Chevron and Related Symbols

Moving on to “like” symbols, the similarity of the chevron to the All-Seeing Eye or Eye of Providence is striking. This places us smack dab in The Da Vinci Code territory but is it possible that Dan Brown had at least some of it right? It requires a flight or two of fancy, but if we connect a few dots we can draw a line through history from the tomb straight to today.

The link? Not Leonardo, but one of his apprentices. Supper at Emmaus, by Jacopo Carucci da Pontormo, takes as its subject the Risen Jesus. What is the significance of the All-Seeing Eye, so similar to the circle within the pyramid-like chevron, hovering over the Saviour?

If the Tomb of the Ten Ossuaries is that of Jesus and his family, the only people who would have had that information in the first century would have been the Judeo-Christian community of Jerusalem. Interestingly, history tells us that the Judeo-Christians were considered heretics because they held that Jesus was a man and not a divinity. Generation after generation, the existence and location of Jesus’ tomb would have been passed down. Conceivably, it could very well have fallen into the hands of the Crusaders, the Knights Templar, who arrived in Jerusalem as “pilgrims” in the twelfth century.

The Knights Templar

Coincidentally, the same accusation was leveled against the Knights Templar: that Jesus was a man and not a God. If the Templar Knights were shown the tomb of Jesus, it would explain why Templars—and later, Masons—have always been convinced of this “heresy.” Until only recently, it was a point of faith that Jesus’ ascension was physical, that his flesh was incorruptible. If the Knights knew this central tenet of the Church was incorrect, they were sitting on powerful information indeed.

Further, the Knights Templar have always been linked with ritual practices. Is it possible that the skulls laid out in the tomb and its antechamber were there as part of some twelfth century ceremony? We do know that the bones are not from the time of Jesus but a much later period.

In the end, we’re not certain of the meaning of the symbol on the tomb’s façade. But that’s archaeology for you: a few facts, a lot of speculation, and far more questions than answers.