Holy Sepulcher

Construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was started around 326 CE, and was completed in 335 CE. Throughout its existence, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher has been destroyed and reconstructed numerous times, which means that the current Church in Jerusalem is not the original building. However, the significance behind the building remains. When the first iteration of the Church was built, it strengthened the legitimacy of Christianity in Jerusalem. Emperor Constantine ordered the Church to be built upon the western hill, indicating a shift away from the Temple Mount on the eastern hill, which Judaism, one of the previous dominant religions in Jerusalem, had regarded as a holy space. Through the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the western
Before entering the Church, “There was a monumental entrance, a gate of heaven in the sense that in this holy place earth meets heaven and one may pass between” (G. Armstrong, 1974, 16). This description of the entrance indicates that the Church was a place that one could go to cross into heaven. Being able to cross into heaven means that the Church provided worshippers the ability to be close to God, which the First and Second Temple used to provide for the Jewish people. Although the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was acting as a replacement for the old Jewish temples, it still contained architecture and designs that related to Judaism. In the apse of the Church there were twelve columns, which “symbolized the twelve disciples and the twelve tribes of Israel” (G. Armstrong, 1974, 16). Despite Jews not being allowed into Jerusalem and the dominance of Christianity at the time, the columns show that the Christians still recognize their connection to Judaism. Incorporating the twelve columns into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher further emphasizes the shift of the religious center to the Church. The twelve tribes of Israel worshipped Yahweh, a Judaic god, and having the columns in the Church shows that Christianity has also taken
Although it had been destroyed, when it was rebuilt, the significance remained the same, if not increased. Robert Ousterhout (2003) notes that while the location of the Tomb of Christ was immutable, the architecture of the building was not (p. 4), and that “the church not only housed the most important sites in Christendom, but in the Middle Ages the very fabric of the building came to be regarded as a sacred relic (p. 20). When the Church was rebuilt in the Middle Ages, the architects added their own features to it. The significance of the Tomb of Christ went from just the religious significance of Jesus to also including what had happened after Jesus death – the efforts of Constantine and the Crusades. Thus, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher’s significance transcended time. The old architecture of the building indicated that it was indeed the holy site of the Tomb of Christ, and the newer architecture added by the architects of the Crusades indicated that the holiness of the building at the current