Please note. All images are a rough example and may not be
exact.
Dear friends, as I believe this is my calling, I am doing some major research on the Garden Tomb of Jesus. Which will be added to my next new HD documentary, after my final visits from the tomb in the garden.
The next articles you receive are based on my personal, independent research, to establish the evidence, which proves the facts and hopefully confirm the truth.
I am already excited to have discovered new evidence and information on the garden tomb, missed and overlooked by other Garden Tomb researchers, which I will be slowly sharing with you over the course.
May I say, I am very grateful to some of you for your interest, research comments and feedback I have received, on a subject I believe to be the most important site in human history, revealing the place where our King Jesus was crucified, buried and raised from the dead, fulfilling 100’s of Bible prophecies, which also confirms the absolute accuracy of the gospels.
Please do keep your thoughts, research and comments coming in, as they truly do help me establish the truth, of which your research I will share, and as they are also helping me to be corrected, if you can prove me wrong, and also helping me to remain humble and open minded.
As my new blog states: It is not my purpose to force you to agree or believe with what’s on my web sites, but rather to share my research in hope to encourage you with the accuracy of the Bible, and help you make up your own mind.
WHAT STONE FITS THE GARDEN TOMB OF JESUS? Part 1 of 3.
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| WHAT STONE FITS THE GARDEN TOMB OF JESUS? Part 1 of 3. |
King James Bible
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
1 Thessalonians 5:21.
My desire is to reveal the truth, no matter what the cost. But praying in Jesus for His Holy Spirit is vital, as without Him it is impossible, and we are just religious people.
King James Bible
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5.
We will briefly look into the investigations and study of materials and sources of two main candidates, who have done a great deal of research on the garden tomb, of which the last and third is my own discovery.
Garden Tomb Contenders.
Part 1. Research by John A. Tvedtnes.
Part 2. Research by Ron Wyatt.
Part 3. Research by myself, Simon Brown.
I will put forward their claims of what and why they believe the size of the stone is, to this Garden Tomb of Jesus.
Lets get going and have a look. Part 1.
1.
Research by John A. Tvedtnes, instructor at the Brigham Young University-Salt Lake Center for Continuing Education, doctoral candidate in Egyptian and Semitic languages at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and trustee of the Society for Early Historic Archaeology.
John A. Tvedtnes inspired me with an article he wrote called: ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCES FOR THE GARDEN TOMB, JERUSALEM.
I believe John has done some wonderful research, of which I mostly agree, except the size of the door and stone.
So I am only focusing on his research with what he believes the size of the door and stone is, and no more at this stage.
In short, John states in his research, because of the large door entrance, the tomb would require a large stone to seal such a large door entrance.
He goes on to say, the fact St John and Mary Magdalene had to stoop down to look inside the tomb as we are told in John 20:5 - 11. Proves the door entrance to the tomb must have been small. He does not say the actual size, but from his drawing I made below, similar to his diagram here which you can see on his web site, which looks like he believes the stone is only about 4 to 6 foot in diameter.
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Stone size theory around 4 to 6 foot diameter by John A. Tvedtnes.
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Because John believes the tomb door was small, and not the height
as it is today, (see photo of garden tomb door today).
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| The size of the tomb door today |
For this reason he believes the stone was the same size as a normal stone in the holy land, similar to the one below.
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| ©2015 iStockphoto LP. Picture is a typical sample of a tomb in the Holy Land. |
Sadly we are all humans, capable of making mistakes, and from my research it is very clear John has made a serious error here.
It is very easy to establish the facts and reveal this simple mistake by firstly looking at John 20:5.
John A. Tvedtnes is looking at the Bible verses - So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. John 20:3 - 5.
So because of the words and translation: He bent over, John and others believe the door entrance was less then half the size as it is today.
But sadly, not realising the real words and translation do not say John bent over to look in the tomb, but instead says -
to stoop sideways, to stoop to look.
NASB Lexicon.
Here we see St John did not bend down, but stooped side ways, proving the size of the door entrance was the same as it is today.
