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GETHSEMANE ( Ãåèóçìáíåß , perhaps for ðִç ùְîָðé [ í ] ‘oil press’).—Gethsemane is usually described as a ‘place’ with a garden attached to it; but, so far as the words of Scripture show, it may have been simply a garden. St. Matthew (Mat_26:36) and St. Mark (Mar_14:32) use the word ÷ùñßïí , St. Luke (Luk_22:40) uses ôüðïò , and St. John (Joh_18:1), describing it as ὅðïõ ἧí êῆðïò , refers to it again (Joh_18:2) as ôüðïò . It lay east of Jerusalem, across the Kidron (Joh_18:1), at the foot of or upon the Mount of Olives (Mat_26:20, Mar_14:26, Luk_22:39 : cf. Euseb. 2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] 248. 18, and Jerome, ib. 130. 22). The traditional site is in the Kidron ravine, at a point about equidistant, as the crow flies, from the Golden Gate and St. Stephen’s Gate. It is easily reached by the road passing through the latter and crossing the Kidron bridge, just beyond which it lies, a square plot of ground with eight very ancient olive-trees. If the statement of Josephus (BJ vi. i. I), that Titus cut down all the trees upon that side of the city, be correct, the tradition that those trees are as old as the Christian era, or the tradition as to the site, must be abandoned. Both probably are unfounded, and, according to the general consensus of opinion, this site was fixed upon at the time of the Empress Helena’s visit to Jerusalem (a.d. 326).
The scene of Christ’s agonizing prayers immediately before the betrayal, and of His betrayal and capture (Mat_26:36-57, Mar_14:32-53, Luk_22:39-54, Joh_18:1-13), it had long been a favourite resort with the Master and His disciples (Luk_21:37, Joh_18:2). See, further, art. Agony.
Literature.—Robinson, BRP [Note: RP Biblical Researches in Palestine.] 2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] i. 234 f., 270; PEFSt [Note: EFSt Quarterly Statement of the same.] (1887) pp. 151, 159, (1889) p. 176; Conder, Bible Places, 204; Le Camus, Voyage aux Pays Bibliques, i. 252 ff.; art. ‘Gethsemane’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (by Conder) and in Encyc. Bibl. (by L. Gautier); art. ‘The House of Gethsemane’ in Expositor, iv. iii. [1891] 220–232 (by E. Petavel). On the form of the name see Dalman, Gram. 152.
John Muir.