Continuing my previous post, National Geographic has photos, a short video, and an excellent article on the renovation of Jesus’ Tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It avoids sensationalism and takes a fairly objective view of the location. A couple of the photos show closeups of the original stone surface, seen for the first time since perhaps the Crusader period.
An excerpt:
While it is archaeologically impossible to say that the tomb recently uncovered in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the burial site of an individual Jew known as Jesus of Nazareth, there is indirect evidence to suggest that the identification of the site by representatives of the Roman emperor Constantine some 300 years later may be a reasonable one.
The article gives the reasons why this location may be accurate. It is important to note that many tombs were in this area. The location of the Edicule was chosen 3 centuries after Jesus’s time, and after being buried for 200 years. We cannot be sure of the specific tomb or tomb chamber that should be associated with Jesus. If not the current location, it was probably somewhere very close.
Some Roman period tombs are still visible in the Holy Sepulcher Church if one knows where to look.
Steven Braman demonstrating a Roman period tomb in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher. (Photo by Luke Chandler)
As I’ve written before, some revere the Garden Tomb north of Damascus Gate as the actual Golgotha, but this is not so. The Garden Tomb dates to several centuries before Jesus’ time and cannot be the “new tomb” described in Matthew 27:60 and John 19:41.
Bible, Archaeology, and Travel with Luke Chandler 
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