Calvary

Calvary

(kăl`vərē) [Lat.,=a skull] or

Golgotha

(gŏl`gəthə) [Heb.,=a skull], in the Gospels, place where Jesus was crucified, outside what was then the wall of Jerusalem. Its location is not certainly known. The traditional identification of the site of Calvary was made by St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, when she found (c.326) what was believed to be a relic of the actual cross on which Jesus was crucified. The spot is within the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. In 1885 General Charles G. Gordon proposed a site near the Damascus Gate, first suggested in 1842. This is called the Garden Tomb or Gordon's Calvary.

Calvary/Golgotha

(religion, spiritualism, and occult)

Luke 23:33 says Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem at the place called Calvary. The other Gospels use the term Golgotha, "the place of the skull."

This discrepancy has led to a difference of opinion about the location of the crucifixion. In the fifth century the emperor Constantine's mother, guided by a vision, located a split rock, supposedly cracked by the earthquake that occurred at Christ's death. A cathedral was built on the spot where today stands the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. But in the nineteenth century a rocky hill resembling a skull became another candidate, even though the Bible does not mention a hill. A very early tradition says "the place of the skull" referred to the fact that Adam's skull was supposed to be buried there, but this is unprovable and highly unlikely.

Calvary

(Golgotha) where Christ was crucified. [N.T.: Luke 23:33]

See: Death

Calvary

the place just outside the walls of Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified