Who Moved the Ladder?

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“Warring Monks Threaten Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre” read a 2008 New York Times headline. The article describes what is only the latest of the numerous conflicts, some of them violent, among the six different churches that divide dominion over the site considered by most scholars to mark the authentic tomb of Jesus.^a

In 1757 the ruling Ottomans promulgated a firman (Arabic for “decree”) that was supposed to establish a status quo defining the rights of the church communities with claims to the site: Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Coptic, Syrian Orthodox and Ethiopian. The status quo decree was reaffirmed in 1852.

Shortly before the status quo decree was issued, someone placed a wooden ladder on a window ledge above the church entrance. And it has been there ever since. It must not be moved. According to one account the window belongs to the Armenians. The cornice on which the ladder rests, however, has been assigned in the status quo to the Greek Orthodox. As a result the ladder must not be removed because it sits on property of the Greek Orthodox (and only Greek Orthodox can go there and change anything on it) but leans on property of the Armenians (and only Armenians can alter something that touches the window). Neither group therefore controls the ladder, nor may either remove it.

The ladder appears in every photograph of the façade of the church since photography was invented—on the right window above the two-arched entrance to the building . So too in many paintings of the church façade.

On February 4, 2009, however, Zohar Halfan, one of my students in the national tour guide licensing course, noticed that the ladder had been moved! Instead of resting on the right window above the church entrance, it rested on the left window. Who moved the ladder and why? How did this happen? Never mind. The ladder was moved back shortly afterward to where it has been for 200 years or so. Peace has been restored in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre once again.—Danny Herman, Jerusalem, Israel