See Where Jesus Was Arrested to Be Crucified! Mary's Tomb, Church of St. Mary, Gethsemane Cave Tour!

welcome to this site this is the place where tradition would say that Mary was buried this would be Jesus's mother but before we go into the church what I'm most excited to show you here is the cave complex where the olive press was the Garden of Gethsemane or let's just say Gethsemane was just right here behind us and then the olive press was right here this would be a place where that they could go into and sleep and it's extremely likely that Jesus would have been in here and it's very likely that this is the place where his disciples are staying the night in which Christ is arrested he's going to go out and he's going to go with stones thr away to get by himself we know that he was arrested right here we know that he was in the Gethsemane area we know that right here is the cave where the Press was at right here would be the place where the disciples would be at so he would come out of here and then go and pray and then come back we're going to be on Holy Ground as we walk in here so I like to bring people here to see it because once again we're just right by the The Garden of [Music] Gethsemane [Music] [Music] this is the place where tradition would say that Mary was buried this would be Jesus's mother that she's buried here we have this church being built over a cave Grotto once again we're looking at churches being built one on top of another going back some would say that Mary didn't die she fell asleep and then wound up up at the in the dorm Mission Abbey up there we do know that Mary did die she's not Supernatural she's not a god anything like that but anyway this is the traditional site of the Tomb of Mary we're going to be going in and seeing the tomb it's down below because it was in a cave area okay but before we go into the church what I'm most excited to show you here is the cave complex where the Gethsemane was the olive press was the Garden of Gethsemane or let's just say Gethsemane was just right here behind us and then the olive press was right here so once again this is the Mount of Olives and so all of these olives that are being produced and harvested right here is going to be the main processing place for them it's large under here so it's in the shade you can work in there it's really nice but then also then people could stay in here when it wasn't in use and so Passover when Christ was crucified was in the spring so the olives weren't being processed at this time and then the disciples could stay here because in the spring it's pretty cool schol here in Jerusalem they're not going to be just sleeping in you sleeping bags out under the stars they are going to be sleeping in these caves maybe in the homes we know that they stayed in the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus on occasion when they're here it says repeatedly in Scripture that he came to the Mount of Olives so it's just right next to Jerusalem and in jesus' time there wasn't homes and stuff built here it was just mainly olive trees so then this would be a place where that they could go in to and sleep we know that he was arrested right here we know that he was in the Gethsemane area we know that right here is the cave where the Press was at and so right here would be the place the disciples would be at so he would come out of here and then go and pray and then come back I think you'll find this very touching so are you ready to go down here and explore this site let's go down here and see this once again tradition would have it that the tomb Mary's tomb is here that she was buried here we're going to go down there and we're going to see that we want to see the the the cave where the olive press was at first quite amazing to just think about [Music] this then of course it's going to say get semone once again in Hebrew get seman is two words gu is press and semone is oil so it's the Press of the oil in this situation the Press of the olive oil the olive oil press as we would say [Music] again where are we at the now this wouldn't be a tomb and this isn't a tomb this is a cave we are right by the Garden of Gethsemane or better called Gethsemane and so this is a cave complex and this is where the olive press then would be and you can see it's quite a large room in fact there's caves that go out even Beyond this so and then also what they would do they would take something like this cuz basically it's Limestone and so they can take a natural cave then they can take it and even make it larger so I'm certain that's probably what they did so again Jesus when he is ministering in Jerusalem repeatedly scripture says that he's going to the Mount of Olives and so this would be a natural place for he and his disciples to stay on the night then that Jesus was arrested after they ate the last supper then the disciples would be in here and Jesus would go out of here to pray three times and then he would be ared outside then the disciples would flee so you can see how it would be nice it's nice and cool down in here isn't it very very pleasant this would be a nice place to work that's why a olive press down here would be very very nice you're working out of the Sun and you're in a very cool place is good for the olive oil and just everything and so this is again the believ place than where Christ is going to be when the whole event of The Garden of Gethsemane and the arrest and that whole scene takes place but then even before that then when Jesus comes to minister in Jerusalem then he is going to stay here often as well so tell me how many times do you think that Jesus came to Jerusalem to minister during his ministry years three and a half years of ministry how many times would you think he would come just three years at least three a year yeah at least three a year probably more because you had Hanukkah that was celebrated you had pum you had the whole situation