In the Greek age monuments erected over torn 1)3 became common, the tombs beneath being rock-cut. In such cases there is a combination of
* W. K. Lottus, ChiihUM and Sutiana, p. 202. f Conder, Syrian Stone Lore, p. 97.
the masonry and sarco|>liagus type of tombs. Hiram's Tomb,* about three miles from moilem Tyre, containing a tomb or sarcophagus formed out of a huge block and emplaced on a pedestal made of three courses of grey limestone, most probably belongs to this period ; and tomb towers containing sarcophagi are to be found throughout Syria. At Palmyra those structures consist some- times of four or five storej-s. Tombstones and sculptured sepulchres have been found atUabbath- ammon, in Eastern Palestine, belonging to the age of the Antonines, but are to be classed among pagan funerary monuments. Sometimes solid monuments were erected near tombs like the Kammuat el-Hirmil, east of the Jordan — a solid tower in two storej's, with pyramidal roof and bas- reliefs representing the hunting of the stag, the bear, and the wild boar, which date, it is supposed, from the 3rd or 4th cent. Of sepulchral monu- ments we have a notable example in the mauso- leum erected at Modin by Simon the Maccabee for his father and his brother. ' Simon,' .says the writer (1 Mac 13-'"^), ' built a monument upon the sepulchres of his father and his brethren, and raised it aloft to the sight, with polished stone behind and before. And he set up seven pyramids, one over a<;,ainst anotlier. for his father and his mother and his four brethren. And for these he made cunning devices, setting about them jjreat pillars, and upon the pillars he fashioned all manner of arms for a perpetual meinory, and beside the arms ships carved, that they should be seen of all that sail on the sea.' Of this famous structure all trace has been lost since the 4th cent., and its site has not yet been identified. (See Modin).
In this connexion we recall the stinging words of Jesus describing the Pharisees as whited seinilchres, outwardly beautiful, but inwardly full of the bones of the dead — as building the tombs of the prophets and garnishing the sepulchres of the righteous, but being of a totall.v dilferent spirit from tho.se they seemed to honour (Mt 23-''- 2a. BU) Whited sepulchres were evidently sepulchral erections whitewashed or plastered over to render tlieiii c(mspicu(ms, and to preserve passers-by from the ceremonial defilement they might contract by approaching them. That some such distinguish- ing mark was necessary we gather from a similar Raying in St. Luke's (iospel, in which Jesus describes the scribes and Pharisees as ' graves which appear not' (Lk 11"). The reference m this passage must be to the humbler class of graves simply dug in the earth, and with no monument of any kind to m.ark the spot. At the jiresent day the white- wa.shed slabs covering Moharninedan graves around Jerusalem glitter in the sunshine and easily attract notice. (See for cairns or stones heaped on graves art. Burial).
There are two sepulchres in particular which must always have a special interest to the Bible student, and which are both alike enveloped in a certain degree of mystery — the cave of Mach- pelah, the burial-place of Sarah, Abraham, Isaac and Kchekah, Jacob and Leah ; and the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, where the body of Jesus was laid and remained for ' three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.' As regards the grave of the patriarchs, now covered hy the mosmie at Hebron, see art. Machpelaii [cf. also Stanlev's Sermnns in the JCrixt (pp. 141-16!)) and /Vi'f.Si for 1882 (pp. 1<.I3-214)]. Touching the Holy Sepulchre for which Saracens and Crusaders contended, and regarding whose site heated con- troversies still rage, it seems impossible to attain to certainty. The tradition of more than fifteen centuries located it within the Church of the Holy • Bm It flirurcd in Sifrian Stone Lore, p. M.
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SEEAPHIM
Sepulchre. This tradition has been called in question since the days of Robinson. Its truth would require the site to have been without the wall of the city, for it is said that 'Jesus bear- ing the cross went forth unto the place called the place of a skull' (Jn 19"- '*), and that ' lie sullered without the ^'ate ' (He 13'-). But tlie Church of the Holy Sepuldire is not only near the very heart of the city as it is now occupied, but it must always have been within the line of the second wall. The latter contention is opposed, however, ainong recent authorities by Conrad Scliick, who, after liaviiig resisted tlie traditional site for nearly forty years, has been led to accept it as the true site. He professes * to have ascertained by excavations and measurements that Calvary and the tomb in the garden wliere Jesus was laid were without the line of the wall thougli very close to it, just as wu read in Jn 19-". The site favoured by recent authorities is a knoll of rock of rounded form and covered with shallow soil and grass, just outside the north wall of the city, and a little distance from the Damascus Gate. Under it is the cave called ' Jeremiah's Grotto,' and there are two holes in the face of the steep and rocky bank terminating the knoll, which look like the sockets of eyes in a skull. Dr. Selah Merrill, long United States Consul in Jerusalem, the late General Gordon, the late Sir J. W. Dawson, and Colonel Conder,t have given their support to this site (see art. Jerusalem, vol. ii. p. 596", and cf. Survey of Weatem Palestine, vol. on Jerusalem, pp. 429-438). Thomson, J after examining all the evidence on both sides, attained to no certainty as to the site : ' Far better,' he says, ' rest contented with the undoubted fact that somewhere without the walls of this limited plat- form of the Holy City the Son of Man was lifted up, " that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life." '