In the latter half of the first century, the site of the former quarry likely fell into disuse following the Romans’ obliteration of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. But the site would once again experience a dramatic transformation several decades later. In around A.D. 132, in the build up to a major Jewish rebellion known as the Bar Kokhba revolt, the Emperor Hadrian gave orders for a new city to be established on the ruins of Jerusalem. In the years that followed, the city’s whole layout was refashioned according to a Roman grid system, and the city’s name was changed to Aelia Capitolina.

In addition, Hadrian gave orders for extensive building work to be done at the site of the former quarry. The Roman engineers filled the quarry with huge quantities of earth and stone, on top of which they constructed a large platform which became the foundation for a grand new temple. The temple was dedicated to Venus, also known by her Greek name Aphrodite, and it would dominate the landscape of Aelia Capitolina for nearly two centuries.

The Unearthing of a Tomb

Fast forward two hundred years and a very different emperor now ruled in Rome. The Emperor Constantine had legalized Christianity across the empire in A.D. 313, and his mother, Helena, was a devout believer.

When Macarius I, the bishop of Jerusalem, requested help in uncovering the ancient Christian holy sites, Helena, now in her late 70s, set off for Palestine in around A.D. 326. Her son had given her unlimited access to the imperial treasury, and as soon as the empress arrived in Jerusalem, she began making inquiries about the traditional location of Jesus’s tomb.

In response, the local Christians pointed to the nearby temple of Venus. They informed Helena that Christ’s tomb had been deliberately covered up by the Emperor Hadrian some two hundred years earlier, seemingly in an attempt to stamp out Christian devotion at the site. Writing in the A.D. 330s, the great historian of the early Church, Eusebius of Caesarea, recalls the steps Hadrian and his minions had taken to cover up any trace of Christ’s resting place:

This sacred cave [i.e. the tomb of Jesus], then, certain impious and godless persons had thought to remove entirely from the eyes of men, supposing in their folly that thus they should be able effectually to obscure the truth. Accordingly they brought a quantity of earth from a distance with much labor, and covered the entire spot; then, having raised this to a moderate height, they paved it with stone, concealing the holy cave beneath this massive mound. Then, as though their purpose had been effectually accomplished, they prepare on this foundation a truly dreadful sepulchre of souls, by building a gloomy shrine of lifeless idols to the impure spirit whom they call Venus, and offering detestable oblations therein on profane and accursed altars. (Life of Constantine, III.26)

When Constantine got word of what had happened, he ordered the temple of Venus to be razed to the ground, and for the earth beneath it to be excavated. It was during this dig that a tomb was discovered several meters below the surface, just as the locals had predicted. Eusebius describes the scene:

Nor did the emperor’s zeal stop here; but he gave further orders that the materials of what was thus destroyed, both stone and timber, should be removed and thrown as far from the spot as possible; and this command also was speedily executed. The emperor, however, was not satisfied with having proceeded thus far: once more, fired with holy ardor, he directed that the ground itself should be dug up to a considerable depth, and the soil which had been polluted by the foul impurities of demon worship transported to a far distant place.

This also was accomplished without delay. But as soon as the original surface of the ground, beneath the covering of earth, appeared, immediately, and contrary to all expectation, the venerable and hollowed monument of our Saviour’s resurrection was discovered. Then indeed did this most holy cave present a faithful similitude of his return to life, in that, after lying buried in darkness, it again emerged to light, and afforded to all who came to witness the sight, a clear and visible proof of the wonders of which that spot had once been the scene, a testimony to the resurrection of the Saviour clearer than any voice could give. (Life of Constantine, III.27-28)

By all appearances, the local tradition regarding the whereabouts of Christ’s tomb had been vindicated. Interestingly, Eusebius’s testimony is echoed by the Church Father St. Jerome in a letter he writes to his friend Paulinus towards the end of the fourth century:

