Who took the body of Jesus for burial. Crucifixion. Death and burial of the Lord. Prophecies about the burial of Christ

Lesson 1. The Feast of the Renewal of the Temple of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a Proof of His Divinity) I. The Feast of the Renewal, that is, consecration, of the Temple of the Resurrection of Christ, which is taking place now, is established as follows. Place, where

57. Burial of Jesus Christ. 57. When evening came, a rich man came from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also studied with Jesus; (Mark 15:42, 43; Luke 23:50, 51; John 19:38). John (19: 31-37) before that tells about breaking the legs of robbers and about piercing the ribs of Jesus with a spear

XXIX Crucifixion, suffering on the cross, death and burial of Jesus Christ Crucifixion was the most terrible and shameful form of the death penalty in ancient times - so shameful that its very name, as Cicero says, “should never come close to thoughts, eyes or ears.

All four evangelists tell about the burial of Jesus Christ, and each gives his own details. At the same time, of all four evangelists, only Matthew mentions the sealing of the tomb and the guarding of it.

Gospel	Description of the burial
Matthew (Matt.)	When evening came, a rich man came from Arimathea named Joseph, who also studied with Jesus; he came to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered to give the body; and, taking the body, Joseph wrapped it in a clean shroud and laid it in his new tomb, which he had carved in the rock; and, rolling a large stone to the door of the tomb, he departed. There was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sitting opposite the tomb. On the next day, which follows Friday, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered to Pilate and said: Master! We remembered that the deceiver, while still alive, said: after three days I will rise again; so command to guard the tomb until the third day, so that His disciples, coming by night, do not steal Him and say to the people: He rose from the dead; and the last deception will be worse than the first. Pilate said to them: You have a watch; go guard as you know. They went and put a guard at the tomb, and put a seal on the stone.
From Mark (Mk.)	And as evening had already come - because it was Friday, that is [the day] before Saturday, - Joseph came from Arimathea, a famous member of the council, who himself was expecting the Kingdom of God, dared to enter Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised that He had already died, and, calling the centurion, asked him how long ago he had died? And, having learned from the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. He bought the shroud and took it off, wrapped it around the shroud, and laid Him in the tomb, which was carved into the rock, and rolled the stone to the door of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary of Josiah watched where they put Him.
From Luke (Lk.)	Then someone named Joseph, a member of the council, a good and truthful man, did not participate in the council and in their work; from Arimathea, the city of Judea, who was also expecting the Kingdom of God, came to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; and taking it off, wrapped it in a shroud and laid it in a tomb hewn [in the rock], where no one had yet been laid. That day was Friday, and Saturday was coming. The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee also followed, and looked at the sepulcher, and how His body was laid; and when they returned, they prepared spices and ointments; and on the Sabbath they remained alone according to the commandment.
John (John)	After this, Joseph of Arimathea - a disciple of Jesus, but secret out of fear from the Jews - asked Pilate to remove the body of Jesus; and Pilate allowed. He went and took off the body of Jesus. Nicodemus also came, who had come to Jesus at night before, and brought a composition of myrrh and aloe, about a hundred liters. So they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in swaddling clothes with incense, as the Jews usually bury. There was a garden in the place where He was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid. They put Jesus there for the sake of Jewish Friday, because the tomb was near.

Historians, studying the gospel story, come to the conclusion that the burial of Jesus was carried out in accordance with the Jewish funerary traditions of that time.

Burial participants

According to the gospel story, women and secret disciples of Christ from the upper strata of society were present at the burial of Jesus, that is, those who, unlike the apostles, were less likely to be arrested:

Apocryphal legends

Gospel of Peter

The Gospel of Peter (6: 21-24)

The author of the Apocrypha reports on the posting of guards near the tomb and its sealing, repeating the same story of the Evangelist Matthew. The name of the centurion sent by Pilate to guard the coffin is called. It was a certain Petronius. Orthodox tradition believes that among the guards at the tomb was the centurion Longinus, who participated in the crucifixion of Jesus and pierced his ribs with his spear.

The Gospel of Nicodemus

The apocryphal "Gospel of Nicodemus" (the earliest versions date back to the 4th century), written on behalf of one of the participants in the burial, adheres to the canonical details about the burial. Then the text says that Joseph of Arimathea was arrested by the Jews for participating in the funeral and providing the tomb:

After the spread of rumors about the Resurrection, which caused panic among the Jews, Nicodemus, who was a secret disciple, while occupying a prominent post, gives the priests advice that allows him to protect Joseph, who by this time was at home in Arimathea, from further attacks.

"The Passion of Christ"

In response to his mother's suffering, Jesus secretly addresses her with words of comfort: “ Oh, my mother Mary, do not weep for me to see in the grave ... I will rise again and I will exalt you like God to heaven and earth, and I will bring the fallen Adam into the kingdom of heaven ...". The Lament of the Virgin formed the basis of the Orthodox canon “ To the lamentation of the Most Holy Theotokos", Read on Good Friday before the shroud (see below the section" Liturgical veneration ").

