"A VERY GREAT Stone"

As they continued to clear the area outward from the cliff-face, the layout of the building was found to be very simple. One wall ran parallel to the cliff-face, along the top of the elevated "platform" section of bedrock. Two exterior walls extended out at 90 degree angles from each end of this first wall. They began to dig, searching for the last wall when they came to another hand-hewn rock. It was a little less than two feet thick, and the portion that was extending out of the dirt and debris looked as if it were curved, somewhat like a large, thick rounded table-top.

Clearing more from around it, Ron saw that it was of immense size and they decided not to continue digging. He theorized that perhaps this was the seal-stone from the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea in which YAHUSHUA was buried. If he was correct in his conjecture that this was an early YAHUSHUAian church building, perhaps they had incorporated this seal-stone into the actual building. It certainly appeared to be larger than any seal stone he had ever seen or read about. The largest that had ever been found, to his knowledge, was 5.5 feet in diameter. THIS stone would far exceed that.

However, it would be several years later before he would learn its true dimension -- a little over thirteen feet in diameter - when he used sub-surface interface radar from above the ground.

"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 sepulchre, and departed."MAT 27:60

In the same escarpment is the Garden Tomb which was discovered in 1867 when the landowner was digging a cistern on his property. As with the sites Ron was excavating, this tomb was beneath the ground level, buried in the debris of many, many years. When the owner discovered the tomb, he abandoned his plans for a cistern. When General Gordon of Britain visited the area and became convinced that the "skull face" in the relatively near section of the escarpment was the true location of Golgotha, this tomb became the prime suspect for being the tomb of YAHUSHUA.

It met with strenuous opposition from the traditionalists who were adamant that the Holy Sepulchre inside the city was the true site -- but it soon gained some adherents.

When completely excavated, it did indeed exhibit characteristics which proved it was dated to the 1st century AD, the time of YAHUSHUA. But the subject that now concerns us is the missing seal-stone from this tomb. Directly in front of the tomb is a groove for a rolling stone. The width of this groove is about two feet, the correct size for the stone Ron found buried in the earth.

Another tomb from the 1st century (time of YAHUSHUA) is that of Queen Helena of Adiabene. It is also located in the same general vicinity, further north, and the groove is exactly the same size as is featured in the Garden Tomb. Not only are the grooves for the seal stones identical in size, hers also contains an inclined section at one end at which the stone was rolled into the groove - exactly as does the Garden Tomb.

Almost 2 Years of Excavating

By this time, Ron and the boys had been working here for almost two years. They had begun in January of 1979 and it was now late 1980. Of course, they weren't working constantly - Ron was (as he is still today) an anesthetist with obligations to the hospitals he worked with. Due to the nature of his work, he was able to arrange to come over numerous times a year, but they could only stay for a few weeks at a time. And Ron was getting anxious. They had made some wonderful discoveries, and provided details to the authorities of their finds along with any artifacts they found. Some, they were allowed to keep because they were deemed of no significant worth.

But they had explored the entire underground cliff-face, looking for an entrance into a cave or tunnel. If the Ark was in that location, it certainly would be hidden in a cave, he reasoned. Finally, as they continued to search, Ron made the comment to the boys that he was "impressed" that they should just break through the rock of the cliff-face. Ronny said he thought that was a good idea, but Ron resisted. That rock is extremely hard and he knew what difficult work it would be. Finally, when Danny told his father that he, too, believed they ought to do go ahead and break through the cliff face, Ron relented and agreed. It was the only option left.

With hammers and chisels, they began their work. It wasn't long before they broke through the rock into an open space. Enlarging the hole, they saw behind it a cave which was about 15 feet in height and of about the same width. Crawling through, they finally were inside the actual mountain called "Moriah."