CRUCIFIED AT GOLGOTHA

MATTHEW 27:33–44

As Jesus carried the cross to his place of execution, the Gospel writers spare us the most gruesome of the details. However, they do identify the location where Jesus was crucified. We will see that the Romans crucified Jesus at Golgotha for a reason.

The various names associated with the place of Jesus’s execution all bring to mind the same picture. Jesus died at “The Place of the Skull” (Matt. 27:33). The Aramaic word is translated “Golgotha,” and the Latin equivalent is “Calvary.” Beyond that, we do not know if this reference to skull was meant to describe the shape of the hill or to identify this place as one regularly used for public executions. What we do know is that from then on, Golgotha was best known for being the place where Jesus was crucified.

Two sites within Jerusalem have been associated with Jesus’s death and resurrection: the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and Gordon’s Calvary (the Garden Tomb). In the first century, believers in Jesus gathered on the site now covered by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. In a bid to destroy the memories associated with the death and resurrection of Jesus, the emperor Hadrian renovated the site by shaving off the top of the hill and constructing a Roman temple and shrine on the newly formed plateau. In 1883 General Charles Gordon pointed to a hill, associated with a garden and a tomb, that he believed was a more likely location for Calvary than the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.1 Both these locations have things in common that help us understand why the Romans selected such a site for Jesus’s crucifixion. At that time each was located outside the city walls of Jerusalem, linked to a cemetery, and along a public roadway.

Aerial view looking north toward the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which was built over one of the suggested sites of Jesus’s tomb.

First-century Jewish culture dictated that cemeteries be located outside the city walls2 because contact with a dead body made one ritually unclean (Lev. 15:31; Num. 5:2; 9:6–7; 19:13). Based on this requirement, the cemetery at the base of the hill of Golgotha must have been located outside the city walls.3 What better way to show Roman contempt of the Jews than to desecrate their cemeteries by crucifying Jews on their hallowed ground?

Another characteristic of Golgotha was its location along a public roadway—a fact that figured into the Roman selection of this site. For the Romans, crucifixion was a practice usually meant to serve as a deterrent to crime. Seneca asserts, “The more publicity punishments have, the more they avail as an admonition and a warning.”4 In the Jewish world, crucifixion was reprehensible not only because of the pain but also due to the shame brought on the victims, who were stripped of their clothes, hung on a cross, and publicly humiliated (see Deut. 21:23). The proximity to the public also provided the opportunity for Jesus’s opponents to lash out at him, thereby fulfilling Psalm 22:6–8 (Matt. 27:39–43).

There were reasons the Romans carried out crucifixions at Golgotha. The Romans wanted to publicly humiliate their victims, and this cruel act was a warning to others of what lay ahead for those who challenged the power of Rome. Yet no matter what deterrents were attempted, Rome was not able to stop the outcome that forever changed the world at Golgotha.

This model of Golgotha reveals the rocky knoll located to the left of the roadway leading into ancient Jerusalem, where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is located.
© Dr. James C. Martin. Reproduction of the City of Jerusalem at the time of the Second Temple. (See full credit on page 4.)

This model of Golgotha, associated with the Garden Tomb, is depicted as the rocky hill near the center of the photo.
© Dr. James C. Martin. Reproduction of the City of Jerusalem at the time of the Second Temple. (See full credit on page 4.)