Orthodixie

Muslim keeps the keys at the holiest site in Christendom
By MATTHEW KALMAN, Scripps Howard News Service, March 23, 2005

JERUSALEM – Every day at 4 a.m., Wajeeh Nuseibeh walks through the walled Old City of Jerusalem to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the holiest shrine in Christendom. Most Christians believe it is the site of the crucifixion, tomb and resurrection of Jesus.

Nuseibeh takes an ancient 12-inch iron key, climbs a small ladder and opens the huge wooden doors.

Every evening at nightfall, after three raps of an iron door knocker spaced out over half an hour, Nuseibeh closes up for the night and places the key in safekeeping.

He inherited the job from his father and grandfather, part of a chain stretching back more than 1,300 years.

But surprisingly for the doorkeeper of the site of the Crucifixion, Nuseibeh, 55, like his ancestors, is a Muslim.

“It goes from father to son, from one generation to the next,” said Nuseibeh, a small, dapper man in a suit and tie, with a dark mustache. “I was 15 when I first opened the church. I thought it was fun. As I grew up I realized it is a big responsibility.”

The Holy Sepulchre is a vast warren of chapels, tunnels and caves with pieces of church architecture dating back to the fourth century and spanning a broad range of traditions from the Westernized cathedral of the Catholics to the Eastern brass and icons of the Orthodox churches.

It houses the final stations on the Via Dolorosa – the journey of Jesus to his crucifixion – and attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and sightseers every year.

The church is jealously managed by five competing and often warring Christian denominations. Sometimes the tensions over the right to clean or pray in an area of the church spills over into violence.

Nuseibeh’s family has helped keep the peace between them since Caliph Omar Ibn Kattab first conquered Jerusalem for the Muslims in 638. The only gap was 88 years of crusader rule in the 12th century. According to the family history, when Salah A-Din recaptured Jerusalem in 1191, he promised Richard the Lion Heart he would invite the Nuseibeh family members to resume their role as custodians. Since that time, Judeh family members, also Muslims, have been given the key for safekeeping overnight. The two families have shared the position ever since.

Once a year, the three biggest denominations – Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Armenian – publicly renew their request to Nuseibeh to be the “custodian and door-keeper” as written on his business card and multimedia Web site.

About 100 years ago, the key was stolen. Now they keep a spare inside the church. Nuseibeh receives $15 every month for his labor, but the ancient honor is worth more to him than the token payment. When tensions boil over between the churches, Nuseibeh is the one who calms the waters.

“Like all brothers, they sometimes have problems. We help them settle their disputes. We are the neutral people in the church. We are the United Nations. We help preserve peace in this holy place,” he said.

Nuseibeh said he still becomes anxious before big ceremonies, or when important visitors arrive.

“I realize there are thousands of people waiting to go into the church and they are waiting for me to open it, and I start to imagine what will happen if the lock will be broken or the key is damaged and I can’t open the door,” he said.

But it has never happened in the 20 years since he took over from his father. He hopes that one day his son Obadah, now 21, will step into his footsteps, but it’s not certain.

“He is at college, studying to be a sports trainer,” said Nuseibeh. “Maybe he will not follow me, and then my brother or my cousin will take over.”

Easter celebrations at the Holy Sepulchre will place the diminutive Muslim center-stage as thousands flock to the church for services, processions and the ancient ceremony of the Holy Fire, in which Nuseibeh plays a central role.

The ceremony is held each year on Easter Saturday and symbolizes the resurrection of Christ. Thousands of worshippers pack into the church around the marble-clad tomb where Jesus’ body was laid. The oil lamps inside the empty tomb are extinguished and a huge stone rolled across the entrance, which is then sealed shut by Greek Orthodox priests.

“If there are no oil lamps lit, the tomb will be sealed with wax. I am the witness. I put my stamp, the name of the family, in the wax on the tomb,” Nuseibeh said.

What happens next looks like a miracle. The Orthodox patriarch begins to pray, and a bluish Holy Fire begins to emanate from within the tomb, lighting the lamps and sometimes flying around the church, over the heads of the assembled worshippers, lighting the candles of believers.

Nuseibeh, who has been the official witness at this ceremony for more than 20 years, said he was deeply touched by the Christian rituals and felt a close affinity with the church, but he does not pray there.

“I know every stone. It is like my home,” he said. “But I go to pray at the Omar Mosque next door.”

Thanks to FWD from Fr Victor Potapov.

About a month ago, after weeks of research, I had a computer crash and lost all my work — including my notes on The Da Vinci Code. Since then, I began backing up files on a Jump Drive.

I’ve been composing my DVC notes in my e-mail application and saving to my Jump Drive, just in case.

After getting the laptop up and running again, I re-did all my DVC quotes, notes, references, etc.

Last week I dropped my Jump Drive — apparently, losing ALL.

Currently I’m on the tail end of a family getaway at Pawleys Island, SC, and, you’re not gonna believe this, my computer has been down thanks to a virus. (Yes, I have all the anti-virus stuff. Don’t know what happened. Or, maybe I do.) I’m typing this at the library.

Could it be that the Priory, the Gnostics, or even Dan Brown himself, is trying to thwart my attempts? Opus Dei and the Vatican — can’t they help me? As I’ve typed these lines I’ve noticed a few more people suddenly occupying the computers next to me. Oh my. Could they be …?