In contrast to the gospel narrative, one of the participants in the burial of Christ in “ Passion of Christ"John the Evangelist is mentioned. This influenced the iconography of this plot, where the body of Christ always has the figure of this young apostle.

In islam

Muslims believe that Isa was taken alive to heaven and will return before the Last Judgment to fight the Dajjal. Having defeated him, Isa, according to Muslim theologians, will live on earth for 40 years, and then die and be buried next to the prophet Muhammad in Medina.

Prophecies about the burial of Christ

Christian tradition connects two biblical prophecies with an indication of the burial of Jesus Christ:

• Old Testament : He was assigned a coffin with evildoers, but He was buried with a rich man, because He did not sin, and there was no lie in His mouth (Isa.). The prophecy points to the burial of Jesus in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea (a wealthy man, a member of the Sanhedrin).
• New Testament : Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said: Master! we would like to see a sign from you. But He answered and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation is looking for a sign; and no sign will be given to him, except the sign of Jonah the prophet; for as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights (Matt.). The prophecy points to the burial itself, as well as the period after which Jesus must resurrect after the burial.

Place and attributes of the burial

Tomb

According to the Gospel text, the body of Jesus was buried in an empty, previously unused tomb, which was hewn out of the rock that was on the ground in the property of Joseph of Arimathea, near the garden close to Calvary. The territory of this garden was outside the city wall of Jerusalem of that period. According to historians, this was the site of former quarries, in which the wealthy townspeople bought their own tombs.

The search for the cave in which the body of Jesus was buried was undertaken in 326 at the direction of Emperor Constantine by his mother, Empress Helena. Eusebius of Caesarea informs about the opening of the Holy Sepulcher in his work “ Life of Constantine": It was discovered under the pagan temple of Aphrodite, built by the Romans.

Cyril of Jerusalem

Liturgical veneration

The burial of Jesus Christ is remembered in the Orthodox and Catholic Churches during various services at the end of Holy Week. In addition, the mention of the burial of Christ was included in the Christian Creed, starting from its earliest apostolic edition, and in 325 at the First Ecumenical Council it was included in the Niceo-Constantinople Creed (“ crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffering and buried, resurrected on the third day according to the Scriptures»).

In the Orthodox Church

Removal of the shroud

The removal of the shroud, the cloth with the image of the body of the dead Jesus Christ taken from the cross, is performed at Vespers of Great Friday, which usually takes place during the day.

The plot of Christ's burial should not be confused with the Lamentation of Christ, which is close to him, where the same characters appear. The difference between these two iconographic subjects is very subtle: Mourning is an emotional static situation, and Position assumes dynamic action. The gospel narrative also includes motifs for embalming and swaddling the body before burial, but in the visual arts these phases are usually omitted. Sometimes you can find the theme of carrying the body of Christ, the coffin does not appear in the image yet.

The iconography of the plot is compositionally variable. The action usually takes place in front of an empty niche (cave), or inside a tomb, through the doorway of which the landscape is visible.

For the masters of the Italian Renaissance, works on this subject, written by Titian and Raphael, are especially characteristic. For Catholic churches, the sculptural groups of the Burial of Christ were extremely typical, sometimes executed with maximum realism and appearing since the Middle Ages.

This subject is also found in icon painting and Orthodox frescoes. The event is depicted in different ways. Often in a stone coffin a lying Savior is represented, the Mother of God falls to his head, John the Theologian and Elder Joseph bowed over the body, the myrrh-bearing wives and Nicodemus are standing nearby. Sometimes in the center in the background is a cross on which the Lord was crucified.

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Notes

1. Other variants of the name - Transfer of Jesus Christ to the tomb, Anointing the body of Jesus Christ, Anointing stone.
6. Hereinafter, quotes from the publication: The Passion of Christ. Uniform printing house, 1901
7. Koran. 4: 157-158
10. Lisovoy N.N.
11. , year 5817 (Alexandrian era) (/ AD)
14. Gregory of Nyssa. A word about three days
15. Cyril of Jerusalem. Explaining words 4, 2
19. The order of the removal of the shroud is indicated according to the data
21. Stefano Zuffi... Episodes and characters of the Gospel. - M., 2007 .-- P. 326.

see also

• "Burial of Count Orgaz" - painting by El Greco
• "Entombment" - a story by Mikhail Weller

