Hicks 1 The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was constructed when Christianity was beginning to receive acceptance as a mainstream

religion, and has persisted in some form for over 1600 years. From the construction of the Church in the 4th century AD to the 12th century AD (Ousterhout 1990: p44), the Christian understanding of the Church's position in Jerusalem changed, and this is evidenced in Christians' architectural modifications of the church, attributed historical significance, and interest in the Temple of Solomon and the Dome of the Rock . While the architects of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher viewed it as the sole axis mundi of Jerusalem, the evolving understanding of Judaism's place in the Christian worldview led Christians to recognize two axes mundi in Jerusalem in the 12th century AD: one at the site of the anastasis, and the other at the Temple Mount. These changes reflect the Christians' shift in perspective of their faith from a replacement of Judaism, to the natural evolution of Judaism. During its early period Christianity had to establish its tenets and beliefs, and defend their legitimacy as the supersessesor of Judaism. The Christians' belief that the spiritual rebirth of the world was in the moment of Christs death (Titus 3:5), and that the umbilicus mundi centered was now at the site of the Holy Sepulcher (Schein 1984: p175) defined their religious outlook in their early years. Christians validated these beliefs through the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and evidenced this core tenet through a contrasting relationship between the Church and the Temple Mount. In this period, the Christians designed the Church with architectural inspiration from the Temple (Ousterhout 1990: p44); however, the stories related to the Church cast it in a light of superiority. This reflects the Christian worldview of supersessesor of the Judaic faith. The Christians of this time period viewed Jerusalem as a city with one axis mundi, a reflection of themselves as a singular faith apart from Judaism. While early Christians' proclamation of supersessesion to the Judaic faith is clearly reflected in similarities between the Church and the Temple of Solomon, differences show that early Christians sought to distance

Hicks 2 themselves from the Jerusalem of Jews. One method they employed to reconcile these two needs was to use similarity to draw attention to the differences in their beliefs. Perhaps the clearest similarity between the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Temple of Solomon is their architectural layout as a two-part building. The church contains a small room at the back to hold the site of the anastasis . When the early Christians designed the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, they placed the site of the resurrection at the back of the church (Ousterhout 1990: p45). This is much like the placement of the Holy of Holies in the innermost sanctuary of the Temple of Solomon. The Holy of Holies symbolized the covenant between the Judaic conception of God and the people of Israel, and was placed in the most sheltered sanctum of the Temple of Solomon, past the entry courtyard. By placing the site of resurrection in a similar location as the Ark of the Covenant, the architects of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher intentionally underline the similarity between these religions. However, the architects had a second reason to draw these two buildings nearly identical fashion: the small but very distinct changes between the Temple and the Church draw attention to the primary difference between Judaism and Christianity--where there was an Ark before, there is now the site of anastasis. This emphasized the primary difference that early Christians used to distinguish themselves: that the Christians believed in a new covenant. Even the design of the Church of the Anastasis resembles that of the Holy of Holies (Ousterhout 1990: p48). While the area surrounding the tomb of Christ is open, the tomb itself is inside the aedicule, a more holy structure. The Anastasis was the holiest locations to the early Christians(Meinardus 2002: p139), and the tomb was not accessible, except by a priest on Easter for the Ceremony of Holy Fire. During the time of Solomon, the Israelites had similar practices regarding the Holy of Holies. The Ark of the Coveneant was off limits, except for the celebration of Yom Kippur, when the high priest could enter. Yom Kippur and Easter represents the holiest of

Hicks 3 days for their respective faiths. In the Hebrew texts, Yom Kippur marks the day which God establishes his covenant with the Israelites by handing down the 10 commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. Thus Yom Kippur celebrates the initiation of the Jewish covenant with God, and to honor that occasion, their high priests would enter the Holy of Holies. The Christians view Christs resurrection as the beginning of a compact with God, and thus celebrate their covenant with their God on Holy Saturday, by entering the tomb of resurrection. The small differences in similarity draws focus to a different covenant that they honor. In this manner, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher served a purpose similar to that of the Temple: to provide a spiritual center to the Christian worldview. The architects propagated this agenda in the Churchs design through the four entrances to the main courtyard, one pointing in each of the four cardinal directions (Conant 1956: p5.) According to Eliade, this type of structure represents the spreading of the world, and we are meant to interpret the church as the center of the world (Eliade 1968: p61) . Therefore, the growing navel of the world further validates that the site of anastasis is an act of creation of the early Christian faith, and that the resurrection of Christ represent the spiritual axis mundi. The ceremonies held at the Church (reenactments of the events of Christ before his crucifixion) are an imago mundi of the Christian spiritual origin. All of these similarities are designed to emphasize the centrality of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. On architectural feature that reflects the axis mundi to the site of the anastasis are the columns placed around the Aedicule supporting the heavens at the site of rebirth. This architectural feature harkens to the presence of two large columns at the Temple of Solomon, Jachin and Boaz (1 Kings 7:21), which were a literal axis mundi at the Temple of Solomon. While the columns of the Old Temple suggest that the Temple is the house of God, the placement of the columns at the site of the anastasis reflects the Christian belief that the resurrection of Christ is the hierophany that represents the creation of the world, and therefore is an axis mundi

