Calvary - Other uses of the name, References in popular culture

The site where Jesus was crucified, presumed to be a place of execution just outside Jerusalem. The term appears in the Authorized Version of the Bible (Luke 23.33).

For the unreleased computer game, see Golgotha (computer game). Not to be confused with cavalry (horse or armored troops).

Calvary (Golgotha) is the English-language name given to the hill on which Jesus was crucified.

Calvary is mentioned in all four of the accounts of Jesus' crucifixion in the Christian canonical Gospels:

Matthew 27:33 And they came to a place called Golgotha, which is called the Place of the Skull. Mark 15:22 And they took him up to the place Golgotha, which is translated Place of the Skull.

Luke's Gospel does not give the local, Aramaic name, Golgotha.

The New Testament describes Calvary as close to Jerusalem (John 19:20), and outside of its walls (Hebrews 13:12).

Roman emperor Constantine the Great built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on what was thought to be the sepulchre of Jesus in 326 - 335, nearby the location of Calvary. The church is accepted as the Tomb of Jesus by most historians and the little rock nowadays inside the present church as the location of Calvary.

After time spent in Palestine in 1882-83, Charles George Gordon suggested a different location for Calvary. This might be linked to an ancient Christian tradition according to which the skull of Adam is buried in the Golgotha.

Other uses of the name

The name Calvary often refers to sculptures or pictures representing the scene of the crucifixion of Jesus, or a small wayside shrine incorporating such a picture.

Churches in various Christian denominations have been named Calvary.

References in popular culture

Many Extreme Metal bands have used the word "Golgotha" in song/album names, such as: Incantation, Dark Funeral, Summoning, Cradle of Filth, Casket Garden, Acid Bath, Rotting Christ, Embodyment etc. Christian metal band With Blood Comes Cleansing also used the word Golgotha for an album name. There is a British prog rock/metal band named Golgotha. There is a Spanish doom/death metal band named Golgotha. There was a computer game being developed entitled "Golgotha". (For more information, see Golgotha (computer game). In Stephen King's Dark Tower Series: at the end of The Gunslinger after catching the Man in Black Roland is brought to a golgotha where he tells the gunslinger his fortune with tarot cards. In Neal Stephenson's cyberpunk thriller "Cryptonomicon," a hoard of well-hidden Japanese gold is buried deep within the jungles of the Philippines, in an underground crypt named "Golgotha." A nearby mountain is also named "Calvary." There is also a spell in the Death faith's arsenal called "Golgotha's Gift." Wumpscut's 1997 album Embryodead features a song called "Golgotha," clearly referencing the Crucifixicion. Raymond Watts' 1995 album Sinsation features an instrumental interlude entitled "Golgotha," although its relation to Calvary is unclear. The movie The Crow features a song by Machines of Loving Grace entitled "Golgotha Tenement Blues". Allen Ginsberg's seminal poem 'Howl' references Golgotha twice: in the first part ('hotrod-Golgotha jail-solitude') and final part ('I'm with you in Rockland where you accuse your doctors of insanity and plot the Hebrew socialist revolution against the fascist national Golgotha') In the Japanese comic series Golgo 13, the protagonist hitman Duke Togo is called by many by the name, Golgo Thirteen, which was coined by a prison inmate whom saw the Devil in the eyes of Golgo 13. In the PC game Fallout 2 there is a large graveyard near the city of New Reno, named Golgotha, where a hidden cache of drugs and money can be found. In the playstaion game Xenogears the party of the player is crucified at a location named Golgoda, it is assumed that it is named after Golgotha and is probably just a translation error due to the many other religous references in the game.