Gethsemane

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Today's pilgrimage site Getsemani: an old olive grove in the garden of the Church of All Nations .

Gethsemane is a scene of the Passion story of Jesus on the western slope of the Mount of Olives , which is mentioned in the New Testament . A Christian pilgrimage landscape has emerged here since late antiquity. Getsemani is the ecumenical spelling according to the Loccumer guidelines ( standard translation , Zurich Bible ); in the Luther Bible and the King James Version of the local name is Gethsemane. The modern Hebrew place name is Gat Shmanim.

Surname

In Mk 14,32  LUT (and, depending on it, Mt 26,36  LUT ) Gethsemane is referred to as an estate or property ( ancient Greek iechωρίον chōríon ) on the Mount of Olives; the Luke ( Lk 22,40  LUT ) speaks of a specific "spot" on the Mount, John ( Joh 18.2  LUT ) from a "garden" beyond the " winter Bach Kidron ," d. H. at the foot of the Mount of Olives, whereby the name Gethsemane does not appear in Luke and John.

The ancient Greek toponym Γεθσημανί Gethsemaní ( Textus receptus : Γεθσημανῆ Gethsemanẽ ) is probably of Hebrew, not Aramaic origin. Its etymology is difficult, however: Hebrew גת שמנים gat shemanim "wine press of oils" is otherwise not known as a name for a place where olive oil is extracted . Such a facility was usually called "House of the Oil Mill".

location

In local Christian tradition, the name Gethsemane is attached to two places: a grotto and an olive tree plantation, although the grotto does not appear in the New Testament. Gustaf Dalman tried to combine both statements: the grotto is the place of the oil press; Such systems were and are often built in caves. The group of disciples stayed in this protected place. However, this is contradicted by the fact that the grotto was unknown in the first five centuries and only became a place of pilgrimage afterwards. “The texts say nothing about a grotto or a building. The Gethsemane pericope depicts events in the open air, even if the nights can still be very cold in spring. "

Gethsemane in the New Testament

In the Gospels, Gethsemane is Jesus' voluntarily chosen place to say goodbye to his disciples; his solitude in the garden forms a counterpoint to the previous fellowship at the Lord's Supper. The Gospels differ in how they distribute the plot to different scenes, with consequences for the Christian pilgrimage landscape that has emerged since late antiquity:

  • Three locations (Mark and Matthew): a) the place where Jesus leaves the disciples, b) the place where he leaves Peter, James and John, c) the place of his prayer. At b) betrayal and arrest are also localized.
  • Two scenes (Luke): a) the place of the common night camp of all disciples, b) the place of the lonely prayer of Jesus.
  • A scene (John): Jesus crosses the Kidron stream with his disciples and goes into a garden, where shortly afterwards Judas arrives with the captors; Jesus steps out of the garden in a sovereign manner, meets them, and is arrested.

Gethsemane as a place of pilgrimage

Old Church and Byzantine Period

The rock of Jesus' prayer in the modern church of all nations

Eusebius of Caesarea , Cyril of Jerusalem and the pilgrims of Bordeaux knew a stone formation in the Kidron Valley in the 4th century, which was considered a place of betrayal and the imprisonment of Jesus, and an unspecified olive grove on the slope of the Mount of Olives, which pilgrims like to visit in memory of Jesus' night prayer before his arrest. Around 380/390 Egeria and Hieronymus testify to a church building (so-called ecclesia elegans ) at the place of Jesus' prayer. It is most likely the Byzantine church, the remains of which were uncovered when the Church of All Nations was built. In the presbytery of this late antique basilica, a piece of natural rock was venerated as the place of Jesus' prayer.

The further development in the 5th / 6th The 17th century was determined by the Jerusalem liturgy of Holy Week . In the Eleona Church on the summit of the Mount of Olives, the solitary prayer of Jesus was remembered; in the Byzantine church on the lower slope of the Mount of Olives of the sleeping disciples, betrayal and arrest. The difficulty that, according to the New Testament account, Jesus switched three times that night between the sleeping disciples and his place of prayer and therefore had to climb the Mount of Olives each time, was not noticed.

