Gethsemane

Learn more about the place where the Savior’s sufferings on our behalf began.

Where Is It?

On the slope of the Mount of Olives, on the east of Jerusalem.

What Was There?

A grove of olive trees and probably a press for getting oil from the olives.

What Happened Here?

After the Last Supper, Jesus Christ went with eleven of His Apostles to Gethsemane. He then went aside to pray and took Peter, James, and John with Him.

He “began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy.” He said, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death” (Mark 14:33–34).

He prayed, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

“And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

“And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:42–44).

After this intense suffering by the Savior, He was betrayed by Judas and arrested by Jewish officers and a band of Roman soldiers.

Did You Know?

This garden at the Mount of Olives was a place where Jesus went often (see Luke 22:39; John 18:2).

“In Aramaic, the word gethsemane means ‘olive press.’”¹

When olives are first crushed in an olive press, the oil that flows out is red, like blood.

In the Savior’s time, producing olive oil was a process of increasing pressure at each step in order to squeeze out as much oil as possible:

Crush olives under a large stone.
Put the crushed olives in woven baskets, and stack the baskets on top of each other.
Place a large beam or log on top of the stacked baskets.
Attach stones to one end of the beam.²

Olive oil was used anciently for lamp oil, cooking oil, food, soap, religious ceremonies, and ointment for treating wounds.

Many years before Christ’s coming, an angel told King Benjamin about Christ’s suffering in Gethsemane, saying, “Blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish” (Mosiah 3:7).

The Savior’s suffering on our behalf includes His suffering at Gethsemane and on the cross, where He died. He took upon Himself all of our sins, pains, afflictions, temptations, sicknesses, and infirmities (see Alma 7:11–12).