Links

Excerpt from the Burial of Christ

The old count, who had always kept a huge hunt, now handed over the whole hunt to his son, on this day, September 15, amused, he was going to leave too.
An hour later, the whole hunt was at the porch. Nicholas, with a stern and serious air, showing that there was no time now to deal with trifles, walked past Natasha and Petya, who were telling him something. He examined all parts of the hunt, sent the flock and hunters ahead into the race, sat down on his red bottom and, whistling the dogs of his pack, set off across the threshing floor into the field leading to the Otradno order. The horse of the old count, a playful measure called Bethlyanka, was led by the count's stirrup; he himself had to go directly in a droshky to the manhole left for him.
All the hounds were bred 54 dogs, under which, arriving and squeeze, drove 6 people. Borzyatnikov, besides the masters, there were 8 people, for whom more than 40 greyhounds were prowling, so about 130 dogs and 20 horse hunters with the master's pack left in the field.
Each dog knew its owner and nickname. Each hunter knew his business, place and purpose. As soon as they left the fence, everyone, without noise and conversation, evenly and calmly stretched out along the road and the field leading to the Otradno forest.
As on a fur carpet, horses walked across the field, occasionally paddling through the puddles when they crossed the roads. The foggy sky continued to descend steadily and imperceptibly to the ground; the air was quiet, warm, soundless. Occasionally one could hear the whistling of a hunter, then the snoring of a horse, then a blow with a harapnik, or the scream of a dog that did not walk in its place.
Having driven a mile away, five more horsemen with dogs appeared to meet the Rostov hunt from the fog. A fresh, handsome old man with a large gray mustache rode ahead.
- Hello, uncle, - said Nikolai when the old man drove up to him.
“It’s a clean march!… I knew it,” said my uncle (he was a distant relative, a poor neighbor of the Rostovs), “I knew that you could not bear it, and it’s good that you are going. Clean business march! (This was my uncle's favorite saying.) - Take the order now, otherwise my Girchik reported that the Ilagins were hunting in Korniki; you have them - a pure business march! - they will take the brood under the nose.
- There I go. Well, dump the flocks? - asked Nikolay, - to dump ...
The hounds were united into one pack, and uncle and Nikolai rode alongside. Natasha, wrapped in handkerchiefs, from under which a lively face with shining eyes could be seen, galloped up to them, accompanied by Petya and Mikhaila, the hunter and bereader who were not behind her, who was assigned by the nanny in her presence. Petya was laughing and beating and jerking his horse. Natasha deftly and confidently sat on her raven Arabchik and with her right hand, without effort, reined in him.
Uncle looked round disapprovingly at Petya and Natasha. He did not like to combine pampering with the serious business of hunting.
- Hello, uncle, and we're going! - Petya shouted.
- Hello, hello, but don't overwhelm the dogs, - said the uncle sternly.
- Nikolenka, what a lovely dog, Trunila! he recognized me, ”Natasha said about her beloved hound dog.
“Trunila, first of all, is not a dog, but a wimp,” thought Nikolay and looked sternly at his sister, trying to make her feel the distance that should have separated them at that moment. Natasha understood this.
- You, uncle, do not think that we will interfere with anyone, - said Natasha. We will stand in our place and will not move.
“And a good thing, countess,” said my uncle. “Only don't fall off your horse,” he added: “otherwise, it's a pure march! - there is nothing to hold on to.
The island of the Otradno order could be seen about a hundred yards, and those who arrived approached it. Rostov, finally deciding with his uncle where to throw the hounds from and showing Natasha a place where to stand and where nothing could run, headed for the ravine.
- Well, nephew, you are getting into a hardened one, - said the uncle: don't iron (pickle).
- As necessary, Rostov answered. - Karai, fuit! - he shouted, responding with this appeal to the words of his uncle. Karay was an old and ugly, brown-haired male known for picking up a hardened wolf on his own. All went to their places.
The old count, knowing his son's hunting fervor, was in a hurry not to be late, and the people who arrived had not yet arrived at the place, when Ilya Andreevich, cheerful, ruddy, with shaking cheeks, rolled up on his little crowned greens to the manhole left for him and, straightening his fur coat and putting on a hunting shells, climbed onto his smooth, well-fed, meek and kind, gray like him, Bethlianka. The droshky horses were sent away. Count Ilya Andreich, although not a hunter to his liking, but who knew the hunting laws firmly, drove into the edge of the bushes from which he stood, took apart the reins, recovered on the saddle and, feeling ready, looked around smiling.
Near him stood his valet, an old, but heavy rider, Semyon Chekmar. Chekmar kept in a pack three dashing, but also fat, like the owner and the horse - wolfhounds. Two dogs, smart, old, lay down without packs. A hundred paces further in the clearing stood another of the count's stirrups, Mitka, a desperate rider and a passionate hunter. The count, according to an old habit, drank a silver cup of a hunting casserole before the hunt, took a bite and washed it down with a half-bottle of his beloved Bordeaux.
