Editing Gethsemane

{{Short description|Garden by Jerusalem's Mount of Olives}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2018}}
{{Coord|31.779402|N|35.240197|E|display=title}}
[[File:Jerusalem Gethsemane tango7174.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|One of four adjacent olive [[Grove (nature)|groves]] near the foot of the Mount of Olives, traditionally considered to be Gethsemane]]
'''Gethsemane''' ({{IPAc-en|ɡ|ɛ|θ|ˈ|s|ɛ|m|ə|n|i}} {{respell|gheth|SEM|ə|nee}}){{efn|{{langx|grc|Γεθσημανή|Gethsēmanḗ}}; {{langx|he|גת שמנים|Gat Shmaním}}; {{langx|ar|جثسيماني|Jathsaymānī}}; {{langx|syc|ܓܕܣܡܢ|Gaḏ Šmānê|oil press}}.}} is a [[garden]] at the foot of the [[Mount of Olives]] in [[East Jerusalem]], where, according to the [[four Gospels]] of the [[New Testament]], [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]] underwent the [[Agony in the Garden]] and [[Arrest of Jesus|was arrested]] before [[Crucifixion of Jesus|his crucifixion]]. The garden is a place of great resonance in [[Christianity]]. There are several small olive groves in church property, all adjacent to each other and identified with biblical Gethsemane.

== Etymology ==
''Gethsemane'' appears in the [[Greek language|Greek]] original of the [[Gospel of Matthew]]<ref name="auto">{{bibleverse|Matthew|26:36}}</ref> and the [[Gospel of Mark]]<ref name="auto1">{{bibleverse|Mark|14:32}}</ref> as {{lang|grc|Γεθσημανή}} ({{transliteration|grc|Gethsēmanḗ}}). The name is derived from the [[Aramaic]] {{lang|syc|ܓܕܣܡܢ}} ({{transliteration|syc|Gaḏ-Smān}}),<ref>See Walter Bauer, Frederick W. Danker, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich, ''A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature'' (3d ed.; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 191 [גַּת שְׁמָנֵי].</ref> or [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] {{lang|he|גַּת שְׁמָנִים}} ({{lang|he-Latn|gath shǝmānim}})<ref>See Gustaf Dalman, ''Sacred Sites and Ways: Studies in the Topography of the Gospels'' (New York: Macmillan, 1935), 321.</ref> meaning '[[olive oil extraction|oil press]]'.<ref>
{{Cite book |editor-last= Metzger |editor-first= Bruce M. |editor2-first= Michael D. |editor2-last= Coogan |title= The Oxford Companion to the Bible |publisher= [[Oxford University Press]] |year= 1993 |location= Oxford, UK |page= [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195046458/page/253 253] |isbn= 0-19-504645-5 |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195046458/page/253 }}</ref> Matthew 26:36<ref name="auto"/> and Mark 14:32<ref name="auto1"/> call it {{lang|grc|χωρίον}} ({{transliteration|grc|chōríon}}), meaning a place or estate. The [[Gospel of John]] says Jesus entered a garden ({{lang|grc|κῆπος}}, {{transliteration|grc|kêpos}}) with his disciples.<ref>{{bibleverse|John|18:1}}</ref>

==Location==
[[File:James Robertson (British - (Jerusalem. Jardin de Gesthsemane) - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|Garden of Gethsemane and Ascent to Stephen's Gate, across the Valley of Jehosephat, 1857.]]
According to the [[New Testament]] the garden was a place that Jesus and his disciples customarily visited, which allowed [[Judas Iscariot]] to find him on the night Jesus was arrested.<ref>{{citation |contribution-url= http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/EoM/id/3728 |contribution= Gethsemane |pages= 542–543 |last= Brown |first= S. Kent |author-link= S. Kent Brown |editor-last= Ludlow |editor-first= Daniel H |editor-link= Daniel H. Ludlow |year= 1992 |title= [[Encyclopedia of Mormonism]] |location= New York |publisher= [[Macmillan Publishing]] |isbn= 0-02-879602-0 |oclc= 24502140 }}</ref>

