Garden Tomb vs. Holy Sepulchre: The Quest for the REAL Tomb of Jesus 

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As it says on Rumi's Tombstone: "When we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men."

As someone raised protestant (Presbyterian), I can confirm that "vibes" are how we are taught to measure spirituality.

It is weird how our religious upbringing forms our expectations of how divinity should look like. For me, someone who grew up catholic in Latin America, ornate walls, statues and stained-glass are just how churches should look like. The strip down nature of some evangelical churches have always given me a corporate America spiceless vibe

You can definitely see how this tomb appeals more to the protestant aesthetic than the Church of the Holy Selpuchre, like it goes with the entire idea that religious places should be humble and that worship should be focused on inner or communal experiences.

I grew up mormon, and for a while our church-published set of scriptures included a photo of the garden tomb, with text heavily implying it was the real one. Fascinating to see a video about it years later with skeptical eyes.

Muhammad Ali? Ruler of Egypt? He is a man of many talents.

I grew up Baptist. In the mid-80s, my family took a “Holy Land” tour that featured a visit to this tomb site. It was a long time ago, but I recall it presented with “possibly” disclaimers. We also visited the Holy Supulchre, but it was implicitly dismissed as “the Catholic” tomb.

I get the sense that many modern Western Protestants (particularly evangelicals) have similar views today towards Christians in the Middle East. Middle Eastern Christians are mostly Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or some other liturgical church, and many western evangelicals do not consider them true Christians or view them in a patronizing way. For example, during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, American evangelicals were very vocal supporters of the invasion but did not consider much about how the war would affect Iraqi Christians. I have heard a story of an evangelical who did not care how the war would affect Iraqi Christians because Iraqi Christians are mostly Catholic. Similarly, today many American evangelicals support Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its bombardment of Gaza, but do not seem to care much about how Israel’s policies are affecting the dwindling Palestinian Christian population, most of whom are Catholic or Orthodox. Edit: to add to this, this brings to mind Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism, or the shallow or patronizing views and assumptions many Westerners have towards people of the Orient, particularly the Middle East. Many American evangelicals have Orientalist views. They often see middle easterners, especially Muslims, as savages that must be “saved”. Edit 2: in March 2024, Congressman Tim Walberg, a former ordained evangelical pastor, said that the US should not spend money on humanitarian aid for Gazans, but instead treated like Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He does not seem to care about how that will affect the small Christian population in Gaza, which are mostly Orthodox or Catholic and already in the decline. Moreover, almost a decade ago, Sen. Ted Cruz, who is Southern Baptist, was booed off stage when speaking to conference that was meant to raise awareness of Christian persecution in the Middle East. He was booed because he said that Israel is one of the greatest allies to Christians. Once again, this shows a disconnect many western Protestants have with middle eastern Christians. Edit 3: Palestinian Christians tend to have negative feelings towards Israel. According to a 2020 poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), 83% to 84% of Palestinian Christians say that they are worried about Israeli settlers’ attacks, a potential denial of their civil rights, or an Israeli expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and lands. Additionally, 73% are worried about the endless Israeli occupation and 67% are worried about an Israeli annexation of Palestinian territories. 62% of Palestinian Christians believe that Israel’s goal is to expel the Christians from their homeland. Findings also show that 3% have had their homes demolished by the Israeli army, 14% say the Israeli occupation forces have confiscated their land, 17% have been exposed to army fire, 42% have to cross Israeli check points, 6% have been banned from travel, and 28% say they live near Israeli settlements (which in turn exacerbates all these threats). www.jstor.org/stable/resrep25112?seq=10 Meanwhile, a 2022 Pew Research survey show that 86% of white American evangelicals polled said they felt warmly toward Israelis - more than any other Christian group. White evangelicals are also the religious group most likely to express a very or somewhat favorable view of the Israeli government (68%). religionnews.com/2022/05/26/poll-white-evangelical-support-for-israel-higher-than-any-other-christian-group/ In short, there is a huge disconnect between Palestinian Christians who are generally critical of Israel and white American evangelicals are are generally supportive.