This makes perfect sense because the grave of Jesus is on the right side of the tomb, which confirms with the right translation.
St John had to stoop sideways, as Jesus body was on the right hand side corner, so he could see the body of Jesus, and not bending down and then looking sideways.
In fact if we look at this ancient photo of the sepulchre of Jesus in the tomb, we discover something very interesting indeed.
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| Ancient photo of the sepulchre of Jesus in the tomb, |
As we can see, It would be impossible for anyone to see the body of Jesus, from the door, if they had to bend down, because by bending down at the door and looking at the grave, there is a slab in front of Jesus body, making it impossible to see Jesus by bending down. (Please also see Howard's comment at the end)
Sadly, I do not understand why John has also neglected what the gospels say, which says and confirms the stone was unique, by saying it was a ‘ GREAT’ stone indeed, yet he has added a small stone to the garden tomb, no different to any other.
Text Analysis from greek http://biblehub.com/text/mark/16-4.htm
And having looked up they see
that has been rolled away the stone; it was indeed large extremely. Mark 16:4.
John is not fully understanding the reason the stone was said to be GREAT. It needed to be GREAT to accommodate a great size doorway, completely opposite to the traditional tombs.
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| A GREAT stone was needed to accommodate a GREAT size doorway. |
King James Bible.
And when they looked, they
saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. Mark 16:4.
Just as St Mark in Mark 16:4 clearly defined and detailed the stone was GREAT, and Dr. Howard also wonderfully explaining this amazing event, where the two women arriving at the tomb after 3 days from Jesus being buried, and had to gaze upwards - And having looked up - in surprise at the [great] height of the [circular] stone. Notice here, the women looked up, and not directly ahead or ‘down’ at the stone, which would be the case, if the stone was 5 foot or less.
The GREAT stone reveals the incredible accuracy of the Bible, which has so sadly been overlooked.
So we have now established there is a vital mistake on the size of the DOOR, making the size of what is a ‘GREAT’ stone far to small, and a normal stone.
I hope my research has proved here that the theory of a small door and stone is wrong.
It is NOT a small stone, but a ‘GREAT' stone indeed, just as written in the gospels.
And having looked up they see that has been rolled away the stone; it was indeed large extremely. MARK 16:4.
This now explains why two of the Garden tomb staff told me and my wife Emma, the GREAT stone at Mount Nebo is to large, which is so sadly misleading, causing confusion and discrediting the word of God, in His extremely reliable, as we have seen, Holy Bible.
My problem is who will believe my research? I am dyslexic, never went to school, and have no letters after my name or any ‘O' levels, but instead I have only a simple spirit level and a tape-measure, compared to someone like intelligent John from University with historical archaeology knowledge.
However, If you do have confidence in my research and would like to learn more regarding the garden tomb, then please do join me again in part 2 of our next candidate, next week, when we will jump from a small 4-5-6 foot stone to a 13 foot ‘MASSIVE’ stone, believed to also be the stone to the tomb of Jesus, as said and discovered by Ron Wyatt.
Please also see Howard's comments below who has been very kindly helping me with the translations of the Bible verses.
I am Simon Brown.
May God bless you.
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Note. I Simon Brown did not discover the garden tomb or seal in the tomb wall.
Hi Simon!
Ok,first that seal. You're correct as to your findings in the video and the seal. Seal is sphragizo: to stamp for security as it is used here: high degree ; very great, etc. Can mean fence or barrier too. The 'seal' was quite large in length to accommodate that massive stone of Nebo or Simon!
John
John 20:5: "And having leaned beside(literally peeking in] he is observing the bandages that were lying, but he did not enter."
Simon
v.6 -7 '"...And he viewed the bandages lying ,and the sweat cloth that had been on His head ,but not lying with the bandages, but apart from having been rolled up into one place."
Note:v 8 John later just goes right inside the tomb no stooping in Greek is mentioned.
The sweat cloth was rolled or coiled around and around entulisso Gk. So They wrapped that cloth around and around His head, but it was lying there in that it was now hollow or the head/body was gone yet it still has the form! The same for the bandages. It says it was 'one place' Gk. where the wrapped head 'turban' or sweat cloth was coiled in the same form as when they wrapped it around His head.
