Gethsemane
GETHSEMANE
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, Mat 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 mouth-a touching memento, upon that sacred spot, of the Lamb of God, Isa 53:7 .
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Gethsemane
Gethsemani (Hebrew gat, press, and semen, oil) is the place in which Jesus Christ suffered the Agony and was taken prisoner by the Jews. Saint Mark (xiv, 32) calls it chorion, a “a place” or “estate”; St. John (xviii, 1) speaks of it as kepos, a “garden” or “orchard”. In the East, a field shaded by numerous fruit trees and surrounded by a wall of loose stone or a quickset hedge forms the el bostan, the garden. The name “oil-press” is sufficient indication that it was planted especially with olive trees. According to the Greek version and others, St. Mathew (xxvi, 36) designates Gethsemani by a term equivalent to that used by St. Mark. The Vulgate renders chorion by the word villa, but there is no reason to suppose that there was a residence there. St. Luke (xxii, 39) refers to it as “the Mount of Olives”, and St. John (xviii, 1) speaks of it as being “over the brook Cedron”. According to St. Mark, the Savior was in the habit of retiring to this place; and St. John writes: Judas also, who betrayed him, knew the place; because Jesus had often resorted thither together with his disciples”.
A place so memorable, to which all the Evangelists direct attention, was not lost sight of by the early Christians. In his “Onomasticon,” Eusebius of Caesarea says that Gethsemani is situated “at the foot of the Mount of Olives”, and he adds that “the faithful were accustomed to go there to pray”. In 333 the Pilgrim of Bordeaux visited the place, arriving by the road which climbs to the summit of the mountain, i.e. beyond the bridge across the valley of Josaphat. In the time of the Jews, the bridge which spanned the torrent of Cedron occupied nearly the same place as one which is seen there to-day, as is testified by the ancient staircase cut in the rock, which on one side came down from the town and on the other wound to the top of the mountain. Petronius, Bishop of Bologna (c. 420), and Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, speak of this immense staircase and two other pilgrims counted the steps. Traces of it are still to be seen on the side towards the city, and numerous steps, very large and well-preserved, have been discovered above the present Garden of Gathsemani. The Pilgrim of Bordeaux notes “to the left, among the vines, the stone where Judas Iscariot betrayed Christ”. In translating the “Onomasticon” of Eusebius, St. Jerome adds to the article Gethsemani the statement that “a church is now built there” (Onomasticon, ed. Klostermann, p. 75). St. Sylvia of Aquitania (385-388) relates that on Holy Thursday the procession coming down from the Mount of Olives made a station at “the beautiful church” built on the spot where Jesus underwent the Agony. “From there”, she adds, “they descend to Gethsemani where Christ was taken prisoner” (S. Silviae Aquit. Peregr., ed. Gamurrini, 1888, pp. 62-63). This church, remarkable for its beautiful columns (Theophanes, Chronogr. ad an. 682), was destroyed by the Persians in 614; rebuilt by the Crusaders, and finally razed, probably in 1219. Arculf (c. 670), St. Willibald (723), Daniel the Russian (1106), and John of Wurzburg (1165) mention the Church of the Agony. The foundations have recently been discovered at the place indicated by them, i. e. at a very short distance from the south-east corner of the present Garden of Gethsemani.
