(The Times of Israel) A Second Temple-era ritual bath that was recently uncovered on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives at the site believed to be the New Testament’s Gethsemane is being touted as the first evidence that links the pilgrimage site to the period in which Jesus lived.
According to all four Gospels, it is at Gethsemane — which idiomatically means “olive press” in Hebrew — that Jesus spent a night of agony following the Last Supper, accepted his eventual betrayal and execution, and was arrested by the Temple guards of the Sanhedrin.
“For the first time, we have archaeological evidence that something was here in the Second Temple period, in the days of Jesus,” said Israel Antiquities Authority’s Jerusalem district head Amit Re’em on Monday.