Gethsemane
In Hebrew, the name Gethsemane is Gat-Shemanim. A gat is a “press,” while shemanim means “oils.” Put together, Gat-Shemanim refers to a press for oils—an olive press.
The word gat may sound familiar. Goliath came from the Philistine city of Gat (usually rendered Gath in English), a region associated with extensive olive oil production.
An ancient gat-shemanim was ideally situated in a cave, where the naturally stable temperature provided favorable conditions for processing and storing olive oil.
This detail becomes important when we turn to the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ final night.
Across the Kidron Valley, east of Jerusalem, rises the Mount of Olives. John tells us that Jesus and his disciples crossed the Kidron and entered a garden:
“On the other side, there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it.”
—John 18:1
Matthew gives us another detail:
“Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane...”
—Matthew 26:36
Notice that the Gospel writers never actually use the phrase “the Garden of Gethsemane.” John mentions a garden. Matthew and Mark mention a place called Gethsemane. Somewhere in Christian tradition, the two were joined.
Near the traditional garden, just north of the Church of All Nations, is an ancient cave traditionally associated with Gethsemane. The nearby olive grove has consequently become known to generations of pilgrims as the “Garden of Gethsemane.”
But there is another important piece of the story.
Jesus was arrested during Passover, which falls in the early spring, in the month of Nisan. Spring is not olive-pressing season. An olive press would therefore have been sitting largely unused at this time of year.
And what might you do with an empty cave during Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when Jerusalem was overflowing with pilgrims?
You could use it for shelter.
This has led scholars to consider whether Jesus and his disciples may have used the Gethsemane cave—a space employed for olive processing at other times of the year—as a place of refuge during the pilgrimage festival. Joan Taylor explores this possibility in detail in her Biblical Archaeology Review article, “The Garden of Gethsemane: Not the Place of Jesus’ Arrest.”
Whether or not we can reconstruct every detail of that night, the setting provides a powerful image.
An ancient olive press operated by applying tremendous weight to crushed olives. Heavy stones pressed downward upon the pulp until the precious oil was squeezed from it.
Against that backdrop, consider Jesus on the night before his death.
He prayed to his Father:
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me...”
—Luke 22:42
The reality of what lay ahead was bearing down upon him. It was not merely the physical suffering of crucifixion, but the terrible weight of the mission he had come to accomplish.
And in a place whose very name means “olive press,” Luke gives us a haunting description:
“And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”
—Luke 22:44
The imagery is difficult to miss: Jesus is in the place of the press, and the weight is coming down.
Just as tremendous pressure squeezed the oil from the crushed olives, Jesus is pictured under extraordinary anguish as he prepares to give himself completely.
Most modern pilgrims visit the beautiful olive grove beside the Church of All Nations and understandably think of it as the Garden of Gethsemane. Yet the nearby cave—the gat-shemanim, the place associated with the olive press—is often overlooked.
Below are photographs of the cave as it appears today, where the ancient space has been transformed into a chapel.
(Taylor, Joan E. “The Garden of Gethsemane: Not the Place of Jesus’ Arrest,” Biblical Archaeology Review 21.4 (Jul/Aug 1995): 2631, 3435, 62).
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