Golgotha and the burial of Adam between Jewish and Christian tradition

Text and monument

Authors

• Jordan Ryan Wheaton College

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30752/nj.100583

Keywords:

Jewish-Christian relations, Adam and Eve, Greek Life of Adam and Eve, Origen, Eusebius, Golgotha, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Religious competition, Jubilees, Reception of Jesus, Byzantine Jerusalem, Pseudepigrapha

Abstract

The curious name of Golgotha, and its translations provided by the evangelists, became a focal point for interpretation, opening the door for new Christological concepts to become affixed to it. As these novel Christological interpretations accrued around Golgotha, they would eventually crystallise, and become a fixed part of the commemoration of Jesus in Palestine. Starting with Origen, third and fourth century Christian authors strongly associate the place of Jesus’s crucifixion with the burial place of Adam.