Around 520 Theodosius was the first to mention a grotto on the slope of the Mount of Olives, but for him this grotto was the place of the Last Supper and the washing of the feet and therefore not identical with Gethsemane. The pilgrim from Piacenza also saw this Last Supper grotto around 570 on the slope of the Mount of Olives and camped with his group of pilgrims on the stone tricines that existed in this grotto. However, this sacrament tradition competed with two other localizations of Maundy Thursday events, one on Mount Zion, the other in Bethany. Eutychios , the patriarch of Constantinople († 582), explained that an earlier meal of Jesus with the disciples took place in the grotto on the Mount of Olives, not the meal at which he instituted the Eucharist . The location of the Lord's Supper on the Mount of Olives does not fit well with the New Testament representation; On the other hand, the Mount of Olives, according to John 18: 1 a place where Jesus was often with his disciples, could also attract traditions of eating together.

The Byzantine Church of Gethsemane ( ecclesia elegans ) was probably destroyed and burned down during the Persian conquest of Jerusalem (614 AD). The Marian tomb in the Kidron Valley on the lower western slope of the Mount of Olives then developed into the central Christian pilgrimage site to which the other local traditions were assigned. The grotto, in which neither the facilities of an oil press nor stone tric lines are archaeologically verifiable, was converted into a burial chapel at this time. Apparently the proximity of the Marian tomb was a very attractive place for a burial place.

Crusader time

Remains of the crusader painting in the grotto

With the conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, a new situation arose in which the pilgrimage landscape on the slopes of the Mount of Olives was rearranged. In 1102/03 Saewulf saw a place of prayer at the place where Peter, James and John slept and a little up the slope a place of prayer where Jesus Christ prayed. The expression “place of prayer” ( oraculum ) indicates that there were no church buildings.

Johannes von Würzburg described what the memorial landscape of Getsemani (a flower garden: hortus floridus ) looked like after completion of the building program in AD 1165: To the right of the entrance to the Marian grave there was a grotto in which the three sleeping disciples were located. “But the place where the Lord prayed is encompassed by a new church, which is called the Church of the Redeemer , in the floor of which three unworked stones protrude like small rocks. On these, it is said, Jesus prayed three times on his knees. ”The new church of the Savior was on the site of the Byzantine ecclesia elegans , but offset a little south and with a different orientation.

The old olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane that exist today were probably planted at the same time in the 12th century. When the “Church of the Redeemer” was built, an olive grove was planted next to it.

Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Times

The end of the Crusader Empire also meant the end of the church and grotto of Gethsemane; the pilgrims continued to visit the olive grove. In addition to the trees, there was a secluded grotto that was used as a stable, a “rock of the apostles” and a column that probably comes from the Byzantine ecclesia elegans . In 1392 the Franciscan Custody acquired the grotto, and after that the Western Getsemani tradition made a change that the Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox and Armenian Churches did not adopt. In the grotto you can still see remnants of the crusader era painting (a starry sky) and a secondary pilgrim inscription, first mentioned in 1626, which documents the new tradition of the Latins: here Jesus Christ sweated blood and prayed for the chalice to pass him.

Today's plant

Site plan, today's situation. From left to right: Marian Tomb, Grotto of Treason, Olive Garden, Church of All Nations (above Byzantine and Crusader-era buildings)

The localization of biblical places in Palestine has been studied by biblical scholars , historians and Palestine researchers since the mid-19th century . For the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land this meant proving the authenticity of the sites it administers and at the same time making efforts to continue to be perceived as the guardian of all relevant Christian shrines. When the Franciscan archaeologist Barnabas Meistermann excavated part of the Crusader era "Church of the Redeemer" in 1909 and suggested that the old local tradition of the solitary prayer of Jesus refers to an area south of the olive grove, this thesis was made a "daring" assumption by the curator at the time, Roberto Razzoli and combats modernist break with tradition. His successor, Ferdinando Diotallevi (custodian 1918–1924), accepted the move. The holy places of grotto and garden, only about 100 m apart, exchanged assignments to New Testament scenes at the beginning of the 20th century:

  • Grotto: previously the place of Jesus' prayer, now the “Grotto of Treason”;
  • Garden: previously the scene of the betrayal and arrest of Jesus, now the new place of his prayer.
Pillar of betrayal

