GOLGOTHA
918
GOLGOTHA
describe the means employed" (Wilkinson, .'Uic. Egjp- 1 however, that neither Eusebiiis, nor Cyril, nor Jerom?, tians, abridgment, ii, 138 sq.)- Seo Metallurgy. | nor any of the earliest historical writers ever speak of
Golyiotha as a hill. Yet the
Jc expression must have become
current at a very early peri- od, for the Bordeaux ])ilgrim describes it in A.U. 333 as Moniiculus Golgotha (Itmera- riuiii UierosoL, ed. AV'essel., p. 51)3). Dr. Kobinson suu'gests that the idea of a mmiiU origi- nated in the fact that a round- ed rock or monticule existed on the place where, in the be- ginning of the 4th century, tradition located the scene of the crucifixion (Bib. Hes. ii, 37G).
1 „ , „ , . . , . , All the information the Bi-
1, ^, and 3, 4, are wrmgmg out the water from the gold in a bag, b, d ; a. c, frames sup- i,i„ „;„„„ ,_ ..p.rn.vlin.rtho ^itn porting the bag while draining ; /, ;;, are articles of jewelry on a frame, e; /i, a box con- i ,f , , "^•-■'""'"o ^ne sice taining implements, ?, and perhaps ii crucible, k. The liieroglypliics (consisting of tlie ^^ Crolgotha may be stated iu bowl in which the metal was washed, the cloth through which it was strained, and the a few words. Christ was dropping of the icater, united) read " goldsmith" or "• worker in gold." crucified ' ' without the gate"
(Heb. xiii, 12), '• nigh to the city'' (John xix, 20), at a place called Golgotha (Matt, xxvii, 33), and apparently beside some public thor- oughfare (xxvii, 39) leading to the countrj' (JIark XXV, 21). The tomb in which he was lain was hewn out of the rock (Mark xv, 4G), in a garden or orchard (fc/JTroc), at the place of crucifixion (.John xix, 41, 42).
Ancient Egyptian Goldsmiths.
Goi'gotha (roXyoStt, for Aram. X!n3:05, Gulf/al- ia' [conip. Heb. TVpihi^, 2 Kings ix, 35], the skull, as be- ing globular ; the Syr. version has ffOfjulfa), the vulgar name of the spot where Jesus was crucified, and inter- preted b}' the evangelists as meaning "the place of a skull," and hence interpreted by the equivalent term
Calvary (Matt, xxvii, 33 ; Mark xv, 22 ; John xix, ' Neither Golgotha nor the tomb is ever afterwards men 1')- ' tioned by any of the sacred writers. No honor seems
Three explanations of this name have been given: I to have been paid to them, no sanctity attached to (1.) A tradition at one time prevailed (see Jerome in ' them during the apostolic age, or that which immedi- £phes. V, 14 ; Epist. xlvi ; De Saiict. Locis) that Adam i ately succeeded it. It is not till the beginning of the
4th century that we find anj' attempt made to fix the position of, or attach sanctity to Golgotha. Eusebiiis then informs us that the emperor Constantine, "not without divine admonition," resolved to uncover the holv tomb. lie states that wicked men had covered
was buried on Golgotha, that from his skull it derived its name, and that at the crucifixion the drops of Christ's blood fell on the skull and raised Adam to life, where!)}- the ancient prophecy quoted by Paul in Eph. V, 14 received its fulfilment — "Awake, thou Adam tliat sleepest" — so the old versions appear to have run it over with earth and rubbish, and had erected on the
— "and arise from the dead, for Christ shalt touch thee" (tTrii/avGH for t7ri<pait(Tii). See the quotation in Eeland, Palce.it. p. 8G0 ; also Ilaewulf, in Earhj Travel- lers, p. 39. The skull commonly introduced in earlj' •pictures of the crucifixion refers to this. (2.) Jerome says elsewhere (in Matt, xxvii, 33) that it was a spot
spot a temple of Venus. These were removed, and the tomb and Golgotha laid bare. A magnificent church was built over them, and consecrated in A.D. 335 (Vit. Constantin. iii, 2G-33). There can be little doubt that the present Church of the Sepulchre occu- pies the site of that built by Constantine. The only
where executions ordinarilv took place, and therefore ' writer who seriously impugns their identity is Mr, abounded in skulls; but, according to the Jewish law, I Fergusson (Essay on the anch-nt Topography of Jenisa- these must have been buried, and therefore were no ' lem, London, 1847), who asserts that Golgotha was on more likely to confer a name on the spot than any i Mount Moriah, and that the building now called the
other part of the skeleton. In this case, too, the Greek should be ToiTOQ Koai'lwi', "of skulls," instead of Koa- riov, "of a skull," still less a "skull," as in the Ara
Mosque of Omar, or Dome of the Kock, is the church erected by Constantine over the Holj- Sepulchre. Be- neath its dome is a projecting rock with a cave in it ;
maie, and in the Greek of Luke. If this had been this, he says, is the real tom,b. The arguments on the usual place of execution, there is no reason whj' ' which his theory rests are mainly architectural, and all the evangelists should have been so explicit in are unquestionably forcible ; but his topographical and t!ie name.^ That it was a well-known spot, however, ' historical argument is a complete failure. He saj-s has been inferred by many from the way in which ; the site was transferred at the time of the Crusaders; it IS mentioned in the gospels, each except ^Matthew but for this there is not a shadow of evidence. Any