with Esther that story so you had after the law was given and they were required to go three times and you had some other Jewish holidays that were added on that Jesus celebrated he celebrated Hanukkah he celebrated purum so I would say Jesus probably came to Jerusalem probably at least six to maybe 10 times a year so he probably came here 30 to 40 maybe even 50 times during his ministry years and so on those occasions then this would be a great spot for them to stay it's close to the Old City protected also it's hard to find lodging for 13 people right you have Jesus and at least the 12 disciples but we know that there were other people that were part of this inner Ministry Circle we know that when the crucifixion took place we know that Mary Magdalene Mary of salom we had the mother of Jesus so we had these other people that were part of the group we know when they were in the upper room praying we know that there was around 120 during that period so this could house a space and once again it would be hard for Jesus and his disciples to stay in just a home because few homes would be big enough to handle that many people so a cave like this would be absolutely perfect so you are I believe you are in the very place where Jesus was and most likely the place where then he would the disciples this would kind of be their base on the night of when Jesus was arrested but just once again just a it's a lot to soak in coming isn't it it's just I mean everywhere you're walking you're on you're on Holy Ground God yeah what are these below the uh below the altar here they are they are the disciples sleeping understand that the night that Jesus was arrested what did they celebrate that evening they celebrated the Passover but an early Passover there was allowance for an early Passover so they celebrated Passover the night before the Last Supper they celebrated that meal so they have eaten well they've had Christ has introduced the New Covenant and that included drinking some cups of wine so they are they're eaten they're they've drank and now they're sleepy they're ready to go to bed and in those days they walked a lot we're a little tired now we've walked quite a bit today and so just like them after they've eaten they're ready to take a nap and call it a day but that night was a night when there would be no rest for Jesus it would be a sleepless night and so this yeah this represents the disciple sleeping Jesus coming back and finding them asleep again uh these sites were venerated early on by these early Christians and they weren't forgotten and there has always been a Jewish presence in the Holy Land There was a short period when hadrien drove the Jews out of Jerusalem for a period but then they they came back and they didn't they didn't forget these places even though hadrien tried to change everything they knew where everything was at and that's why when Hadrian did build things on these holy sites he was doing it to replace the Christian things with Pagan things because his intent also was to change Jerusalem he renamed it Alia capitalina this is in 135 roughly ad and he changed the country to the name of Palestine which is a derivative of the Philistines so he was trying to eradicate a Jewish presence from the land but little did he know he really helped he helped God out and he was God servant because what he did just preserve these spots even more just another layer of evidence that x marks the spot you know the age of the Fresco and ceilings I see some of this road yeah the age of these frescos of these writings and carvings some of these over here are in Latin so they would be probably dating from around 100 AD because that's when the Romans are here their language is Latin some of the decorations yeah they range in in periods of time we have things over here once again they're just commemorating this site as a holy Place uh just going back back in time yeah yeah so once again you have these identifiers that are telling us that this is a place of importance that this place is being venerated is there anything in the ceiling or the walls that are importance that be good for us to see we identify a couple cres up there especially here behind many of them it's not possible to see to be SE look here graffi is also from the first Jud Christian Community here here are more layers if we will go to De deeper to see we will destroy the that one right like that here they said it's about six or seven layers of graffi especially here behind around the cor so they would they would they would write and they would plaster and layer in the in some period when they renew or something they did they put that new layer like that especially here and here all you can see are all the graffities okay because here you can see the layer is behind and the other it was been like some part of the decoration also okay the graffitis are down or the other the other part so and this is coming from the first century this is coming from judeo Christian some some of them can go in that period or some of them are Greek like that depends okay different or bantine period also okay okay and have they identified what the graffiti says usually it's the names of the people here it was been all decorated that's probably from the byzantin okay okay down below water system okay it's here down and some of the tombs are here down from the Byzantine period okay down on the floor here are about 80 tombs 80 tombs from the 12th century down underneath yes down down underneath that we can see the importance of the place also what you said for the we can go in that period probably that uh that goes to the period of Jesus the the the place because we have the veneration immediately from the first century about the place and the thing also that's important what you said for the people the Romans they actually wanted to destroy it but they preserved the places with that in Semitic uh culture it's like that the