GOLGOTHA gŏl’ gə thə (Γολγοθα, skull). The Aram. name of the place near Jerusalem where Christ was crucified.

1. The Biblical record. The name Golgotha actually appears but three times in the Bible, in parallel passages of the gospels (Matt 27:33; Mark 15:22; John 19:17). The word is Aram. גּוּלְגַּלְתָּא, “the skull” essentially the same as the Heb. גֻּלְגֹּ֛לֶת, “head” or “skull” (cf. Num 1:2; Judg 9:53; 2 Kings 9:35; 1 Chron 10:10; et al.). The root letters are the same as in the word for “roll” (גָּלַל֒, H1670), and the connection is easily made to the roundness of the head. Luke, as usual, does not use the Sem. word but renders the name into Gr. as κρανίον, G3191, which comes over into Eng. as “cranium.” This is tr. “Calvary” (from the Lat. calvaria) but as “skull” in the RSV.

That Golgotha was near Jerusalem is without question, though hints in the Biblical record are few. Hebrews 13:12 indicates that Jesus suffered “outside the gate.” Therefore, Golgotha was not within the city wall in NT times, although not far outside (cf. John 19:20). Matthew 27:39 indicates that Golgotha was by a well-traveled road (cf. Mark 15:21). Furthermore, it was visible from some distance according to Mark 15:40 and Luke 23:49. This has led many to think of it as a hill, but nowhere in the Bible is that so stated.

2. The location of Golgotha. Although many places around the holy city have been suggested as the site of Calvary, only two are serious contenders for the spot of both the crucifixion and the burial.

One primary claim to the site is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, whose history goes back to the 4th cent. It is within the walls of the old city today, but its supporters maintain that the NT city wall would place it outside the city. Because modern buildings heavily cover all real estate in the area, no excavation is yet possible to determine just where that northern NT wall was.

The location of this site can be traced to the Christian Rom. emperor Constantine. Eusebius, a contemporary historian, commissioned Bishop Marcarius to find Golgotha and the tomb. This was nearly 300 years after the crucifixion. The Church of Constantine was then built on the site of Hadrian’s Aphrodite temple and named in honor of St. Helena, the emperor’s mother. Legend has it that upon excavating for the tomb, a fragment of the true cross was found that effected miracles of healing, and thus certified the site. The tradition that this is the site is very old but it is mostly tradition. Earlier, the pagan emperor Hadrian had deliberately obscured many Christian holy sites with his temples.

The other major contender for the site of Calvary is known today as the Garden Tomb and/or Gordon’s Calvary. Suggested by Otto Thenius in 1842, General Charles Gordon declared in 1885 that this was the site of the crucifixion and burial, found some 250 yards NE of the Damascus Gate. There are some arguments to support the location, as well as some serious criticisms.

Gordon’s Calvary is a hill, or knoll and is certainly outside the city walls (both modern and NT). The most serious problem with the Holy Sepulchre’s location does not affect this choice. A garden and a tomb (in fact, several tombs) are in the immediate vicinity. Those who contest this identification maintain that the hill was part of a ridge that is still visible on the N wall of Jerusalem adjacent to Herod’s Gate. Thus is was not a separate hill in NT times. The tombs are at least of Byzantine vintage, but no one can say whether they are older than that. The topographical feature of the hill that makes it look like a skull would not have been present in NT times. In fact, this hill, which is called by the Jews, “the Grotto of Jeremiah,” is thought to be a mine site developed only in the past two or three centuries. A better explanation of “the place of a skull” would be that either the hill was bare rock, or it served as a cemetery.

Protestants prefer the latter site because the organization that owns the land has landscaped it to make it resemble their concept of Joseph of Arimathea’s garden. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is, of course, a building on top of a site. It is highly decorated and the scene of much activity. It requires a good imagination to see a garden tomb there.

Bibliography J. Jeremias, Golgotha (1926); G. Dalman, Sacred Sites and Ways (1935), 341-381; C. Marston, The Garden Tomb, Jerusalem, London, The Garden Tomb Association (1941); Jerusalem: The Garden Tomb of Golgotha [no author], London, The Garden Tomb Association (1945); L. T. Pearson, Where Is Calvary? (1946); J. Simons, Jerusalem and the O T (1952), 282-343; A. Parrot, Golgotha and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (1957); C. C. Dobson, The Garden Tomb and the Resurrection (n.d.); L. E. Cox Evans, “The Holy Sepulchre,” PEQ (July-Dec., 1968) 112-136.