Summary of the Evidence
1) The cave is in the correct location- in Hebron, at the edge of a plain atop a very high hill.
2) There are no artifacts in the cave except for the bowl we discussed above.
3) There is a shelf-like niche carved into a wall of the cave, which could have acted as a table on which to
prepare the spices for the burial. This shelf is 1.43 meters longs and .78 meters wide. The area above the "table-top" is also chiselled out which indicates that it was used as some type of work area.
4) There are holes carved into the upper portion of the walls of the cave which are angled downward- they are consistent with holes made to hold torches (burning pine knots).
5) There are 3 crypts carved into the 3 sides of the cave (the forth side is the entrance to the cave). These measure:
a) 3.5 meters long by 1.25 meters wide;
b) 3 meters long (one end is uncleaned so it appears to be a bit longer) by 1.20 meters wide;
c) 3.75 meters long by 1.33 meters wide.
The size of each crypt can be seen to be relatively uniform. The fact that there are just 3 and not 6 could indicate that the wife of each patriarch was buried in the same crypt as her husband.
6) There was a doorway to the cave as its outline can be seen chiselled into the entrance. The rock sealing the doorway seems to be missing, although it could be under the debris in the cave floor. However, the outline which was chiselled for the door can still be easily seen, as well as the matching holes on each side of the doorway, which would have secured the door.
7) There is an ancient structure directly on top of the cave. This structure, what is left of it, indicates that it was some type of shrine. It has a sort of fenced enclosure on one side, just below the terrace upon which the building sits, and this enclosed area surrounds the entrance to the cave, just beneath the little building. There is also remains of an object in the midst of the area which resembles an oblong altar made of stones.
8) There is an entrance-way into the cave from inside of this building, but as it lets out straight down into the cave, its purpose cannot be exactly understood. It may be where the cave was fractured by an earthquake, as many large stones are plugging this entrance.
9) Inside the cave, there is a wall section plugged with rocks which appears to be an entrance into another chamber. There is a strong tradition among the Jews that the cave of Machpelah was a "double chambered" cave. When Ron threw down the rock on the site in 1979 and heard the reverberation under his feet, it indicated a large chamber under him. This area was adjacent to the building or monument which is erected just over the chamber they entered, and thus indicates the presence of another cave or chamber in the direct vicinity.
Many other Burials in the Area
The family which owns this land has built on most of the land, or farmed it. As a result, they have dug on most of the surrounding land directly adjacent to the cave. They showed Ron, Marty and Lloyd numerous burials they had dug up in the course of cultivating their land. These were very deep and when they found these graves, they placed the bones in plastic bags and reburied them where they found them. One brother told Ron they had found 51 burials directly around the cave- and he said that they found nothing in the graves but bones. This is a strong indication that the deceased were worshippers of God because of the lack of funeral items. We found a reference in Josephus about the ancestors of Jacob and Joseph which may actually give us some information on these burials: "At length, his [Joseph's] brethren died, after they had lived happily in Egypt. Now the posterity and sons of these men, after some time, carried their bones and buried them at Hebron;..." Antiq. of the Jews, Book II, chapter VIII, para. 2.
Joseph's "brethren", the sons of Israel, are here said to have been buried at Hebron. If we remember that even Abraham wasn't living here at the time of his death or Sarah's, we can know that the only land in Hebron they could have been buried on was the land Abraham had purchased- the field with the cave. We also know that Abraham had many servants who would have wanted to be buried along with him and so perhaps these are their burials. We can be sure that anyone who was of his household would have been a believer in the true God, simply because Abraham knew of God's command to stay separated from the heathen.
The Cave should have Hewn Sepulchers
So, thus far, there is nothing that rules out the possibility of this cave being the actual cave of Machpelah. There is also one other statement from the scriptures which fits the cave. Joseph speaks to the pharaoh and requests per- mission to bury Jacob in Canaan: GEN 50:5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up,.., and bury my father, and I will come again.
The Hebrew word for "grave" (qeber) and "digged" (karah) are literal here- Joseph is saying that his father, Jacob literally dug his own sepulchre. The 3 separate sepulchers are each hand-hewn, as the chisel marks are still visible.
