Difference between revisions of "Gethsemane"

<p> ("oil-press".) Beyond the brook [[Kedron]] at the foot of the mount of Olives; where probably oil was made from the olives of the adjoining hill (&nbsp;Luke 22:39; &nbsp;John 18:1). Called a "place" or farm ( '''''Choorion''''' ), &nbsp;Matthew 26:36, to which probably the "garden" was attached. E. of Jerusalem, from the walls of which it was half a mile distant. It was the favorite resort of our Lord with His disciples (&nbsp;John 18:2), the shade of its trees affording shelter from the heat and the privacy so congenial to Him. [[Bethany]] lay on the E. of Jerusalem, and toward it our Lord led His disciples before the ascension. In &nbsp;Luke 24:50 the sense is, He led them to the side of the hill where the road strikes downward to Bethany; for &nbsp;Acts 1:12 shows He ascended from the mount of Olives. </p> <p> "Bethany probably includes not only the village but the district and side of the mount adjoining it; even still the adjoining mountain side is called by the same name as the village, el-Azariyeh. This reconciles &nbsp;Luke 24:50 with &nbsp;Acts 1:12. [[Gardens]] and pleasure grounds abounded then in the suburbs (Josephus, B.J., 6:1, section 1, 5:3, section 32), where now scarcely one is to be seen. In Gethsemane "without the city" Christ "trod the winepress alone" (&nbsp;Isaiah 63:3; &nbsp;Revelation 14:20). In these passages, however, He is the inflicter, not the sufferer, of vengeance; but in righteous retribution the scene of blood shedding of Christ and His people shall be also the scene of God's avenging His and their blood on the anti-Christian foe (&nbsp;Revelation 19:14). </p> <p> The time of the agony was between 11 and 12 o'clock Thursday night (Friday morning in the Jews' reckoning), two days before the full moon, about the Vernal equinox. The sites assigned by the Latins and [[Armenians]] and [[Greeks]] respectively are too near the thoroughfare to the city to be probable. Some hundreds of yards further up the vale and N.E. of Mary's church may be the true site. The fact that Titus cut down all the trees round about Jerusalem (Josephus, B.J., 6:1, section 1) is against the contemporary ancientness of the eight venerable olive trees now pointed out. The tenth legion, moreover, was posted about the mount of Olives (5:2, section 3, 6:2, section 8); and in the siege a wall was carried along the valley of Kedron to the [[Siloam]] fountain (5:10, section 2). The olives of Christ's time may have reproduced themselves. </p>

<p> [[Gethsemane]] ( ''Gĕth-Sĕm'A-Ne'' ), ''Oil Press.'' A place across the Kidron and at the foot of Olivet, noted as the scene of our Lord's agony. &nbsp;John 18:1; &nbsp;Mark 14:26; &nbsp;Luke 22:39. A garden or orchard was attached to it, and it was a place to which Jesus frequently resorted. &nbsp;Matthew 26:36; &nbsp;Mark 14:32; &nbsp;John 18:2. Tradition, since the fourth century, has placed it on the lower slope of Olivet, about 100 yards east of the bridge over the Kedron. </p>

<p> ''''' geth ''''' - ''''' sem´a ''''' - ''''' nē̇ ''''' ( Γεθσημανεί , <i> ''''' Gethsēmaneı́ ''''' </i> (for other spellings and accents see Thayer, under the word); probably from the [[Aramaic]] , <i> ''''' kḗpos ''''' </i> ), while Lk (&nbsp; Luke 22:40 ) simply says "place" (τόπος , <i> ''''' tópos ''''' </i> ). From &nbsp;John 18:1 it is evident that it was across the Kidron, and from &nbsp; Luke 22:39 , that it was on the Mount of Olives. Very possibly (&nbsp;Luke 21:37; &nbsp;Luke 22:39 ) it was a spot where Jesus habitually lodged when visiting Jerusalem. The owner - whom conjecture suggests as Mary the mother of Mark - must have given Jesus and His disciples special right of entry to the spot. </p> <p> Tradition, dating from the 4th century, has fixed on a place some 50 yds. East of the bridge across the Kidron as the site. In this walled-in enclosure once of greater extent, now primly laid out with garden beds, by the owners - the [[Franciscans]] - are eight old olive trees supposed to date from the time of our Lord. They are certainly old, they appeared venerable to the traveler Maundrell more than two centuries ago, but that they go back to the time claimed is impossible, for Josephus states ( <i> Bj </i> , VI, i, 1) that Titus cut down all the trees in the neighborhood of Jerusalem at the time of the siege. Some 100 yards farther North is the "Grotto of the Agony," a cave or cistern supposed to be the spot "about a stone's cast" to which our Lord retired (&nbsp;Luke 22:41 ). The Greeks have a rival garden in the neighborhood, and a little higher up the hill is a large Russian church. The traditional site may be somewhere near the correct one, though one would think too near the public road for retirement, but the contours of the hill slopes must have so much changed their forms in the troubled times of the first and second centuries, and the loose stone walls of such enclosures are of so temporary a character, that it is impossible that the site is exact. Sentiment, repelled by the artificiality of the modern garden, tempts the visitor to look for a more suitable and less artificial spot farther up the valley. There is today a secluded olive grove with a ruined modern olive press amid the trees a half-mile or so farther up the Kidron Valley, which must far more resemble the original Gethsemane than the orthodox site. </p>