We know Jesus just passed through them unlike Lazarus Jn. 11:44
These bandages were lying on a flat -to some degree- surface. They were laid out or elongated.
I did see in Mark 16:5 the angel was sitting on the right side of the inside of the tomb. We know the GT is laid out where the bodies would be on the right side.
The women just entered right into the tomb no bending over is seen in Greek.
"Why do you seek the living among the dead." I read where they found not too long ago where near the GT was buried 17 people. This then would make even more sense. He was' living' the others were dead!
That's all for now.
Howard.
UPDATES by Howard.
Greetings
Simon!
In
going over and over the grave clothes scene I see that they are outstretched
and hollow. They would cohere as aloe and other spices, etc., would coalesce sticking the wrappings together. Who
placed them in 'their own place' has been speculated. The two angels who were
His servants or the Lord Himself. I lean towards those two angels who were sent
to serve and give the messages to His disciples about His rising from the dead.
So the two main items the body swath as well as the head covering which were
away from each other were set aside or appointed a place in which to be laid so
as to be seen by the witnesses.
So
on the floor of the depression or loculus (with a vertical stone slab to the
right from frontal view ) the angels(?) carefully laid out in an appointed
outstretched position the main grave cloth as well as the head sweat 'turban.'
Both
men entered the tomb Peter before John as we know and 'saw' (John) blepo- to
look, to observe ,and Peter to 'see' theoreo
to scrutinize carefully Gk. But, at the end John 'understood' (eido Gk.)
the meaning of the empty 'hollow' grave clothes just lying there. If robbers or
the enemies of the Lord had taken the body they would not have undraped the
body first.
Now
one could say these cloths could have been moved and kept in order as
indicated across to the chamber or
loculus 4 or right side from frontal view or the space in between the loculus'
so it would be easier to view by the witnesses. But, they went inside to view
them and most likely the angels would
leave them where the Lord's body had lain in death? 'Come see the place where " (# 4 to far left as one
enters the tomb... on tomb graphic) they laid him.' Mk.16: 6
It
would be some what dark in the tomb, but that window to the right and higher up
would let some light inside. Maybe this is part of the reason for saying
stooping alongside to use what light there was at the door and also take
advantage of the light from the small window to see the contents of the tomb
until they fully entered. They had never
been inside this tomb before. They would have to -in their
excitement-mentally grasp it's contents
and lay out ,etc. We have seen it and many photos so we are familiar with it.
But, having those grave clothes is another matter!
Howard
More later...
Simone,
The
tomb Hewn out of a rock. Hewn is laxeutos: rock quarried; scrapping; to smooth
or to polish to some degree. It was a splendid 'polished' tomb 2,000 years ago.
My
exposition of the linen cloth was terse not an in depth analysis.
To
me it isn't so much the size of that door as to the inspired Writers Mark and
Matthew referring to the massive size of the stone. Start there is my take. The
length of the seal and the fact the Greek word can mean a very long one whether
rope or chain as part of that 'seal.'
We
do not know Joseph's thinking. He may have had problems with grave robbers
trying to break into the tomb. Or knew of others. He could have heard of a
friend whose 'small' stone to his tomb was easily moved exposing that tomb ;so
he with all of his wealth and hired stone workers decided to make his stone
especially large so no one could break in!
Maybe
too ego was also involved in his decision as to a display of his
prestige(Sanhedrin) and wealth so he wanted a stone like no other had. This
doesn't mean later he wasn't converted to Jesus became more humble and changed;
but the huge stone was already cut and in place. Maybe one of his stone quarry
masons told him to do this large stone for security, etc.
Of
course, it was all providential in symbolizing Christ the large stone the
builders rejected. And the power of God seen in the angel that lifted the
massive stone from it's channel with ease. Also when confronted with it's
enormous size the security detail no doubt reported that with their security
and the stone being so ponderous it was very secure. After it was easily moved
by the angel all knew that God was in this.
Howard
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