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century BC monument to the King/Priest John Hyrca- Historical sources are conclusive that the massive
nus of the Hashmonean dynasty. 80-foot curtain was located in a spot that was visible
only from atop the Mount of Olives. "It would have
Early Church historians indicated that in the first cen- been a physical impossibility for anyone in Jerusalem
tury, Christians revered the Mount of Olives (pictured to have seen this curtain from the south, the west, or
above). It was the site of the first church and was con- the north -- the locations of today's traditional cruci-
sidered to be the most significant place in Christian fixion sites," says Martin.
history. The red arrow marks the place believed to be
the site of Jesus' crucifixion near the ancient Altar of Throughout Martin's investigations, he searched
the Red Heifer -- the Altar of the Sin Sacrifices. through hundreds of contemporary and first-century
writings, ancient church literature, and the original He-
While much tradition is found at brew and Greek Scriptural
these and other places, "the one sources.
thing all these sites have in com-
mon is that they are all the wrong He found that the Bible itself in-
place," says the Christian-Biblical dicates that the crucifixion oc-
historian, Prof. Ernest L. Martin, curred in a "holy place" -- a place
in an exclusive interview with the John describes as belonging to
Jerusalem Christian Review. the Temple worship ritual --
which the Book of Hebrews re-
Indeed, several years ago, Dr. fers to as an altar called
Martin, president of the Academy "Outside-the-Camp" (John
of Scriptural Knowledge in Port- 19:20; Hebrews 13:10-14).
land, Oregon, took a fresh look at
the question with some startling results. "'Outside-the-Camp' was not a description but the name
of a specific place, known from biblical and contempo-
"The simplest of my findings revolves around some ba- rary sources," said well-known Jerusalem historian,
sic New and Old Testament Scriptures, whose signifi- Prof. Ory Mazar, the author of numerous books on the
cance has been overlooked for centuries," said Dr. history of Jerusalem.
Martin as he described his latest book, Secrets of Gol-
gotha. Mazar, who worked with Martin on part of his research,
explained that this place, "was the location of the 'Altar
While working with the renowned Jerusalem archae- of the Red Heifer'." Although the altar was located
ologist, Prof. Benjamin Mazar, at the Temple Mount "outside the city" on the Mount of Olives and not on
excavations in the 1960s, Martin studied the geo- the Temple Mount, it was still an extremely important
graphical history of Jerusalem with some of Israel's part of the Temple worship ritual -- it was the Altar of
leading scholars. the major Sin Sacrifices.

"According to the Law of Moses," said Mazar in a in-
"My initial interest in researching this subject was
spawned from... one primary fact," said Martin. "It ap- terview with the Jerusalem Christian Review, "one
pears as though the centurion who was at the foot of could not worship on the holy grounds of the Temple
the cross was able to observe the tearing of the Temple without first sacrificing a sin offering 'Outside-the-
veil [the outside curtain, called in Hebrew 'Masach'], Camp.'"
something that would have been possible only from a
point east of the Temple Mount, and not from any point Adding to dozens of additional pieces of evidence,
west of it." Martin found that the Bible itself identifies the place
called "Golgotha" ("the Place of the Head") in 2 Samuel
"While this is not evidence in itself," said the historian, 15. The "Place of the Head" (mistranslated in English
"it did inspire my curiosity." translations as the summit of the mountain) was the
place on the Mount of Olives where King David
stopped to worship as he was fleeing from Jerusalem

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