Ilya Andreevich was a little red with wine and driving; his eyes, covered with moisture, especially shone, and he, wrapped in a fur coat, sitting on the saddle, had the appearance of a child who had been gathered for a walk. Thin, with drawn-in cheeks, Chekmar, having settled down with his affairs, looked at the master with whom he had lived for 30 years in perfect harmony, and, understanding his pleasant mood, waited for a pleasant conversation. Another third person rode cautiously (apparently, it had already been learned) from behind the forest and stopped behind the count. The face was an old man with a gray beard, a woman's bonnet and a high cap. It was the jester Nastasya Ivanovna.
“Well, Nastasya Ivanovna,” the count said in a whisper, winking at him, “just trample the beast, Danilo will ask you.
"I myself ... with a mustache," said Nastasya Ivanovna.
- Shhhh! The count hissed and turned to Semyon.
- Did you see Natalya Ilyinichna? He asked Semyon. - Where is she?
“He and Pyotr Ilyich got up from the Zharovykh weeds,” Semyon answered smiling. - Ladies too, but they have a lot of hunting.
- And you wonder, Semyon, how she drives ... huh? - said the count, if only the man is in time!
- How not to be surprised? Boldly, deftly.
- And where is Nikolasha? Above Lyadovsky horse or what? The count asked in a whisper.
- That's right with. They already know where to stand. They know so well the ride that Danila and I marvel at another time, - said Semyon, knowing how to please the master.
- Drives well, huh? And what is it on horseback, eh?
- Write a picture! As the other day from the Zavarzinsky weeds pushed a fox. They began to skip, from a lull, passion - a horse a thousand rubles, but the rider has no price. Yes, look for such a fellow!
- Look ... - repeated the count, apparently regretting that Semyon's speech ended so soon. - Search? - he said, turning the flaps of his fur coat and taking out a snuff box.
- The other day, as from mass in all regalia, they left, so Mikhail then Sidorych ... - Semyon did not finish, hearing the rut clearly heard in the quiet air with howling of no more than two or three hounds. He, bowing his head, listened and silently threatened the master. - They ran into the brood ... - he whispered, they led straight to Lyadovskaya.
The count, forgetting to wipe the smile from his face, looked into the distance along the bridge and, without sniffing, held a snuffbox in his hand. Following the barking of dogs, a voice over the wolf was heard, fed into Danila's bass horn; the pack joined the first three dogs and it was heard how the voices of the hounds roared with the bay, with that special howl that served as a sign of rutting for a wolf. The riders no longer whined, but hooted, and from behind all the voices Danila's voice came out, now bass, now piercingly thin. Danila's voice seemed to fill the entire forest, came out of the forest and sounded far in the field.
After listening for a few seconds in silence, the count and his stirrup made sure that the hounds were divided into two flocks: one large, roaring especially hotly, began to move away, the other part of the flock rushed along the forest past the count, and with this flock Danila's hooting was heard. Both of these rutting merged, overflowed, but both were removed. Semyon sighed and bent down to straighten the bundle in which the young dog got entangled; the count sighed too, and, noticing a snuff-box in his hand, opened it and took out a pinch. "Back!" Semyon shouted at the dog, which stepped over the edge. The count shuddered and dropped the snuffbox. Nastasya Ivanovna got down and began to pick her up.
The Count and Semyon looked at him. Suddenly, as often happens, the sound of the rut instantly approached, as if there were the barking mouths of dogs and the hooting of Danila in front of them.
The count looked around and to the right saw Mitka, who with rolling eyes looked at the count and, raising his hat, pointed to the other side.
- Take care! He shouted in such a voice that it was evident that this word had long been painfully asking him to go out. And he galloped, releasing the dogs, towards the count.
The Count and Semyon jumped out of the clearing and to the left of them saw a wolf, which, gently waddling, quietly galloped towards their left to the very edge at which they stood. The vicious dogs screeched and, breaking loose from the pack, rushed to the wolf past the horses' legs.
The wolf stopped running, awkwardly, like a sick toad, turned its forehead head towards the dogs, and, just as gently waddling, jumped once, twice and, wagging its log (tail), disappeared into the edge. At the same moment from the opposite edge of the forest, with a roar similar to crying, one, another, and a third hound jumped out in confusion, and the whole flock rushed across the field, along the very place where the wolf crawled (ran). After the hounds, hazel bushes parted and Danila's brown horse, blackened with sweat, appeared. On her long back, a lump, lying forward, sat Danila without a hat with gray, disheveled hair over a red, sweaty face.
- I will hoot, I will! ... - he shouted. When he saw the Count, lightning flashed in his eyes.
- Well ... - he shouted, threatening the raised arapnik at the count.
- About… is it a wolf!… Hunters! - And as if not deigning to deign the embarrassed, frightened count with further conversation, with all the malice prepared for the count, he struck the brown gelding's fallen wet sides and rushed after the hounds. The count, as if he had been punished, stood looking around and with a smile tried to evoke in Semyon regret for his position. But Semyon was no longer there: he, in a detour through the bushes, jumped the wolf from the notch. Greyhounds also jumped over from both sides. But the wolf went in the bushes and not a single hunter intercepted him.

