First Century Olive Press
Gethsemane
2000 year old olive tree
This morning, we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls and other artifacts at the Israel Museum. After lunch we went to the Mount of Olives and the The Church of the Agony where tradition says that Jesus prayed before his arrest. The word Gethsemane in the Hebrew means olive press and we saw one of these in Galilee. The garden could very well have been an olive orchard that contained a press for extracting oil from the olive fruit.
Our guide explained this process to us. The olives would be put on a round stone fitted with a stone wheel. The first process of turning the olives to pulp would be done in this fashion. Afterward, the pulp was put into a hollowed stone where it would be pressed until all the fluid from the fruit came out a hole at the bottom and into a stone reservoir. Here, the liquid would settle until oil and water separated.
I wonder if Jesus prayed in a place where olives were crushed, as he would be in fulfillment of prophecy. I wonder if he knew that like those olives, he would be pressed down by all the weight of human sin until there was not a drop of life left in his body.
I’ve always thought of Gethsemane as a place that overlooked the city, but if tradition is correct, the eastern wall of the temple is high up above looking like a impregnable fortress.
After this sight we visited the Pool of Bethesda and then walked the Via Dolorosa. We concluded the say at an Ethiopian monastery and then the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. While in the Church, our tour was interrupted by an Armenian worship service. Of course we saw the spot where the eastern traditions hold that Jesus was crucified, anointed for burial and then placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.
Blessings!
