Because God seems to use certain places for historic events more than once, could Jesus have fulfilled His destiny on the very place Abraham took Isaac and the LORD provided a substitute? Jewish tradition has it all taking place on the Mount of Olives and it is said to this day, “The LORD Will Show Himself on the mountain.” 

No wonder the Mount of Olives was the main stage of Jesus’ earthly walk. Its summit wasn’t just a great place to view the temple, but this mountain’s peak could definitely be seen from a distance and if I’m right that the Mount of Olives was considered ‘outside the camp’ for the location of the red heifer sin sacrifice, then wow oh wow did the LORD see to it to show Himself and provide for us there. (StT Acts 1:9; Mark 13:1-3; Genesis 22:14; Numbers 19:1-10)

“For while the blood of these animals is brought into the Holies by the High Priest to atone for sin, the bodies of these are burned outside the camp. For this reason then Y’shua, so that He would sanctify the people wrought His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So we should come out to Him outside the camp where He bore His reproach.” (Hebrews 13:11-13, emphasis mine)

There had to have been two altars since one is to be outside the camp and the other “at the door of the Tent of Meeting before the LORD.” (Leviticus 1:3, emphasis mine) 

Two locations would certainly clear up the discrepancy of King David’s purchase price of fifty shekels of silver in 2 Samuel 24:24 and six hundred shekels of gold in 1 Chronicles 21:25. Not to mention the two different names of the land sellers.

If we all agree Jesus gave His life as a sin offering, then He could only have bore His reproach at the place ordained by His Father for the red heifer sacrifice outside the camp; the Mount of Olives. Any other location would nullify His sacrifice. 

Centuries of traditions have placed the crucifixion and tomb at one place but where does the Bible place the two? I’m not sure.

Not being an expert in all the first century Temple happenings, I’ve tried to double and triple check to verify truth of the things I learned outside of the biblical narrative. Even though I have prayed for our Father’s guidance to share His wonderful plan of redemption with nothing but the Truth, I am not infallible. 

One fascinating Jewish folklore has the Mount of Olives as where God gathered the dust to form Adam and the place his skull is buried. That puts a different spin on the meaning that I always heard of Golgotha as the “Place of the Skull.”

The Temple’s threshold was built facing the Mount of Olives as was the tent’s opening in the wilderness. This orientation for the altar afforded the large amount of water needed to clean the blood from the sacrifices to flow down into the Kidron Valley then to the Dead Sea.

The temple sacrifices are one reason I believe the Mount has to be the location of Jesus’ Sin Offering Sacrifice. Like those, His ‘blood and water’ flowed down from His side to the Kidron Valley then into the Dead Sea. Which makes me think the Dead Sea is the sea our repented sins are cast into. (StT Micah 7:19)

If we truly believe the only way to the Father is through His Son’s sacrifice, then we should NOT be blaming anyone for Jesus’ death.

Just like I believe Isaac was a fully grown man who submitted to his father by laying his life down, then no one could kill Jesus without His consent; He laid down His life voluntarily. (John 10:18)