734. The "Door" of the Sepulcher

By: James M. Freeman

• 2 min. read • grade level: 10

Matthew 27:60⁶⁰And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. (Matthew 27:60). And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed.

1. For a description of rock-tombs, see note on Isaiah 22:16¹⁶What hast thou here? and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth an habitation for himself in a rock? (Isaiah 22:16) (#501).

2. Dr. Barclay, in his account of the “Tombs of the Kings,” represents the outer door as consisting of a large stone disc like a millstone, and suggests that this may have been the case with Joseph’s tomb, into which the Saviour was put, though he admits that there are other methods by which “a great stone” might be “rolled to the door of the sepulcher.” He says: “Immediately in front of the doorway (the top of which is more than a foot below the floor of the porch) is a deep trench, commencing a foot or two west of the door, and extending three or four yards along the wall eastward. The bottom of this trench is a short distance below the sill of the door, and is probably an inclined plane. Along this channel a large thick stone disc traverses, fitting very accurately against its western end, which is made concave, so as to be exactly conformed to the convexity of this large millstone-like disc when rolled to that end—thus closing the doorway most effectually” (City of the Great King, p. 192). Porter has a statement similar to that of Barclay, though he does not give the shape or the slab which is rolled into the groove. See Giant Cities of Basilan, p. 139. Of course no one can say that this was the precise arrangement in Joseph’s sepulcher, though we see no improbability in it.