:''"Golgotha" redirects here. For other uses, see
Golgotha (disambiguation). For other uses of the term "Calvary" and "Mount Calvary," see
Calvary (disambiguation) and
Mount Calvary (disambiguation).
'Calvary' (
Golgotha) is the English-language name given to the site, outside of Ancient
Jerusalem’s early 1st century walls, of
Jesus’ crucifixion. The exact location is handed down from antiquity. Although the significance of the name is lost to modernity, ''Calvariae Locus'' in
Latin, ''Κρανιου Τοπος'' (''Kraniou Topos'') in
Greek, and ''Gûlgaltâ'' in
Aramaic all denote 'place of [the] skull.' In some Christian and Jewish traditions, the name refers to the location of the skull of
Adam.
[Mount Calvary, article from the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'', Volume III. New York: Robert Appleton Company (1908)] The word "Calvary" comes from "Calvariae" in the
Latin Vulgate[1].
Calvary in the Bible
Although usage since the sixth century has been to designate Calvary as a mountain,
the Gospels call it merely a "place." Calvary is mentioned in all four of the accounts of Jesus'
crucifixion in the Christian
canonical Gospels:
:
Matthew
:: ''And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull).'' (ESV)
:
Mark
:: ''And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull).'' (ESV)
:
Luke
:: ''And when they came to the place that is called The Skull.'' (ESV)
:
John
:: ''and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.'' (ESV)
The location of Calvary
Roman emperor
Constantine the Great built the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre on what was thought to be the sepulchre of Jesus in
326 —
335, near Calvary. According to Christian legend, the Tomb of Jesus and the
True Cross were discovered at that site by the Empress
Helena, mother of Constantine, in
325.
Regarding the location of the church, there has been some question of the legitimacy of its claims as it appears to sit within
Jerusalem's Old City Walls. However, although the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is now within Jerusalem's Old City Walls, it was beyond them at the time in question. The Jerusalem city walls were expanded by
Herod Agrippa in 41-44 and only then enclosed the site of the future Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Professor Sir Henry Chadwick (Dean Emeritus of
Christ Church Oxford University) comments: "
Hadrian's builders replanned the old city, incidentally confirming the bringing of Golgotha inside a new town wall" (a fact implicit in a Good Friday sermon 'On the Pascha' by
Melito bishop of
Sardis about thirty years later). On this site, already venerated by Christians,
Hadrian erected a shrine to
Aphrodite (Chadwick, H., ''The Church in ancient Society. From Galilee to Gregory the Great.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2003:21).
The rock inside the church.
Inside the church is a pile of rock about 7m length x 3m width x 4.80m height
that is believed to be what now remains visible of Calvary. During restoration works and excavations inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the years 1973-1978, it was found that this place, Golgotha, was originally a quarry from which white "Meleke limestone" was struck.
[2] Observation suggests that from the city the little hill could have looked like a skull.
[3] In 1986, a ring was found of 11.50 cm diameter, struck into the stone, which could have held a wood trunk of up to 2.50 meters height.
[4]
The church is accepted as the Tomb of Jesus by most historians and the little rock currently inside the present church as the location of Calvary. In 333 AD, the
Pilgrim of Bordeaux wrote, "On the left hand is the "little" hill of Golgotha where the Lord was crucified (Latin original: ''… est monticulus golgotha, ubi dominus crucifixus est.''), pages 593, 594). About a stone's throw from thence is a vault (crypta) wherein his body was laid, and rose again on the third day. There, at present, by the command of the Emperor Constantine, has been built a basilica, that is to say, a church of wondrous beauty." Eyewitness
Cyril of Jerusalem, a distinguished theologian of the early Church, speaks of ''Golgotha'' in eight separate passages, sometimes as near to the church in which he and his hearers were assembled:
[5] "Golgotha, the holy hill standing above us here, bears witness to our sight: the Holy Sepulchre bears witness, and the stone which lies there to this day."
[6] And just in such a way the
pilgrim Egeria often reported in 383: "… the church, built by Constantine, which is situated in Golgotha …"
[7], and also bishop
Eucherius of Lyon wrote to the island presbyter Faustus in 440: "Golgotha is in the middle between the Anastasis and the Martyrium, the place of the Lord's passion, in which still appears that rock which once endured the very cross on which the Lord was."
[8] (See also:
Eusebius (338) and Breviarius de Hierosolyma (530)). Professor
Dan Bahat, one of Israel's leading archaeologists and a senior lecturer at the Land of Israel Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv, comments in 2007: "Six graves from the first century were found on the area of the ''Church of the Holy Sepulchre.'' That means, this place laid here outside of the city, without any doubt, and is the possible place for the tomb of Jesus."
[9]
Refuted claims of Charles Gordon
Site of Golgotha according to General Gordon, East Jerusalem near the so-called "
Garden Tomb"
After time spent in Palestine in 1882-83,
Charles George Gordon suggested Calvary might have been in a different location. It was not then known that the location of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre was actually outside of the city walls at the time of the
crucifixion. The
Garden Tomb is to the north of the Holy Sepulchre, located outside of the modern
Damascus Gate, in a place that was used for burial at least as early as the
Byzantine period. The Garden has an earthen cliff that contains two large sunken holes that people say are the eyes of the skull to which "Golgotha" refers.
Other uses of the name
The name ''Calvary'' often refers to sculptures or pictures representing the scene of the
crucifixion of Jesus, or a small wayside
shrine incorporating such a picture. It also can be used to describe larger, more monument-like constructions, essentially artificial hills often built by devotees.
Churches in various Christian denominations have been named Calvary. The name is also sometimes given to cemeteries, especially those associated with the
Roman Catholic Church.
Two Catholic religious orders have been dedicated to Mount Calvary. The town
Kalvarija in
Lithuania memorizes the name of the mountain in far northern Europe.
Notes
1. Latin Vulgate, Luke 23:33
2. Michael Hesemann, ''Die Jesus-Tafel'', Freiburg 1999, p. 170, ISBN 3-451-27092-7
3. This little hill still exists. Hesemann, 1999, p.170: "Von der Stadt aus muß er tatsächlich wie eine Schädelkuppe ausgesehen haben," and page 190: a sketch; and page 172: a sketch of the geological findings by C. Katsimbinis, 1976: "der Felsblock ist zu 1/8 unterhalb des Kirchenbodens, verbreitert sich dort auf etwa 6,40 Meter und verläuft weiter in die Tiefe"; and page 192, a sketch by Corbo, 1980: Golgotha is distant 10 meters outside from the southwest corner of the Martyrion-basilica
4. Hesemann, p.172
5. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, page 51, note 313
6. Cyril, Catechetical Lectures, year 347, lecture X, page 160, note 1221
7. ''Iteneraria Egeriae''
8. Letter To The Presbyter Faustus, by Eucherius. "What is reported, about the site of the city Jerusalem and also of Judaea"; ''Epistola Ad Faustum Presbyterum.'' "Eucherii, Quae fertur, de situ Hierusolimitanae urbis atque ipsius Iudaeae." ''Corpus Scriptorum Eccles. Latinorum'' XXXIX Itinera Hierosolymitana, Saeculi IIII–VIII, P. Geyer, 1898
9. Dan Bahat in German television ZDF, April 11, 2007
External links
★
Golgotha (Calvary) Hill-Photo: white stones, here visible right and left in the underground
★
The Hill of Calvary (Golgotha) shown in its original state
★
Location of Golgotha
★
How Golgotha looks in the art and reality — FotoTagger Galleries
★
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
