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About ‘Through This Window’ Columns and the Author

Columns by Ethelene Dyer Jones under the general title “Through This Window” with each column having its own title according to the subject she writes about in a particular week, have been published in The News Observer, Blue Ridge, Georgia, since April 5, 1990 through the present.

The author chose ‘Through This Window’ as a symbolic title for the series. She wished to convey that she was looking backward into history and remembrance, presently at current events, and forward into the future with implication of how history affects both the present and the future. She writes narratively to record and introspectively to analyze. Eventually the editors at the newspaper chose to drop the general title, “Through This Window”—but each column the author sends for publication weekly still bears that designation. For the purposes of this blog, therefore, “Through This Window” will accompany each title.

Although published by The News Observer, the columns are copyrighted by the author. Therefore, please contact the author for permission to quote any part of these columns.

She sincerely hopes readers will enjoy her view “Through This Window” and learn much of history and life as it was lived out in past generations. Thank you for your interest.

Ethelene Dyer Jones is a retired educator and free-lance writer. She was born in Union County, Blairsville, Ga. She received college degrees from Truett McConnel, Cleveland, GA (AA); Mercer University, Macon, GA (BA); Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC (MA in Ed.); and The University of Georgia (SEd). She was married 61 years to the Rev. Grover D. Jones who died in 2011. The couple had two children, Keith and Cynthia, and have seven grandchildren and currently fourteen great grandchildren, with three more expected shortly. Mrs. Jones lived in various towns in Georgia, with Epworth, Georgia being the longest residence from 1960-2003. She currently resides in Milledgeville, GA where she keeps active still as a creative writing and reading instructor, a writer, and an editor, helping other writers with their publications. She has two books of poetry published, The Singing in the Wood (1984); and Mother and Child Reunion (1995, jointly with her son). She assisted in writing, compiling and editing books: Faith Through Flood and Fire: A History of First Baptist Church, McCaysville, GA (1983); Facets of Fannin: A History of Fannin County, Georgia (1989); One Hundred Years of Heritage and Hope: A History of Morganton Baptist Association (1993); Cemeteries of Fannin County, Georgia (2003); Facing Forward: A History of Fannin County Schools (2013).

She is now working on a book of her memoirs and more chapbooks of poetry which she hopes to publish soon. She has often been asked to publish in book form columns from papers for which she has written, “Through This Window” series in The News Observer. Blue Ridge, GA; “Through Mountain Mists” series in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA; “An Appalachian Voice” series in The Pickens County Progress, Jasper, GA, and others.

(-Ethelene Dyer Jones, 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA 31061; edj0541@windstream.net. 478-453-8751)

Thursday, April 12, 1990

Thoughts at Easter

Just outside Jerusalem is an area known as Gordon’s Calvary frequented by tourists to the Holy Land. It is one of the places designated as the spot where the crucifixion of Jesus Christ occurred. Although the exact location of Golgotha (Place of the Skull) is lost in antiquity, many scholars hold to the theory that Gordon’s Calvary is a true representation of the spot in geographical appearance and proximity to Jerusalem.
      Damascus Gate is on the northern wall of the great wall surrounding Jerusalem. The Nablus Road (known in biblical days as the Road to Damascus) leads northward from the gate. It is also called the Gate of the Column because of a stately column erected there by Emperor Hadrian in 135 A.D.
      Prior to that was a gate of the Herodian Period which was standing during the time of Jesus. Through the Damascus Gate went the major traffic lanes into and out of the city of Jerusalem.
      General Charles Gordon, a British soldier on leave from duty, was in Jerusalem in 1882. He was an avid Bible scholar. He was walking on the city wall late in the afternoon, meditating on the death of Jesus. He saw the hill slightly northeast of the Damascus Gate.
      As if in a moment of sudden inspiration, he noted that the outcropping of rock on the side of the hill and the indentations formed by grottoes made the place look like a skull. This surely was the hill on which the crucifixion occurred.
      Charles Gordon explored the area and began to uncover more evidence to substantiate his belief that he had found Calvary. In a garden nearby he discovered a tomb of stone in a hillside. It had a channel for a great stone to be rolled across it to cover the opening. The tomb was near the Hill of Golgotha, Place of the Skull, and seemed to geographically match the account in John 18:38-42 of the burial of Jesus in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.
      In further research, General Gordon found that other nineteenth century scholars had proposed the same hill and tomb as the locations for the crucifixion and burial.
      In 1842, Otto Thenius, a German biblical scholar from Dresden, had taught that the crucifixion occurred outside Jerusalem on the rocky knoll known as Jeremiah’s Grotto. Drawings of the location had been preserved from his studies.
      In 1867, a Greek who then owned the land adjacent to Skull Hill discovered a tomb. He cleared away the debris, thinking first he would use it as a cistern, but determining that it was an ancient tomb, he left it alone.
      When General Charles Gordon found the hill and the tomb again in 1882, he began an intensive effort in London and elsewhere to raise money for purchase of the site. By 1892, over 2,000 pounds had been raised and he Garden Tomb Association was formed. The site was acquired by the Association in 1894 and work began on restoration.
      The intention of the GardenTomb Association was to restore the area believed by many to be the location of the sepulcher of Jesus provided by Joseph of Arimathea. The Association sought to preserve the place as a sanctuary of sacred quiet and meditation. It is open to visitors now for this purpose.
      At the far corner of the Garden, an observation platform was erected from which persons may view Golgotha, the place of execution. In ancient days it was used for crucifixions and for deaths by stoning because it was outside the city walls of Jerusalem.
      Within the garden, a well-beaten path leads to the tomb, an example of a first century burial crypt. The entranceway leads into a large space known as the mourning chamber where family and friends gathered to grieve for the dead. The second chamber of the tomb contains a hewn ledge where the dead body was laid, wrapped in graveclothes and anointed with burial spices.
      Certain characteristics marked the tomb where the body of Jesus was placed:
  1. It was near the place of crucifixion (John 19:42).
  2. It was located in a garden and hewn from stone, a rich man’s tomb (Matthew 27:60).
  3. The disciples could look into the tomb from the outside (John 20:5).
  4. The tomb was closed by rolling a great stone over the entrance (Matthew 17:60).
  5. There was standing room for a number of persons inside the tomb (Luke 24:1-4).
  6. It was a new tomb (John 19:4).

      On Easter Sundays, thousands of travelers to Jerusalem will crowd into the rotunda overlooking the tomb to participate in resurrection celebration services. The event that took place in Joseph’s garden tomb two thousand years ago offers hope to millions. Someone has said, “The secret of the sepulcher of Jesus is not its eminence but its emptiness.”
      It was my husband’s and my privilege to visit the Garden Tomb and view the Hill of Golgotha in 1978. A deep sense of reverence and awe engulfed me as I contemplated the significance of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. These pivotal events in history changed the world. But however awesome, they can only be life-changing through faith on an individual basis.
      Like Mary Magdalene who went alone to the empty tomb on the first day of the week, met the risen Lord, and went to tell others, each one who believes must declare personally, “I have seen the Lord!”

(Published in The News Observer, Blue Ridge, GA. April 12, 1990. ©1990 by Ethelene Dyer Jones. All rights reserved.)
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