The Garden of Gethsemane: Not the Place of Jesus’ Arrest

Home > Magazines > BAR > July/August 1995

When visitors to Jerusalem are shown a large cave called “Gethsemane” on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives, they usually give a perfunctory look and hurry on to the famous Garden of Gethsemane, the small garden of olive trees adjacent to the Church of All Nations. Here pilgrims can sit and reflect on the momentous events of Jesus’ arrest in what seems a more appropriate, if less authentic, environment. Most of these pilgrims are never told that the New Testament does not mention a “Garden of Gethsemane.” The Cave of Gethsemane, on the other hand, is very […]

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Endnotes

For the authenticity of the story of the naked man, see J. M. Ross, “The Young Man Who Fled Naked, Mark 14:51–2, ” Irish Biblical Studies 13/3 (1991), pp. 170–174. The beginning of the story differs slightly in Matthew and Mark. Matthew adds that Jesus stated directly that he wanted to “go away” to pray. Therefore, when it is written that he “took to himself” (paralabōn) Peter and the sons of Zebedee, it not clear whether he had departed or was just about to. At any rate, the narrative makes it clear that the three apostles really stayed with the other disciples, for all of them together “forsook him and fled” (Matthew 26:56) when Jesus came back and was confronted by the arrest party.

For this observation, see Albert Storme, Gethsemane (Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1972), p. 24.

Jerusalem Talmud, Peah 7:1; Tosephta, Terumot 3:6.

Compare Mishnah, Zebahim 14:1.

Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 2:2.

Jerusalem Talmud, Bezah 1:9.

Babylonian Talmud, Middot 2:5.

See Virgilio Corbo, Ricerche archeologiche al Monte degli Ulivi, Gerusalemme (Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1965), pp. 1–57; Louis-Hugues Vincent and Felix-M. Abel, Jérusalem: recherches de topographie, d’archéologie et d’histoire. ii. Jérusalem nouvelle (Paris: Gabalda, 1914), p. 335, fig. 147. See also, John Wilkinson, Jerusalem as Jesus Knew It (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978), pp. 127–131.

For olive-presses in general, see Gustaf Dalman, Arbeit und Sitte in Palästina, vol. 4 (Gütersloh, 1935), pp. 153–290. M. Heltzer and D. Eitam, eds., Olive Oil in Antiquity: Papers of the Conference Held in Haifa (Haifa: Univ. of Haifa, 1987).

10.

Dalman, Arbeit und Sitte, p. 322. There are many examples of underground oil-presses from the region of Beth Guvrin. See Y. Teper, “The Oil Presses at Maresha Region,” in Olive Oil in Antiquity, pp. 25–46, and Amos Kloner and Nahum Sagiv, “The Technology of Oil Production in the Hellenistic Period: Studies in the Crushing Process at Maresha,” in Olive Oil in Antiquity, pp. 133–138.

11.

I am indebted to Dr. Amos Kloner for this observation. I am also grateful to Dr. Kloner for taking me to visit some of these caves when I was annual scholar at the British School of Archaeology in 1986.

12.

For further details, see Amos Kloner and Nahum Sagiv, “The Olive Presses of Hellenistic Maresha, Israel,” in Bulletin de Correspondence Hellénique Supplement XXVI, pp. 119–135.

13.

Bernard, Itinerarium 13.

14.

Theodosius, De Situ Terrae Sanctae 10.

15.

In my book, Christians and the Holy Places: The Myth of Jewish-Christian Origins (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993), p. 200, I suggested that these “ledges” may have been the remaining uprights of screw operated presses. I am indebted to Dr. Kloner for pointing out that such screw presses only appeared at the end of the Roman period and were not in use at the time of Jesus.

16.

Piacenza Pilgrim, Itinerarium 17.

17.

In the Maresha cave, stone slabs, cut with concave arcs to fit snugly, were placed over the tops of ledges that had been cracked by extensive use. See Kloner and Sagiv, “Olive Presses,” pp. 127–128.

18.

Saewulf, Relatio de peregrinatione 17; compare Theoderic, Liber de Locis Sanctis 24, Second Guide 124.

19.

Adomnan, De Locis Sanctis 1:15:1.

20.

Dalman, Arbeit und Sitte, p. 322.

21.

Josephus, War 7:1:9.

22.

Egeria, Itinerarium 36.2.

23.

Theodosius, De Situ Terrae Sanctae 10.

24.

For details of these pilgrims, see Christians and the Holy Places, pp. 197–198.