X-Dreamers · Lab sheet

Holy Week in Jerusalem

The last week of Jesus' life, day by day, in a 3D Jerusalem of his time: from Palm Sunday on the Mount of Olives to the empty tomb at dawn. Where the Gospels or the sites are debated, the lab shows the options side by side.

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Palm Sunday: down the Mount of Olives toward the Temple

Key facts

On the Sunday before Passover Jesus rode a colt down the Mount of Olives while the crowd spread cloaks and branches and shouted Hosanna.
In the Temple courts he overturned the money changers' tables: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
On Thursday evening he washed the disciples' feet and gave them the bread and the cup in an upper room in the city.
He prayed in Gethsemane, was arrested, and was questioned at the high priest's house while Peter denied him in the courtyard.
On Friday Pilate sentenced him; he was crucified at Golgotha, outside the city gate, and darkness covered the land from the sixth hour.
He was buried in a new tomb cut in the rock; at dawn on the first day of the week the women found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty.

Key verses

9 And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: 10 Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.
Mark 11:9–10 · King James Version

22 And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. 23 And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank of it. 24 And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.
Mark 14:22–24 · King James Version

And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.
Mark 16:6 · King James Version

Talk about it

The same city cheered Jesus on Sunday and let him be crucified on Friday. What do you learn about crowds, and about yourself?
Which day of this week do you find hardest to imagine, and which gives you the most hope?
The Gospels tell the same week in four voices, with different details. Why might God have given us four accounts instead of one?

How sure can we be?

The Bible says

The entry, the cleansing, the supper, the arrest, the trials, the crucifixion and the empty tomb are told in all the Gospels or in several of them.
Golgotha was outside the city gate, near the city and by a road.

Our reconstruction

The city is a reconstruction; roads, houses and the high priest's mansion follow excavations, not exact plans.
Figures are stylized and faceless, and the crucifixion is shown at a distance, without wounds.

Still debated

Where Pilate judged Jesus: Herod's palace on the western hill or the Antonia Fortress.
Where Golgotha and the tomb were: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or the Garden Tomb (its tomb dates to the Iron Age).
Whether the Last Supper was itself the Passover meal, given John's timing.