tradition goes mouth by mouth that it's not written but it's the generations like that they knew it where was been the place even even if on the top was been the Pagan Temple down it was been something below for sure okay now how much lower would this have gone this floor here here goes here goes deep because it's water system and the things here it's not I don't I don't think so it's not so deep okay here they did the excavations they found the marble stones and the things down down below and the tombs probably it's connected with the yes with 12th century with crusaded period somebody of the noble people or something or they wanted to be buried here the tomb especially for the wom that was connected with the First Christian Community here no here it's down down below all the floor it's 12 Century wow that's uh thank you that's incredible information so this graffiti here is dating back to the judeo-christian first century time so that sort topography P you will found also for example some of them still in Nazareth [Music] okay where was been also connected connected with that with the especially with the Judo Christian Community that's amazing isn't it absolutely amazing yeah so just what our dear brother is telling us is that just there's just so much evidence that they've uncovered authenticating this site and then of course right over here it will see as we go out is a sister that was used for the Olive press well gee thank you so much thank you that's really nice we really appreciate that yeah that's a lot of helpful information that just more and more information so the crosses up there what period would you say that those are from by chance not so so so probably uh from the Byzantine period it was been something and in the 12th century they put something on okay they are in the especially there in the part up of the altar the altar we can see that's like the Byzantine icon with the Latin characters and the things probably in the 12th century they restore or something some probably something bantine but with big touch of the 12th century okay kind of touched up and renovated okay great okay well thank you thank you okay all right well we'll go ahead I think there's another group maybe coming in we'll make our way out and we'll go down to the tomb of Mary guys who want to take off your [Music] hats hey a lot of what you're seeing right now is Crusader they renovated this in the Crusader but there once again before the Crusaders then the byzantines were here and they would build churches here on the left hand side is a chapel of Joseph Mary's husband okay and on the right is a chapel of Mary's parents Hannah and Haim okay so once again this is a chapel over here commemorating then Joseph Mary's husband and then on the right hand side is a chapel uh honoring Mary's parents which were Hannah or Anna and Haim so these are these chaples commemorating that now let's talk a little bit about the historical background of this site the New Testament is silent regarding the death and burial of Mary but strong Christian tradition places her Tomb at this site the church is in an underground rock cut cave in the shape of a cross it has a wide staircase leading down to the church it is dimly lit and has blackish ceilings due to the centuries of candle burning the church began as burial caves that were cut into the Rock in the first century this would be just shortly after the time of Jesus these caves were later expanded in around 455 ad into a cross-shaped church with the tomb of Mary at its Center the large Crypt containing the empty tomb in the church is All That Remains of an early fifth century Church in the 6th Century an octagon shaped church was built on the upper level covering the tomb however it was destroyed in the Persian invasion in 614 ad during the Crusader period in around 11:30 ad the church is rebuilt and called The Abbey Church of St Mary of Jehoshaphat Jehoshaphat would be referring to the valley of Jehoshaphat otherwise known as the Kidron Valley virtually everything was destroyed by soladine in 1187 ad with the exception of the South entrance and staircase after the Crusaders left the site was taken over by the franciscans since that time it has been shared by the Greeks Armenians syrians cops abini and Muslims Muslims also worship here and in the wall to the right of the tomb of Mary is a MB Niche giving the direction of Mecca it was installed after saladin's Conquest in the 12th century according to Catholic tradition Mary ascended into heaven her Tomb at this church is empty and is a shrine honoring this event however there is no proof of Mary ascending to heaven and Protestants believe Mary died a natural death so this is just a little bit about the historical background of this church and this site here so we have just been to two places that are really really important even more we were at Dominus flevit we were at the Garden of Gethsemane we were at this place here the tomb of Mary but a lot of people come to Israel and they walk right by here and they don't go to these places because they're Catholic well I always tell people that when we come to the Holy Land just because we see a sight of a religion we don't agree with doesn't mean that when we go there that we are endorsing or we are believing what they believe we're here to see the event that took place we are in Jewish sites we are in Muslim sites we're in Catholic sites we're in Greek Orthodox sites all these different sites so you just have to see we saw a wealth of things today that we wouldn't have seen if we wouldn't go to these places in fact it really wouldn't be worth your time to come to Israel if you're going to avoid all of the places that you don't agree with so it's just really important to recognize that just because I go to a place doesn't mean that I'm believing and doing what they do I'm here to see what they have preserved and God blessed them that they