There are four locations,<ref>Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, "Gethsemane", p.675, 1975, {{ISBN|0-8024-9697-0}}</ref> all of them at or near the western foot of the Mount of Olives, officially claimed by different denominations to be the place where Jesus prayed on the night he was betrayed:

#The garden at the Catholic [[Church of All Nations]], built over the "Rock of the Agony";
#The location near the [[Tomb of the Virgin Mary]] to the north;
#The [[Greek Orthodox]] location to the east;
#The [[Russian Orthodox]] orchard, next to the [[Church of Mary Magdalene]].

[[William McClure Thomson]], author of ''The Land and the Book'', first published in 1880, wrote: "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 olive trees. 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."<ref>Thomson, William M. 1806-1894. The Land And the Book. New York: Harper & brothers, 1860.</ref>

All of the foregoing is based on long-held tradition and the conflating of the synoptic accounts of [[Mark 14|Mark]] (14:31) and [[Matthew 26|Matthew]] (26:36) with the Johannine account ([[John 18]]:1). Mark and Matthew record that Jesus went to "a place called the oil press (Gethsemane)" and John states he went to a garden near the [[Kidron Valley]]. Modern scholarship acknowledges that the exact location of Gethsemane is unknown.<ref>''The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version.'' 1994, Polebridge Press. p. 108, note on Matthew 26:36</ref>

==Pilgrimage site==
[[Image:Andrea Mantegna 036.jpg|thumb|[[Andrea Mantegna]]'s ''[[Agony in the Garden]]'', {{Circa|1460}}, depicts Jesus praying in the Gethsemane while the disciples sleep and Judas leads the mob.]]

===Scriptural basis===
According to [[Gospel of Luke|Luke]] 22:43–44,<ref>{{bibleverse|Luke|22:43–44|KJV}}</ref> Jesus' anguish on the Mount of Olives (Luke does not mention Gethsemane; Luke 22:39–40) was so deep that "his [[Hematidrosis|sweat was as it were great drops of blood]] falling down to the ground."

===Near the tomb of Mary===
{{See also|Tomb of the Virgin Mary}}
According to [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] tradition, Gethsemane is the garden where the [[Virgin Mary]] was buried and was [[Assumption of Mary|assumed into heaven]] after her [[dormition]] on [[Mount Zion]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Τῇ ΙΕʹ τοῦ αὐτοῦ μηνὸς Αὐγούστου |url=https://glt.goarch.org/texts/Aug/Aug15.html |website=Ἑλληνικὰ Λειτουργικὰ Κείμενα τῆς Ὀρθοδόξης Ἐκκλησίας}}</ref>

===History===
The Garden of Gethsemane became a focal site for early Christian [[pilgrim]]s. It was visited in 333 by the anonymous "Pilgrim of Bordeaux", whose {{lang|la|[[Itinerarium Burdigalense]]}} is the earliest description left by a Christian traveler in the Holy Land. In his ''Onomasticon'', [[Eusebius of Caesarea]] notes the site of Gethsemane located "at the foot of the Mount of Olives", and he adds that "the faithful were accustomed to go there to pray".

Eight ancient olive trees growing in the Latin site of the garden may be 900 years old (see {{section link||Age of the olive trees}}).<ref>Paul Maier [https://books.google.com/books?id=Hnb67CuoHugC&pg=PA235 ''In the Fullness of Time'']</ref>

In 1681, [[Croats|Croatian]] knights of the Holy Order of Jerusalem, Paul, Antun and James bought the Gethsemane Garden and donated it to the Franciscan community, which owns it to this day. A three-dimensional plate on the right side next to the entrance to the garden describes the aforementioned gift to the community.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gethsemane_garden_plate.jpg |title= English: Gethsemane garden plate which describes contribution of Croatian knights in 17th century for granting those gardens to Franciscan monastery. |first= Peter |last= Polic |date= 21 February 2018 |via= Wikimedia Commons |url-status= live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180511161230/https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gethsemane_garden_plate.jpg |archive-date= 11 May 2018 }}</ref>