I think this summarizes very well Protestant theology: it would rather accommodate and change settings just to fit their personal beliefs over what communities have professed for millennia.

As a young Catholic, I always thought it was strange my Protestant friends would visit the garden tomb when they went to Israel.

B.B.E. -before the beard era

I know a story of another British soldier, stationed in the Holy Land right after the Second World War, who was less enamored of the place. He wrote to his family, “here I am in Bethlehem, where Christ was born; but I wish to Christ I was in Wigan, where I was born.”

Thanks for this vid. I follow a channel about Israel that mostly caters to Brazilian evangelicals, and they presented this garden tomb thingy as the legit grave of Jesus. I was like: "dang, what about the well-known Church of the Holy Sepulcre?". Thanks for crearing all this up.

I just wanted to say whenever you put out a video I have to text my mom to let her know because she refuses to make a RU-vid account but she loves you so much 😂

You can tell that the channel is really gaining popularity. The comments section seems to get nuttier and nuttier with every video.

I can understand the appeal of the Garden Tomb. It's unadorned and humble, which meshed very nicely with the type of Christianity I was raised with. I can see my white, Midwestern grandma being more familiar with the imagery of the Garden Tomb over the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

I'm constantly chagrined by the endless commercialization of the Faith. Even worse is the aggressive politicization of it. Well. It's gone on since the beginning, and will no doubt never end. I appreciate your soundminded and rational and dignified presentation here, Sir.

I understand that Catholic and Orthodox rites may seem elaborate for certain branches of Protestantism, but it seems weird to me that this criticism should be coming from British tourists, since the Church of England and mainline Anglican / Episcopalian churches are right up there in terms of elaborateness.

Omg, the tour guide I went with in Israel/Palestine took us to this place. I was so disappointed with my experience. Just a little garden with a hole in a cliff, and a gift shop. Though there was a cool ancient wine press in the grounds from Classical Antiquity. Probably just a family grave from then. I guess the skull-looking cliff is kind of cool. The guide within the grounds said that it was a popular place for public executions.

This further solidifies that I want to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher if I get the chance, despite me being Protestant (Episcopalian).

I have this odd feeling that if the Protestants were granted a space in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher they wouldn’t have bothered with the Garden Tomb. But then again, the Protestants of that era might have considered the idea of sharing space with “idolaters” to be unacceptable. Ecumenism is a pretty new movement in Christian history.

You know, the protestants' reaction to the holy sepulchre makes me wonder if there is a direct line between protestantism and new age spirituality. The rejection of the "gaudy" excess (adultered aesthetics) in favour of a more humble spirituality reminds me of new age's rejection of everything 'unnatural' (adultered substances) in favour of a return to natural balance.

Any "scholar" who asserts that the walls of 16th century Jerusalem and the wall of 1st century Jerusalem, are the same, should be ashamed to be called a "scholar". I am neither a scholar nor historian, but i possess some brain cells to know that areas like Jerusalem, besieged so many times, are very dynamic and changes over time.

Yes, Jesus’ empty tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the actual location of His tomb, since Emperor Constantine ordered the building of the Church around Christ’s identified burial site. All that you have to know is this: “He is not here, He is risen!”

Despite what he lacked in archaeological standards, Gordon really was a fascinating man. His time in china especially.