A fragmentary account of a pilgrimage in the fourth century, preserved by Peter the Deacon (1037), mentions “a grotto at the place where the Jews the Savior captive”. According to the tradition it was in this grotto that Christ was wont to take refuge with his disciples to pass the night. It was also memorable for a supper and a washing of the feet which, according to the same tradition, took place there. Eutychius, Patriarch of Constantinople (d. 583), says in one of his sermons that the Church commemorates three suppers. “The first repast “, he says, “together with the purification, took place at Gethsemani on the Sabbath day, the first day, i. e. when Sunday was already begun. That is why we then celebrate the vigil” (P. G., LXXXVI, 2392). The second supper was that of Bethany, and the third was that was that of Holy Thursday at which was instituted the Holy Eucharist. Theodosius (c. 530) describes this grotto in these terms: “There [in the valley of Josaphat] is situated the basilica of Holy Mary, Mother of God, with her sepulchre. There is also the place where the Lord supped with his disciples. There he washed their feet. There are to be seen four benches where Our Lord reclined in the midst of His Apostles. Each bench can seat three persons. There also Judas betrayed the Saviour. Some persons, when they visit this spot, through devotion partake of some refreshment, but no meat. They light torches because the place is in a grotto”. Antonius of Plaisance (570), Arculf, Epiphanius the Hagiopolite, and others make mention of the well known pasch of which the grotto of Gethsemani was witness. In the Church of the Agony the stone was preserved on which, according to tradition, Jesus knelt during His Agony. It is related by the Arculf that, after the destruction of the church by the Persians, the stone was removed to the grotto and there venerated. In 1165 John of Wurzburg found it still preserved at this spot, and there is yet to be seen on the ceiling of the grotto an inscription concerning it. In the fourteenth century the pilgrims, led astray by the presence of the stone and the inscription, mistakenly called this sanctuary the Grotto of the Agony.
In ancient times the grotto opened to the south. The surrounding soil being raised considerably by earth carried down the mountain by the rains, a new entrance has been made on the north-west side. The rocky ceiling is supported by six pillars, of which three are in masonry, and, since the sixth century, has been pierced by a sort of skylight which admits a little light. The grotto, which is irregular in form, is, in round numbers, 56 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 12 feet high in its largest dimentions. It is adorned with four altars, but of the pictures which formerly covered the walls, and of the mosaic floor, traces only can be found. At a distance of about 130 feet to the south of the grotto is the Garden of Gethsamani, a quadrangular-shaped enclosure which measures about 195 feet on each side. Here are seven olive trees, the largest of which is about 26 feet in circumference. If they were not found there in the time of Christ they are at least the offshoots of those which witnessed His Agony. With the aid of historical documents it has been established that these same trees were already in existence in the seventh century. To the east of the garden there is a rocky mass regarded as the traditional spot where the three Apostles waited. A stone’s throw to the south, the stump of a column fitted in a wall pointed out to the native Christians the place where Jesus prayed on the eve of his Passion. The foundations of the ancient Church of the Agony were discovered behind this wall.
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BARNABAS MEISTERMANN Transcribed by Joseph P. Thomas Dedicated to Mrs. Hildegard Grabowski
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VICopyright © 1909 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Gethsemane
oil-press, the name of an olive-yard at the foot of the Mount of Olives, to which Jesus was wont to retire (Luke 22:39) with his disciples, and which is specially memorable as being the scene of his agony (Mark 14:32; John 18:1; Luke 22:44). The plot of ground pointed out as Gethsemane is now surrounded by a wall, and is laid out as a modern European flower-garden. It contains eight venerable olive-trees, the age of which cannot, however, be determined. The exact site of Gethsemane is still in question. Dr. Thomson (The Land and the Book) says: “When I first came to Jerusalem, and for many years afterward, this plot of ground was open to all whenever they chose to come and meditate beneath its very old olivetrees. The Latins, however, have within the last few years succeeded in gaining sole possession, and have built a high wall around it…The Greeks have invented another site a little to the north of it…My own impression is that both are wrong. The position is too near the city, and so close to what must have always been the great thoroughfare eastward, that our Lord would scarcely have selected it for retirement on that dangerous and dismal night…I am inclined to place the garden in the secluded vale several hundred yards to the north-east of the present Gethsemane.”
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Gethsemane
(“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 (Luk 22:39; Joh 18:1). Called a “place” or farm (choorion), Mat 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 (Joh 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 Luk 24:50 the sense is, He led them to the side of the hill where the road strikes downward to Bethany; for Act 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 Luk 24:50 with Act 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” (Isa 63:3; Rev 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 (Rev 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.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
GETHSEMANE
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 (Luk 22:39; Joh 18:1-2) and prayed there in great agony the night before his crucifixion (Mat 26:30; Mat 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 (Mat 26:46-56; Joh 18:3-12). (Concerning the Mount of Olives see JERUSALEM, sub-heading Mountains and hills.)
