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Bible Dictionaries
Golgotha
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or GOLGOTHA ( Matthew 27:33 , Mark 15:22 , John 19:17 , from the Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] Gulgalta . In Luke 23:33 the place is called Kranion (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘the skull,’ AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘ Calvary ’)). The situation was evidently outside the city ( Hebrews 13:12 ), but near it ( John 19:20 ); it was a site visible afar off ( Mark 15:40 , Luke 23:49 ), and was probably near a high road ( Matthew 27:29 ).
Four reasons have been suggested for the name. (1) That it was a place where skulls were to be found, perhaps a place of public execution. This is improbable. (2) That the ‘hill’ was skull-shaped. This is a popular modern view. Against it may be urged that there is no evidence that Golgotha was a hill at all. See also below. (3) That the name is due to an ancient, and probably pre-Christian, tradition that the skull of Adam was found there. This tradition is quoted by Origen, Athanasius, Epiphanius, etc., and its survival to-day is marked by the skull shown in the Chapel of Adam under the ‘Calvary’ in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. (4) There is the highly improbable theory that the legend of the skull of Adam, and even the name Golgotha, really have their origin in the capitolium of Ælia Capitolina, which stood on the site now covered by the Church of the Sepulchre.
Of the many proposed sites for Golgotha it may be briefly said that there is no side of the city which has not been suggested by some authority for ‘the place of a skull’; but, practically speaking, there are only two worth considering, the traditional site and the ‘green hill’ or ‘Gordon’s Calvary.’ The traditional site included in the Church of the Sepulchre and in close proximity to the tomb itself has a continuous tradition attaching to it from the days of Constantine. In favour of this site it may be argued with great plausibility that it is very unlikely that all tradition of a spot so important in the eyes of Christians should have been lost, even allowing all consideration for the vicissitudes that the city passed through between the Crucifixion and the days of Constantine. The topographical difficulties are dealt with in the discussion of the site of the second wall [see Jerusalem], but it may safely be said that investigations have certainly tended in recent years to reduce them. With regard to the ‘green hill’ outside the Damascus gate, which has secured so much support in some quarters, its claims are based upon the four presuppositions that Golgotha was shaped like a skull, that the present skull-shaped hill had such an appearance at the time of the Crucifixion, that the ancient road and wall ran as they do to-day, and that the Crucifixion was near the Jewish ‘place of stoning’ (which is said by an unreliable local Jewish tradition to be situated here). All these hypotheses are extremely doubtful.
E. W. G. Masterman.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Golgotha'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/g/golgotha.html. 1909.
