MOUNT OLIVET. — A hill east of Jerusalem, called in the Bible har haz-Zethim (Zech. 14:4), τὸ ὄρος τῶν ἐλαιῶν, mons Olivarum (Mt. 21:1), τὸ ὄρος τὸ καλούμενον ἐλαιῶν, mons qui vocatur Oliveti (Lk. 19:29; 21:37; Acts 1:12), today Çebel et-Tûr or Çebel ez-Zejtûn. It is separated from the city by the valley of the Kidron (2 Sam. 15:23; Isa. 18:1; cf. Mt. 26:20; Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Iud., XX, 8, 6). It has three peaks: the northern one (818 m.), called by the native Arabs Karm eş-Şajjad ("vineyard of the hunter") and by Christians Viri Galilaei (Acts 1:12); the central one (812 m.) is properly Çebel et-Tûr, the traditional site of the Ascension of Jesus, and the southern one (734 m.) is Çebel Baţh el-Hawâ, called by Christians the "mount of scandal" because it is held to be the height where Solomon erected places of worship to the deities of his foreign wives (2 Kings 23:13; Vulg. Mons offensionis). On the summit 'Elôhim was worshiped (2 Sam. 15:32) and the prophets Ezekiel (11:23) and Zechariah (14:14) had visions there of the glory of God. According to the Talmud, on the mount facing the gate of the Temple the red heifer was burned, whose ashes served for ritual purification, and fires were lit there to announce the new moon.
It is sacred to Christians for the memories of Jesus, who several times, coming from Jericho, crossed it to descend into the city (Mt. 21:3; Mk. 11:1; Lk. 19:29), rested at Bethany in the hospitable house of Lazarus, and through Bethphage (v.) on the eastern slope of the mount reached the city. On the western descent he was acclaimed by the crowd (Lk. 19:37), wept over the city (ibid. 19:41) and at the foot of the mount, in the garden of Gethsemane (v.), prayed, agonized and was betrayed by Judas.
These places, venerated with love from the first centuries of Christianity, were marked in the 4th century with sacred monuments. The pilgrim Egeria (v.) around 395 relates that she attended the liturgy "in Eleona, ubi est spelunca illa, in qua docebat Dominus"; on the Imbomon, "in eo loco de quo ascendit Dominus in coelis"; in "Gethsemane ubi oravit Dominus" and at Bethany "in Lazario," where the tomb of Lazarus was. Destroyed at the time of the Arab invasion, rebuilt by the Crusaders and again fallen into ruin with the reoccupation by Saladin, they have risen again in recent years from their ruins and been reopened to Christian worship. The sanctuary of St. Lazarus of the 4th century was rediscovered in 1950 by the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. It has a very beautiful mosaic floor with geometric designs. Only the sanctuary of the Ascension remains even today a mosque. On the mount, stripped of vegetation, one notices some areas covered with olive trees and other plants around the sanctuaries and monasteries that in the last sixty years have in part repopulated the holy mount. - See plate V.
Bibliography2 works
Donato Baldi