"The Garden Tomb must be the real one because we don't like 'bells and smells Catholicism'!"

the old guy in the LDS video is making me giggle a bit "...orsomewherenearby"

It’s interesting it’s often European Christian’s coming in and determining what is legitimate or not. What about the local Palestinian Christian communities that have been there for millenia? One would think they’d at least have a say or opinion from the era when the tombs started getting debated (likely ignored though)

Sola fide was a mistake lol

Honestly there's zero way to know for sure where Jesus was on Saturday. As a Christian, if I were to go to Jerusalem I think I would go to both places to worship. The church is beautiful and has a history to it. The garden tomb has a feeling of what it might have felt like to be in Jesus' time (even if it wasn't an actually from the first century). It's the same reason I'm going to an event in Florida today. It'll be a walk thru attraction with actors recreating the story of Holy Week. It's experiential. I feel like the Garden Tomb would fit a similar value If I were in Jerusalem for Easter I'd absolutely do an Easter service at the Garden Tomb. It would definitely be more the "vibe" I grew up in.

As Congregational UCC, who grew up with a very plain and simple "meeting house" as our worship place, when I went to Jerusalem when I was 18-19, I also found the Church of the Holy Sepulchre off-putting, and I preferred the Garden Tomb - although I doubted that either place was the actual site. But to me it's the prayers and the veneration of the worshippers that make a site holy. By the way, I love the picture of you hugging the columns. Me - I have a tendency to cry when I visit archaeological sites because I'm so overwhelmed by the sense of history. Such place provide a tangible sense of connection with people in the past -- which is exactly why pilgrimage sites are so popular, if you think about it.

Catholics versus Protestants? We're back to the 1500s!

Thanks Andrew. I was in Jerusalem a few years ago. Although I did not visit the garden tomb, I did visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I found it to be a very mystical experience. I had a difficult time believing that Jesus was crucified and buried within walking distane of each other. I take all of this with a grain of salt.

I greatly enjoy your RU-vid channel. Thank you.

I definitely think that you look much better in the PBE (post beard era) but the hair is great in both times!

Imagine that, Protestants finding the “correct” tomb over a thousand and hundreds of years after the Catholics Orthodox and Coptic’s came to the same conclusion that the church of the holy sepulcher is the correct tomb. (Saying this as a former Baptist now catholic)

I would definitely visit both the holy seplecure and the garden tomb if given the chance. So far the coolest archeological site I have visted was the stone age burial chamber maeshowe in the Orkney islands. My wife planned it as my birthday trip last year. It's amazing how a group of treasure hunting vikings broke into meashowe in the middle ages, incorrectly thinking they would find t "Treasure" in a stone age tomb. They likely didnt find what they were looking for. But they did leave behind a treasure trove of viking ruinic graffiti. The viking acts of plundering and desecrating a 4000 year old burial site with graffitti, would probably have been horrifying to their contemporaries. But another 1000 and these acts seem to add to the modern day appeal of the site. All over Orkney island there were other sites where archeologists were faced with the dilema: to we escevate the site and destroy it in analysis? Or do we leave the site alone and intact. Apparently the nearby stone age village of scara brea extended further inland, but archeologists only escevated the sites closest to the shore and most at risk of being washed into the sea.

"...spend half your net worth on lunch at Disney... " That's a classic Andrew line!

the beardless version looks fresh though

Shout out to the LDS scholarly crowd. I can definitely attest to the cultural expectation of what the tomb should look like.

I've always suspected that the so called "holy sites" weren't validated by archeology or anything else, for that matter.Thanks for confirming my suspicions.Excellent video by the way.I wish all fundagelicals could watch it.But their biases would probably not let them accept the obvious conclusion.

Orthodox checking in here; thank you for this video

The church of the holy seplecure would be cool to visit for the art and archetecture. However i understand the serene appeal of the garden tomb. my sister in law visited the holy seplecure she said it was jarring and uncomfortable there were a number of different christian sects that all seemed to squabble over every square inch of the holy seplecure. According to her experience, there are some intense sectarian tensions at the holy seplecure.

To me, personally, it doesn't really matter where He was laid to rest. He isn't there anymore. 😊

It's SORT of like going to Bunker Hill in Boston. You imagine a hill....NOT a neighborhood.

Just in case anyone wonders; As they paid 2.000£ back in 1894 for the plot, that's just a bit more than 325.000 in today's money

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I enjoyed the call out to that video. It was fun to see!

