The Place of the Skull: Exploring the True Location and Meaning of Golgotha

In our daily meditations at groupbiblestudy.com, we will focus closely on Christ's crucifixion over the next few days. Jesus carried His cross along the longest route to a place outside one of the city gates. The early church fathers believed that Isaac carrying the wood on which he was to be sacrificed by his father, Abraham (Genesis 22:6), symbolized Jesus carrying His cross. Each person crucified would have a squad of four soldiers, a quaternion, with one on either side of Him. The leading Roman soldier would display a sign, which was nailed to the cross, stating the reason for the crucifixion. This inscription would instill fear in readers, encouraging them to think twice before committing a similar crime.

There were four reasons why the Romans used crucifixion as a form of punishment: 1) the death was agonizing, 2) the crucifixion process was slow, 3) the general public could observe a Roman crucifixion and fear it, and 4) it was humiliating and served as a deterrent to crime and rebellion.

Pilate, the Roman governor, ordered that the sign be written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek, bearing the words JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. The Jewish elders were angered by this and tried to alter the sign to say that Jesus had claimed to be the King of the Jews. Pilate responded to them, saying, "What I have written, I have written" (John 19:22). It was as if God was speaking the truth through Pilate and would not allow the sign to be changed, because he was aware that Jesus had committed no crime (Acts 3:13). Pilate declared that he found no fault in Christ and may have placed this inscription on Jesus' cross as a cruel joke to mock the Jews. We don't know Pilate's motive for the words on the sign, but Jesus' Lordship was clearly proclaimed from the cross.

³³They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). ³⁴There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it (Matthew 27:33-34).

The crucifixion site is also important. It was probably outside the city gate and near a road where people would pass by. Jesus would have heard the insults. If you visit Jerusalem today, you'll find more than one place identified as "Golgotha" or "Calvary" (which means The Place of the Skull), such as the Catholic Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Evangelical Garden Tomb or Gordon’s Calvary. There is evidence for both locations and for the reasons they were named that way. One legend says that Adam's skull was buried there, or maybe even Goliath’s head after David took it to Jerusalem (1 Samuel 17:54). A second reason Gordon's Calvary could be a possible site is that the shape of the nearby hillside resembles a skull. The third suggestion is that Golgotha was called that because it was littered with skulls of crucified criminals. However, this explanation is unlikely because Jewish law would not allow a body to decompose openly.

The Roman method of crucifixion could last for days, during which bodies were often left to decompose on the cross as a warning to others. However, the Scriptures required that those hung on a tree in Israel be taken down by nightfall (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). No matter the grim name, it was a desolate place—an area of rejection outside the community reserved for punishment, where the King of Heaven gave Himself for us (Hebrews 13:12-13). It is worth noting that Israel's anointed high priest on the Day of Atonement was to take the sin offering—the sacrificial burnt offering—outside the camp (Leviticus 4:21). Once again, we see the foreshadowing of Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice outside the city gate. Thank you, Lord, for Your sacrifice of Yourself for us. Keith Thomas

Click on the following link for all our daily 3-minute Bible meditations:

https://www.groupbiblestudy.com/devotionals

The YouTube video of this talk with closed captions (subtitles) in 65 languages is found at the following link: https://youtu.be/98EY8UNmpmk

The written notes are at the following link: study 63. The Crucifixion of Christ