One of the best things about coming to Israel to study, as opposed to coming as a tourist, is that I get a chance to take my time with the experience and get to know the data behind the sights I’m seeing.  There have been so many amazing sites connected with biblical history.  Even at this slower pace there is so much to process and take in.  The cities here and the geography of the land are a pretty amazing testimony to the historical accuracy of the events depicted in the Bible.  However, there are several locations/spots here that are, for one reason or another, covered in obscurity.  Sometimes the obscurity is the product of misguided traditions and sometimes it is due to a lack of data.  What really strikes me as impressive about the sites here is that there is so much that we have been able to recover in relation to what you might think possible, considering the history of the land.  One of the most interesting locations that I have visited so far was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  We saw it pretty early on in the trip, simply because of the proximity of the site to the campus.  This is the church that was built around the spot where, according to tradition, Jesus was buried.  This is one of those places that has been debated in the past for its authenticity.  Today, however, the evidence is quite good for this being the correct site.  The large monumental tomb isn’t exactly the spot, but just behind it there is a 1^st Century rock-cut tomb which is very consistent with the burial practices dating to the time of the New Testament events and carries the tradition of being the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea (AKA where Jesus was buried).  I even got to walk inside the tomb!  Even if that wasn’t the exact tomb, although it seems likely that it may have been, it is amazing to think that this is the place where Jesus was placed after he was crucified.  This is the place where people came looking for him days after and found an empty tomb.  It brought an entirely new dimension to my understanding of the resurrection of Jesus and the multitude of witnesses who saw him afterwards.  It was quite a poignant place to ponder the broken relationship between mankind and God, and just how far God was willing to go in order to atone for the sin that created that brokenness.