My neighbor’s cell phone just rang. Is he standing behind me now?

I guess I’d better go. God willing the DVC updates will continue as soon as this latest attempt by the enemy can be remedied.

Until then, as another Dan (known for fabrication) would say: Courage.

Here are some of the claims made by Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code which will be covered in subsequent posts:

1) St Constantine & Company successfully converted the world from matriarchal paganism to patriarchal Christianity by waging a campaign of propaganda that demonized the sacred feminine, obliterating the goddess from modern religion forever.

2) The fleur-de-lis is symbolic of the Mona Lisa (code for yin-yang androgynous Gnosticism).

3) The Church killed 5 million women during 300 years of witch hunts.

4) Noah was an albino.

5) History has never had a definitive version of the Bible.

6) The Bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great.

7) Constantine was a lifelong pagan who was baptized on his deathbed, too weak to protest.

8) Constantine called the Council of Nicaea because Christians and pagans began warring, and the conflict grew to such proportions that it threatened to rend Rome in two. He decided to unify Rome under a single religion.

9) Virtually all elements of Catholic ritual were taken directly from earlier pagan mystery religions.

10) Nothing in Christianity is original. The pre-Christian God Mithras — called the Son of God and the Light of the World — was born on December 25, died, was buried in a rock tomb, and then resurrected in three days.

11) Most churchgoers attend services on Sunday morning with no idea that they are there on account of the pagan sun god’s weekly tribute — Sunday.

12) Jesus’ establishment as ‘the Son of God’ was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea (325 AD). Until then, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet … a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless.

13) Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned.

14) The Grail is literally the ancient symbol for womanhood, and the Holy Grail represents the sacred feminine and the goddess, which of course has now been lost, virtually eliminated by the Church. The power of the female and her ability to produce life was once very sacred, but it posed a threat to the rise of the predominantly male Church, and so the sacred feminine was demonized and called unclean. It was man, not God, who created the concept of ‘original sin,’ whereby Eve tasted of the apple and caused the downfall of the human race. Woman, once the sacred giver of life, was now the enemy.

15) Jesus was the original feminist. He intended for the future of His Church to be in the hands of Mary Magdalene.

16) “[The] concept of woman as life-bringer was the foundation of ancient religion. Childbirth was mystical and powerful. Sadly, Christian philosophy decided to embezzle the female’s creative power by ignoring biological truth and making man the Creator. Genesis tells us the Eve was created from Adam’s rib. Woman became an offshoot of man. And a sinful one at that. Genesis was the beginning of the end for the goddess.

17) According to … unaltered gospels, it was not Peter to whom Christ gave directions with which to establish the Christian Church. It was Mary Magdalene.

18) The greatest cover-up in human history. Not only was Jesus Christ married, but He was a father. My dear, Mary Magdalene was the Holy Vessel. She was the chalice that bore the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ. She was the womb that bore the lineage, and the vine from which the sacred fruit sprang forth!

19) Every religion in the world is based on fabrication. That is the definition of faith — acceptance of that which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove.

20) Jesus was not born of a literal virgin. Those who truly understand their faiths understand the stories are metaphorical.

21) Since the days of Constantine, the Church has successfully hidden the truth about Mary Magdalene and Jesus.

Holy Cow! Tune in next time …

A coworker asked my opinion of the fanatically best-selling Dan Brown book, The Da Vinci Code. I qualified my negative remarks by stating that I had not read it. “Would you like to?” he asked. I told him that I was not going to buy the book but if he wanted to loan it to me I’d give him a full report. And so it is.

When reading a good book, I can’t wait to hit the hay. (The bed’s my place for pleasure reading.) This book was that book. Though surprised by shoddy scholarship, I found the tale quite a ride.

Brown’s got enough money not to be bothered by negative remarks, let alone mine. Besides, in his line of work, all publicity is good publicity. My one stylistic criticism would be the “Batman Factor”. I grew up watching the 60’s Batman TV show and you always knew when each episode was about to end because it followed the same formula: Batman and Robin — after lots of Kapows!, Blams! , and Zonks! — had once again been caught. By all indications they were moments away from certain death and, well … “tune in next week, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.”

The Da Vinci Code follows the same formula — so much so that it began to be predictable by mid-read. Not, mind you, the plot twists so much as the commercial (sleep) breaks.

I commented to a colleague that Salmon Rushdie wrote one sentence dissing Mohammed and Muslims put out a contract on his life. Dan Brown writes a best-seller totally dissing traditional Christian beliefs & the Roman Catholic Church and … well, some churches are sponsoring discussion groups about his book. In a twisted way, I suppose, that’s the difference between the two religions.

In subsequent posts, I shall comment on Brown’s theological statements, errors, and, without a doubt, heresy.

Tune in next time …

The regular defense of the worst of hip hop is that these images should be accepted because they provide a way for black men at the bottom to become successful. An additional aspect of this defense is that young men are making so much money one should not mess with the flow of the dough. The next defense is that anything that makes money is good – especially if it is not illegal. At the end of the argument is the manipulative racial ploy that black people should not use “white” standards to attack something that comes out of the neighborhood, that arrives from black street culture. This last point has been far too successful for far too long among middle-class blacks, who are often made to feel as if they have lost contact with their roots and should never question anything “authentically” black, lower class and street.

What He Said …

Previously: Hope Vs HipHop … Follow Up … Blushing Funkadelics.