having the definite article— "the place Golgotha" " the place which is called a skull"—" the place (A. V. omits the article) called of, or after, a skull." That it
one who has examined on the spot the topography of Mount IMoriah, and who has closelv inspected the ma- sonrv of the massive wall which surrounds the whole
was the ordinary sj)Ot for such purposes has been ar- j of the Ilaram area, must see that this theory is nnten- gued from the fact that, to those at least who carried the sentence into effect, Christ was but an ordinarj' criminal; and there is not a word to indicate that the soldiers in "leading him away" went to any other than the usual place for what must have been a eom- nidu operation. But the act of crucifixion was so conunon a punishment among the Komans, especially upon Jew.«, that it seems to have been performed al- most anvwhere. See Crucifixiox. (3.) The name has been held to come from the look or form of the spot itself, bnld, round, and sjsull-like. and therefore a
le. The only point to be settled is, whether the church of Constantine stood on the real Golgotha. Eusebius is our first witness, and he lived 300 years after the crucifixion. His story is repeated with some changes, and numerous embellishments, by subse- quent writers (Socrates, H. E. i, 17 ; Sozom. //. E. ii, 1 ; Theodorct, Hist. Ecd. i, 18). That the spot is now marked by the Church of the Sepulchre was the al- most universally accredited tradition down to the last centiir}' ; for thoiigh many were struck by the singular position of the church, j-etthey got over that difficulty
mound or hillock, in accordance with t"he common by various means (Robinson^ Bih. Ees. i, 408). Tho phrase "Mount Calvary," It must be remembered, .first who openly opposed the tradition was Korte, a
GOLIATH
919
GOLIATH
German traveller who visited Jerusalem in 1738. He was followed by Dr. Clarke (Travels), Scbolz {Reise, and De Golgatha' Siiu), Eobinson, Tobler (Golgathd), and others. The identity of Golgotha has been main- tained by Von Kaumer (Paldstina), Krafft (die Topo- f/ra2)kie Jcrusalems), Tischendorf (Heise, ii, 17 sq.), Sc'hulz (Jerusalem, p. 59 sq., 9G sq.), and especially "Williams in his Holy Citij. The tradition that fixes the site of Golgotha upon that of the present Church of the Holy Sepulchre is not older than the 4th cen- tur}', being first mentioned by Eusebius, and attribu- ted to the miraculous discovery of the holy cross by the empress Helena. Yet, in the absence of any other tradition respecting a site which could not well have been forgotten, and in the difficulty of finding any other position answering to the requirements of the case, we may well coincide in the belief that it repre- sents the true locality (see Strong's Harm, and Expos, of the Gosp. Append, i, p. 4, etc.). The question most- ly depends upon tlie course of Josephus's second wall, and the position of Acra as determined by that of tlie valley of the Tyropoeon. Dr. llobinson's views of the relative position of these leading portions of Jerusa- lem seems to be unnatural and untenable, being ap- parently influenced bj' an excessive jealousy of all tra- ditionary evidence. He tlierefore decides against the identit}' of the site of Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre (Bib. Researches, i, 408-51G). His arguments, however, are vehementl}' combated bj' Mr. Williams (Holy City, ii, 13-64), and a long and bitter controversy has ensued (see the BiUiotheca Sacra for 1843, p. 154-202 ; 1846, p. 413-460, G05-652 ; 1848, p. 92-96). Dr. Robinson to the last maintained his former opinion (new ed. oi Re- searches, i, 407-418 ; iii, 254-263). Other travellers are equull}' divided as respects the identity of these places, but it may be remarked that Dr. Robinson's reasoning has failed to satisfy even German scholars of the im- possibility of this position of Golgotha. The evidence of localit}' to be gathered from the Gospel statements as to the scene of the tomb of our Lord is as follows : The palace of Pilate and the judgment hall stood at the north-west angle of the Haram area, where the house of the pasha still stands. There Jesus was con- demned, scourged, and mocked. Thence the soldiers "led him out" (Mark xv, 20) to crucify him. They met a man called Simon "coming out of the country," and compelled him to bear the cross. They brought him unto Golgotha, and there the}' crucified him. The passers by reviled him. His mother and some others stood by the cross (John xix, 25). "All his acquain- tance stood afar off beholding these things"(Luke xxiii, 49). A combination of these statements of the evange- lists shows that it lay just outside the walls of the citj', opposite the tower of Antonia, and therefore probably at the north-west. See Jerusaleji. The traditional Golgotha is now a little chapel in the side of the Church of the Sepulchre, gorgeously decorated witli marble, and gold, and silver. The monks profess to show the hole in which the cross was planted, and a rent in the rock made by the earthquake ! (Porter, Hand-hook for Syr. and Pal. p. 166 ; Williams, Holy City, ii, 226 sq.) — Kitto, s. v. ; Smith, s. v. See Plessing, Ueb. Gol- gatha u. Christi Grab (Hal. 17S9) ; Scholz, De Golgatha et J. C. scpnlcri situ (Bonn, 1825) ; Schultze, De vera causa nominis Golgatha (Nurnl). 1732) ; Tliemis, Gol- gatha et sanctum sepulcrum (in Illgen's Zeitschr.f. hist. Theol. 1842, iv, 3-34) ; Zorin, De Christi extra portam svpplicio (in his Opusc. ii, 193-7) ; Finlay, Site of the Holy Sepulchre (Lond. 1847) ; Berggren, Bibel und Jo- sepJms ii. Jerusalem u. dns lleilcge Grab, vider Robinson und neuer Zionspilger (Lund, 1862) ; Tobler, Golgatha, seiner Kirchen u. Kloster (Berl. 1850). See Calvary.