Hicks 4 that is the center of their faith. For early Christians, the Church of the Anastasis did not hold the spiritual significance that the Temple had previously enjoyed with the Jews. The early Church was wary of a literal axis mundi (Markus 1994: p259), and instead placed significance in a figurative axis mundi in the heavenly Jerusalem. However, the formal recognition of Christianity by the Byzantine Empire required a literal axis mundi to exist. In order to reaffirm the sacredness of the Church with respect to the Temple, early Christians stitched stories set at the Eastern Hill into the history of the Western Hill (Ousterhout 1990: p46). In the time where Christianity had not yet established itself as a dominant mode of thought, the Christian faith needed to find heirophanic proof that the recreation of the world at the site of the anastasis was a work of God. They established this evidence by migrating myths about the Eastern Hill to the Western Hill, and subsequently from the Temple to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. We see an example of this transfer of power in the story of King Solomons ring (Ousterhout 1990: p47.) The Christians sought to concentrate the miracles and other hierophanic events at the Western Hill, much like the Israelites at the Temple of Solomon. In this regard, the early Christians went even further than their Jewish counterparts. However, There was no legend too big or too small to attribute to the Western Hill. One story claimed that the blood of Zachariah was split on the Western Hill; the other claimed (confusingly) that Jesus cast out the Merchants in front of the Temple at the site of the Church (Ousterhout 1990: p47). The early Christians went so far as to claim that Golgotha was the last resting spot of Adam, the first man. This makes Golgotha the burial ground of the two individuals that have directly descended from God, and strengthens the hierophanic claim to the region. Thus, the Western Hill was portrayed as a singular axis mundi, and the Temple discarded as a place of holiness. The most significant of these myth migrations is the movement of the location of Mount

Hicks 5 Moriah. Mt. Moriah holds a central position in the Abrahamic traditions, as it location of the binding of Isaac. In this story, Abraham takes his son Isaac up Mt. Moriah as a sacrificial lamb to God. God refuses the human sacrifice, and instead provides Abraham with a ram for sacrifice. It is here that God makes his first covenant to the Israelite people, that Abraham's children will inherit the Earth (Genesis 22:1.) Judaic traditions associate the Eastern Hill with Mt. Moriah, and that the foundation of the Temple is placed on the threshing floor of Arunah (2 Chronicles 3:1), making the hill a place of reoccurring theophany. However, the early Christian faith began the movement of migrating these myths about the temple to the Western Hill. Christian migration of these myths associated the acts of creation of the world with the act of spiritual creation associated to Jesus Christ. The sacrifice of Christ draws many parallels to the binding of Isaac. While the body of Christ is destroyed, his spirit survives the Crucifixion, as evinced by its ascension to heaven. It is Christs willingness for human self-sacrifice that is highlighted in his resurrection, much like Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son. As neither of these sacrifices involve the permanent death of Jesus or Isaac, just the sacrifice of their bodies, it follows that the body of Jesus is the sacrificial lamb that Abraham offered up to the Lord. According to the Bible, there is also historical precedent to associate Christ with Isaac. In the New Testament, Christ, like the Davidic line of kings, is claimed to be directly descended from the line of Isaac (Matthew 1:1-17.) This further underscores the connection between Jesus and Isaac. The use of reoccurring hierophany in the description of Golgotha serves to emphasize the singular nature of holiness at the location of the cross. Not only did the early Christians place the skull of Adam, the binding of Isaac and crucifixion of Christ at the same hill, but they claimed that all three events occurred in exactly the same location. This trifecta of deaths and sacrifices was irrefutable evidence to the early Christians that Calvary is the most sacred land in Jerusalem.

Hicks 6 The holiness of the location left a physical mark on the land; when Jesus was laid on the cross, the land beneath him split open, cracking the rock at Calvary. The repetition of hierophany emphasizes why Christians chose this location as an axis mundi. The transition of myths and sacred traditions from the Eastern to the Western Hill shows that the Early Christians were determined to place themselves ahead of their Judaic heritage. Following the period where Christianity established itself as a dominant faith in the region, Christians found they had developed a different relationship with the city of Jerusalem in a manner that reflected their changing relationship with Judaism. No longer did Jewish culture pose a threat to the legitimacy of Christian tenants, which had been the state religion of the powerful Byzantine empire for over a half millennium. Despite the conflict with the Muslims, we see that Muslim tenants begin to have cultural impact on Christian understanding of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, including architecture of the Church during its reconstruction (Ousterhout 1989: p74.) These cultural influences caused a movement of myths back to the Dome of the Rock at the Eastern Hill, and lead the Christians to view themselves as an evolution of the Jewish faith, as oppose to a replacement. This philosophy is reflected in the restoration of the historical traditions of the Jews to their historical locations, and the development of two axes mundi in Jerusalem, one located on the Western Hill, and the other at the Eastern Hill. The reconstruction of the church can be attributed to Constantine IX Monomachos' negotiations with Caliph Ali az-Zahir. The shifting views of Christianity with respect to Jerusalem brought new influences to the church during the repairs. At the time of reconstruction, the Church was clearly recognized as a center for Christian faith. The new Church of the Holy Sepulcher incorporated a number of smaller structures, including the Chapel of Saint Mary, Chapel of the Invention of the Cross, Chapel of Crown of Thorns, Chapel of Saint Mary, and a Baptistery wing (Ousterhout 1989: p67.) While the church had become smaller in size, it had

