Matthew 27:33

Golgotha. A transliteration of the Greek Golgotha, which in turn is a transliteration of the Aramaic Golgotha’ (Heb. Gulgoleth), meaning “skull.” The Latin Vulgate renders the word for skull as Calvaria; hence, the English name Calvary (Luke 23:33). The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, asserted by some to be on the site of ancient Golgotha, is far inside what is known today as the Old City of Jerusalem, but may possibly have been situated outside the second wall of Jerusalem in Christ’s day. The evidence for this location of Golgotha is a 4th-century tradition. Jesus “suffered without the gate” (Heb. 13:12). The site was not far from the city (John 19:20). The Sheep Gate is thought to have been situated at the northeast corner of the city, not far from the Temple (The Walls of Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s Day), and Golgotha seems to have been near this gate. Compare on chs. 26:36; 27:31.

Skull. This probably refers to the shape of the hill on which the crucifixion took place, rather than to human skulls which some have supposed lay exposed at the site. Those who point to the skull-like formation of a certain hill of modern Jerusalem, a few hundred feet beyond the northern wall, as identifying the site of Calvary, do not take sufficiently into account the fact that the ancient surface of the area in question probably has been greatly changed during centuries of weathering and of alteration by human hands. Attempts to identify the site with any particular locality known today are altogether inconclusive.