Electromagnetic Anomalies and the Tomb of Jesus

Alice C. Linsley

Recently several news reports have appeared about work being done at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. According to a tradition that dates to the time of Emperor Constantine (306-337 AD) this is where Jesus was buried and where He rose from the dead. The tomb is enclosed by the 18th-century shrine called the Edicule (Aedicule).

The locations of Jesus' crucifixion (marked by a cross) and his burial,
according to a 4th century tradition

In this report it is evident that Roman Catholics want to use the electromagnetic anomaly of the Jerusalem area to validate the claim that the Shroud of Turin once covered Jesus' body. However, electromagnetic anomalies are found all over Earth's surface and one place they are found is in the area where they are working. The red spots on this map show where those electromagnetic anomalies are located.

I'm still waiting for an objective source to verify that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is where Jesus was buried. Descriptions of the site do not align with the data of Scripture.

In Jesus' time and long before His time, burials were done outside the city. That is why Jerusalem is surrounded by tombs. Some are monumental and some are more simple. Many are rock-cut tombs, such as the one in which Jesus' body rested, as described in the Gospels.

On the trail of Jesus' ancestral burial grounds

In the ancient world mining and tomb construction were the work of ruler-priests. Joseph was engaged in both. That is why he is associated with the oldest tunnel mines in Cornwall, England. Joseph had business and probably family connections in Cornwall. The Cornish say that he visited the Ding Dong mining operation. Eusebius of Caesarea (260–340 AD) may have been referring to this in Demonstratio Evangelica when he reports that some of Jesus' earliest disciples "have crossed the Ocean and reached the Isles of Britain." Since a qualification for membership in the Sanhedrin was facility with multiple languages, Joseph would have been able to communicate with the people of Britain.

Given that tunnel mining and rock-cut tomb building require the same skill sets, it is not surprising that these were done by the same people. There is no reason to doubt the historicity of Joseph Arimathea's connection to Cornwall. As a metal tradesman and a mining expert it would have been natural for him to visit there. From the time of the earliest pharaohs mining and rock-cut tombs were the work of ruler-priests. 

Joseph was a descendant of the priest line of Matthew, as indicated by Ar (ruler)-Matthea. Variant spellings of Matthew include Mateus, Matthan, Matthias, Matt-hat and Mattaniah. Mattaniah means “gift of God” and is a name found among priests in I Chronicles. These names are also found among Mary's male ancestors. That means that Joseph Ar-Mathea was related to Mary, Jesus' mother. Mark 15:43 tells us that "Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council [Sanhedrin], who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body."

Membership in the Sanhedrin required proof of one's ruler-priest ancestry. Mary's noble ancestry was acknowledged by those who sought to defame her. It is certain that Mary was of the ruler-priest class/caste because even those who hated her admit this. Sanhedrin 106a says: “She who was the descendant of princes and governors played the harlot with carpenters.”

Only priests belonging to prominent families were members of the Sanhedrin, the Beth Din HaGadol (The Great Court). A prominent family was one whose lineages could be traced back to Horite ruler-priests (what Jews call their "Horim"). The Sanhedrin is the successor to the Anshei Knesses HaGedolah or "Men of the Great Assembly" founded by Ezra c. 520 BC. The Sanhedrin to which Joseh and Nicodemus belonged was the body of the Second Temple (BC 520 - AD 70). Joseph of Arimathea was called bouleutēs which means "honorable counselor."

The tomb in which Joseph buried Jesus was one he had prepared for his own use. No body had ever been laid there. Mark 15: 46 gives this description:

Joseph bought a linen cloth, took down the body of Jesus, wrapped it in the cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.

The Jewish laws of purity required that tombs be outside the Old City. This requirement to avoid contact with the dead pertained especially to ruler-priests who served in the Temple and in the Sanhedrin. The Red Heifer Bridge made it possible for the priests to cross the Kidron Valley without coming into contact with the graves and tombs. 

The rock-cut tombs of members of the Sanhedrin usually had monumental facades carved with floral and geometric designs. One such design was the 6-prong rosette, a solar image, such as those on these burial objects.

This solar rosette appears on this marker stone at Banias in Northern Israel. 

The same solar mark (merkava?) is found on the Magdala Stone. 

Ossuary of Miriam, daughter of the priest Yeshua (Joshua/Jesus)

Given the prominence of Joseph's ruler-priest family, it is likely that his ancestral burial grounds were in the Kidron Valley, located between the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives. Tomb inscriptions here prove that these were the tombs of the ruler-priest families and most date to the 1st century BC.

Tomb of a ruler-priest family in the Kidron valley

Joel 3:12 says that God will judge the nations from the Valley of Jehoshep-hat, a part of the Kidron valley. The royal tag hat is found in the names of these rulers: Amenem-hat, Hat-shepsut, Merytre-Hat-shepsut, and in the name of one of Israel’s great rulers, Yehoshep-hat/Jehoshep-hat (Matthew 1:8). Yehoshep is a variant of Yosef/Joseph. One of Yehoshep-hat’s sons was Shephatiah or Shep-hat (II Chron. 21:2).

Jerusalem is surrounded by tombs since the Jews would not bury their dead inside the city walls. There are tombs to the west in the Hinnom Valley, tombs to the south where the Hinnom and Kidron Valleys meet, tombs to the north of today’s Old City walls and tombs in the Kidron Valley. It is said that Messiah will appear here in the Kidron Valley to raise the dead. It makes sense that the general resurrection would begin where Jesus' resurrection took place.

The Kidron Valley is on the east side of Jerusalem, a good distance from the northwest quarter of the Old City where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is located. It seems more likely that the ancestral burial ground of the Matthean priests is in the Kidron Valley rather than in the Christian quarter of the Old City.

Related reading: The Virgin Mary's Ancestry; Stone Work of the Ancient World; The Red Heifer