I am trying to check if the story of Saint Helena mother of Constantine 1 finding the true cross logically follows or not.
The most common story goes
Following the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70 during the First Jewish–Roman War, Jerusalem had been reduced to ruins. In AD 130, the Roman emperor Hadrian began the building of a Roman colony, the new city of Aelia Capitolina, on the site. Circa AD 135, he ordered that a cave containing a rock-cut tomb[d] be filled in to create a flat foundation for a temple dedicated to Jupiter or Venus. The temple remained until the early 4th century.
After allegedly seeing a vision of a cross in the sky in 312, Constantine the Great began to favor Christianity, signed the Edict of Milan legalising the religion, and sent his mother, Helena, to Jerusalem to look for Christ's tomb. With the help of Bishop of Caesarea Eusebius and Bishop of Jerusalem Macarius, three crosses were found near a tomb; one which allegedly cured people of death was presumed to be the True Cross Jesus was crucified on, leading the Romans to believe that they had found Calvary. Constantine ordered in about 326 that the temple to Jupiter/Venus be replaced by a church. After the temple was torn down and its ruins removed, the soil was removed from the cave, revealing a rock-cut tomb that Helena and Macarius identified as the burial site of Jesus.
If crosses were re-used then this part would absolutely mean nothing "three crosses were found near a tomb" ... like they just won't leave the same three crosses laying the same exact place especially after the absolutely mess that happened in AD 70
In addition that for wood to decompose upwards of 50-100 years if left whole. This is why for composting it's best to chip the wood and she is supposed to have found remains of the thing after 4.4x the decomposition time!
I find it really oddly specific that they found the real tomb inside a pagan temple, like why of all places did the Roman emperor Hadrian pick Jesus's tomb to build a pagan temp on?
John 19:41-42 says:
41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
while it's said
Helena, later known as Flavia Julia Helena Augusta, mother of Constantine the Great, was credited after her death with having discovered the fragments of the Cross and the tomb in which Jesus was buried at Golgotha. Brown University.EDU
does the verse contradict the location or?
in addition that I read this reasoning
it is far too close to the supposed site of the crucifixion. A rich and influential person like Joseph of Arimathea would never have chosen a site intended for his own burial so close to where the Romans executed criminals.
I need verified answers since I am using this for a research project.
(what matters now is the cross reuse part)
