Jesus in the Rose Garden

Down the ancient lanes of old Jerusalem on Saturday, thousands of Christian worshippers surged towards the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Jesus Christ is said to have risen bodily from his tomb. Many of the devout carried candles for the "Holy Fire Ritual" in which Orthodox priests descend to Christ's tomb and emerge with a flame that they say appears spontaneously --miraculous proof, believers say, that Christ has not forgotten his followers.

Soon, the gloomy church is ablaze, incandescent with light, as worshippers press forward to light their candles from the so-called heavenly fire. Sometimes it isn't just the candles that catch fire --beards and hair crackle spectacularly in the chaos as the Christians stampede towards the flame-bearing priests. Skeptics say that the "Holy Fire' ritual is hocus-pocus, a 1,200 year old sleight-of-hand whose secret is passed on from one generation of high priests to the next. But for the thousands who thronged to the church, this was proof of God's existence, and this was indeed the tomb from which Christ resurrected. I mean, why else would God grace it with a fireworks display?

Was it really Christ's tomb? Like millions of viewers, I'd seen the Discovery Channel documentary on "The Lost Tomb of Jesus", which raises the possibility that Jesus was buried in the hills outside Jerusalem, alongside Joseph, his mother Mary, his supposed wife, Mary Magdalene, and a boy, aged 10-12 years, named Judah who could, the filmmakers suggested, have been a son sired by Jesus with Mary Magdalene. So I decided to visit the family tomb.

The way to the Holy Sepulcher winds down the Via Dolorosa, the route to Jesus' crucifixion. Nowadays, visitors on the Via Dolorosa have to contend with pushy vendors selling Holy Water, T-shirts championing the Israeli army, sandals, and cheap and gaudy junk from India. Some reports say that The Dowager Queen Helena had ordered her minions to torture a few Rabbis until they revealed the location of Christ's crucifixion, and there the church was built. Back then, the Rabbis weren't enthused about give publicity to that Jewish upstart, Jesus, and his new religion.

The road to the Talpiyot tombs dips down from the Hill of Evil Council (a source of amusement for many Israelis, since the U.N. mission is headquartered there), veers around a traffic circle, and then heads into a suburb of limestone apartment buildings on a hillside with pines and rose gardens. There were no tour buses, nobody hawking candles or postcards, just a few Israelis out for a stroll with their kids and dogs. I asked one dog-walker if he could direct us to the Jesus Family tomb, and he shrugged.

The tomb, unearthed by film director Simcha Jacobovici, was sealed up again with a thick concrete slab. Now it looks like an ordinary piece of concrete flooring in the ordinary garden of an ordinary Israeli suburb, something on which you might put lawn chairs or a kid's wading pool . None of the neighbors seemed to keen about the tomb's discovery; after all, they didn't want strangers running through the tidy rose gardens with torches of Heavenly Fire.

For Jacobovici, who made the film along with "Titanic" Director James Cameron, finding the controversial tombs --debunked by one Biblical scholar as "archeo-porn"--shouldn't shake the foundations of Christian faith at all. He told Time: "For millions of people, this is inspirational. It could prove that Jesus wasn't a myth --he really existed. People have come up to me and said their faith has been reinforced."

Not all Christians agree that the film has been a boon to faith. Many see it as blasphemy. In the United States, evangelical groups staged a campaign to ban the Discovery Channel from airing the documentary, the Orthodox churches have condemned it and the Vatican, so far, has chosen to ignore the fuss.

The tomb may be re-sealed, but Jacobovici says it still may hold many mysteries. He says that the strange symbol over the tomb entrance --a swooping chevron over a circle--may have been the precursor of a symbol used by the Templar Knights. "There were also three skulls inside, arranged in a triangle, as if they were guardians," he says. "And that's not something you find in Jewish funeral rites." Jacobovici says the tomb was vandalized, possibly during the Crusader times.

Was it the Templars? Did they know about the family of Jesus? We were running into 'Da Vinci Code' territory here. Jacobovici grins enigmatically and looks down at his watch. "Have to run," he says, rising. Back at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the many flames of faith were burning riotously.

By Tim McGirk/Jerusalem