It’s a site built on top of a Jewish site.
Doubtful Christian authenticity, IMHO, in that I doubt a house would have been built on a tomb — although, real estate is tight there, and things do get buried, so it is possible.
Doubtful Christian authenticity, IMHO, in that I doubt a house would have been built on a tomb — although, real estate is tight there, and things do get buried, so it is possible.
Yes, that would make sense, but the more doubtful attribution is not the cenacle, but the tomb. IIRC, the traditions about the upper room being in this location are very ancient indeed, but the legends about the tomb of King David only date to the crusades. More than likely it is a case of its holiness drawing in other latter accretions, perhaps begun by medieval Christians but then being accepted by Jews and the like. It makes the Jewish protest kind of funny since, most probably, they are upset about the desecration of a tomb that doesn't exist, and is only thought to exist there in the first place because of its important Christian associations.
Catholics love to build their altars over tombs; it’s a reminder that the sacrifice of the mass conquers death itself. The Vatican itself is built over the tomb of St. Peter; in the 1950s, they discovered an entire necropolis under it, and in the place of the greatest holiness was a tomb inscribed, “Here lies Peter.” (The Vatican had been rebuilt over the same site so many times, the original necropolis had been “lost” for 1500 years!)
In fact, if you go to any Catholic church named after a person, there is a relic of that saint under the altar. Usually they are very tiny: Erasmus snided that if you collected all the relics of the holy cross, there’d be as much wood as the forests of Lebanon; in truth, the relics are often just a gram or less, so 1,000 churches would have only 2 lbs of wood.
Wasn't buried during Christ's lifetime. See Peter's sermon on Pentecost, just 50 days following the Resurrection.
“Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day." Acts 2:29