the Fourth Week after Easter
Click to donate today!
Bible Dictionaries
Gethsemane
American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
or Oil-press, a garden or grove in the valley at the foot of the Mount of Olives, over against Jerusalem, to which our Savior sometimes retired, and in which he endured his agony, and was betrayed by Judas, Matthew 26:36-57 . Early tradition locates Gethsemane near the base of Mount Olivet, beyond the brook Kidron. The place now enclosed by a low stone wall may be but a part of the original "garden." It is about fifty-two yards square, and contains eight aged olive-trees, whose roots in many places project above the ground and are protected by heaps of stones. Here, or at most not far off, the Savior endured that unspeakable "agony and bloody sweat" so nearly connected with his expiatory death; and here in deep submission he mingled and closed his prayers for relief with their cry, "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done." From this garden he could readily see the crowd of men "with lanterns and torches" emerging from the city gate, and hastening, under the guidance of Judas, to seize him. It is the spot which the Christian visitor at Jerusalem first seeks out, and where he lingers longest and last ere he turns homeward. A recent traveler, Professor Hackett, passing by Gethsemane one day, saw a shepherd in the act of shearing a sheep. The animal lay on the ground, with its feet tied, the man's knee pressed rudely against its side, while it seemed as if every movement of the shears would lacerate its flesh; yet during the whole, it struggled not and opened not its moutha touching memento, upon that sacred spot, of the Lamb of God, Isaiah 53:7 .
These files are public domain and are a derivative of the topics are from American Tract Society Bible Dictionary published in 1859.
Rand, W. W. Entry for 'Gethsemane'. American Tract Society Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ats/g/gethsemane.html. 1859.
