A New Jerusalem

That was the emperor’s letter, and his directions were carried out at once. So on the very spot that had witnessed the Savior’s sufferings a new Jerusalem was built, facing the one so famous of old. Since the foul stain of guilt it brought on itself by the murder of the Lord, that old city had suffered the last extremity of desolation, the effect of God’s judgment on its ungodly people. It was opposite this city that the emperor now began to raise, with rich and lavish magnificence, a monument to the Savior’s victory over death. And perhaps this was that second and new Jerusalem foretold in the predictions of the prophets, to which the divinely inspired writings give such abundant testimony. [a] First of all, then, he adorned the sacred cave itself, as the chief part of the whole work: the hallowed tomb where the angel, radiant with light, had once announced to all the rebirth that was first shown in the Savior’s own person.