Nikolai Rostov, meanwhile, stood in his place, waiting for the beast. By the approach and distance of the rut, by the sounds of the voices of the dogs known to him, by the approach, distance and rise of the voices of those arriving, he felt what was happening on the island. He knew that the island had arrived (young) and seasoned (old) wolves; he knew that the hounds had broken up into two packs, that they were hounding somewhere, and that something unfortunate had happened. Every second he was waiting for the beast on his side. He made thousands of different assumptions about how and from which side the beast would run and how he would poison it. Hope gave way to despair. Several times he turned to God with a prayer that the wolf come out to him; he prayed with that passionate and conscientious feeling with which people pray in moments of intense excitement, depending on an insignificant reason. “Well, what does it cost you,” he said to God, “to do it for me! I know that You are great, and that it is a sin to ask You about it; but for the sake of God, make that a hardened one crawl out on me, and so that Karai, in front of the “uncle” who is looking from there, slapped his throat with a death grip. A thousand times in this half hour, Rostov looked around the edge of the woods with two sparse oaks over an aspen bottom with a stubborn, tense and restless gaze, and a ravine with a washed-out edge, and his uncle's hat, barely visible from behind a bush to the right.
“No, there won't be this happiness, Rostov thought, but what would it cost! Will not be! I am always, and in the cards, and in the war, in all the misfortune. " Austerlitz and Dolokhov, brightly, but quickly changing, flashed in his imagination. "Only once in my life would I hunt down a hardened wolf, I don't want to anymore!" he thought, straining his ears and eyes, looking back to the left and again to the right, and listening to the slightest shades of rutting sounds. He looked again to the right and saw that something was running towards him across the deserted field. "No, it can't be!" thought Rostov, sighing heavily, as a man sighs when he does what he had long expected. The greatest happiness was accomplished - and so simply, without noise, without brilliance, without commemoration. Rostov could not believe his eyes and this doubt lasted more than a second. The wolf ran forward and jumped heavily over the pothole that was in its path. It was an old beast, with a gray back and a gorged reddish belly. He ran slowly, obviously convinced that no one was seeing him. Rostov looked round at the dogs without breathing. They lay, stood, not seeing the wolf and not understanding anything. Old Karay, turning his head and showing his yellow teeth, angrily looking for a flea, clicked them on his hind thighs.
- I will hoot! Rostov said in a whisper, protruding his lips. The dogs, trembling with glands, jumped up, ears alert. Karai scratched his thigh and stood up, ears pricked, and slightly wagged his tail, on which hung felts of wool.
- To start up - not to start up? - Nikolai said to himself as the wolf moved towards him, separating from the forest. Suddenly, the whole physiognomy of the wolf changed; he shuddered when he saw, probably never seen before, human eyes fixed on him, and turning his head slightly towards the hunter, stopped - backward or forward? Eh! anyway, forward! ... it is evident, - as if he said to himself, and rushed forward, no longer looking back, with a soft, rare, free, but decisive dap.
“Ulyulyu!…” Nikolai shouted in a voice that wasn’t his own, and by itself his good horse rushed headlong downhill, jumping over the cisterns across the wolf; and even faster, overtaking her, the dogs rushed. Nikolai did not hear his cry, did not feel that he was galloping, did not see the dogs or the place where he was galloping; he saw only the wolf, which, intensifying its run, galloped without changing direction along the hollow. The first appeared near the beast, black-footed, wide-backed Milka and began to approach the beast. Closer, closer ... so she clung to him. But the wolf glanced slightly at her, and instead of pushing, as she always did, Milka suddenly, raising her tail, began to rest on her front legs.
- I will cheer! - Nikolay shouted.
Red Lyubim jumped out from behind Milka, quickly rushed to the wolf and grabbed him by the gachi (thighs of the hind legs), but at that very second he jumped fearfully to the other side. The wolf crouched down, snapped his teeth, and got up again and galloped forward, being escorted a yard away by all the dogs that did not approach him.
- Leave! No, It is Immpossible! - thought Nikolay, continuing to shout in a hoarse voice.
