Calvary¹

 

(kăl'vərē) [Lat.,=a skull] or Golgotha (gŏl'gəthə) [Heb.,=a skull], in the Gospels, place where Jesus was crucified, outside what was then the wall of Jerusalem. Its location is not certainly known. The traditional identification of the site of Calvary was made by St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, when she found (c.326) what was believed to be a relic of the actual cross on which Jesus was crucified. The spot is within the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. In 1885 General Charles G. Gordon proposed a site near the Damascus Gate, first suggested in 1842. This is called the Garden Tomb or Gordon's Calvary.

"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.^[1] The word "Calvary" comes from "Calvariae" in the Latin Vulgate^[2].

Calvary in the Bible

Although usage since the sixth century has been to designate Calvary as a mountain,^[1] 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 27:33

And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, (KJV)

Mark 15:22

And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull. (KJV)

Luke 23:33

And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. (KJV)

John 19:17

And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: (KJV)

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).

Inside the church is a pile of rock about 7m length x 3m width x 4.80m height^[3] 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.^[3] Observation suggests that from the city the little hill could have looked like a skull.^[4] 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.^[5]

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:^[6] "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." ^[7] And just in such a way the pilgrim Egeria often reported in 383: "… the church, built by Constantine, which is situated in Golgotha …"^[8], 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."^[9] (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." ^[10]

Refuted claims of Charles Gordon

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

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

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

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