For the first time in 200 years the holy rock will be opened. By the holy rock, I mean the tomb of Jesus in which his body was laid to rest for three days between his death and resurrection.

The problem is that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built on the location of the tomb, is collapsing and archaeologists must enter the tomb in order to stabilise the site with mortar and titanium bolts.

If you happen to not know the story of Christ’s death, for whatever personal reason, here’s the back story – thanks to The Daily Beast:

According to the Bible, after Jesus was crucified his body was taken and placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy Jew who was present at the trial of Jesus. This was unusual; the bodies of most executed criminals were left to rot where they hung or thrown unceremoniously into nearby pits where they were often eaten. It’s unclear why Joseph offered Jesus a place in his tomb—some scholars have hypothesized that he was a Jesus sympathizer, others that he wanted to avoid scandal associated with leaving a Jew unburied during Passover—but with the resurrection the tomb became the touchstone for Christian pilgrims and a symbol of Christianity’s most important doctrine.

Since then, the holy site has accumulated its own history…

Over the past 2000 years the site where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is located has housed four successive churches. The earliest Christian structure was constructed at the orders of the emperor Constantine in the fourth century only to destroyed and rebuilt in the eleventh century, and replaced by a Crusader era Chapel in the medieval period. The latter was destroyed by a fire in 1808 and was rebuilt at the behest of Greek Orthodox Christians shortly thereafter. While reports about the nineteenth century renovations exist, they were performed before the advent of rigorous archeological study. The reports are incomplete and it is difficult to know how much evidence was swept away.

The current Church is, like other Churches in the Holy Land, jointly administered by Roman Catholics, Copts, Greek Orthodox, and Armenian Catholics. All of these have a vested interest in the archeological dig and are strongly territorial about preserving their access to the Church. This territorialism has long delayed the restoration project.

But an agreement between the Pope and Greek Orthodox leaders have now led to the site’s disruption. And how’s this: King Abdullah II of Jordan, a Muslim protector of holy sites in Jerusalem, will be financing the excavations, making him the third Muslim ruler to protect the Church from destruction.

While there’s so much history associated with the tomb, which varies depending on religion and belief, The Daily Beast has got it all for you…

[source: thedailybeast]