The localization of Jesus' prayer in the olive grove was also represented by Orthodox and Protestant churches, so it was quasi ecumenical. The custody decided to build a new church (the Church of All Nations) after a previous archaeological investigation of the building site. She already owned the site, but the construction work required the removal of that column, probably from the Byzantine Church, on which the local Orthodox tradition had located the Judas kiss and which the Greek Orthodox Church considered to be their property. After the British occupation of Jerusalem in 1917, the Holy Land was ruled by a Christian, but now Protestant, power for the first time since the Crusader period. This initially brought the Greek and Latin patriarchates of Jerusalem closer together. Patriarch Damianos I agreed to move the column 14 m to the outer wall of the Franciscan site. Meanwhile, the Franciscan archaeologist Gaudentius Orfali examined the building site and in 1920 came across the foundations of the Byzantine Church ( ecclesia elegans ) of the 4th century. The apse of this church was located under the planned new site of the column and if the custody wanted to build their new church on the Byzantine walls, the Greek Orthodox column had to give way again. The Greek Orthodox Church was not ready for this and now claimed the entire garden area. The dispute between the Greek and Latin patriarchates dragged on until 1923; in exchange for the controversial building site, the custody gave the Orthodox side the Viri Galilaei Church , where it previously had the right to worship, and paid financial compensation.

The column of betrayal was now placed in its current location on the outer wall of the Gethsemane garden, opposite the entrance to the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene . However, through the change of location it had obviously lost its importance as a pilgrimage destination; Orthodox groups today visit the Franciscan olive grove and often the adjacent Roman Catholic Church without visiting the pillar.

Pediment of the Church of All Nations
Unfinished Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

In 1922 the British Mandate Administration gave permission for the new church to be built. The governor of Jerusalem, Ronald Storrs , saw the Garden of Gethsemane as the authentic setting of the New Testament, and was therefore against building a church there. From a Protestant point of view, it was precisely the open landscapes that made a visit to Palestine a religious experience. Although he could not prevent the new building for legal reasons, he could reduce the height and the area.

Storrs had an audience with Pope Benedict XV. and then noted that the Pope cared little about the new churches of the Franciscan Custody, rather that they were an expression of Italian national sentiment ( italianità ). The Church of all Nations (regardless of its name) has this character to a particularly high degree. Cardinal Filippo Giustini laid the foundation stone on October 17, 1919 on a visit to the Holy Land to commemorate the 700-year presence of the Franciscan Order. He traveled to the Il Quarto , an Italian warship that had hoisted both the Vatican and Italian flags. Giustini was traveling in the country in the car of the Italian consul. The consuls of Spain, France and Great Britain protested against these appearances by Giustini at the Holy See. The papal secretary Pietro Gasparri then wrote an official reprimand from the cardinal. Antonio Barluzzi , the architect who designed most of the Roman Catholic buildings in Palestine during the British mandate, built on Byzantine foundations, but not in the style of Byzantine architecture, but, according to him, in the style of Roman buildings from the time of Jesus. Twelve nations participated financially in the construction of the church and each received a dome of the Church of All Nations, which is why it was named, Italy received the largest dome, lined with gold mosaic, over the rock on which Jesus is said to have prayed, while the other domes are kept dark. The nations are present in the church with their national emblems, but all work was done by Italian artists. The construction company came from Italy as did some of the building materials.

In January 1920, the French Cardinal Louis-Ernest Dubois laid the foundation stone for a French Getsemani church on the Mount of Olives, which was dedicated to the suffering Heart of Jesus (and thus also to his prayer in Getsemani). The French government made the land available for this on the site of the Carmelite monastery Pater Noster on the site of the Byzantine Eleona church. Despite protests from the Franciscan Custody, construction began in 1926, but had to be stopped due to lack of funds. The Vatican was not prepared to financially support the building of the church, which it classified as a French solo effort.

Reception history

art

Albrecht Altdorfer : Christ on the Mount of Olives , tablet of the age of Sebastian in St. Florian monastery

A mount of Olives figuratively depicts the biblical scene of Jesus praying with his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane on the night before his crucifixion.

The engraving Gethsemane by Albrecht Dürer represents the biblical scene. Albrecht Altdorfer shows in the panel Christ on the Mount of Olives of the Sebastian Altar the scene in a fantastic rocky landscape.

literature

The events in the Garden of Gethsemane recorded in the Gospels found their way into literature in the 19th century. Annette von Droste-Hülshoff thematizes the wrestling of Jesus with his fate in her ballad named after the garden, as does Richard Dehmel , which is more haunting . In Detlev von Liliencron's ballad Legende , the loneliness of Christ before the betrayal of Judas Iscariot is processed. Rudyard Kipling deals with the subject in his poem Gethsemane (1914–1918) in connection with the First World War.

