Calvary means skull. It is the Latin word Calvaria, translating the Greek Kranion, translating the Aramaic Golgotha — and it appears in the English Bible exactly once, in Luke, in the King James translation. Every other Gospel calls it Golgotha, and most modern versions simply call it the Skull. So the tenderest word we own is not a place name at all. It is somebody’s description of a rock. One verse, and a translator’s choice Luke writes that when they…

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