Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GETHSEMANE

(Gk. Gethsēmaní)

The place where Jesus offered an anguished prayer just before his betrayal and arrest there (Matt. 26:36; Mark 14:32). Its exact location is unknown, though it was probably somewhere near the Mount of Olives since all four Gospels agree that Jesus was betrayed and arrested on or near the Mount of Olives (Matt. 26:30; Mark 14:26; Luke 22:39; John 18:1). The name Gethsemane is from Aram. gaṯ šĕmānê, “oil press.” Both olive trees and presses for extracting the oil from the olives were common in the area, and it is probable that Gethsemane contained such a press.

Matthew and Mark name the place of Jesus’ prayer, betrayal, and arrest as Gethsemane and place it near the Mount of Olives. Luke does not name the place but has the events take place on the mount itself. John does not mention Jesus’ prayer, nor does he name the place of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest, though he locates it “across the Kidron valley” in a “garden” (John 18:1), and thus on the Mount of Olives. By combining the accounts of Jesus’ anguished prayer in the Synoptic Gospels with John’s account of his arrest in a garden, the traditional image of Jesus’ agony in the garden of Gethsemane was constructed.

Jesus in Gethsemane was interpreted as an appropriate contrast to Adam in Eden: the sinful disobedience of the first Adam in the garden of Eden was undone because of the prayerful obedience of the last Adam in the garden of Gethsemane (cf. Rom. 5:12-21). A similar development can be seen in Heb. 5:7-9, which mentions Jesus’ “prayers,” “godly fear,” and “obedience,” which led to his “being made perfect . . . the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.”

Kim Paffenroth

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GETHSEMANE

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)