- Karai! I will hoot! ... - he shouted, looking for the old dog with his eyes, his only hope. Karai, out of all his old forces, stretched out as much as he could, looking at the wolf, heavily galloped away from the beast, in front of him. But from the speed of the wolf's gallop and the slowness of the dog's gallop, it was clear that Karay's calculation was wrong. Nikolai no longer saw that forest far ahead of him, to which, having reached, the wolf would probably leave. Ahead appeared the dogs and the hunter, galloping almost to meet. There was still hope. Unknown to Nikolay, a murky young, long dog of a stranger pack swiftly flew up to the wolf in front and almost knocked him over. The wolf quickly, as one could not expect from him, got up and rushed to the murugous dog, snapped his teeth - and the bloody dog \u200b\u200bwith a ripped side apart, screeching piercingly, pushed his head into the ground.
- Karayushka! Father! .. - Nikolai cried ...
The old dog, with his tufts dangling on his thighs, thanks to the stop that had taken place, cutting the path to the wolf, was already five steps away from him. As if sensing danger, the wolf looked sideways at Karay, hiding the log (tail) even further between his legs and skipping over. But then - Nikolai only saw that something had happened to Karai - he instantly found himself on the wolf and with him tumbled head over heels into the pool that was in front of them.
The minute when Nikolai saw dogs swarming with the wolf in the pool, from under which one could see the gray hair of the wolf, its outstretched hind leg, and the frightened and panting head with pressed ears (Karai was holding him by the throat), the minute when Nikolai saw this was the happiest moment of his life. He was already grasping the saddle bow in order to dismount and stab the wolf, when suddenly the head of the beast stuck out of this mass of dogs, then the front legs stood on the edge of the cistern. The wolf gritted his teeth (Karay no longer held him by the throat), jumped out of the pool with his hind legs and, tucking his tail, again separated from the dogs, moved forward. A karai with bristling hair, probably bruised or wounded, hardly crawled out of the pool.
- Oh my God! For what? ... - Nikolay cried in despair.
Uncle's hunter on the other side galloped to the cut to the wolf, and his dogs again stopped the beast. They surrounded him again.
Nicholas, his stirrup, uncle and his hunter spun over the beast, hooting, screaming, every minute intending to dismount when the wolf sat on its backside and every time running forward when the wolf shook itself and moved to the spot that was supposed to save him. Even at the beginning of this persecution, Danila, hearing a hooting, jumped out to the edge of the forest. He saw Karai take the wolf and stop the horse, believing that the matter was over. But when the hunters did not dismount, the wolf shook himself and again went down the drain. Danila released his brown not to the wolf, but in a straight line to the notch, just like Karai, to cut the beast. Thanks to this direction, he jumped to the wolf while the second time he was stopped by his uncle's dogs.
Danila galloped in silence, holding the dagger he had taken out in his left hand and like a flail of milkweed with his arapnik along the tucked-up sides of the brown one.
Nikolai did not see or hear Danila until a brown puff was panting past him, and he heard the sound of the body falling and saw that Danila was already lying in the middle of the dogs on the wolf's rear, trying to catch him by the ears. It was obvious to the dogs, to the hunters, and to the wolf that it was all over now. The beast, ears pressed in fear, tried to get up, but the dogs clung to him. Danila, standing up, took a falling step and with all his weight, as if lying down to rest, fell on the wolf, grabbing him by the ears. Nikolai wanted to prick, but Danila whispered: “Don't, let's make a joke,” and changing position, stepped on the wolf's neck with his foot. They put a stick in the wolf's mouth, tied it, as if bridling it with a pack, tied its legs, and Danila twice from one side to the other crossed the wolf.
With happy, exhausted faces, a live, hardened wolf was loaded onto a shuffling and snorting horse and, accompanied by the dogs shrieking at him, was taken to the place where everyone was supposed to gather. Two young ones were taken by hounds and three by greyhounds. The hunters came together with their prey and stories, and everyone approached to look at the hardened wolf, which dangling its forehead head with a bitten stick in its mouth, with large glass eyes looked at the whole crowd of dogs and people around him. When he was touched, he, shuddering with his tied legs, wildly and at the same time simply looked at everyone. Count Ilya Andreevich also rode up and touched the wolf.
“Oh, what a motherly one,” he said. - Well-worn, eh? He asked Danila, who was standing next to him.
- Dear, your Excellency, - answered Danila, hastily removing his cap.
The count recalled his missed wolf and his encounter with Danila.
“However, brother, you are angry,” said the count. - Danila did not say anything and only smiled shyly, childishly meek and pleasant smile.

