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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Golgotha
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Aramaic, Gulgaltha, Hebrew Gulgoleth. (See CALVARY, Latin) Greek () 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" (; ).
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," ) 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 ().
"Without the gate" (); "nigh to the city" (); near a thoroughfare where "they that passed by reviled Him" (), and where "Simon a Cyrenian who passed by, coming out of the country," was compelled to bear His cross (). 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.