It’s amazing being able to see how it would have looked at the times of Jesus . Instead of a later built church. But no matter what it’s got to be so amazing to see these places in person

The problem with the Garden tomb it was recently discovered in 1800's and the Israeli archeologist dated this tomb dated this grave to the 7th to 8th century BC so it's hundreds of years before Jesus and in the Scriptures Jesus was buried in a new tomb and they also date the elements of this tomb as the time of crusaders who arrived in 1100 after Jesus. this on contradicts the scriptures. and second point the Holy Sepulcher in 2016 was examined by Israeli and Athens archeologist and it was dated at the time of Israel second temple and the time of Jesus. as per the professionals the Holy Sepulcher is more likely the places where Jesus was buried. on the other hand, the early Church Fathers and the early Christians was able to identify the exact location of Jesus Crucifixion and burial site basically because they are decedents of the witness of the crucifixion and or disciples of the apostles, they are more reliable ever than a guy who discover a tomb in 1800's.

I have a connection to Dwieght L. Moody. My parent's taught at a school created by him. The school was Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH) in Gill, Massachusetts. Gill is located in Western Massachusetts.

Can you do a video on the Greek mystery cults and what we DO know about them? If finding scholarship on that is too difficult, I would love for you to make a video comparing and contrasting the different ways that each individual Greek god was worshiped.

As a pentecostal i believe that holy seplechure is probaly where Jesus may have been buried and raised. I dont deny the signifigance and beauty of the garden tomb but because the city has changed i tend to believe that Jesus tomb is there but just inside the current walls.

I bought a few books from your Amazon list. Thank you for the suggestions!

one old dad joke i heard was , hey do you have any historical site for visiting , no we don't have any right now but we are making one :}

Moody was venerated as a neigh saint in the baptist church I grew up in.

I am pretty confidence on the Catholic and Ortodox speculations on the tomb been on the Holy Sepulcre Church.. perhaps the tomb could have been earlier than the period of Jesus due to the fact that the actual owner of the Sepulcre was Joseph of Arimathea

I’m not religious at all, but I sure do love to learn about mankind’s history; as well as how it was deciphered throughout the years

The garden tomb is very peaceful and you can meditate there. Archaeologicalist have said the tomb was between the 4th to 10th century. The Church of Holy Sepulchre is beautiful on the inside and archeologists have open up the tomb and have found this one to be a single tomb from 1st century. After some recent excavations of the site they have found more tombs under the church. So both places are ok wherever you want to go. The more important part is Jesus is not there, no bones will ever be found because on 3rd day,he arose from the dead. No grave could hold our Lord and Savior.

I keep seeing documentaries with the "real tomb of Jesus," as found under an apartment complex in Jerusalem. Open a normal-looking hatch and there it is. Apparently they found caskets in there with the names of the holy family (caskets just for the bones, so smaller than what we might think of). Does any of it hold water? I tend to watch these documentaries because I'm interested in the burial practices in question, but I'm pretty skeptical of its veracity overall

*Tourist:* "What is that big building, with all those people around it"? *Guide:* "That is the Holy Sepulchre, the tomb of Jesus". *Tourist:* "Wow! And that smaller building over there?" *Guide:* "That is the tomb of Jesus when he was a kid." (Original joke was about mummies in a museum...)

You said "historical and archeological evidence". May I ask, what is the distinction between the two?

I always kinda wondered why there were competing Jesus Tombs and I should have realized that yet again it was Catholics vs Protestants at the center.

0:46 No matter how grown up, how successful in life, or how low you have fallen, we all want to trumpet a goat horn at least once in our lives. For American God stuff in the Middle East, for Odin's long dead butt, for the massive horde of ancient warriors you lead into battle with, or just because doing it will make you feel more awesome than anyone will ever be!

Expectations and ideals matter so much more than facts ever will. It's why my parents did such a good job raising their kids.

