Gethsemane - where JESUS PRAYED

Gethsemane (Greek: Γεθσημανή, Gethsēmanē; Hebrew: גת שמנים‎, Gat-Šmânim; Classical Syriac: ܓܕܣܡܢ, Gat Šmānê, lit. "oil press") is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, most famous as the place where Jesus prayed and his disciples slept the night before Jesus' crucifixion

             An ancient oil press                                      

                 Garden of Gethsemane sign in Latin




Jesus prays in Gethsemane: Matthew 26:36-46; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:39-46; Mark 32-42
Jesus is arrested: Matthew 26:47-56; Mark 14:43-50; Luke 22:47-53; John 18:1-12

A study conducted by the National Research Council of Italy in 2012 found that several olive trees in the garden are amongst the oldest known to science. Dates of 1092, 1166 and 1198 AD were obtained by carbon dating older parts of the trunks of three trees. DNA tests show that the trees were originally planted from the same parent plant.

 The old olive trees, with their hollow and twisted trunks, are more than 3 meters in diameter.  But the most astonishing discovery to have emerged from the investigations is that the eight olive trees are “siblings”: they have identical DNA, indicating that they came from cuttings, i.e., branches that had been pruned and then grafted, belonging to the same “mother” tree. This finding supports the idea that a particular olive tree was specifically chosen for this purpose, perhaps because it was believed to have “witnessed” the night of Jesus' agony.

                        Gnarled trunk in the Garden of Gethsemane

 The Gethsemane olives are possibly descendants of one that was in the garden at the time of Christ. This is because when an olive tree is cut down, shoots will come back from the roots to create a new tree.
In 1982 the University of California carried out radiocarbon-dating tests on some root material from Gethsemane. The results indicated that some of the wood could be dated at 2300 years old.

 Oil is still pressed from the fruit of eight ancient and gnarled olive trees that give the garden a timeless character.

 The garden, about 1200 square metres in area, was well known to the disciples as it is close to the natural route from the Temple to the summit of the Mount of Olives and the ridge leading to Bethany.

Jesus’ words on a sign in the Garden of Gethsemane




     Wall relief of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane















             The Church of All nations

                 Main altar in Church of All Nations

      “I am he” mosaic of Jesus before his arrest

           Rock of Agony
                                            
         According to tradition, this is the Holy rock of agony, where Jesus conducted his prayer.

        Kiss of Judas mosaic

 A closer detail of the agony of Jesus is seen in the photo below. Jesus is seen weeping on the rock between the olive trees, after visualizing the ruin of Jerusalem and observing the ignorance of its citizens of the events to come. 

           Christ in agony mosaic

The Eastern Gate and the Dome of Rock as seen from  the Garden of Gethsemane

                                          Mount of Olives  

.Iam the Alpha and  Omega


The principal Christian memories on the Mount of Olives
refer to the following events in Jesus' life:
the teaching of the Lord's Prayer: Eleona or the Grotto of the Lord's Prayer
the weeping over Jerusalem: Dominus Flevit
the acclamation upon his entry into the Holy City on the back of a donkey: the sanctuary of Bethphage
the prayer in the garden of Gethsemane followed by his capture:
Church of Gethsemane, Garden of Olives, Grotto of Gethsemane
his Ascension into Heaven, which occurred at the summit of the mount: the Edicule of the Ascension.



But for me it His Promised Return
And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,
Which faces Jerusalem on the east.
And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two,
From east to west,
Making a very large valley;
Half of the mountain shall move toward the north
And half of it toward the south.