This name derives its origin from Ge, or Ghie, a valley; and Shemin, oil. It adjoined the foul book of Kedron, into which all the filth and uncleanness of the temple emptied itself. Here it was also, into this black brook, that the accursed things which the king of Israel destroyed were cast. (See 2 Kings 23:12) A striking type of the defilement and guilt emptied upon the person of Christ, as the Representative and Surety of his people, when passing over this brook Kedron, to enter the garden of Gethsemane, when the things typified were all to be fulfilled. Gethsemane was itself a village, at the foot of the mount of Olives; and the garden Jesus of times resorted to, saw part of this village. Gethsemane will always be memorable, and always sacred, to the mind of the true lover of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is impossible to have the very idea of this hallowed spot cross the recollection, without awakening the tenderest emotions. The Jews, unconscious of the cause, called it Gehennon, the valley of hell. It is the same word as Tophet. Here the sorrows of hell compassed the Redeemer. And as in a garden it was, that the powers of hell ruined our nature in the corruption of our first parents; so in a garden Jesus conquered hell. But not so, as without, blood. Witness his soul-agony, and those great drops of blood which fell from his sacred body. I would desire grace, that by faith I might often visit Gethsemane; and while traversing the hallowed ground, call to mind, that here it was Jesus entered upon that soul-conflict with the powers of darkness, which, when finished, completed the salvation of his people. Hail, sacred Gethsemane!
(See Golgotha.Cedron.)