Gethsemane

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Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament [1]

Gethsemane ( Γεθσημανεί, perhaps for נִחשְמָני[ם] ‘oil press’).—Gethsemane is usually described as a ‘place’ with a garden attached to it; but, so far as the words of Scripture show, it may have been simply a garden. St. Matthew ( Matthew 26:36) and St. Mark ( Mark 14:32) use the word χωρίον, St. Luke ( Luke 22:40) uses τόπος, and St. John ( John 18:1), describing it as ὅπου ἧν κῆπος, refers to it again ( John 18:2) as τόπος. It lay east of Jerusalem, across the Kidron ( John 18:1), at the foot of or upon the Mount of Olives ( Matthew 26:20,  Mark 14:26,  Luke 22:39 : cf. Euseb. 2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] 248. 18, and Jerome, ib. 130. 22). The traditional site is in the Kidron ravine, at a point about equidistant, as the crow flies, from the Golden Gate and St. Stephen’s Gate. It is easily reached by the road passing through the latter and crossing the Kidron bridge, just beyond which it lies, a square plot of ground with eight very ancient olive-trees. If the statement of Josephus ( BJ vi. i. I), that Titus cut down all the trees upon that side of the city, be correct, the tradition that those trees are as old as the Christian era, or the tradition as to the site, must be abandoned. Both probably are unfounded, and, according to the general consensus of opinion, this site was fixed upon at the time of the Empress Helena’s visit to Jerusalem (a.d. 326).

The scene of Christ’s agonizing prayers immediately before the betrayal, and of His betrayal and capture ( Matthew 26:36-57,  Mark 14:32-53,  Luke 22:39-54,  John 18:1-13), it had long been a favourite resort with the Master and His disciples ( Luke 21:37,  John 18:2). See, further, art. Agony.

Literature.—Robinson, BR P [Note: RP Biblical Researches in Palestine.] 2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] i. 234 f., 270; PEFS t [Note: EFSt Quarterly Statement of the same.] (1887) pp. 151, 159, (1889) p. 176; Conder, Bible Places , 204; Le Camus, Voyage aux Pays Bibliques , i. 252 ff.; art. ‘Gethsemane’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (by Conder) and in Encyc. Bibl. (by L. Gautier); art. ‘The House of Gethsemane’ in Expositor , iv. iii. [1891] 220–232 (by E. Petavel). On the form of the name see Dalman, Gram. 152.

John Muir.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary [2]

("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 ( Luke 22:39;  John 18:1). Called a "place" or farm ( Choorion ),  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 ( 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  Luke 24:50 the sense is, He led them to the side of the hill where the road strikes downward to Bethany; for  Acts 1:12 shows He ascended from the mount of Olives.

"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  Luke 24:50 with  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" ( Isaiah 63:3;  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 ( Revelation 19:14).

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.

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary [3]

This name derives its origin from Ge, or Ghie, a valley; and Shemin, oil. It adjoined the foul book of Kedron, into which all the filth and uncleanness of the temple emptied itself. Here it was also, into this black brook, that the accursed things which the king of Israel destroyed were cast. (See  2 Kings 23:12) A striking type of the defilement and guilt emptied upon the person of Christ, as the Representative and Surety of his people, when passing over this brook Kedron, to enter the garden of Gethsemane, when the things typified were all to be fulfilled. Gethsemane was itself a village, at the foot of the mount of Olives; and the garden Jesus of times resorted to, saw part of this village. Gethsemane will always be memorable, and always sacred, to the mind of the true lover of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is impossible to have the very idea of this hallowed spot cross the recollection, without awakening the tenderest emotions. The Jews, unconscious of the cause, called it Gehennon, the valley of hell. It is the same word as Tophet. Here the sorrows of hell compassed the Redeemer. And as in a garden it was, that the powers of hell ruined our nature in the corruption of our first parents; so in a garden Jesus conquered hell. But not so, as without, blood. Witness his soul-agony, and those great drops of blood which fell from his sacred body. I would desire grace, that by faith I might often visit Gethsemane; and while traversing the hallowed ground, call to mind, that here it was Jesus entered upon that soul-conflict with the powers of darkness, which, when finished, completed the salvation of his people. Hail, sacred Gethsemane!

(See Golgotha.—Cedron.)

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary [4]

Oil-press, a garden or grove in the valley at the foot of the Mount of Olives, over against Jerusalem, to which our Savior sometimes retired, and in which he endured his agony, and was betrayed by Judas,  Matthew 26:36-57 . Early tradition locates Gethsemane near the base of Mount Olivet, beyond the brook Kidron. The place now enclosed by a low stone wall may be but a part of the original "garden." It is about fifty-two yards square, and contains eight aged olive-trees, whose roots in many places project above the ground and are protected by heaps of stones. Here, or at most not far off, the Savior endured that unspeakable "agony and bloody sweat" so nearly connected with his expiatory death; and here in deep submission he mingled and closed his prayers for relief with their cry, "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done." From this garden he could readily see the crowd of men "with lanterns and torches" emerging from the city gate, and hastening, under the guidance of Judas, to seize him. It is the spot which the Christian visitor at Jerusalem first seeks out, and where he lingers longest and last ere he turns homeward. A recent traveler, Professor Hackett, passing by Gethsemane one day, saw a shepherd in the act of shearing a sheep. The animal lay on the ground, with its feet tied, the man's knee pressed rudely against its side, while it seemed as if every movement of the shears would lacerate its flesh; yet during the whole, it struggled not and opened not its moutha touching memento, upon that sacred spot, of the Lamb of God,  Isaiah 53:7 .

