The holy slab from Jesus’s tomb
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The stone on which Christians believe that Jesus Christ’s body lay after he was crucified has been photographed for the first time.
The limestone slab is inside a tomb that is kept encased in marble in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where it has been since 1555. It was last repaired in 1808.
Researchers from the University of Athens were allowed to unseal the holy site for just two days, in which time they photographed and took samples of as much as possible to investigate later.
The slabs of interest, on which Jesus’s body may have lain, are enclosed in a structure known as the Edicule (which means ‘little house’ in Latin).
The tomb in which Jesus’s body is believed to have laid
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They found the limestone burial shelf in good nick, alongside a second marble sheet with a cross carved into it.
The Edicule is also home to the ‘Angel’s Stone’, said to be the rock that Jesus rolled away from the entrance to the cave in which his body came back to life.
Fredrik Hiebert of the National Geographic Society said, “I’m absolutely amazed. My knees are shaking a little bit because I wasn’t expecting this.
“We can’t say 100%, but it appears to be visible proof that the location of the tomb has not shifted through time, something that scientists and historians have wondered for decades.
“We were surprised by the amount of fill material beneath it.
“It will be a long scientific analysis, but we will finally be able to see the original rock surface on which, according to tradition, the body of Christ was laid.”
Lead image: Getty