==Age of the olive trees==
[[File:כנסיית שמנים גת.JPG|thumb|One of the oldest olive trees in the garden.]]
A study conducted by the [[Italian National Research Council]] (CNR) in 2012 found that three of the [[olive tree]]s in the garden are amongst the oldest known to science.<ref name=Olives>{{cite news |title= Jerusalem olive trees among oldest in world |website= ABC.net.au ([[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]) |date= 20 October 2012 |agency= Reuters |url= http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-20/jerusalem-olive-trees-among-oldest-in-world/4324342 |url-status= live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161031024714/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-20/jerusalem-olive-trees-among-oldest-in-world/4324342 |archive-date= 31 October 2016 }}</ref> Dates of AD 1092, 1166 and 1198 were obtained by [[carbon dating]] from older parts of the trunks of three trees.<ref name=Olives/> DNA tests show that the trees were originally planted from the same parent plant.<ref name=Olives/> This could indicate an attempt to keep the lineage of an older individual intact.<ref>Zeller, Harmah. Wild Flowers of the Holy Land</ref><ref name=Olives/> Possibly, the three trees tested could have been sprouts reviving from the older roots. According to the researchers, "The results of tests on trees in the Garden of Gethsemane have not settled the question of whether the gnarled trees are the very same which sheltered Jesus because olive trees can grow back from roots after being cut down".<ref name=Olives/>

However, Mauro Bernabei, author of the paper published as a result of the CNR study, writes: "All the tree trunks are hollow inside so that the central, older wood is missing{{nbsp}}[...] In the end, only three from a total of eight olive trees could be successfully dated. The dated ancient olive trees do, however, not allow any hypothesis to be made with regard to the age of the remaining five giant olives{{sic}}."<ref name=Mauro>{{cite journal |last1=Bernabei |first1=Mauro |title=The age of the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |date=January 2015 |volume=53 |pages=43–48 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2014.10.011 |bibcode=2015JArSc..53...43B }}</ref>

== Archaeology ==
In 1956, Franciscan archaeologist [[Virgilio Corbo]] excavated at the Gethsemane Grotto, finding evidence that the site functioned as an agricultural facility used for the production of [[olive oil]] in the late [[Second Temple period]]. This accords with the etymology of the placename Gethsemane which means "oil press".<ref>{{cite book |title=To Explore the Land of Canaan: Studies in Biblical Archaeology in Honor of Jeffrey R. Chadwick |last=Grey |first=Matthew J. |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |year=2021 |isbn=978-3-11-075780-4 |pages=313–352 |editor-last=Maeir |editor-first=Aren M. |chapter=Olive Processing and Ritual Purity in the “Place of the Oil Press”: Reexamining the 1st-Century Features and Functions of Jerusalem’s Gethsemane Grotto |editor-last2=Pierce |editor-first2=George A. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x9pwEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA313}}</ref>

In 2014, an archaeological survey of the site was conducted by Amit Re'em and David Yeger on behalf of the [[Israel Antiquities Authority]] (IAA).<ref>[[Israel Antiquities Authority]], [http://www.antiquities.org.il/m_digs_eng.aspx?shana=2014 Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2014], Survey Permit # A-7013</ref> In December 2020, archaeologists revealed the remains of a 1,500-year-old Byzantine church (known as the [[Church of All Nations]]) and the foundations of a Second Temple-era ritual bath (also known as a [[mikveh]]). According to Dr. Leah and Dr. Rosario, Greek inscriptions were written on the church's floor as: "for the memory and repose of the lovers of Christ… accept the offering of your servants and give them remission of sins".<ref>{{Cite web|last=Amanda Borschel-Dan|title=Ancient ritual bath may mark first New Testament-era find at Jesus' Gethsemane|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/ancient-ritual-bath-may-mark-first-new-testament-era-find-at-jesus-gethsemane/|access-date=2020-12-24|website=www.timesofisrael.com|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-12-22|title=Archaeologists Have Uncovered an Ancient Church Built on the Site Believed to Have Hosted the Last Supper|url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/ancient-church-jerusalem-1933579|access-date=2020-12-24|website=artnet News|language=en-US}}</ref>

