Sepulchre

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A sepulchre (also spelled "sepulcher") is a type of tomb or burial chamber. In ancient Hebrew practice, it was carved into the rock of a hillside.

The term is most often used for the sepulchral burial site of Jesus in Jerusalem, over which the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been erected; see there for other links.

The word is sometimes confused with "sepulture", the act of burying a dead person.

This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.

Sepulchre - first mentioned as purchased by Abraham for Sarah from Ephron the Hittite (Gen. 23:20). This was the "cave of the field of Machpelah", where also Abraham and Rebekah and Jacob and Leah were buried (79:29-32). In Acts 7:16 it is said that Jacob was "laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem." It has been proposed, as a mode of reconciling the apparent discrepancy between this verse and Gen. 23:20, to read Acts 7:16 thus: "And they [i.e., our fathers] were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Emmor [the son] of Sychem." In this way the purchase made by Abraham is not to be confounded with the purchase made by Jacob subsequently in the same district. Of this purchase by Abraham there is no direct record in the Old Testament. (See Thomas Campbell)

Tombs of the Hebrews were generally excavated in the solid rock or were natural caves. Mention is made of such tombs in Judges 8:32; 2 Samuel 2:32; and 2 Kings 9:28; 23:30. They were sometimes made in gardens (2 Kings 21:26; 23:16; Matthew 27:60). They are found in great numbers in and around Jerusalem and all over the land. They were sometimes whitewashed (Matthew 23:27, 29). The body of Jesus was laid in Joseph of Arimathea's new rock-hewn tomb, in a garden near to Calvary perhaps the site of the Holy Sepulchre.

The mouth of such rocky tombs was usually closed by a large stone (Hebrew golal), which could only be removed by the united efforts of several men (Matthew 28:2; John 11:39)