κῆπος

From the study of John 18:1

Range of meaning

A garden in the ancient sense: any cultivated plot, such as a vegetable garden, an orchard or a planted grove. It was often fenced or walled. In Greek writers it can also mean a pleasure garden or park.

Against the English

Every major version has 'garden' except NLT, which turns it into an olive grove. 'Garden' is accurate, but a modern reader may imagine flowerbeds or a park. What John means is a working plot, most likely an olive orchard on the Mount of Olives.

How it drifted

In modern English 'garden' usually means a decorative or domestic garden. The ancient word took in orchards and farmed plots too.

Used elsewhere in the period

Matthew and Mark call the place 'a place [chōrion, a plot of land] called Gethsemane' (Matt 26:36; Mark 14:32). The name comes from Aramaic gat shemanē, 'oil press'. Luke says only 'the Mount of Olives'. John uses kēpos here and again for the place of Jesus' burial (19:41), and he calls the risen Jesus, as Mary mistakes him, the kēpouros, 'gardener' (20:15). In the Septuagint, kēpos is the word for the enclosed garden of the Song of Songs (4:12–16), while Eden in Genesis 2–3 is a paradeisos.

From the study of John 18:26

Range of meaning

A cultivated plot such as a garden, orchard or grove, often enclosed. In the Septuagint it can stand for the 'garden' of Eden traditions alongside paradeisos, and for vegetable gardens and royal gardens.

Against the English

'Garden' can make a modern reader picture flowerbeds or a lawn. The Synoptic Gospels call the place 'Gethsemane' (probably 'oil press') and a chōrion, 'a plot of land', which points to a working olive grove. NIV's 'olive grove' tries to capture this, but at the cost of John's own word.

How it drifted

English 'garden' has narrowed toward ornamental domestic space. The Greek is more agricultural.

Used elsewhere in the period

In John, 18:1 ('where there was a garden'), 18:26, and 19:41 ('in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb'). In 20:15 Mary takes the risen Jesus for the gardener (kēpouros). Septuagint Genesis 2-3 uses paradeisos rather than kēpos, though kēpos appears for gardens elsewhere (e.g. Song of Songs 4:12-16).

From the study of John 19:41

Range of meaning

A cultivated, usually enclosed plot of ground: a vegetable plot, an orchard or tree garden, an herb garden, or a planted estate attached to a house or a family property. It is a working space, not a decorative one.

Against the English

Every major English version has 'garden'. The word is accurate, but modern readers tend to picture lawns and flowerbeds, or a park. A first-century Jerusalem kēpos outside the walls was more likely an orchard or kitchen plot, perhaps terraced into an old quarry, belonging to a family that also cut its tomb there.

How it drifted

The English word itself has not changed much. What has changed is the picture behind it: ornamental gardening, plus centuries of devotional art showing a manicured garden at the tomb (and, since the 19th century, the landscaped 'Garden Tomb' site in Jerusalem).

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) kēpos translates Hebrew gan or gannah, e.g. the 'garden locked' of Song of Songs 4:12, 16 and the vegetable garden of Deut 11:10. Kings of Judah were buried 'in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza' (2 Kgs 21:18, 26, where the Septuagint has kēpos), and Nehemiah 3:15–16 places 'the king's garden' near the tombs of David. Notably, the Septuagint of Genesis 2–3 calls Eden a paradeisos, not a kēpos. In John the word appears only in the passion story: the garden of the arrest (18:1, 26) and this burial garden, and 20:15 has the related kēpouros, 'gardener'.