What are possible sites for Golgotha?

Answer 1

There are three possible sites for Golgotha.

1. Underneath or near the Holy Sepulchre Church, proposed by Helena, the mother of Constantine I in 326 AD.
2. The Garden Tomb, proposed by General Charles Gordon in 1892.
3. The Mount just outside the Lion's gate, proposed by Rodger Dusatko in 2009.

Some believe Golgotha was a hump which today is underneath where today the Church of the Sepulcher is. But according to scripture, this couldn't have been the place where Golgotha was located, for this Mount was:

• Outside the city wall.
• Looked like the top part of a skull (Greek Kranion - cranium).
• Very near a gate leading into Jerusalem.
• Large enough for a large amount of People to gather there.
• Those standing there saw the temple curtain rip.

Was the Holy Sepulchre Church at the time of Jesus outside the city wall? Today it is well within the Old City. The Sepulchre found verifies that at the time it was built this was outside the wall of Jerusalem, for the Jews would not bury their dead within the city walls. Some believe that this sepulchre was originally made during the hasmonean dynasty (ca. 130 BC), it being in the area where John Hyrcanus was credited for building an early Hospital, just south of where the Church was built.

Through an early testimony from 'the Pilgrim of Bordeaux' (333 AD) there was once a little hill to the left of it. There is nothing remaining of it today but in the Church itself there is a 'Golgotha relique' rock less than a meter wide. Certainly a large amount of People could not have gathered here, nor would such a small hill have been known by the citizens of Jerusalem as the place of the cranium; the place where the Romans crucified criminals. Since it is on the western side of Jerusalem, nobody would have been able to testify that at the Moment Jesus died the curtain of the temple was ripped (the temple was on the east side of Jerusalem, facing east).

The Garden Tomb has a view to a cliff having holes looking a little like engraved eyes. Even in the last hundred years the appearance has changed noticeably. Whether these holes existed or were in a shape looking like a skull 2000 years ago is questionable.

The Garden Tomb is also so far from the Old City that nobody could have read from there the words of the inscription. It does not fulfill the Statement of John, that the place where Jesus was crucified was near the City.

this inscription, therefore, read many of the Jews, because the place was nigh to the city where Jesus was crucified, and it was having been written in Hebrew, in Greek, in Roman. Joh 19,20

The Gospels and the early Christian writings testify that Golgotha looked like the cranium, which is the top part of the skull where the brain is located. It was not the eyes, but the shape of the mount which gave Golgotha its name.

A spot there is called Golgotha,- of old the fathers' earlier tongue thus called its name, "The skull-pan of a head:" Ante-Nicean Fathers - Four Books against Marcion Book II 259

Neither would it have been possible to see the curtain rip from the area of the Garden Tomb, because it is north of the Old City.

The place which fits every scripture is the Mount just outside the Lion's gate. It has the same height of mount Moriah and looks like the cranium of the head. At the time of Jesus the old Eastern Jerusalem wall would have been a few meters lower than the wall built by Suleiman in 1538, allowing those gathered there to see the spectacle of the temple curtain riping as Jesus died. Its northwestern base is very near the entrance of the Lion's gate, which used to be the Sheep Gate.

Considering the testimony of John, Jesus carried his cross himself to Golgotha. The other Gospels testify that Simon of Cyrene carried his cross as he went out of the City. Because this mount is just outside the gate, Jesus did carry his cross to Golgotha, but Simon carried it up the steep slope.

and bearing his cross, he went forth to the place called Place of the Cranium, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha; Joh 19,17

Also, this mount is so near the gate, that Jesus could hear those speaking of him there, as prophesied in Ps. 69.

Those sitting in the gate are talking about me; I am the [theme of the] song of drunkards. Ps 69,12

Jesus was crucified on the eve of the Passover. As he was hanging, about 200 meters away, hundreds of thousands of lambs were being sacrificed just north of the altar, directly in his view. He very likely heard the Levites singing in the steps leading up to the Nicanor gate. And at very moment he died, everyone, including the Roman Centurion and Caiaphas, saw the curtain of the temple rip.

And Jesus having uttered a loud cry, yielded the spirit, and the veil of the sanctuary was rent in two, from top to bottom, and the centurion who was standing over-against him, having seen that, having so cried out, he yielded the spirit, said, `Truly this man was Son of God.' Mk 15,37-39

There is absolutely no other place other than on this Mount that such a spectacle could have been seen, for the only place on the Mount of Olives high enough to have been able to see into the temple area would have been more than 600 meters away. But this place was less than 300 meters away from the curtain.