Archaeologist Matthew Gray reveals that the Garden of Gethsemane was likely a cave — not an open garden of olive trees. What does that mean for how we understand Jesus’s final night?
The archaeology changes everything.
Most people picture Jesus kneeling beside a rock in a peaceful grove of olive trees. But the word “Gethsemane” literally means “oil press” — and archaeology now shows that ancient oil press facilities were housed inside caves and grottos, not open fields.
In this episode of Informed Saints, BYU professor and archaeologist Matthew Gray walks us through what a 1st-century Gethsemane actually looked like, what the 1950s excavation of the grotto on the Mount of Olives uncovered, and how each Gospel writer — Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John — frames Jesus’s experience there differently.
We also explore how Luke’s “agony” language may actually evoke athletic imagery rather than suffering, how the Latter-day Saint emphasis on Gethsemane developed primarily in the 1980s, and how understanding the oil press process opens up powerful new symbolism for the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Guest: Matthew Grey, BYU Professor of Ancient Scripture
Shout out to Messages of Christ for their visual reconstruction of the Gethsemane grotto:
https://youtu.be/F_Yl87PzTKM?si=JX6yQxrc-UJ1Zp_5
https://youtu.be/7VaBzEb34FQ?si=s4aVk3HB93jGD2JH
https://youtu.be/XefTby7Cj0Y?si=C4BP4KKQekOwvvYj
===Informed Saints Credits===
Produced by The Ancient America Foundation
Producer: Spencer Clark
Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye
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FURTHER READING AND RESOURCES
Matthew J. Grey and Richard Neitzel Holzapfel — A Place Called Gethsemane: Seeing the New Testament Story and Site in Its First-Century Context
Deseret Book: https://www.deseretbook.com/product/6074789.html
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Place-Called-Gethsemane-Testament-First-Century/dp/1639934022
Matthew J. Grey — “What Was Gethsemane Like in Jesus’s Time?” (interview and 3D reconstruction overview)
https://www.fromthedesk.org/gethsemane-in-jesus-time-archaeology-history/
Joan E. Taylor — “The Garden of Gethsemane: Not the Place of Jesus’ Arrest” (Biblical Archaeology Review, 1995)
https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/article/the-garden-of-gethsemane-not-the-place-of-jesus-arrest/
Joan E. Taylor — Christians and the Holy Places: The Myth of Jewish-Christian Origins (Oxford University Press)
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/christians-and-the-holy-places-9780198147855
Virgilio Corbo — Ricerche Archeologiche al Monte degli Ulivi (1965 excavation report, in Italian)
https://www.tsedizioni.it/shop/ricerche-archeologiche-al-monte-degli-ulivi/?lng=en
Truman G. Madsen — “The Olive Press” (BYU Fireside, May 9, 1982)
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/truman-g-madsen/olive-press/
Truman G. Madsen — “The Olive Press: A Symbol of Christ” (chapter in The Allegory of the Olive Tree)
https://scripturecentral.org/archive/books/book-chapter/olive-press-symbol-christ
John Hilton III — Considering the Cross: How Calvary Connects Us with Christ
https://www.amazon.com/Considering-Cross-Calvary-Connects-Christ/dp/1629728713
John Hilton III — “Joseph Smith, Gethsemane, and the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ” (BYU Scholars Archive)
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/4657/
John Hilton III — “Teaching...
Chapters
- (00:00:00) - The Secret to The Garden of Gethsemane
- (00:03:28) - The Garden of Gethsemane
- (00:06:45) - The Archaeology of Gethsemane
- (00:13:35) - The mystery of Jesus' Gethsemane
- (00:19:05) - The Olives of the Mount
- (00:24:57) - The Last Supper and Luke
- (00:28:45) - Luke's Oil Press Image
- (00:34:59) - The Gethsemane, the Tomb and Holy Week