Its always a good day when there a new video of yours, I always wonder what your favorite cukutre or belief system is to learn about

Can you talk about the miracle of Holy Fire (or Holy Light) that happens in the Holy Sepulcher on the Saturday before the Orthodox Easter Sunday?

The garden tomb is literally a bus depot.

🤷‍♀️ Your argument about Protestants, pilgrims & “evangelicals experiencing a feeling of awe, with deep personal and religious motivations” the same could be said for Catholics and their shrine sites. How would you describe how Catholics feel when visiting those sites? Same same….

Historical evidence from that time period strongly suggests those condemned to execution by crucifixion were left on their crosses to decay (gruesome, I know), or at most, tossed into a open ditch.

A brilliant example of how religion motivates people to override what their reason tells them must be true with what they want to be true. It's not just a textbook case of confirmation bias, but wholesale confirmation invention. The "scientific" in Scientific Protestantism is bitterly ironic indeed.

That beard really suits you. Both you and Clint from "Clint's Reptiles" have that in common, you are men from channels I follow that started to look a lot better when you decided to grow a beard.

Wait a second. Dwight L. Moody? 🤔 Hmm so Dwight Moody -> The Moody Blues -> their fourth album is titled Every Good Boy Deserves Favour -> clearly a reference to Matthew 19:14 -> alternate tomb of Jesus confirmed to be the real deal, and confirmation Half-Life 3 is in the works. I mean the connections speak for themselves.

Twentieth-century pilgrims had expressed awe when standing in front of the Shroud of Turin because they believed it to be the shroud of Jesus's burial, although it's been since proven to have been made only about five hundred years ago.

Lol, i I didn't think you and Trent would do the same topic so close to each other.

Also, who decided to call this dry backyard a garden?

There is a full-size replica of the garden tomb in Cincinnati, Ohio (across the river in Covington, to be precise). Worth a visit if you're ever in the area.

Andrew's 2 eras, Before Beard and After Beard

Assuming the crucifixion and burial story is historical, there are literally thousands of places it could have happened. Debating between these two misses the point.

Thank you.

minor point: You misspelled 'prejudices'.

Archeology is my favorite wish I had studied it, but I'm too poor" degree. I am likely getting Nebula. I'm definitely asking for a gift subscription this year if anyone asks me what I want as a present.

There's nothing more cringe on this planet than modern American evangelical worship music. I'm fully convinced it's the only thing keeping Christ from returning.

You should have made this a combo with Milo Rossi of Miniminuteman. You could have done an episode of "Awful Archaeology" concerning Gordon and Robinson.

I guess if someone wants to believe a place was the tomb, what do I care? I know historically and archaeologically that they 99.9% aren't, but I won't harsh on someone who does.

That wouldn't be Charles George Gordon 'of Khartoum', would it? (it looks like him). I went to his school! (the school he founded, not 'went to') (it's a military boarding school in Surrey, England).

Evangelicals and Mormons on the same page tell me all I need to know. Other than that, nice video.

Please create a video about the Tibetan Bon Religion

Great video. Thank you.

I love your work so much

Funny how it's usually traditionalists who accuse evangelicals of being too rowdy during worship.

Interesting analysis. If you see this (tiny correction) could you correct your hymn lyric? "who died to save us all" CofE schooling, sorry. 🐣

Wait a minute. Did you deliberately exclude the word "die" from the hymn? 11:43.

Protestants and I fact anyone else of any or no faith are more than welcome to come to the church of the holy sepulchre.

I like the garden tomb, for it keeps the modernsits, protestants etc. away. In the end whichever hole it is really that kept the body I remember why do we search for the living amongst the dead? But hey, the H. S. church is pretty nice and epic.

This guy loves archeology!

I've seen one of these over in Japan when I was there in the military anime jebus.

It's probably in Boca Raton

Super interesting.

wait did the video thumbnail picture just change?