Modern Mount Calvary
Great authorities are marshaled in favor of both claimants—the church within and the mound without the walls. For a long time the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was the only traditional spot pointed out as the place of burial. But with the growing influence of the Grotto of Jeremiah, the modern Mount Calvary, a picture of which we give, increased in favor. This whole discussion as to the place where Christ was crucified, and as to the tomb in which His body was placed, turns upon the direction which the walls about Jerusalem took at the time of the crucifixion. If the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was outside the wall at that time, as Dean Stanley thinks it might have been, the chances in favor of its being the place of crucifixion and burial are increased. If, however, the site of this church was inside the wall at that time it is sure that the place of burial and crucifixion was not there, for Christ was crucified outside of the walls of Jerusalem. And supposing the northern wall to be where it is now, the modern Mount Calvary, or the Mount Calvary illustrated above, and the Grotto of Jeremiah, conform exactly to the conditions represented in Scripture as the place of crucifixion and burial. This is near the city, just across the road from the northern wall, and directly in sight of the multitudes who might have been looking at the terrible tragedy. In this picture we see to the right the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We really have in this picture a view of both places as claimed by different authorities as the spot of crucifixion and burial, and it is doubtless true that in one or the other of these places our Savior was put to death on the cross.
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