Matthew 27:33
Matthew calls the ground on which Christ was crucified “Golgotha.” He includes in his gospel the explanation that this name meant “Place of a Skull.” More commonly, we refer to it with Luke’s referent “Calvary.” Both words mean essentially the same thing. Calvary comes to us in English via the Latin Vulgate which uses the word “Calvarium” which means skull. The Greek used by Luke was “Kranion.” We would spell it “cranium” in English.
A thought arose at one time that Golgotha derived its name from the man skulls lying about because it was the place of execution. This seems highly unlikely and very few people hold this view today. Jews weren’t known to leave dead bodies exposed and lying about.
Another legend has it that this is the place where Adam was buried and where his skull was found. There is some spiritual appeal to the idea that the first and last Adam met in death on the same ground, but, again, there is no evidence for this. It seems that if this were true and significant the biblical record would suggest it to us, and it doesn’t.
We don’t know where Golgotha was. It is for the best. As Luther noted, our hearts are idol factories. If the ground on which Christ died were specifically known we would spend more time worshipping the soil there than we would Christ Himself.
What we do know is that Golgotha was somewhere outside the walls of Jerusalem. It was most likely named “Place of the Skull,” not because of skulls lying about, but because when viewed from a distance it had the appearance of a skull.
The location of the crucifixion seems to have been chosen because of its visibility. An execution of someone who claimed to be a king needed to be visible enough to make a public example of Him. The fact that Jesus was providentially crucified on a hill called “Golgotha” is fitting. Golgotha speaks of death. A skull is not only dead, it is dead beyond dead. It is a picture of death in its fullest expression.
Jesus entered into death for us in the fullest way possible.
If we think of Golgotha (Place of the Skull) as a visible portrayal of death, it is spiritually suggestive that Jesus’ was lifted up over and on top of it. His blood flowed down from Him onto the hill which was a symbol of death. He was over it. He was on top of it. He was conquering death.
To use the title of John Owen’s book, it was “the death of death in the death of Christ.”