The old count drove home; Natasha and Petya promised to come at once. The hunt went further, since it was still early. In the middle of the day, the hounds were allowed into a ravine overgrown with young dense forest. Nikolai, standing on the stubble, saw all his hunters.
Opposite to Nicholas there were greenery, and there stood his hunter, alone in a hole behind a prominent hazel bush. The hounds had just been brought in, Nikolai heard the rare rut of a dog known to him - Voltorn; other dogs joined him, now falling silent, then again starting to drive. A minute later, a voice was heard from the island on the fox, and the whole flock, having fallen, drove along the screwdriver, towards the greens, away from Nikolai.
He saw galloping survivors in red hats along the edges of an overgrown ravine, he even saw dogs, and every second he waited for a fox to appear on the other side, on the green.
The hunter, who was standing in the pit, set off and released the dogs, and Nikolay saw a red, low, strange fox, which, fluffing up a pipe, hurriedly rushed through the greens. The dogs began to sing to her. As they approached, the fox began to wag in circles between them, making these circles more and more often and circling around itself with a fluffy pipe (tail); and then someone's white dog swooped in, and after it a black one, and everything mixed up, and the dogs became a star, with their backs apart, slightly hesitating. Two hunters galloped up to the dogs: one in a red cap, the other, a stranger, in a green caftan.
"What it is? thought Nikolay. Where did this hunter come from? This is not an uncle. "
The hunters fought off the fox and for a long time, without rushing, the footmen stood. Near them on chumburs stood horses with their saddle ridges and dogs lay. The hunters waved their hands and did something to the fox. From the same place the sound of a horn was heard - the agreed signal of a fight.
- It is the Ilaginsky hunter that is rebelling with our Ivan, - said Nikolay's striker.
Nikolai sent the stirrup to call his sister and Petya to him and walked at a step to the place where the drivers were gathering the hounds. Several hunters galloped to the place of the fight.
Nikolai got off his horse, stopped beside the hounds with Natasha and Petya who had arrived, waiting for information about how the matter would end. A hunter with a fox in toroks drove out from behind the clearing and drove up to the young master. He took off his cap from afar and tried to speak respectfully; but he was pale, gasped, and his face was vicious. One of his eyes was hit, but he probably did not know it.
- What did you have there? Nikolai asked.
- How, from under our hounds, he will poison! And my bitch caught it. Go, sue! Enough for the fox! I'll roll him like a fox. Here she is, in toroks. Do you want this? ... - said the hunter, pointing to the dagger and probably imagining that he was still talking to his enemy.
Nikolai, without speaking to the hunter, asked his sister and Petya to wait for him and went to the place where this hostile Ilagin hunt had taken place.
The victorious hunter rode into the crowd of hunters and there, surrounded by sympathetic curious, recounted his feat.
The fact was that Ilagin, with whom the Rostovs were in a quarrel and process, hunted in places that belonged to the Rostovs according to the custom, and now, as if on purpose, he ordered to drive up to the island where the Rostovs were hunting, and allowed his hunter to be hunted from under other people's hounds.
Nikolai never saw Ilagin, but as always in his judgments and feelings, not knowing the middle, according to rumors about the riot and willfulness of this landowner, he hated him with all his heart and considered him his worst enemy. Angrily agitated, he was now riding towards him, tightly gripping the arapnik in his hand, in full readiness for the most decisive and dangerous actions against his enemy.
As soon as he drove over the forest ledge, he saw a fat gentleman in a beaver cap on a fine black horse, accompanied by two stirrups, advancing towards him.
Instead of an enemy, Nikolai found in Ilagin a respectable, courteous master, who especially wished to meet the young count. Having approached Rostov, Ilagin raised his beaver cap and said that he was very sorry about what had happened; that he orders to punish the hunter who allowed himself to bait from under other people's dogs, asks the count to be familiar and offers him his places for hunting.
Natasha, afraid that her brother would do something terrible, rode in excitement not far behind him. Seeing that the enemies bowed friendly, she drove up to them. Ilagin raised his beaver cap even higher in front of Natasha and, smiling pleasantly, said that the countess represented Diana both for her passion for hunting and for her beauty, about which he had heard a lot.
Ilagin, in order to atone for the guilt of his hunter, urged Rostov to go to his eel, which was a mile away, which he kept for himself and in which, according to him, there were hares. Nikolai agreed, and the hunt, which had doubled in size, moved on.
It was necessary to go to the Ilaginsky eel in the fields. The hunters leveled off. The gentlemen rode together. Uncle, Rostov, Ilagin secretly glanced at other people's dogs, trying not to be noticed by others, and anxiously looked for rivals for their dogs between these dogs.
Rostova was especially struck by her beauty as a small, chistopovaya, narrow, but with steel muscles, a slender pincer (muzzle) and rolling black eyes, a red-spotted bitch in Ilagin's pack. He had heard about the playfulness of the Ilaginsky dogs, and in this beautiful bitch he saw a rival to his Milke.
In the middle of a sedate conversation about this year's harvest, which Ilagin started, Nikolai pointed out to him his red-footed bitch.
- You have a good bitch! He said in a casual tone. - Frisky?
- This one? Yes, this is a kind dog, catches, ”Ilagin said in an indifferent voice about his red-footed Erza, for whom he gave three courtyard families to a neighbor a year ago. - So you, Count, do not boast about their thrashing? - he continued the conversation he had begun. And considering it polite to repay the young count in kind, Ilagin examined his dogs and chose Milka, which caught his eye with its width.
- This black-footed one is good at you - okay! - he said.
- Yes, nothing, jumping, - answered Nikolai. "If only a seasoned hare ran into the field, I would show you what kind of dog this is!" he thought, and turning to the stirrup said that he was giving the ruble to the one who suspected, that is, he would find a lying hare.
“I don’t understand,” Ilagin continued, “how other hunters are envious of animals and dogs. I'll tell you about myself, Count. I am amused, you know, to take a ride; here you will move in with such a company ... already what is better (he again took off his beaver cap in front of Natasha); and this, to count the skins, how many brought - I do not care!

