Golgotha (Literally, "The Skull")

Locality mentioned in the New Testament as the scene of Jesus' execution (Matt. xxvii. 33 and parallels). The name is an Aramaic emphatic state, and corresponds to the Hebrew . In the Greek transliteration of the Gospels the "l" is elided except in one manuscript (Codex Bezæ); "Golgotha" is the proper form. It was outside the city wall (John xix. 20), near a tomb, a gate, and a road, and in a prominent position (Mark xv. 29, 40; John xix. 20, 41). Two places answer to this description: (1) The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which is identified by tradition with Golgotha; it lay beyond the second wall and was near tombs and a road. A temple of Venus was erected on the site; and from the analogy of the temple of Zeus, which was built on the site of the Second Temple, this seems to imply that it was once a sacred spot. (2) A skull-shaped rock above the grotto of Jeremiah, about which there is a Jewish tradition that it was the place of stoning. The name does not occur in Talmudic literature. See also Adam.

Bibliography:

  * A. McGrigor, in Encyclopœdia Britannica, s.v. Sepulchre, Holy;
  * Cheyne and Black, Encyc. Bibl. s.v.



E. C. J.