golgotha Summary and Overview

the common name of the spot where Jesus was crucified. It is interpreted by the evangelists as meaning "the place of a skull" (Matt. 27:33; Mark 15:22; John 19:17). This name represents in Greek letters the Aramaic word Gulgaltha, which is the Hebrew Gulgoleth (Num. 1:2; 1 Chr. 23:3, 24; 2 Kings 9:35), meaning "a skull." It is identical with the word Calvary (q.v.). It was a little knoll rounded like a bare skull. It is obvious from the evangelists that it was some well-known spot outside the gate (compare Heb. 13:12), and near the city (Luke 23:26), containing a "garden" (John 19:41), and on a thoroughfare leading into the country. Hence it is an untenable idea that it is embraced within the present "Church of the Holy Sepulchre." The hillock above Jeremiah's Grotto, to the north of the city, is in all probability the true site of Calvary. The skull-like appearance of the rock in the southern precipice of the hillock is very remarkable.

(skull), the Hebrew name of the spot at which our Lord was crucified. #Mt 27:33; Mr 15:22; Joh 19:17| By these three evangelists it is interpreted to mean the "place of a skull." Two explanations of the name are given: (1) that it was a spot where executions ordinarily took place, and therefore abounded in skulls; or(2) it may come from the look or form of the spot itself, bald, round and skull-like, and therefore a mound or hillock, in accordance with the common phrase --for which there is no direct authority-- "Mount Calvary." Whichever of these is the correct explanation, Golgotha seems to have been a known spot.

GOL'GOTHA (skull), the Hebrew name of the spot where Jesus was crucified. Matt 27:33. See Calvary.

Aramaic, Gulgaltha, Hebrew Gulgoleth. (See CALVARY, Latin) Greek (Luke 23:33) Cranion, "a skull"; "Calvary" is from Vulgate The "place" of our Lord's crucifixion and burial, not called in the Gospels a mount, as it is now commonly. "In the place where He was crucified was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre, ... hewn in stone wherein never man before was laid" (Luke 23:53; John 19:41). The stone or rock perhaps suggested the notion of a hill. Moreover, the derivation of Golgotha (not "a place of skulls," but "of a skull," Matthew 27:33) implies a bald, round, skull-like mound or hillock, not a mount literally, but spiritually entitled to the name as being that sacred elevation to which our lifted up Lord would draw all hearts (John 12:32). "Without the gate" (Hebrews 13:12); "nigh to the city" (John 19:20); near a thoroughfare where "they that passed by reviled Him" (Matthew 27:39), and where "Simon a Cyrenian who passed by, coming out of the country," was compelled to bear His cross (Mark 15:21). Ellicott thinks the arguments in favor of its proximity to the present traditional site preponderate; the nearness of the assumed site to that of Herod's palace is important. (But (See JERUSALEM,) The explorations of Capt. Warren favor a site N. of Jerusalem.