preserved it otherwise this would be covered over you would never know where Jesus was at down there the Gethsemane you would not know where these places are at but now because these the Catholic and these others came over to preserve them now we have them so that's very very special so we talked about this in some emails I sent you right and now you're witnessing it so thank you and God bless them for preserving these sights okay well now let's come to our Bible talk here and what I'd like to focus on here is the life of Mary a bit and just highlight some things about her because this place has a lot to do with Mary so Mary was a very Godly woman who had the privilege of being the mother of Jesus now this is really quite special when you think about it she was a very Godly woman she was favorite of the Lord so that means she had a soft heart towards the Lord she was walking with the Lord she was sensitive to him so she had everything that God was looking for now the first account we see of Mary in the Bible is in Luke 1:26 it says now in the sixth month the angel Gab Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph and this engagement in the Hebrew Jewish culture meant that they were fully bonded and married they just wouldn't consumate so in the marriage then the man would propose they would work it all out and then he would prepare a home get everything ready and then they would actually consumate to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the descendants of David and the virgin's name was Mary and coming in this is this Angel he said to her greetings favored one the Lord is with you but she was very perplexed at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation or greeting this was the angel said to Hero not be afraid Mary for you have found favor with God and behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus now this encounter that the angel had Gabriel with Mary happened in Nazareth and the believe place where that happened at is at the church of the enunciation or in the close vicinity of that so the Church of the enunciation is built over the home of Mary where she grew up so she was in the home or somewhere in the vicinity when this Angel Gabriel appeared to her and then after Jesus was born and the Magi came and there was this big event that happened in Jerusalem it says that Mary treasured the privilege of being Christ Earthly mother it says in Luke 2:19 but Mary treasured all these things pondering them in her heart and all these things are talking about the visit of the Magi all these Supernatural events that happened so Mary knew all this she'd had a visit from the angel Gabriel so she just was treasuring all these things in her heart however being the mother of Jesus would come with a high cost it says in Luke 234 and 35 and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother now this is when Jesus is being dedicated at the temple in Jerusalem it says behold this child talking about Jesus is appointed for the fall and Rise of many in Israel for a sign to be opposed and a sword will pierce even your own soul to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed so this Prophet Simeon is telling Mary and Joseph that there's going to be difficult times that he's actually for telling the crucifixion of Christ and that your soul is going to be pierced and that this is going to to be the rise and fall of many so Jesus was a very controversial figure he was crucified because he was controversial and he opposed and taught the truth about God and the religious system was not fully based upon what was truthful they were more interested in their own power the religious leaders their own glory and so Jesus opposed all that and so that would come with a price and Mary being the mother of Jesus then would pay a price as well and of course she was at the crucifixion she saw all that happened so she paid a great price although it was a great joy and honor for her to be the birth mother of Jesus now Mary was an obedient woman submitting to God and her husband in all things it says in Matthew 2:13 now when they had gone behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said get up take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you for Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him so shortly after Jesus was born then the Magi come and visit and then Herod the Great is jealous and fears that there's going to be a king that rises up and so he has all the children killed in the Bethlehem Area two years and younger so when that is about to go down or about to happen then this Angel appears to Joseph warns him about this and tells him to flee to Egypt Mary was very obedient honored her husband as the Bible commands women to do and so then they went down to Egypt so she was very obedient to God and she realized that Joseph was her Authority and so she honored the authority figure that God had placed in her life and that would be Joseph now because Christ Earthly Father Joseph is not mentioned after Christ was 12 years old and because Christ entrusted the Apostle John with the care of his mother at his death it appears she became a widow at an early age so after Jesus is 12 years old there's no mention of Joseph and then once again at Christ's crucifixion Christ asked John the disciple to take care of his mother so that suggests that Joseph had died and that Mary was a widow it says in John 1925 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's Sister Mary the wife of clus and Mary Magdalene when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby that would be John the Apostle John he said to his motherwoman behold your son talking about the Apostle John then he said to the disciple behold your mother from that hour the disciple took her into his own household so it appears then that at Christ's crucifixion then Mary now is going to be taken care of by John the Apostle John so once again