Few even among the believers know that in addition to the Holy Sepulcher, for the right to possess which the crusaders fought so fiercely, in Jerusalem there is also the so-called "alternative" Tomb or Protestant Tomb of Jesus, otherwise called the Tomb in the Garden, as well as the Calvary of Gordon.

The history of this place is as follows.

In 1882 the gallant English general Charles Gordon was looking through binoculars from the wall of the Old City of the neighborhood and suddenly noticed a hill shaped like a skull.

The general, of course, knew that the name Golgotha \u200b\u200bliterally means "skull" (from the Aramaic "gulgolet"). He also knew that fifteen years before him, the archaeologist Konrad Schick had discovered on this hill a tomb carved into the rock and the remains of a well-kept garden that clearly belonged to a wealthy man. In the general's head one thing instantly came together with another: Golgotha, a garden, a burial, for the Gospel says: "In the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden there was a new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid" (John 19 : 41); this garden belonged to the rich man Joseph from Arimathea, who buried Jesus taken down from the cross in his garden.At the same time, near the traditional Calvary in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, no traces of the garden were found, So the version of the burial of Christ in the Tomb in the garden was born.

Gordon's Calvary is located near the Shechem (or Damascus) Gate (northern section of the Old City wall). At the beginning of the 1st century, there was a quarry, which was also used for execution by stoning. Nowadays there is an Arab bus station next to it. The appearance of the "Skull Mountain" has also changed - now the similarity is not so obvious: the "eye sockets" remained, but the "mouth" disappeared.

From the gate you need to cross the street and walk along this beautiful building - the Schmidt school.

After a hundred and fifty meters, a sign will indicate the further direction.

It’s just around the corner.

The Garden Tomb is currently under the protection and care of the independent British Tomb Garden Society. It should be noted that the Anglican Church keeps deathly silence on this matter.

At the entrance, you will be politely asked where you are from and given a guidebook. Also available in Russian. Admission is free, although no one forbids donating anything.

The path to the grave is a long, winding path that winds through the garden. At first, she leads Gordon to Calvary.

At the time I entered the garden, it was full of blacks brought by white missionaries. Near Golgotha, one of them read a sermon (or lecture).

From Golgotha \u200b\u200byou need to return and, turning around the corner of the building with a red roof, go north.

This path will lead to a reservoir. Its neck is now covered.

It is the largest water storage tank in Jerusalem, with a capacity of 900,000 liters. It is believed to have existed already before the beginning of our era.

Next to it is a well-preserved wine press from the Herodian era.



It was excavated in 1924 and is one of the largest structures of its kind in the land of ancient Israel.

These findings indicate that the owner of this garden was a very wealthy person, possibly the very same Joseph of Arimathea.

Finally, we go to the burial.
It was a little easier to get there than to the Mausoleum.

Some clown was in charge of the process, apparently the head of a tourist group.

Unfortunately, the tomb was filled up during an earthquake at the beginning of the 20th century, so the entrance to it looked different before. 4-5 people can hardly be there at the same time. But the stone bed has survived, however, it is so close that it is difficult to take the camera lens.

Some black women, before going inside, fell into a natural exaltation, sang psalms and some kind of chants. And suddenly the Negro group of tourists subsided like a wave, the garden was empty. If I entered there at this time, I would have thought that this is the most uninhabited place in Jerusalem.



So, once again the reasons why this place is considered the tomb of Jesus:
1. Golgotha \u200b\u200bwas outside the city, near a busy road (from the Shechem gate, the road leads to Damascus).
2. The garden belonged to a rich man.
3. The coffin was hewn from a solid stone and was not a cave formed naturally "... and, taking the body, Joseph wrapped it in a clean shroud and laid it in his new coffin, which he carved in the rock; and, rolling a large stone to the door sepulcher, departed "(Matt. 27: 59-60).
4. It was sealed with a large disc-shaped stone, as evidenced by the trough behind the outer wall.
5. Inside the place of mourning there should have been a place for several mourners "... on the very first day of the week, very early, carrying prepared aromas, they came to the tomb, and some others with them; but they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. And, entering , did not find the body of the Lord Jesus ... They were Mary Magdalene, and John, and Mary, the mother of James, and others with them, who told the Apostles about this "(Luke 24: 1-4, 10).
6. The burial place is to the right of the coffin: "And entering the coffin, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe ..." (Mark 16: 5) and can be seen from the street: "And bending over, I saw the sheets lying, but did not enter the sepulcher "(John 20: 5).
7. In the early Middle Ages, there was supposedly a church here, as evidenced by two carved crosses on the wall, one of which is now inside the coffin.
Now, Muslims are firing a cannon from the top of the hill to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan. From the same place, in their opinion, the resurrection of the dead should begin before the Last Judgment (next to the prestigious Arab cemetery).