Fuente: Bridgeway Bible Dictionary
Gethsemane
GETHSEMANE (, perhaps for [] 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 (Mat 26:36) and St. Mark (Mar 14:32) use the word , St. Luke (Luk 22:40) uses , and St. John (Joh 18:1), describing it as , refers to it again (Joh 18:2) as . It lay east of Jerusalem, across the Kidron (Joh 18:1), at the foot of or upon the Mount of Olives (Mat 26:20, Mar 14:26, Luk 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. Stephens 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 Helenas visit to Jerusalem (a.d. 326).
The scene of Christs agonizing prayers immediately before the betrayal, and of His betrayal and capture (Mat 26:36-57, Mar 14:32-53, Luk 22:39-54, Joh 18:1-13), it had long been a favourite resort with the Master and His disciples (Luk 21:37, Joh 18:2). See, further, art. Agony.
Literature.Robinson, BRP [Note: RP Biblical Researches in Palestine.] 2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] i. 234 f., 270; PEFSt [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] 220232 (by E. Petavel). On the form of the name see Dalman, Gram. 152.
John Muir.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Gethsemane
GETHSEMANE.A place to which Christ retired with His disciples (Mat 26:35, Mar 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.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Gethsemane
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 2Ki 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.)
Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures
Gethsemane
geth-sema-ne (, Gethsemane (for other spellings and accents see Thayer, under the word); probably from the Aramaic gath shemanm, oil press): Mentioned (Mat 26:36; Mar 14:32) as a place (chonon), margin enclosed piece of ground, to which Jesus and the disciples retired after the last supper; in Joh 18:1 it is described as a garden (, kepos), while Lk (Luk 22:40) simply says place (, topos). From Joh 18:1 it is evident that it was across the Kidron, and from Luk 22:39, that it was on the Mount of Olives. Very possibly (Luk 21:37; Luk 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 (Luk 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.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Gethsemane
Gethsemane (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.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Gethsemane
[Gethsem’ane]
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. Mat 26:36; Mar 14:32; Luk 22:39; Joh 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.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Gethsemane
G1068
A garden near Jerusalem, Jesus betrayed in.
Mat 26:36-50; Mar 14:32-46; Luk 22:39-49; Joh 18:1-2
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Gethsemane
Gethsemane (gth-sm’a-ne), oil press. A place across the Kidron and at the foot of Olivet, noted as the scene of our Lord’s agony. Joh 18:1; Mar 14:26; Luk 22:39. A garden or orchard was attached to it, and it was a place to which Jesus frequently resorted. Mat 26:36; Mar 14:32; Joh 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.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Gethsemane
Gethsem’a-ne. (an oil-press). A small “farm,” Mat 26:36; Mar 14:32, situated across the brook Kedron, Joh 18:1, probably at the foot of Mount Olivet, Luk 22:39, to the northwest and about one-half or three quarters of a mile English from the walls of Jerusalem, and 100 yards east of the bridge over the Kedron.
There was a “garden,” or rather orchard, attached to it, to which the olive, fig and pomegranate doubtless invited resort by their hospitable shade. And we know from the evangelists, Luk 22:39, and Joh 18:2, that our Lord ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples.
But Gethsemane has not come down to us as a scene of mirth; its inexhaustible associations are the offspring of a single event — the agony of the Son of God on the evening preceding his passion.
A garden, with eight venerable olive trees, and a grotto to the north detached from it, and in closer connection with the church of the sepulchre of the Virgin, are pointed out as the Gethsemane.
Against the contemporary antiquity of the olive trees, it has been urged that Titus cut down all the trees about Jerusalem. The probability would seem to be that they were planted by Christian hands to mark the spot unless, like the sacred olive of the Acropolis, they may have reproduced themselves.
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
GETHSEMANE
a garden near Jerusalem
Mat 26:36; Mar 14:32; Luk 22:39; Joh 18:1
Fuente: Thompson Chain-Reference Bible
Gethsemane
See OLIVES, Mount of.