Gethsemane

Coordinates: 31°46′46″N 35°14′25″E / 31.779402°N 35.240197°E / 31.779402; 35.240197

Gethsemane (Greek: Γεθσημανή, Gethsēmanē; Hebrew: גת שמנים‎, Gat-Šmânim; Syriac: ܓܕܣܡܢ‎, Gaḏ Šmānê, lit. "oil press") is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, most famous as the place where Jesus prayed and his disciples slept the night before Jesus' crucifixion.

Etymology

Gethsemane appears in the Greek of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark as Γεθσημανή (Gethsēmanē). The name is derived from the Aramaic ܓܕܣܡܢ (Gaḏ-Šmānê), meaning "oil press". Matthew (26:36) and Mark (14:32) call it χωρἰον (18:1), a place or estate. The Gospel of John says Jesus entered a garden (κῆπος) with his disciples.

Location

According to the New Testament it was a place that Jesus and his disciples customarily visited, which allowed Judas to find him on the night of his arrest.

There are four locations claimed to be the place where Jesus prayed on the night he was betrayed.

Gethsemane (play)

Gethsemane is a play by David Hare. It premièred at the National Theatre in London on 4 November 2008.

The work opens with a reflection on the sway religious books hold over their adherents, but it soon establishes itself as a political piece dramatising the methods used by the governing Labour Party in Britain to raise party funds. Using lapses in the personal and public lives of the characters, often easily recognisable as incidents drawn from the lives of real politicians recently departed from office, the play illuminates the cynicism and expediency of a political party too long unchallenged in power.

The title Gethsemane refers to the life-changing decision by the character "Lori" to give up teaching and become a busker. Only later in the play, as other less idealistic characters avoid their own "Gethsemane moments", is it explained to her that in the Garden of Gethsemane Christ's decision was to stick with the plan and not to take the easy path.

References

Gethsemane (oratorio)

Gethsemane is a chamber-oratorio by the British composer, Matthew King. Commissioned for the opening concert of the 1998 Spitalfields Festival, the work was composed for the early music group, Florilegium and is scored for 4 vocalists (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) and a 'Baroque' ensemble consisting of flute solo, 2 oboes, 3 natural trumpets, strings, harpsichord and percussion. The oratorio uses a compilation of Biblical texts to relate the New Testament narrative from Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem until his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. Each of the four vocalists represents several characters in the story and all four join together to sing collectively as disciples, pharisees and various crowds. Certain instruments within the ensemble are used to represent characters in the drama: for example, Christ is always accompanied with a flute, the pharisees are joined by rumbling timpani and Judas by a solo harpsichord.

After the first performance, the critic Roderick Dunnett described King's Gethsemane as "passion music in the great tradition" whilst Michael White wrote in The Independent that "there's an innocence about the music which is honest, heartfelt, full of what a German would call "ear-worms": ideas that dig deep into the listener's mind."