In speaking of this place, St. Matt. xxvii: 33, says it was—“a place called Golgotha, that is to say a place of a skull.” St. Luke xxiii: 33, says it was a place “called Calvary.” Golgotha is a Hebrew word, and Calvary is a Latin word; but they both mean the same thing, namely a skull, or the place of a skull. Some have thought that this name was given to it because it was the spot where public execution took place and criminals were buried. But there is no proof of this. It is often spoken of as “the _hill_ of Calvary”: but it is never so called in the New Testament. It is supposed to have received its name from the fact of its being a smooth and rounded piece of ground, resembling somewhat the shape of a skull, and looking like what we call the brow of a hill. Exactly where this place was we cannot tell. In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem they show a hole in a rock, which they pretend to say was the very hole in which the cross of Jesus was placed. But it is impossible to prove this. And the thought which shows how unlikely this is to be the Calvary where Jesus died is this, that Jesus died _outside_ the walls of Jerusalem, but this is _inside_ the walls, and we know that the city at that time was much larger than the present city. The apostle Paul tells us that “Jesus suffered _without the gate_.” Heb. xiii: 13. We are sure then that Calvary, or Golgotha, the place of the crucifixion, was outside the walls of Jerusalem, but nigh unto the city. This is all that we can find about it with any certainty. The _time of the crucifixion_ is the next thing to consider. It was on Friday of the last week of his earthly life. What is called “Good Friday,” in the week before Easter, known as Passion Week, is kept by a large part of the Christian Church in memory of this event.