From that moment we hear no more of the humbled apostle, till after the
fatal consummation of his Redeemer’s sufferings. Yet he must have been
a beholder of that awful scene. When the multitude of men and women
followed the cross-bearing Redeemer down the vale of Calvary, mourning
with tears and groans, Peter could not have sought to indulge in
solitary grief. And since the son of Zebedee stood by the cross during
the whole agony of Jesus, the other apostles probably had no more cause
of fear than John, and Peter also might have stood near, among the
crowd, without any danger of being further molested by those whom he
had offended, since they now looked on their triumph as too complete to
need any minor acts of vengeance, to consummate it over the fragments
of the broken Nazarene sect. Still, it was in _silent_ sorrow and
horror that he gazed on this sight of woe, and the deep despair which
now overwhelmed his bright dreams of glory was no longer uttered
in the violent expressions to which his loquacious genius prompted him.
He now had time and reason enough to apprehend the painfully literal
meaning of the oft-repeated predictions of Christ about these sad
events――predictions which once were so wildly unheeded or perversely
misconstrued as best suited the ambitious disciples’ hopes of power,
which was to be set up over all the civil, religious, and military
tyrants of Palestine, and of which they were to be the chief partakers.
These hopes all went out with the last breath of their crucified Lord,
and when they turned away from that scene of hopeless woe, after taking
a last look of the face that had so long been the source of light and
truth to them, now fixed and ghastly in the last struggle of a horrible
death, they must have felt that the delusive dream of years was now
broken, and that they were but forlorn and desperate outcasts in the
land which their proud thoughts once aspired to rule. What despairing
anguish must have been theirs, as climbing the hillside with sad and
slow steps, they looked back from its top down upon the cross, that
might still be seen in the dark valley, though dim with the shades of
falling night! Their Lord, their teacher, their guide, their friend,
――hung there between the heavens and the earth, among thieves, the
victim of triumphant tyranny; and they, owing their safety only to the
contemptuous forbearance of his murderers, must now, strangers in a
strange land, seek a home among those who scorned them.
_The VALE of Calvary_.――This expression will no doubt excite
vast surprise in the minds of many readers, who have all their
lives heard and talked of _Mount_ Calvary, without once taking
the pains to find out whether there ever was any such place.
Such persons will, no doubt, find their amazement still farther
increased, on learning that no _Mount_ Calvary is mentioned in
any part of the Bible, nor in any ancient author.
The whole account given of this name in the Bible, is in Luke
xxiii. 33, where in the common translation it is said that
Christ was crucified in “the place called Calvary.” In the
parallel passages in the other gospels, the Hebrew name only is
given, Golgotha, which means simply “a skull.” (Matthew xxvii.
33: Mark xv. 22: John xix. 17.) This particular place does not
seem to be named and designated in any part of the Old Testament,
but a very clear idea of its general situation can be obtained,
from the consideration of the fact, that there was a place
beyond the walls of Jerusalem, where all the dead were buried,
and whither all the carcasses of slain animals were carried and
left to moulder. This was that part of the valley of the Kedron
which was called the valley of Tophet, or the vale of the son
of Hinnom. This is often alluded to as the place of dead bodies.
(Jeremiah vii. 32, &c.) Besides, all reason and analogy utterly
forbid the supposition, that dead carcasses would be piled up
on a “mount” or hill, to rot and send their effluvia all over
the city in every favorable wind; while on the other hand, a
deep valley like that of Hinnom would be a most proper place for
carrying such offensive matters. Josephus, in his description
of the temple, very particularly notices the fact, that all the
blood and filth which flowed from the numerous sacrifices, was
conveyed by a subterraneous channel or drain to this very valley.