literature

  • Sarah Covington: The Garden of Anguish: Gethsemane in Early Modern England. In: Journal of Ecclesiastical History 65/2, April 2014, pp. 280-308. ( PDF )
  • Gustaf Dalman : Places and ways of Jesus , Gütersloh 1924, pp. 331–346.
  • Masha Halevi: Contested Heritage: Multi-Layered Politics and the Formation of the Sacred Space - The Church of Gethsemane as a Case Study. In: The Historical Journal 58/4, December 2015, pp. 1031-1058. ( PDF )
  • Max Küchler : Jerusalem. A handbook and study travel guide to the Holy City (= places and landscapes of the Bible. Volume IV / 2). Göttingen 2007, pp. 810-830.
  • Kevin Madigan: Ancient and High-Medieval Interpretations of Jesus in Gethsemane: Some Reflections on Tradition and Continuity in Christian Thought. In: Harvard Theological Review 88/1, January 1995, pp. 157-173.
  • Theodore Ziolkowski : The transplanted garden. Gethsemane in German poetry. In: Weimarer contributions 65/1 (2019), pp. 125–135. ( PDF )

Web links

Commons : Gethsemane  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Getsemani  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bauer / Aland: Greek-German dictionary on the writings of the New Testament and early Christian literature. 6th, completely revised edition, Berlin / New York 1988, Sp. 307.
  2. ↑ Joachim Gnilka : The Gospel according to Mark (Mk 8.27-16.20). EKK II / 2, Zurich et al. 1979, p. 258.
  3. ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem. A handbook and study guide to the Holy City. Göttingen 2007, p. 810 f.
  4. ↑ Christfried Böttrich:  Gethsemane. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
  5. ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem. A handbook and study guide to the Holy City. Göttingen 2007, p. 812 f.
  6. ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem. A handbook and study guide to the Holy City. Göttingen 2007, pp. 813-816.
  7. ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem. A handbook and study guide to the Holy City. Göttingen 2007, p. 816 f.
  8. ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem. A handbook and study guide to the Holy City. Göttingen 2007, p. 818 f.
  9. ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem. A handbook and study guide to the Holy City. Göttingen 2007, pp. 819-821.
  10. ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem. A handbook and study guide to the Holy City. Göttingen 2007, p. 822 f., Quotation p. 823.
  11. ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem. A handbook and study guide to the Holy City. Göttingen 2007, p. 822 f.
  12. ^ Mauro Bernabei: The age of the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane. In: Journal of Archaeological Science 53 (2015), pp. 43-48. ( PDF )
  13. ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem. A handbook and study guide to the Holy City. Göttingen 2007, pp. 822 f., 824-829 f.
  14. ↑ Masha Halevi: Contested Heritage: Multi-Layered Politics and the Formation of the Sacred Space - The Church of Gethsemane as a Case Study , 2015, pp. 1035-1037.
  15. ↑ Masha Halevi: Contested Heritage: Multi-Layered Politics and the Formation of the Sacred Space - The Church of Gethsemane as a Case Study , 2015, p. 1038
  16. ↑ Masha Halevi: Contested Heritage: Multi-Layered Politics and the Formation of the Sacred Space - The Church of Gethsemane as a Case Study , 2015, p. 1039 f
  17. ↑ Masha Halevi: Contested Heritage: Multi-Layered Politics and the Formation of the Sacred Space - The Church of Gethsemane as a Case Study , 2015, p. 1040.
  18. ↑ Masha Halevi: Contested Heritage: Multi-Layered Politics and the Formation of the Sacred Space - The Church of Gethsemane as a Case Study , 2015, pp. 1041-1044.
  19. ↑ Masha Halevi: Contested Heritage: Multi-Layered Politics and the Formation of the Sacred Space - The Church of Gethsemane as a Case Study , 2015, pp. 1045 f.
  20. ↑ Masha Halevi: Contested Heritage: Multi-Layered Politics and the Formation of the Sacred Space - The Church of Gethsemane as a Case Study , 2015, pp. 1048-1051.
  21. ↑ Masha Halevi: Contested Heritage: Multi-Layered Politics and the Formation of the Sacred Space - The Church of Gethsemane as a Case Study , 2015, pp. 1047 f.
  22. ↑ Hermann Josef Lux : Dürer as artist and man (= seed and harvest # 7), Verlag Katholische Bücherstube, Nuremberg 1928, p. 31 ( link to picture )

Coordinates: 31 ° 46 ′ 45.8 ″  N , 35 ° 14 ′ 24.7 ″  E