Places from the Scriptures

Gethsemane

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

olive grove

Where Is It?

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

map of ancient Jerusalem

Jerusalem map illustration by Jim Madsen

What Was There?

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

olive press

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:

1. Crush olives under a large stone.

2. Put the crushed olives in woven baskets, and stack the baskets on top of each other.

3. Place a large beam or log on top of the stacked baskets.

4. 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).

Jesus Christ in Gethsemane

Gethsemane, by Michael Malm

Remember Gethsemane

“Remember, just as the body of the olive, which was pressed for the oil that gave light, so the Savior was pressed. From every pore oozed the lifeblood of our Redeemer. … When your cup of gladness runs over, remember His cup of bitterness which made it possible. And when sore trials come upon you, remember Gethsemane.”

President Russell M. Nelson, “Why This Holy Land?” Ensign, Dec. 1989, 18.

© 2023 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in USA. English approval: 6/19. Translation approval: 6/19. Translation of Monthly For the Strength of Youth Message, June 2023. Language. 19026 010

Notes

1. Guide to the Scriptures, “Gethsemane.”

2. See D. Todd Christofferson, Oct. 2016 general conference (Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2016, 50).