Gethsemane

Location

Gethsemane is a garden on the western slope of the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem. The name in Aramaic (Gat-Shemanim) means 'olive press.' Ancient olive trees still stand in the garden today; some botanists date living specimens to a very great age, though the trees Christ saw were felled by the Romans in the destruction of AD 70 (Josephus, Jewish War VI.1.1).

Biblical importance

Gethsemane is the garden of the agony. Here, on the night before His Crucifixion, Christ prayed with such intensity that His sweat 'was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground' (Luke 22:44). Here He was betrayed by Judas with a kiss, and here He was arrested. Here Peter drew the sword, and here Christ healed the last person He healed before the Cross (Luke 22:51).

Historical timeline

• c. AD 30 or 33 (Holy Thursday night) — Christ enters the garden with the eleven; leaves eight at the entrance; takes Peter, James, and John further; prays alone (Matthew 26:36-46).
• Same night — Judas arrives with a band of soldiers and officers from the chief priests; the betrayal with a kiss; the arrest (Matthew 26:47-56; John 18:1-11).
• AD 70 — The Romans fell the olive trees of the mount for siege-works (Josephus, Jewish War VI.1.1).
• AD 333 (traditional) — Constantine's mother Helena identifies the site.
• AD 385 (Egeria) — Egeria describes the vigil service kept at Gethsemane on Holy Thursday night.
• Twentieth century — The Basilica of the Agony (Church of All Nations) is built over the rock traditionally identified as the place of the agony.

Important biblical events

• Matthew 26:36-46 (KJV) 'Tarry ye here, and watch with me.' The threefold prayer. The three sleeping disciples.
• Mark 14:32-42 (KJV) The same account with the memorable 'Abba, Father'.
• Luke 22:39-46 (KJV) 'Being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood.'
• John 18:1-11 (KJV) The betrayal, the falling back of the soldiers, the healing of the servant's ear.

Related People

• Christ Jesus — He prayed and was arrested here.
• Peter — He slept, then drew the sword.
• James and John — the inner three with Peter.
• Judas Iscariot — who betrayed Him with a kiss.
• Malchus — the servant of the high priest whose ear Christ restored.

Connected Places

• Mount of Olives — Gethsemane is on its western slope.
• Jerusalem — across the Kidron Valley, where He was taken.
• Golgotha — where the arrest at Gethsemane led.

Christian tradition

• The Holy Thursday night vigil, walked from a church of the Last Supper to a church of Gethsemane, is one of the oldest recorded Christian liturgies (Egeria, Travels 36).
• The Basilica of the Agony (Church of All Nations, 1924) houses the Rock of the Agony — a bare rock at which Christ is traditionally held to have prayed.
• In many Roman Catholic parishes, the altar of repose after the Holy Thursday liturgy is kept 'a Gethsemane', where the faithful watch one hour.
• 'Could ye not watch with me one hour?' (Matthew 26:40) — the Church's charter for the Holy Hour of adoration.

Household reflection

Gethsemane is the household's classroom for the prayer of surrender. 'Not my will, but thine, be done' — the hardest sentence a Christian ever prays, and the one Christ prayed first, that we might have Him to say it with us.

When the household faces a hard thing, gather everyone at the table, name the hard thing, and pray these six words out loud together.

Room connections

Where this entry meets the household in the wider house of CrossAIHub.

• Read (Library) — Read all four Gospel accounts of the agony side by side — a household exercise for Holy Thursday.
• Pray (Chapel) — Keep a Holy Hour on the evening of every First Friday — a small Gethsemane in the household chapel.
• Family (Kitchen Table) — On Holy Thursday, share bread and olives at the family table before evening prayer.
• Sing (Choir Room) — Sing 'Go to Dark Gethsemane' (James Montgomery, 1820).
• Learn (Workshop) — Study the difference between Christ's agony and Adam's sin in a garden — the two garden stories of Scripture.

Further reading

Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, John 18 in the KJV.

Egeria, Travels 36 (late fourth century).

Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon on the Passion.

Elsewhere in the Atlas

• Mount of Olives
• Golgotha
• Jerusalem
• Christ Jesus
• Return to the atrium — the Atlas's main room.