Hicks 7 grown more central to the Christian Faith as a religious structure, growing into a compound of smaller buildings. The Christian willingness to centralize their faith in a single structure is an indication of their recognition of the center as an axis mundi. The process of reconstruction shows a more lenient relationship between the Christians and the other Abrahamic religions at the time of reconstruction. In particular, analysis of the construction shows that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was rebuilt by local labor, and contains architectual influences from Islamic styles (Ousterhout 1989: p74.) The Islamic faith was far more embracing of other Abrhamic religions, practicing tolerance with people of the book (Quaran 29:46.) The Christians took this idea and incorporated it into their faith by viewing themselves as the continuation of Judaism. While the physical restructuring of the Church reveals a change in the internal structure of the Christian faith, the Christian relationship with Judaism is truly revealed in the remigration of classical Jewish mythology. Previously, we saw a movement of mythology away from the Temple Mount, and to the Western Hill. Under the understanding of Christianity as an evolution of Judaism, the Christians recognize Temple Mount as sacred again, and return mythology to the Eastern Hill (Schein 1984: p187.) The Dome of the Rock was erected around the Foundation Stone, where both the Jews and the Muslims believed the world emerged, the center of both Mount Moriah and the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. Christians had largely disregarded this site when they held power over Jerusalem in the 4th century, focusing on the Church of the Holy Sepulcher instead of rebuilding the Temple of Solomon. The Muslims chose to erect the Dome of the Rock over this area instead. This recognition of sacredness from the Muslims led many Christians to reinstate this location a central holy location (Schein 1984: p183.) As a result, we see that the myth of the binding of Isaac was moved back to the Temple Mount, and the Dome of the Rock received an elevated status among the Crusaders, who

Hicks 8 renamed it the Temple of the Lord. The Eastern Hill was reinstated as Mt. Moriah, and the Temple became a political center for the Kingdom of Jerusalem (Schein 1984: p181.) Pilgrims would visit both the Temple of the Lord and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher upon visiting Jerusalem. The Christians actively worked to preserve this site. Though the initial wave of Crusaders plundered the Dome of the Rock for spoils, the later caretakers of Jerusalem would make sure that the site was protected from harm(Schein 1983: p187.) The Temple Mount was restored by the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the frequent pilgrimages brought income to the city that kept the holy sites maintained. The restoration was not only physical in nature, but spiritual as well. The foundation Rock was re-recongnized as the center of the world, and needed to be protected from pilgrims who wanted to bring a piece of Jerusalem back home. The kings of Jerusalem rectified this problem by installing a large stone over the rock, preventing the overly zealous tourists from making away with one of the most sacred locations for the Christian faith (Schein 1984: p183.) The tie between the Temple and the Church became stronger and traditions began to develop in Jerusalem that involved both holy sites. For Palm Sunday, the Crusaders would make two congregations, one at the Temple of the Lord and one at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. They would march toward the Golden Gate together, and then proceed to the Temple Mount and worship there (Schein 1984: p185.) These traditions reflect a larger feeling the Christian community that embraced the heritage that was derived from their Jewish background . It is for this reason, that during the Crusader period, Jerusalem may have been viewed as a city with two axes mundi: one located at the Temple Mount, and another located at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This reflects the two-part relation that Christians viewed with their god at this time. Other examples of this bipartite relation are seen in the Old and New Testaments, the old covenant with God and the new covenant. The Christians no longer view themselves as a

Hicks 9 supersession of the Jews; rather, they are the natural continuation. The Christians have taken the Jewish history into their own history entirely, and are comfortable with the both coexisting. This movement of mythology shows a clear transition of power and understanding in the Christian community. The Christians were now comfortable with their historical Jewish roots, and were willing to accept their heritage, the Temple Mount, as a sacred place. This, combined with the recognition of these sites by the Muslims, led to the reinstatement of the Temple Mount as a holy ground for the Christians. Despite the recognition of these sites as sacred, Christians still revere the Church of the Holy Sepulcher as an axis mundi, rebuilding the structure and using architecture to emphasize the holiness of Christs resurrection. The Christian understanding of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher varied from the 4th to 12th century, and this dynamic has correlations to their understanding of Christianity. One noticeable shift in the Christian philosophy has been their perception of Judaism as part of their faith. While the core tenets of Christianity remained unchanged, as Christians viewed Judaism more as a heritage than a defunct religion, the religious significance of the Church was modified. As a result, while the stories around the church may have been altered to reflect the Christian understanding of their faith, the Church itself has remained an axis mundi that ties together their beliefs.

Hicks 10

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