Olives, Mount Of
The Mount of Olives stands east of Jerusalem along the highway that runs to and from the city. Scripture marks it as a place of mourning ascent, of nightly lodging, of triumphant approach, and of private discourse — a named height that fixes some of the most exposed moments of David's flight, of Christ's last week, and of the temple's foretold end.
A Named Height East of Jerusalem
The mount carries a proper name in the narrative. Luke supplies it twice in the same week: "every day he was teaching in the temple; and every night he went out, and lodged in the mount that is called of Olives" (Lu 21:37). The naming is paired with a daily rhythm — teaching in the temple by day, lodging on the named mount by night — so the height is fixed over against the temple as Jesus' settled night-resort during the Passion week.
A second name attaches to the same place in the narrative of Josiah's reform. Solomon's high places "were on the right hand of the Mount of Olives," built "for Ashtoreth the detestable thing of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the detestable thing of Moab, and for Milcom the disgusting thing of the sons of Ammon," and "the king defiled" them (2Ki 23:13). A footnote at the verse records the alternate reading: "Mount of Corruption. Literally, 'Mount of Corruption' which was substituted, perhaps as a euphemism to avoid mentioning the Mount of Olives in an idolatrous context." The slope that lodges the praying king in the Gospels is the same slope on whose right hand a former king had built his idol-shrines.
David's Mourning Ascent
The earliest extended scene on the mount is David's flight from Absalom. The king does not cross the slope as a passing traveler; he ascends it as a public mourner: "And David went up by the ascent of the [mount of] Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered, and went barefoot: and all the people who were with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up" (2Sa 15:30).
The verse gathers three mourning-signs onto the king's body and then extends them across the column. Going up by the ascent of the Olives fixes the sloped route out of the capital. The covered head and the bare feet pair two formal grief-marks on David's own body. The all-the-people-covered-every-man-his-head parallel carries the bare-foot, covered-head posture across the whole retreating crowd, and the wept-as-he-went-up participial layers tears onto every step of that ascent. The Olives-slope is here the public stage on which Jerusalem-loss is registered as bereavement.
The Triumphant Approach
The Gospels return to the mount as the approach-route by which Jesus draws near for the final entry. Mark fixes the staging point: "And when they draw near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, he sends two of his disciples" (Mark 11:1). Luke names the same paired villages and sends the same two: "And it came to pass, when he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called, of Olives, he sent two of the disciples" (Lu 19:29). Bethphage stands as the staging place at the mount from which the colt is fetched for the final approach.
The descent of the same mount turns the approach into open praise: "And as he was now drawing near, [even] at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen" (Lu 19:37). The site is named, the company is named ("the whole multitude of the disciples"), and the cause is named ("all the mighty works which they had seen"). The praise is corporate, audible, and grounded in the deeds already witnessed — gathered at the descent of the Olives into a single loud acclamation.
Discourse on the Mount, Opposite the Temple
Once inside the Passion week, the mount becomes the place of private question and answer. Mark fixes the scene with a topographical line of sight: "And as he sat on the mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately" (Mr 13:3). The named four — Peter, James, John, Andrew — approach Christ on the mount with their question; the temple lies in view across the valley. The lodging-place of Lu 21:37 is, in Mark's framing, the seat from which the temple's end is asked about.
The Last Supper and the Departure
After the supper the mount is the destination of the company's outward movement: "And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the mount of Olives" (Mr 14:26). The hinge between the indoor meal and the outdoor departure is plainly noted as singing — a hymn at the close of the supper, then the company going out to the named mount.
Luke marks the same departure as a habit rather than an exception: "And he came out, and went, as his custom was, to the mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed him" (Lu 22:39). The phrase "as his custom was" matches Luke's earlier picture of nightly lodging on the mount (Lu 21:37); the place is presented not as a one-time refuge but as a regular resort, now entered with the disciples in train. This is the approach to Gethsemane, identified in Luke by the larger geography of the Olives and by the settled pattern of visits rather than by the proper garden-name.
The Mount in the Wider Setting
The Mount of Olives belongs to the wider class of named heights that mark Israel's geography and the Gospel narrative. What gives this particular height its place in scripture is the density of named events stacked along its single slope: a king of Israel's idol-shrines on its right hand (2Ki 23:13), a king of Israel's barefoot mourning ascent (2Sa 15:30), the staging of the final approach to Jerusalem at Bethphage (Mark 11:1; Lu 19:29), the descent-praise for the mighty works (Lu 19:37), the nightly lodging through the Passion week (Lu 21:37), the seated discourse opposite the temple (Mr 13:3), the post-supper departure with a hymn (Mr 14:26), and the customary going-out followed by the disciples (Lu 22:39).