Pilgrims tracing the last steps of Jesus have been going the WRONG way for 2,000 years, says historian [Excerpts]
For the best part of 2,000 years, pilgrims have flocked to Jerusalem to retrace Jesus's final steps.
The Via Dolorosa, or 'Way of Suffering', took them from the Praetorium, where He was condemned to death by Pontius Pilate, to the site of the Crucifixion - or so they thought.
Now, it seems they may have been walking in the wrong direction.
A respected archaeologist claims that pilgrims have been starting from the wrong end of Jerusalem and that the locations of two of the holiest sites on the route are 'completely wrong'.
Shimon Gibson, a Holy Land specialist, said the traditional start of the Via Dolorosa, north of the Old City, should be at the other end of the city.
Since medieval times, Christians have assumed that the Praetorium, the starting point of the route and the Roman headquarters mentioned in the Gospels as the scene of Jesus's trial, was the Antonia Fortress which stood in the north of Jerusalem.
But Professor Gibson said there was 'no historical basis whatsoever' for this being the site where Jesus was tried and condemned to death by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate.
(Alberge, [London Daily] Mail Online, 4/10/09.]
[TBC: Traditions often prove to be contrary to Scripture. It may be exciting to see where Jesus walked, but that should never detract from the fact that believers ARE walking daily with Jesus.]
