Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/94kl4clvwm
Where and How was Jesus Buried
Nenad Cambi
; Odjel za arheologiju Sveučilišta u Zadru
Abstract
The intention of this paper is to prove that the meaning of the term hortus, owned by Joseph of Arimathea, which is mentioned in the Gospels as the burial site of Jesus, is not an ordinary garden used for utilitarian purposes. With regard to the fact that a tomb was cut into a rock in this garden, it was undoubtedly intended for burial purposes. Sources on the ‘garden’, in which various esteemed persons, such as Cicero’s daughter, and emperors Caligula and Nero, were buried, speak of the fact that gardens of this type were used for sepulchral purposes. Particularly illustrative is the example of the ambient that Petronius’s wanton freedman Trimalchio wished to be buried in – a huge hortus with plants and fruit-trees, which ought not to be in want of anything. A set of inscriptions from Salona further speak of the meaning and use of the term hortus in the sepulchral context. Hortus is a well-known terminus technicus for grave plots of small and medium size, earlier intended for burial purposes (Figure 1). Owners often sold or granted the entitlement to be buried in such an enclosure. Sepulchral epigraphy helps explain the term hortus and define the relations among graves – not only in Jerusalem, but also in general. Several Salonitanian inscriptions are particularly important for the explanation of this term. It ought to be mentioned that it caused major misunderstandings in the Croatian scientific literature due to incorrect understanding thereof; similar situations happened to translators of the Bible too. The reason for this misunderstanding lies in one inscription, unfortunately lost, but fortunately published (CIL III 2207), which reads as follows: Avr(elius) Aprilianvs se vivo donavet/arcam Avr(elio) Amvro et Avr(eliae) Qvintae quae /est in (h) orto Metrodori vivi sibi posvervnt II[ ..... ]annor/quod si [quis p]ost mortem eorvm s]vp/[er eos alia corp]ora velet (!) [in]po[nere]/..... sol[idos....]. The term hortus was interpreted as the garden owned by a certain person of the name of Metrodorus, in which a necropolis was later erected. Unintentionally, F. Bulić, and subsequently G. Novak and M. Suić, due to lack of understanding as to the true meaning of the term hortus, caused this confusion. According to this inscription, Bulić gave the name of in horto Metrodori to the entire western necropolis, which stretched for kilometres outside of the western border of Salona all the way to Kaštel Sućurac. A confirmation in connection with the use of the term hortus was offered by the recent find of two small pillars on the eastern necropolis of Salona, which – like herms – include realistic presentations of the phallus with the following inscription: per hortum sepulcri (Figures 2 and 3) both on the front and on the back side. One pillar from the Archaeological Museum in Split, with the inscription Pateati, may evidently be linked to these two newly discovered ones (Figure 4). This part of the eastern necropolis very soon became integrated into the city due to its spreading. As sepulchral area, hortus had already been known in the Greek world, from where it spread to the Hellenised Israel under the Greek term κῆποτάϕιον. Though the term was Latinised (cepotaphium) in the Western Roman Empire, hortus was in much more frequent use. Thus, Jesus was not buried in a modest ambient, but rather among the Jewish elite, to which Joseph of Arimathea belonged. Nothing has remained from the original tomb of Jesus due to the changes over the centuries. The erection of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre by Helena, mother to Emperor Constantine, caused the most significant changes in this respect. In conclusion, it should be established that in the Gospels, the locus of crucifixion was authentically described, and it suited the sepulchral customs of the first half of the 1st century. At the time of the creation of the Gospels, the tomb of Jesus was most probably still in its initial form. In this particular case, archaeology and the sources correspond and present the act of crucifixion and burial well. The term κῆπος=hortus means garden, but refers to garden in sepulchral use, which served well both humanitarian and ritual purposes. There is no wonder therefore for the Holy Sepulchre to have been located in such a sepulchral ‘garden’ and honoured over a number of centuries – much longer than for the duration of the rich development of events in Israel, i.e. until Bar Kosba’s unsuccessful revolt in the year 135, when Jerusalem became Aelia Capitolina. According to the presented reflexions and archaeological experiences, it is evident that Jesus was not buried in a modest ambient, but rather in an elite surrounding, among distinguished citizens. A necropolis must have existed on the hill of Golgotha, by the road where Jesus had been crucified. The toponym meaning skull or ossuary indicates there had been a cemetery from the earliest days. The skull is a symbol of death. Due to various historical and other reasons, it is impossible to follow the development of the tomb of Jesus from the hortus of Joseph of Arimathea to the Basilica of Constantine’s mother Helena, provided it is the same place at all. As multiple alterations had taken place there, it remains questionable what may have survived from the original grave at all.
Keywords
Jesus Christ; Joseph of Arimathea; Salona; tomb; hortus
Hrčak ID:
277704
URI
Publication date:
18.5.2022.
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