Originally appeared from recommended.spin.com
The article that is quoted often is located here: “Ancient ritual bath may mark first New Testament-era find at Jesus’ Gethsemane“
By David Rule
July 14, 2022
According to the Gospels, Jesus went off to pray straight after the Last Supper. Mark and Matthew say the place he went to was called Gethsemane. And it is here that Jesus goes through a night of mental torture. For centuries we’ve only had small references from the bible to get any insight into how Jesus spent his last night on Earth, now a monumental discovery may have finally confirmed his path.
Ancient olive press
The Garden of Gethsemane was a grove of olive trees. The name is derived from the local words for an olive press: gat semãnê in Aramaic and gat shemanim in Hebrew. Yet there is very little detail in the Bible, and it does not mention Gethsemane’s purpose.
The closest disciples
In the story of the night of the Last Supper, Jesus goes deep into the garden with his closest disciples: Peter, James, and John. And the Son of God is upset about what is in store for him. So he tells the disciples: “The sorrow in my heart is so great that it almost crushes me.”
Keeping their eyes open
Jesus orders the three disciples to watch out as he prays alone. Though it doesn’t all go to plan. It won’t be possible for Jesus to escape his fate when he is found in the garden. The disciples can’t keep their eyes open, and they each fall asleep. So the holy figure is left alone to agonize over the next day’s suffering.
Cup of suffering
In despair, Jesus asks God to remove his “cup of suffering.” Understandably, he fears what awaits him at Golgotha. But Jesus has to bow the knee to God’s will. He finally says: “Yet not what I want but what you want.” And many artists have depicted the messiah’s lonely hours in the garden.
Grasping the depths of suffering
Jesus’ companions do not grasp the depth of his suffering. After all, they can’t see the future. So, time and again, the group cannot stop themselves from falling asleep. In Peter’s case, he can’t even keep his eyes open for an hour. So, the founder of the Catholic church proves a poor watchmen.
Led away to Gethsemane
Eventually, Judas turns up with a gaggle of priests and elders. Alongside them are the armed men who will arrest Jesus and take him away. He calls out to his friends: “The hour has come! Look the Son of Man is now being betrayed into the hands of sinners.” And then Jesus is led off away from Gethsemane.
Profound suffering
It’s natural that the setting for Jesus’ profound suffering and eventual arrest should have interested people who came afterward. The place that people believed was Gethsemane became a magnet for Christian pilgrims by the ends of the 200’s. They would pray there – something that several writers of the early medieval years noted.
Kidron Valley
Gethsemane lies across the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem. This divide lies to the east of the city between old Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives – a nearby ridge. Jesus would have crossed the valley to get to the garden – perhaps wanting to get away from the city’s confines
Chock full of olive groves
In Jesus’ time, Gethsemane may have been little more than a field filled with olive trees. Mind you, the Christian writer St. Jerome certainly thought it was a lush place. So he interpreted the name as “valley of abundance” – imagining an area chock full of olive groves and maybe vineyards too.
The Western Slope
No one knows the exact location of Gethsemane. Despite that, the Orthodox churches of Greece, Russia, and Armenia all agree with the Catholic church on an area that sits on the Mount of Olives’ western slope. A site known as the Grotto of Agony sits near a bridge across the valley, while further south Franciscan monks built a church.
Going back 2,000 years
That site is an exciting possibility since it has a garden that still has some ancient olive trees. There’s some argument over their age, though. And even if they do date back more than 2,000 years, are these the same trees that Jesus walked among? Well, the location certainly fits the description, at least.
Church of All Nations
And the Catholics agree since they built the Church of Gethsemane in that place: the garden is on its grounds. The building – also referred to as the Church of All Nations or Church of the Agony – is a lure for many pilgrims. This makes the edifice one of the leading churches in Christianity.
The period of the Second Temple
The church is not ancient, mind you. Yet when the builders dug its foundations, they discovered previous establishments from both Crusader and Byzantine times. What they didn’t find, though, was anything from the Second Temple period – the time when Jesus is supposed to have lived.
Linking the church and the Kidron Valley
The Gethsemane Church has seen some extra funding, as the Custody of the Holy Land has looked to develop the area for tourism. For reference, this Franciscan establishment cares for the Holy Places. In late 2020 it was constructing a visitor center and a linking tunnel between the church and the Kidron Valley.
Establishing the Terra Sancta Museum
In Israel, the Franciscan monks don’t just pray and worship God. They also work as archaeologists doing leading-edge work. The monks set up the Terra Sancta Museum in 1902 in the old city of Jerusalem, and it’s become a haven for archaeological finds from places that have suffered in wars since then.
Millions of pilgrims
Head monk Father Francesco Patton described the garden in a press release from December 2020. He said, “Gethsemane is one of the most important sanctuaries in the Holy Land, because in this place the tradition remembers the confident prayer of Jesus and his betrayal and because every year millions of pilgrims visit and pray in this place.”
Tragedy at the tunnel construct
Though something happened during construction that surprised everyone, it came while the builders worked on the tunnel between the church and the valley. For no particular reason, the tunnel caved in! This wouldn’t ordinarily have been too big of a deal, but the tunnel’s collapse revealed some interesting finds that piqued the interest of archaeologists.
The Israel Antiquities Authority
The Israel Antiquities Authority and students from the Studium Bibicum Franciscarnum teamed up to investigate the cave and see what they could rescue. Leading the effort, the two head archaeologists for the dig were Amit Re’em and David Yeager. And what they turned up changed views on the history of the area.
