Biblical Views: A Rolling Stone That Was Hard to Roll

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The image of the tomb of Jesus that generally leaps into people’s minds is of a rock-cut tomb closed by a large rolling stone. Yet archaeologists tell us this was probably not the case. According to Amos Kloner, who has examined more than 900 tombs in the vicinity of Jerusalem, there are only four tombs from the late Second Temple period that have rolling stones.^a The first is the tomb of the Queen Helena of Adiabene located up Nablus Road from the Damascus Gate.^b The second is the Tomb of Herod’s Family in west Jerusalem, not far from the King David Hotel.^c The third is another tomb close by the Tomb of Herod’s Family. The fourth is a tomb located in the upper Kidron Valley.

The more common form of closure for a rock-cut tomb was something like a mushroom cap or a champagne cork on its side. In other words, one part of the stone was shaped in such a way as to provide a close fit within the doorway of the tomb. The majority of rock-cut tombs had small openings, and then inside the tomb they had a standing pit cut out so that visitors could stand upright once inside. The part of the rock designed to close the tomb entrance fit into the opening. The remainder of the rock had a flange so it would rest against the outside surface of the tomb and surround the opening. Any small openings or crevasses around this stone could then be filled with smaller pebbles and mortar to prevent entry by vermin.

But what about the tomb of Jesus? Some would argue that the tomb of Jesus having a rolling stone was a kind of divine fulfillment of the fact that, to all believers, Jesus was indeed a king, and this type of stone closure witnessed to it. Among the difficulties this theory faces is the fact that it was a borrowed tomb (Matthew 27:57–60; John 19:38–42), and, so, since it was constructed for a more ordinary person, it would not have been fitted with a rolling stone.

Others would say that although the tomb where Jesus was buried was a rock-cut tomb and therefore belonged to a family of some means, there is no indication that it was designed to be among the “top four” tombs in Jerusalem!

What do the Biblical texts say? Do they indicate what sort of stone was used to close the tomb of Jesus? The focus of our interest here is the verb used to describe the placement or removal of the stone from the entrance to the tomb.

Mark refers to the closure stone in two places in his account: once in the scene of the burial (Mark 15:46) and again in the scene on the morning of the first day (Mark 16:3). The burial is described: “And having bought a wrapping and having taken him down, he [Joseph of Arimathea] wrapped him in the garment and placed him in a tomb that was cut from rock and rolled a stone up against the door of the tomb” (author’s translation). The verb “having rolled” in Greek is proskulisas. This is a combination of pros (meaning “toward”) and the past participle of kulio (meaning “to roll or roll along”).

On the morning of the resurrection, “the women said to themselves, ‘Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb?’ And looking up, they see the stone was rolled away; for it was very large.” The Greek here for “roll away” is apekulisen. This is 072 a combination of ap’ (meaning “away”) and … yes, kulio (meaning “to roll”).

According to Matthew 27:60, we read that, after the death of Jesus, “he [Joseph of Arimathea] placed it [the body] in his new tomb that he hewed in the rock and, having rolled a large rock up to the door of the tomb, he went away.” The verb here is the same as the one in Mark, proskulio. The text further reads 073 074 that on the morning of the resurrection, “behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, having come down from heaven and coming forward, rolled the stone away and sat on it.” Once again, the compound form of apo (“away”) and kulio (“roll”) appears.

The only part of the Lucan account mentioning the stone is Luke 24:2, which describes what the women found on the morning of the first day of the week when they came to the tomb: “They found the stone rolled away from the tomb.” Here, too, the verb for “roll away” is the same as in the other accounts.

What are we to make of this? In his article on the type of tomb closure used for the tomb of Jesus, Amos Kloner states that the Greek verb kulio means “to roll,” but it can also mean “dislodge” or “move.” I would disagree with this for two reasons: First, I at least cannot find any dictionary articles (including the largest, the Liddle-Scott-Jones) that give this other meaning. Second, as I pointed out above, almost all instances of the verb in the gospel texts are compounds of kulio, either pros-kulio (“roll up to”) or apo-kulio (“to roll away”). These are verbs of motion “toward” or “away from.”

As a result, I do not think Kloner’s explanation is adequate.

So, am I saying the Synoptic Gospels don’t have a clue about what actually took place? I think that would be going too far. It is not that these accounts are necessarily wrong. But they do give the wrong impression. It may very well be that people rolled the “cork-shaped” stones away from the tomb. Once you see the size of a “stopper” stone, it is easy to see that, however one gets the stone out of the doorway, chances are you are going to roll it the rest of the way.

But what about the account in the Gospel of John? In the account of the actual burial of Jesus, there is no reference to the stone. But in the scene at the tomb on the first day of the week, it says: “On the first day of the week, Mary from Magdala came to the tomb while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb” (John 20:1). The Greek verb for “taken away” is hairo, which means, well, “take away.” Nothing about “rolling.” Why did John say what he did? Because he knew the Jewish burial practice, and his wording reflects this practice much more accurately than any of the other gospels. He has given us a detail none of the other gospels have.

So archaeology does help us to understand the text more precisely: Without archaeology that bit of John’s knowledge would go unrecognized.

The image of the tomb of Jesus that generally leaps into people’s minds is of a rock-cut tomb closed by a large rolling stone. Yet archaeologists tell us this was probably not the case. According to Amos Kloner, who has examined more than 900 tombs in the vicinity of Jerusalem, there are only four tombs from the late Second Temple period that have rolling stones.a The first is the tomb of the Queen Helena of Adiabene located up Nablus Road from the Damascus Gate.b The second is the Tomb of Herod’s Family in west Jerusalem, not far from the […]