Mount of Olives. – A hill to the east of Jerusalem, called in the Bible *har has-Zéthim* (Zach. 14:4), *«τὸ ὄρος τῶν ἐλαιῶν»*, *mons Olivarum* (Mt. 21:1), *«τὸ ὄρος τὸ καλούμενον ἐλαιῶν»*, *mons qui vocatur Oliveti* (Lc. 19:29; 21:37; Act. 1:12), today Gebel et-Tür or Gebel ez-Zejtūn. It is separated from the city by the Valley of the Cedron (II Sam. 15:23; Is. 18:1; cf. Mt. 26:30; Flavius Josephus, *Antiquitates Iudaicae*, XX, 8).
It has three peaks: the northern one (818 m.), called by the native Arabs *Karm es-Sajjād* ("vineyard of the hunter") and by Christians *Viri Galilei* (Act. 1:12); the central one (812 m.) is properly the Gebel et-Tür, the traditional site of the Ascension of Jesus; and the southern one (734 m.), the Gebel Bath el-Hawā, known to Christians as the "Mount of Offense" because it is believed to be the height where Solomon erected places of worship for the gods of his foreign wives (III Reg. 11:7; Vulg. *Mons offensionis*). At its summit was worshipped *‘Elohām* (II Sam. 15:32), and the prophets Ezekiel (11:23) and Zechariah (14:4) had visions there of the glory of God. According to the Talmud, opposite 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. 21:1; Mc. 11:1; Lc. 19:29), rested at Bethany in the hospitable house of Lazarus, and through Bethphage (v.) on the eastern slope of the mountain reached the city. On the western descent He was acclaimed by the crowd (Lc. 19:37), wept over the city (ibid., 19:41), and at the foot of the mountain, in the Garden of Gethsemane (v.), prayed, agonized, and was betrayed by Judas.
These places, revered with devotion from the earliest centuries of Christianity, were marked in the 4th century with sacred monuments. Egeria (v.) about the year 395 recounts having attended the liturgy "in Eleona, where is that cave in which the Lord taught"; in "Imbomon, in that place from which the Lord ascended into heaven"; in "Gethsemane where the Lord prayed"; and in Bethany "in the tomb of Lazarus," where the sepulcher of Lazarus was located. Destroyed at the time of the Arab invasion, rebuilt by the Crusaders, and again fallen into ruin with Saladin’s reconquest, they have in recent years risen from their ruins and been reopened to Christian worship. The 4th-century sanctuary of St. Lazarus was rediscovered in 1950 by the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. It has a beautiful mosaic pavement with geometric designs. Only the sanctuary of the Ascension remains today a mosque. On the bare mountain, some areas are covered with olive trees and other plants around the shrines and monasteries that in the last sixty years have partly repopulated the sacred mount.
*See pl. V.*