Underneath the church
At the same time, the team excavated underneath the church. They found some interesting things under there, too! According to the Times of Israel, there was what remained of a Byzantine church that had been in use between the sixth and eighth centuries. Also, they found a monastery that dated back to the Crusader times.
An important site
No one would debate that the church had been important. It was festooned with delicate carvings, after all. Yeger and Re’em had no doubt that it commemorated a significant event mentioned in the Bible. On the floor, they found an inscription in Greek that scholars translated for the team. And the words proved to be touching and sincere.
The holy inscription
The inscription read, “For the memory and repose of the lovers of Christ (cross) God who have received the sacrifice of Abraham, accept the offering of your servants and give them remission of sins. (cross) Amen.” Yet it isn’t the most striking thing about the church.
Casting light on a certain time period
That turned out to be the years in which the church had functioned. Yeger told the Times of Israel in December 2020, “It is interesting to see that the [Byzantine-era] church was being used – and may even have been founded – at the time when Jerusalem was under Muslim rule. [This shows] that Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem continued during this period as well.”
A potential group of churches
Re’em told the news outlet that there was no mention of the church in the existing documents. Though it was his belief that there must have been a compound that contained a group of churches. And each one of them would have signified one aspect of the trials that Jesus underwent at this particular location.
Saladin’s orders
Meanwhile, the monastery may have been a visitor center or hospice, and it probably existed until 1187. In that year the powerful sultan Saladin – the Muslim victor over the Crusaders – may have ordered it to be knocked down. There is some evidence in historical documents that the sultan ordered stones from churches in the Mount of Olives area to be deployed in fortifying the walls of the city.
Actually much older
Though what excited the archaeologists even more than the church and the monastery was something much older. They turned up a ritual bath – or mikveh. This would have been used by Jews for purification. Back before the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in the first century, the purifying ritual using a mikveh was extremely important.
All the way back to the year 70
So, when the archaeologists found the mikveh at Gethsemane, they probably suspected that is was old. Looking at the rocks around the bath and comparing its typology to others, they were able to confirm that indeed it was. According to the Times of Israel, they dated the bath to the Second Temple era. This ran from the sixth century B.C. until the Temple was razed in A.D. 70.
Something never before seen
Re’em was particularly enthusiastic about the find, too. It was something that had never been seen before at Gethsemane. He told the Times of Israel “For the first time, we have archaeological evidence that something was here in the Second Temple period, in the days of Jesus.” But why the excitement?
Olive press structure
Well, first a word of caution. Nothing that was found at Gethsemane is proof that the gospels are right. But the very name – Gethsemane – doesn’t really fit a field of olive trees. After all, it means “olive press,” and that implies some sort of structure. And the mikveh opens to door to the possibility that the structure was there.
Still seeking evidence
As Re’em explained, you wouldn’t expect to find a mikveh out in the fields. Yet workers might have used one if they had needed to be ritually pure while pressing olives. This leads Re’em to think that the bath does imply that there had been an olive press on the site. Evidence of the press has yet to be found, though.
The meaning behind the discovery
According to the Times of Israel, Re’em said, “It is not from the mikveh that we are so excited, rather the interpretation, the meaning of it. Because despite there being several excavations in the place since 1919 and beyond and that there were several findings – from the Byzantine and Crusader eras, and others – there has not been one piece of evidence from the time of Jesus. Nothing!”
Ritual purity
And finding evidence which suggests that there might have been an operation needing ritual purity makes Re’ev ask whether he’d stumbled on the true location of Gethsemane. He said, ” – As an archaeologist, there arises the question: is there evidence of the New Testament story, or maybe it happened elsewhere?”
Ritual baths are quite common
Apparently, ritual baths from the Second Temple era are not uncommon. They have turned up in dozens of spots across Israel, according to the newspaper. In fact, there may have actually been hundreds of discoveries! Yet this find was special. It might go to show that the site picked out by tradition is actually the right one.
The rich could afford them
Most of the ritual baths from that time have been found in specific places. Experts have unearthed some in rich folks’ homes and others near to cemeteries. But the baths have also appeared in an agricultural context, where, Re’em noted, workers in olive oil and wind production used them.
Analyzing the minerals
But is it possible to find out more about this particular mikveh and narrow does its use? Well, to learn more, the team will next be taking some samples of its plaster. They’ll be sent to experts who will scan them to try and find tiny grains of olive pollen and other things that might point to what was washed off in the bath.
Olive oil production
Re’evm told The Times of Israel that the pollen grains could give more certainty about the link to producing olive oil. Yet that would take some time, and the experts wouldn’t be giving answers straight away. On top of that, he urged people not to start thinking that the story in the Bible is automatically true if there was an olive press on the site.
Proof remains to be seen
“Let’s not get carried away,” Re’em told the Israeli newspaper. “[Even with this ritual bath], there’s no evidence to the truth of the Gospels.” Be that as it may, the discovery remains an exciting one. And even if it doesn’t prove the Gethsemane story, the find may go to the show that the tradition that saw churches built on the site was accurate.
Antiquity of Christian memory
Fr. Patton certainly agreed that the find was important, telling The Times of Israel, “Even the latest excavations conducted on this site have confirmed the antiquity of the Christian memory and tradition linked to the place. And this is very important for us and for the spiritual meaning connected with the archaeological findings.”
Future plans release
Re’em shared future plans for the dig in a press release, “The excavation at Gethsemane is a prime example of Jerusalem’s archaeology at its best, in which various traditions and beliefs are combined with archaeology and historical evidence. The recently discovered archaeological remains will be incorporated in the visitors’ center being built at the site and will be exhibited to tourists and pilgrims, who we hope will soon be returning to visit Jerusalem”