From the time of Hadrian to the reign of Constantine—a period of about one hundred and eighty years—the spot which had witnessed the resurrection was occupied by a figure of Jupiter; while on the rock where the cross had stood, a marble statue of Venus was set up by the heathen and became an object of worship. The original persecutors, indeed, supposed that by polluting our holy places they would deprive us of our faith in the passion and in the resurrection. Even my own Bethlehem, as it now is, that most venerable spot in the whole world of which the psalmist sings: the truth has sprung out of the earth, was overshadowed by a grove of Tammuz [Ezekiel 8:14], that is of Adonis; and in the very cave where the infant Christ had uttered His earliest cry lamentation was made for the paramour of Venus. (Letter 58.3)

Jerome’s witness is useful on two counts. First, it provides confirmation of Eusebius’s narrative about Hadrian having constructed a pagan temple over the site of Jesus’s tomb. Secondly, it tells us that this was not an uncommon occurrence, since the Romans did the exact same thing in Bethlehem: building a grove to Adonis, the lover of Venus, over the cave in which Jesus was said to have been born. This was apparently a strategy which the Romans employed more than once in their attempts to suppress local cults which they found objectionable.

Following the remarkable discovery of Christ’s tomb, Constantine gave orders for the remainder of the hillside to be cut away to facilitate the construction of a grand church. This became the basis of what is now known as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, although the building has gone through various different iterations since then.

Evidence of Authenticity

We are now in a position to ask how much historical weight should be attached to the traditional location of Jesus’s tomb. Did Constantine and Helena get it right, or were they guilty of a pious mistake? While it’s impossible to provide a definitive answer to this question, there are a number of reasons for thinking that Constantine and Helena were correct in their assessment that the site of the present-day Church of the Holy Sepulchre is indeed the location of Christ’s burial and Resurrection. Here we shall mention just five.

First, Christians living in Jerusalem in the 300s knew that Jesus had been crucified and buried outside the city walls (see Heb 13:12; Jn 19:41-42). Yet Hadrian’s temple to Venus was located inside the city walls. This is explained by the fact that King Herod Agrippa had expanded the walls of Jerusalem back in A.D. 41-42, with the result that Golgotha was now located inside the city’s perimeter. With the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D.70, however, these walls would have been destroyed; and it’s only with the help of modern archeology that we’re able to identify where the city walls stood in Jesus’s day. Hence if the local Christians who told Empress Helena the whereabouts of Christ’s tomb were merely guessing, we would expect them to have pointed to a location outside the city walls. The fact that they pointed to somewhere inside the city suggests that they were not guessing but instead passing on a reliable historical memory.

Second, there is the fact that the excavations under the temple of Venus did in fact lead to the discovery of a tomb. Given that the local Christians correctly predicted that a tomb would be found underneath the pagan temple, it seems likely that they were faithfully transmitting a reliable tradition concerning Jesus’s burial place, rather than just making a lucky guess.

Third, the Christian inhabitants of Jerusalem would only have pointed to the temple of Venus as the site of Jesus’s burial if they had a high degree of confidence in the reliability of their local tradition. If they were merely guessing, then they surely would have preferred some other location which hadn’t been defiled by pagan worship for 190 years. The fact that the Christians still insisted on this location—and successfully convinced the empress to tear down a temple and dig several meters underground in search of a lost tomb—suggests that they had good reasons for considering their tradition to be correct.

Fourth, the fact that Eusebius is persuaded by the authenticity of the burial site is significant. Eusebius was born around A.D. 260, making him a contemporary of the events we’ve been describing, and he was among the most learned Christians of his day. He was also something of a skeptic when it came to supposed discoveries of Christian relics and holy sites. For example, he doubted whether Mount Tabor was really the site of Christ’s transfiguration, he even kept silent about the discovery of the True Cross (said to have occurred at the same time as the discovery of Christ’s tomb).

Scholars offer different explanations for this silence. It could be that Eusebius wasn’t convinced that the cross in question was authentic, or it could be that as a bishop of a neighbouring diocese (Caesarea), Eusebius felt jealous of Jerusalem’s growing popularity with pilgrims. Whatever the exact explanation, the fact that Eusebius does concede the authenticity of the empty tomb shows that there were serious and even skeptical thinkers at the time who accepted the discovery as being genuine.

