asaf, Yuzu Asif, or Yuzasaf, are Arabic and Urdu variations of the name Josaphat, and are primarily connected with Christianized and Islamized versions of the life of the Buddha found in the legend of Barlaam and Josaphat.
Jesus in India is a treatise written by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement in 1889. The treatise, which was then published as a book, puts forward the view that Jesus survived crucifixion, left Judea and migrated eastward in order to continue his mission to the 'Lost Tribes of Israel', traveling through Persia and Afghanistan and eventually dying a natural and honourable death in Kashmir at an old age. The book also makes references to several lost Jewish tribes. Ghulam Ahmad applied textual analysis of both the Gospels and Islamic sources – the Quran and hadith – and also drew upon medical and historical material, including what he claimed were ancient Buddhist records, to argue his case. Some modern scholars such as Norbert Klatt (1988) have rejected Ghulam Ahmad's use of these latter sources as misreadings of material unrelated to Jesus.
Khwaja Nazir Ahmad was an Ahmadiyya writer. After experiments with Hinduism and Christianity he converted back to Islam in 1919 and in 1923, aged 25, became imam of Woking's mosque. He returned to become a Senior Advocate of the Federal Court of Pakistan and an Advocate of His Majesty's High Court of Judicature at Lahore.
Hazratbal is the notified area situated in the Srinagar district of Jammu and Kashmir. It is about 10 km (6.2 mi) from the Srinagar city center. The area became famous after the construction of Hazratbal Shrine, where hundreds of thousands of people visit every year because many relics related to the Islamic prophet Muhammad are believed to be there.
On 27 December 1963, Moi-e-Muqqadas, a holy relic believed by many to be a strand from the beard of Muhammad, went missing the from the Hazratbal Shrine in Jammu and Kashmir, leading to widespread protests across the Indian subcontinent.
Khanyar is a locality in downtown from Khayam to Khwaja Bazar in Srinagar district in Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies about 4 kilometers north from Lal Chowk, Srinagar. This locality is known for being the power base of Sanaullah Shawl and for the shrines of Dastgeer Sahib which holds the relic of jesus (Isa) and Roza Bal, tomb of Yuz Asaf.