ZA MAGAZINE // seek truth.

This article is a little different than most. When I was praying for a place to study the Word, I felt like I needed to go through the Easter story (since it was the week before Easter Sunday). So I opened up John 18, and I read this:

John 18:1
When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley, where there was a garden which he and his disciples entered.

And, for that day of reading, that was as far as I got. How is this possible? I mean, it’s just changing the scene, right? Well, not exactly. There’s a lot of value here, if you take the time to study the verse, read some commentaries, and brush up on your geography. So, without any more ado, I present to you the most in-depth study of John 18:1 that you will ever find (if you find one, let me know so I can retract that!).

Setting the stage

Jesus and His disciples left the lower city via an entrance in the southeast side of Jerusalem. From there, they walked through the Kidron Valley, which contains a stream that runs along the eastern wall of the City of David. From the exit that Jesus took, it was over a half a mile’s walk to the garden of Gethsemane, which was His destination.

John does skip a few details here. Different authors highlight different parts of events, and John chooses to just set the stage enough to get to Judas’ betrayal. Matthew 26:30-35 shows us that they went to the Mount of Olives first. This isn’t a big deal though, because Gethsemane is on the western side of the Mount of Olives anyways. It is on the Mount that Jesus tells the disciples that they will flee, and that Peter would deny Him three times. But then, after this, they enter the garden.

Going the distance

I think that the distance it took to walk is a significant thing to grasp. Jesus could have prayed in the place where He had just shared his last supper with His disciples. In fact, He had just finished up doing so! But when He needed personal time for deep and passionate prayer, He had to get away. There are two lessons here. First, there are times when we as Christians need to get away from the crowd in order to pray. Maybe it was the setting, or maybe it was the fact that He could be so uninhibited, but either way, He had to get out of the city. Second, we need to avoid being lazy! There are times when I don’t want to walk to a chapel or drive to a church to pray because it would take too long or because it’s cold outside or because I have to walk uphill. These excuses are weak! We need to make the sacrifice and get it done.

Kidron Valley?

Now, what about this Kidron Valley? Is there anything significant here? Well, that depends on how much you want to read into Scripture. If you want to believe that this is merely a descriptive phrase by John to indicate where they left Jerusalem and how they got to Gethsemane, so be it…I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with thinking that way. But let’s take a look at some things we can possibly glean from the truth that Jesus and the disciples went across the Kidron Valley.

The valley runs along the eastern wall of Old Jerusalem. According to a map in one of my Bibles, there was an entrance to the “lower city” section of Jerusalem through a wall in the southeast of the city. When you leave, you’re basically in the valley. Though it is translated as “valley” in the English Standard Version of the Bible, it gets rendered as “brook,” “ravine,” or “winter stream” in other translations. This is known as an ephemeral stream, one that lasts for a short time. In the Old Testament, the Valley probably contained a steady stream, but Hezekiah diverted it when he was under siege by Assyria. In the time of Jesus and today, it’s usually dry, with the exception of a very rainy winter. So, while there might have been a bit of water left from the rain, the water itself has little to no bearing on the Valley’s significance.

A formal departure

The most common parallel that people draw when they talk about the Valley of Kidron is the parallel between Jesus and David, the great king of the Old Testament.

2 Samuel 15:23
And all the land wept aloud as all the people passed by, and the king crossed the brook Kidron, and all the people passed on toward the wilderness.

Kidron’s first Biblical reference is a sad one, one where David has been kicked out of his own kingdom by his son Absalom. Scholars compare this verse to 1 Kings 2:37 and note that a mention of crossing the Kidron was a symbolic way of saying that they have solemnly and completely gone out from the city. And this is certainly true for Jesus Christ. This was the last time that He left the city as a free man. The whole city changed overnight, having been transformed from a place where Jesus was celebrated as king to a place where Jesus was mocked, despised, and killed. I can say with some confidence that John mentions Kidron because he’s making the point that from this point on, things are different.

Israel’s Death Valley

What else can we learn about Kidron? Another item of significance is the fact that Jews (and later Muslims) were buried in the Valley of Kidron. Scripture makes one indication that it was a notable grave site well before Jesus’s time:

2 Kings 23:4,6
4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.
6 And he brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves of the common people.

In the matching section of Scripture about Josiah’s reforms in 2 Chronicles 34, it says that the dust was cast upon those who had sacrificed to these false gods. Regardless, there were graves in the Valley of Kidron. Why? As mentioned previously, the valley runs along the eastern wall. What is right on the eastern wall in the city of Jerusalem? The temple. If you believed that the temple was the holiest place in the world, the place where God resided on earth, wouldn’t you want to be buried closer to God? As time passed, it became more of a traditional burial site, which would explain the graves of people who had served false gods.

Why talk about dead people? As I said before, some of this stuff might be reaching a bit too far. But when I read about Jesus Christ walking through a valley full of dead people, I can’t help but think that this verse is involved somehow:

Psalm 23:4
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

As Jesus walked the distance through this valley full of dead people, it had to be a reminder of what was to come. He was very distressed, but as He prayed in the garden, an angel came to strengthen Him. Perhaps this verse (and the entire Psalm) are prophetic. Perhaps Jesus, a man who knew His Scriptures, would have remembered this verse and been comforted by it.

The home of the end of the world?

Another thing that we need to know about the Valley of Kidron is that it is the traditional location of the Valley of Jehoshaphat. No one knows for sure if this is the right spot. For centuries, Jewish scholars didn’t believe that the Valley of Jehoshaphat was a physical location, and that is supported by Christian scholars to this day. But since the 4th Century AD, Kidron has taken on the title Valley of Jehoshaphat, the place where Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike all believe that the final judgment will take place.

Joel 3:2,12
2 I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land…
12 Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.

So, isn’t it interesting that Jesus’ last walk as a free man had Him going straight through the Valley of Judgment (If Kidron is indeed the correct location)? Jesus took on the sins of the world, and God punished Him for those sins.

Conclusion

There are some things in the article that you should take and run with (get out of your room and pray!), others are more speculative and I would not force them on anybody. However, one thing is certain: there is an incredible depth to Scripture, if we are willing to take the time, pay the price, and dig deep into it. There are a wealth of sources to help you study, and the Holy Spirit will always be speaking to you. I spent a few days on one verse. If I spent one day on two verses and studied them this in-depth, then I would take 45 years to get through the Bible. Seriously! We should never think we have thing all figured out.

Grace and peace,
Brendan

Photo accompanying article was taken by Flickr user randall_niles. The original photo can be found here, and was distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic license.