Fifth, there is a variety of circumstantial evidence which helps buttress the reliability of the tradition surrounding the location of Christ’s tomb. Here are some examples:

• As we’ve already seen, archeological evidence suggests that in the first century the area around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was cultivated, which comports with the description in John’s Gospel about Jesus being buried in a garden.
• St. John tells us that “the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city” (Jn 19:20), and that He was buried nearby. The fact that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is located just outside of the original city walls fits nicely with John’s description.
• The Gospels tell us that people had to stoop in order to enter Jesus’s tomb (see Lk 24:12; Jn 20:5,11). This fits with the dimensions of the tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which can only be entered through a low doorway.
• We know that a group of women went to the tomb “while it was still dark” (Jn 20:1) on Easter Sunday morning, although the sun was apparently beginning to rise by the time they got there (see Mt 28:1; Mk 16:2; Lk 24:1). Upon finding the tomb empty, the women ran to tell the disciples, at which point Peter “rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves” (Lk 24:12). Given that it was probably still very early, the fact that Peter could see the linen cloths suggests that the entrance to the tomb faced east, thereby allowing the morning sunlight to stream in. This fits with the tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which faces east.
• Even though Jerusalem went through massive upheaval first with its destruction by the Romans in A.D. 70, and then with Hadrian’s construction of Aelia Capitolina a few decades later, still there are good reasons to think that Christians remained in and around the area. We know, for example, that early figures like Melito of Sardis (d. c. A.D. 180) and Origen (c. 185 – c. 253) visited the holy places in that region. From Eusebius we also have the names of an unbroken line of bishops of Jerusalem from the time of the apostles all the way up to A.D. 324 (see Church History, IV.5 and V.12). Eusebius also testifies that the Church, now composed of Gentiles, continued to exist in Jerusalem even after its reconstruction and renaming by the Emperor Hadrian (see Church History, IV.6).
• More generally, archeological findings have verified the broad contours of Eusebius’s narrative about the discovery of Christ’s tomb. Traces of what appear to be Hadrian’s temple can be found in the area around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the discovery of a drawing of a small pilgrim boat dating to before the construction of the church provides evidence that Christians were venerating the site even before the Empress Helena arrived there. In the words of one scholar who studied the inscription, “[T]he stones themselves have cried out that this is the place where early pilgrims came to worship their resurrected saviour, Jesus Christ” [see Lk 19:40].

A Reliable Tradition

While we can’t know with 100% certainty whether the tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the tomb used by Jesus, the foregoing discussion shows that there are multiple good reasons to trust this tradition, and no real reason to doubt it. When you think about it, this makes sense, given the unlikelihood of the early Christians forgetting or misplacing the location of what they believed to be the greatest miracle in history.

Even with all the tumult that Jerusalem experienced in subsequent decades, it stands to reason that the Christians in the area would have kept a memory of the location of Christ’s tomb and venerated it whenever they were able. In a particularly ironic twist, the Emperor Hadrian’s decision to build a pagan temple over the same location seems to have aided them in this task, since for almost two centuries it served as an indubitable landmark clearly designating the spot where Jesus died on a Cross, was buried in a tomb, and rose from the dead on the third day.

Further Reading

Fr. Charles K. Samson, Come and See: A Catholic Guide to the Holy Land (Emmaus Road Publishing, 2018)

W. Sanday with P. Waterhouse, Sacred Sites of the Gospels, with Illustrations, Maps and Plans (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1903)

https://www.custodia.org/en/sanctuaries/basilica-of-the-holy-sepulchre/

https://www.generationword.com/jerusalem101/52-holy-sepulcher.html

https://www.reasonablefaith.org/question-answer/P50/excavating-the-tomb-of-jesus

https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/local-knowledge-of-jesus-empty-tomb