Christ is risen. Indeed he is risen. Every year pilgrims from around the world

worship the risen Christ at his empty tomb in the city of Jerusalem. But did you know there

are actually two tombs of Christ in the city? There is the one in the church of the Holy Sepulchre where Catholics in Eastern Orthodox worship,

but there is another one that is more popular among certain Protestants. So in today's

episode we'll find out why these Protestants

prefer to worship the risen Jesus at that site and what the historical evidence

really says about the location of Jesus tomb. First a little bit of backstory on the Tomb of Christ at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

In AD 70, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed in the first Roman Jewish war. About 60 years later in the second century the Roman Emperor Hadrian

built a colony called Alia Capitelina over the city and the site included a

pagan temple that was constructed over the site where pilgrims have been

traveling to venerate Christ's tomb. But instead of stopping devotion to Christ, the pagan

temple had the unintended effect of marking the location of Christ's empty tomb for future believers.

One of those believers was the Roman Emperor Constantine, a convert to Catholicism.

Along with the support of his mother, Helena, Constantine tore down the older pagan temple and replaced it with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

This tradition was confirmed when workers uncovered in the foundations of the pagan temple stones that had

Christian graffiti on them. One of the oldest which is still in possession of the

Armenian Orthodox Church contains an ancient drawing of a boat with the words

Domini Eevimus or Lord we came.

The church historian Eusebius who lived around the same time as Constantine

provides a beautiful summary of what happened

when the workers discovered Christ's tomb beneath the limestone of the pagan temple.

As soon as the original surface of the ground beneath the covering of earth appeared immediately and contrary to all expectation, the venerable and

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