According to [[Israel Antiquities Authority]]'s Jerusalem district head Amit Re'em, the uniqueness of the ''mikveh'' is that it is the first archaeological evidence at the site of Gethsemane where Christians have made [[pilgrimage]]s for centuries.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Jewish ritual bath from Jesus' time found at Gethsemane|url=https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium-jewish-ritual-bath-from-jesus-time-found-at-gethsemane-1.9389600|access-date=2020-12-24|newspaper=Haaretz|language=en}}</ref>

In March 2025, scholars from [[Sapienza University of Rome]] announced the discovery of organic remains of vines and olive trees dating back 2,000 years ago, located in the north aisle of the [[Holy Sepulchre]]. This discovery confirms the presence of an ancient garden similar to the one described in the Gospels.<ref>{{Cite web|language=it|url=https://www.storicang.it/a/scoprono-antico-giardino-sotto-il-santo-sepolcro-che-confermerebbe-il-racconto-biblico_17187|title=Scoprono un antico giardino sotto il Santo Sepolcro, che confermerebbe il racconto biblico|website=[[Storica National Geographic]]|date=2025-04-16|access-date=2025-04-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|language=it|url=https://www-ilmessaggero-it.translate.goog/mondo/scoperto_giardino_passione_cristo_santo_sepolcro_gerusalemme_scavo_sapienza_roma-8771506.html?_x_tr_sl=it&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=it&_x_tr_pto=wapp|title=Scoperto l'antico giardino della Passione di Cristo, lo scavo della Sapienza nel Santo Sepolcro|website=[[Il Messaggero]]|date=2025-04-11|access-date=2025-04-18|archive-url=https://archive.today/20250418125341/https://www.ilmessaggero.it/mondo/scoperto_giardino_passione_cristo_santo_sepolcro_gerusalemme_scavo_sapienza_roma-8771506.html|archive-date=April 18, 2025|url-status=live}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani]]
* [[Agony in the Garden]]
* [[Holy Hour]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last1=Taylor |first1=Joan E. |title=The Garden of Gethsemane: Not the Place of Jesus' Arrest |journal=Biblical Archaeology Review |date=1995 |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=26–35 |id={{INIST|3732699}} |url=https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/21/4/1 }}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Gethsemane, Jerusalem|Gethsemane}}
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06540a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia on Gethsemane]
* [http://christiancadre.org/member_contrib/cp_abba.html Paul’s Knowledge of the Garden of Gethsemane Narrative] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060407062030/http://christiancadre.org/member_contrib/cp_abba.html |date=7 April 2006 }}, by Christopher Price
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070208131004/http://galleries.fototagger.com/link.php?action=detail&id=353 FotoTagger Annotated Galleries – Gethsemane in the art and reality]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090125043929/http://www.roca.org/OA/143-144/143e.htm Article on the history of the Russian monastery itself]
*[https://www.manar-al-athar.ox.ac.uk/pages/search.php?search=%21collection2321 Photos of the Garden of Gethsemane] at the [[Manar al-Athar]] photo archive
{{New Testament places associated with Jesus}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Gethsemane| ]]
[[Category:Christianity in Jerusalem]]
[[Category:Geography of Jerusalem]]
[[Category:New Testament places]]
[[Category:Mount of Olives]]
[[Category:New Testament Aramaic words and phrases]]
[[Category:Gardens in Palestine]]
[[Category:Gardens in Israel]]
[[Category:Gospel of Matthew]]
[[Category:Gospel of Mark]]