‘Look, the place where they put him’ (Mk 16:6) : the space of Jesus’ tomb in early Christian memory

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dc.contributor.author Smith, Daniel A.
dc.date.accessioned 2015-05-21T05:22:52Z
dc.date.available 2015-05-21T05:22:52Z
dc.date.issued 2014-11-20
dc.description.abstract The tomb of Jesus posed two main problems for early Christians: firstly, the earliest memory of the tomb seems to recall it as the site of the dishonourable burial of a man executed as an enemy of the Roman imperial system; and secondly, the narrative of the empty tomb stood for several reasons in an ambiguous relationship to the announcement of the resurrection. Yet within three centuries, that ‘place’ had been rehabilitated both architecturally and ritually (memorialised together with the site of the crucifixion) as ‘sacred space’ in the Church of the Resurrection (the typical Eastern designation for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre). For discussion, see Morris 2005:33–34). By about 380 CE, Cyril of Jerusalem could thus pronounce this place ‘the very centre of the world’ (Cat. 13.28). The present article argues that ‘the place where they put him’ was not originally venerated as ‘sacred space’, but rather was remembered as a place of shame; and also describes several different narrative and theological strategies, introduced in the canonical gospels and interpreted by early Christian readers, that changed how the tomb of Jesus was remembered and that allowed for it eventually to be regarded as ‘sacred space’. en_ZA
dc.description.librarian am2015 en_ZA
dc.description.uri http://www.hts.org.za en_ZA
dc.identifier.citation Smith, D.A., 2014, ‘“Look, the place where they put him’ (Mk 16:6): The space of Jesus’ tomb in early Christian memory', HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 70(1), Art. #2741, 8 pages. http://dx.DOI.org/ 10.4102/hts.v70i1.2741 en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn 0259-9422 (print)
dc.identifier.issn 2078-8050 (online)
dc.identifier.other 10.4102/hts.v70i1.2741
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/45208
dc.language.iso en en_ZA
dc.publisher OpenJournals Publishing en_ZA
dc.rights © 2014. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS OpenJournals. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. en_ZA
dc.subject Tomb of Jesus en_ZA
dc.subject Early Christian memory en_ZA
dc.subject Empty tomb en_ZA
dc.subject Graveclothes en_ZA
dc.subject Resurrection witnesses en_ZA
dc.subject Angels in John en_ZA
dc.subject Appearance of the risen Jesus en_ZA
dc.title ‘Look, the place where they put him’ (Mk 16:6) : the space of Jesus’ tomb in early Christian memory en_ZA
dc.type Article en_ZA


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