CALVARY (lc:area-ill, (Gr. kran•ce on. a skull), the place where Christ was crucified.
In three of the Gospels the Hebrew name of the place, Golgotha (place of a skull). is given; and in Luke xxiii:33, where we find Calvary in the Authorized Version, the original is not Cal vary, but Crania?, (a skull). Calratia is the Latin translation of this word, adopted by the Vulgate, from which it found its way into our version. The names Cranion and Calvaria are respectively Greek and Latin translations of the original Golgotha and occur in three out of the four Gospels.
As to its situation, Conder, Palestine, page 3o, says: "From the fourth century to the present day the sites of Calvary and of the Holy Sepul cher have been shown within the precincts of the Crusading Cathedral, standing where Constan tine's Basilica was raised. The discovery of part of the 'second wall' in 1886 shows pretty clearly that the line which—guided by the rock levels— I drew in 1878, nearly coinciding with Dr. Rob
inson's line, is correct, and that the traditional site was thus in the time of our Lord within the city walls. For the last half century this view has been very generally hell, but there was no agree ment as to the true site. I was enabled, however, through the help of Dr. Chaplin, the resident phy sician, to investigate the ancient Jewish tradition, still extant among the older resident Jews, which places the site of the 'House of Stoning,' or place of execution, at the remarkable knoll just outside of the Damascus Gate, north of the city. There are several reasons, which I have detailed in other publications, for thinking that this hillock is the probable site of Calvary." (See GOLGOTHA.)