Holman Bible Dictionary [5]

 Matthew 26:36-56 Mark 14:32-52 Luke 22:39-53 John 18:1-14 Hebrews 5:7-9

Gethsemane was probably a remote walled garden (Jesus “entered” and “went out”) where Jesus went often for prayer, rest, and fellowship with His disciples.

Queen Helena, mother of Constantine, built the first church (A.D. 326) at the foot of the Mount of Olives, a short distance down from the Golden Gate. Today, on the same site, a modern Roman Catholic “Church of All Nations” is erected beside a beautiful garden of eight ancient olive trees. Inside, windows of bluish alabaster veil the altar of a naked rock by which Jesus is said to have knelt and prayed.

The Greek Orthodox Church maintains another site further up the slopes. However, the devout pilgrim, standing in either garden is almost certainly very near, if not on, the actual site where our Lord in agony prayed to the Father “not My will, but thine, be done.” See Mount of Olives; Kidron; Judas .

Wayne Dehoney

Morrish Bible Dictionary [6]

Name of the garden on some part of mount Olivet to which the Lord often resorted with His disciples. It was here He spent a part of the night after the last Passover, and where He was in intense agony in prospect of drinking the cup of wrath due to sin. How significant is the name, which signifies 'wine-press'! Angels came and ministered to Him. Here also He was betrayed by Judas with a kiss, and arrested.  Matthew 26:36;  Mark 14:32;  Luke 22:39;  John 18:1,2 . A spot, now walled round and preserved as a European flower garden, on the N.W. of the slope of Olivet, is the traditional site of Gethsemane. It is nearly opposite the St. Stephen's gate. There are in it some venerable olive trees; but as Titus, at the destruction of Jerusalem, cut down all the trees near the city, these must be of more recent growth, and there is no certainty as to the site. A more retired spot would seem more fitting.

Bridgeway Bible Dictionary [7]

Gethsemane was the name of a garden on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, just outside Jerusalem. Jesus went there frequently with his disciples ( Luke 22:39;  John 18:1-2) and prayed there in great agony the night before his crucifixion ( Matthew 26:30;  Matthew 26:36-45). The victory he won through that time of prayer enabled him to meet with confidence those who had come to the garden to arrest him ( Matthew 26:46-56;  John 18:3-12). (Concerning the Mount of Olives see JERUSALEM, sub-heading ‘Mountains and hills’.)

People's Dictionary of the Bible [8]

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.  John 18:1;  Mark 14:26;  Luke 22:39. A garden or orchard was attached to it, and it was a place to which Jesus frequently resorted.  Matthew 26:36;  Mark 14:32;  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.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [9]

GETHSEMANE . A place to which Christ retired with His disciples (  Matthew 26:35 ,   Mark 14:32 ), and where Judas betrayed Him. It was probably a favourite resort of our Lord, as Judas knew where He was likely to be found. There are two traditional sites, side by side, one under the Greeks, the other under the Latins. It may be admitted that they are somewhere near the proper site, on the W. slope of the Mount of Olives above the Kidron; but there is no justification for the exact localization of the site.

R. A. S. Macalister.

Easton's Bible Dictionary [10]

 Luke 22:39 Mark 14:32 John 18:1 Luke 22:44

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary [11]

See Olives , Mount of.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [12]

geth - sem´a - nē̇ ( Γεθσημανεί , Gethsēmaneı́ (for other spellings and accents see Thayer, under the word); probably from the Aramaic , kḗpos ), while Lk (  Luke 22:40 ) simply says "place" (τόπος , tópos ). From  John 18:1 it is evident that it was across the Kidron, and from   Luke 22:39 , that it was on the Mount of Olives. Very possibly ( Luke 21:37;  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.

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 ( Bj , 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 ( 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.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature [13]

Gethsem´ane (seemingly from oil-press), the name of a small field, or garden, just out of Jerusalem, over the brook Kidron, and at the foot of the Mount of Olives. That which is now pointed out as the garden in which our Lord underwent his agony, occupies part of a level space between the brook and the foot of the Mount, and corresponds well enough in situation and distance with all the conditions which the narrative requires. It is about fifty paces square, and is enclosed by a wall of no great height, formed of rough loose stones. Eight very ancient olive-trees now occupy this enclosure, some of which are of very large size, and all exhibit symptoms of decay clearly denoting their great age. The garden belongs to one of the monastic establishments, and much care has been taken to preserve the old trees from destruction. Dr. Robinson admits the probability that this is the site which Eusebius and Jerome had in view; and, as no other site is suggested as preferable, we may be content to receive the traditional indication.

The Nuttall Encyclopedia [14]

Somewhere on the E. of Kedron, half a mile from Jerusalem, at the foot of Mount Olivet, the scene of the Agony of Christ.

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