this suggests that Joseph had died and that Mary was a widow probably at a young age we don't know exactly when sometime between Jesus's age of 12 and 33 when he was crucified somewhere in that 20year Gap then Joseph is going to die now Mary did not remain a virgin as she had four other sons and several daughters after Jesus was born now I know that many believe that Mary remained a virgin and never had any children but the Bible suggests otherwise in numerous passages I'll just read you one it says in Matthew is not this The Carpenter's son this is when Jesus was in Nazareth is not his mother called Mary and his brothers and now we're going to get the name specifically of Jesus's brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas Judas was a different Judas than the Judas that betrayed Jesus and his sisters are they not all with us so we have at least four sons and we have sisters so we have at least two sisters maybe more so we have at least six Offspring six children that Mary had so the Bible is very specific about this calls them by name so I believe that Mary did not remain a virgin that she had sons and daughters with Joseph after then Jesus was born now also Mary witnessed the crucifixion of her son on the cross says in John 19:25 therefore the soldiers did these things but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister this Prophet Simeon who said that the life of Jesus would Pierce her soul well right here we're seeing the key point in which Mary's Soul was crushed and pierced to see her son die now she knew and Jesus told her because he taught this and he taught the disciples and others that he was going to be crucified he was going to be the savior of the world so she knew this but the reality of seeing her son beaten tortured crucified to a mother I can't understand fully but I can only imagine that was deeply costly and deeply deeply painful to her and then lastly Mary continued to support the apostles and the work of Jesus and was part of serving the cause of Jesus after his resurrection it says in Acts 1:14 this is when the Apostles and the disciples are all gathered together in the upper room it says and all these with one Accord were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers so not only did Mary support the work of Jesus but Jesus's brothers who earlier on in his ministry did not believe in him but they did later and so they're all supporting Jesus and they're going to do so after afterward support Christ's work the apostles in any way that they can so anyway Mary continued to support Jesus after then Jesus was crucified was buried and then rose again from the dead and went back to heaven so now what are some Faith lessons that we can learn from the life of Mary well Mary was a deeply devoted woman to be honored but nowhere in Scripture is she to be worshiped nor are we commanded to pray to her so once again Mary was very Godly a very devoted woman but we are not commanded anywhere nor do we see anywhere in scripture where anyone is praying to Mary nor should they pray to Mary so we believe that God's word is our highest Authority and so we believe that scripture teaches clearly that Mary was a Godly woman but she's not not omnipresent she's not like a small God who can answer prayers nor should we pray to her in any way we are to pray to Jesus he is our high priest and to go between Jesus and us have something in between that is not necessary we go directly to Jesus and as we mentioned Mary did not stay a virgin after the birth of Christ the Bible says she had at least four sons and other daughters the Bible ible should be our highest Authority and so we should place it over the teachings of any church any religion or anything that would suggest otherwise so God's word is our highest Authority and it says that Mary had Sons and Daughters after the birth of Jesus now the Lord highly favored Mary because of her love and obedience to him when we obey and seek the Lord we are favored by him as well now what we do for the Lord does not earn his love toward us but serving God loving him being devoted to him causes God to favor us to bless us to give us our best so if you want God's best in your life then you need to be devoted to God you need to be following him walking with him closely or otherwise you will not receive God's greatest for you his best for you he will still love you but you will not get his best because you are not right with him so to be favored you need to be right with the Lord once again that doesn't earn God's love but it it causes him to give us his best for us and lastly we can learn a lot from the life of Mary we see a woman at a very young age Mary probably got pregnant supernaturally by the Holy Spirit probably sometime between the age of about 15 and 17 in the Jewish culture they Mar married early so that's probably when she got pregnant so she was a teenager so for you teenagers out there um you can be Godly you can be devoted to God you can walk with him closely regardless of what your culture says so Mary was a very Godly devoted woman and we can learn a lot from her she was so devoted so favored that she was able to become the mother of Jesus out of all of the people that existed she was the chosen one and then she walked with God she served she followed Jesus in his ministry she supported him and afterwards she did as well so we can learn a lot from the life of Mary well thank you for watching this video hope it has been helpful to you and may God richly bless [Music] you

Channel: HolyLandSite

Views: 130,993

Keywords: Gethsemane Cave, Mary’s Chapel, Tomb of Mary, Church of the Sepulchre of St. Mary, Copt Altar, Garden of Gethsemane, Kidron Valley, Valley of Jehoshaphat, Temple Mount, Jerusalem, Old City Jerusalem, Jesus Crucified, Jesus Arrested, Hanna, Joachim, Joseph

Id: suTcObJoy9M

Length: 38min 30sec (2310 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 02 2024