Why Was Yeshua Crucified At Golgotha? – Be’Midbar

The place where Yeshua was crucified is obviously significant for those who believe in Him as Messiah and Savior. The Messiah came to take away the sin of the world and, according to the New Testament, this was accomplished at a particular place:

Then they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull. They tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh; but He did not take it. And they crucified Him, and divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide what each man should take. It was the third hour when they crucified Him. The inscription of the charge against Him read, “THE KING OF THE JEWS.” – Mark 15:22-26

In these verses we read that the name of the place was called Golgotha, meaning “Place of a Skull.” In Luke 23:33 we also read that the name of that place was called “The Skull,” which comes from the Greek word “Kranion” (cranium) or in the Latin, “Calvarius” – Calvary!

We don’t know exactly where this place called Golgotha or Calvary was located but there are traditional sites in Jerusalem which are recognized today. Anyone who has been on a tour in Israel has more than likely visited both The Church of the Holy Sepulcher and The Garden Tomb. Both of these locations have some credence based on history, Christian tradition, and archaeological evidence. Wherever the original place of Golgotha was located, I personally believe that The Garden Tomb provides a more realistic landscape today to help one visualize the crucifixion and burial place of the Messiah 2000 years ago.  

The names Golgotha and Calvary are the common names by which the place of the crucifixion of the Messiah is remembered. Both of these names transmit the meaning in English of the head or the skull. The Bible always gives us information for a reason. What is the significance of Yeshua being crucified at the place called the head or the skull? This week’s Torah Portion will help to shed light on this question.

Be’Midbar – Numbers

The book of Numbers gets its name because of the command of the LORD for the Israelites to be counted or numbered in the first four chapters of this book. Not all of the Israelites were to be counted, but only the males of Israel from the age of twenty years old and upward who were able to go out to war:

Then the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, “Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, every male, head by head from twenty years old and upward, whoever is able to go out to war in Israel, you and Aaron shall number them by their armies. With you, moreover, there shall be a man of each tribe, each one head of his father’s household. – Num. 1:1-4

God had assigned Moses and Aaron the task of numbering the men of Israel together with the help of twelve leaders, a leader from every tribe.

When God charged Moses and Aaron with the task of numbering the men of Israel He gave them very specific instructions of who was to be counted and how they were to be counted. We read in the second verse of the above quoted text the following directives: 

“Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, every male, head by head…” – Num. 1:2

The phrase “take a census” in the original Hebrew is שאו את ראש – Sa’oo Et Rosh and is literally translated “lift up the head.” The meaning of this phrase is to let each head be lifted up and counted and is therefore translated as “take a census.” Every person was to be counted, one head at a time.

Counting Head By Head

It is valuable to understand the original meaning from the Hebrew because we see something similar at the end of this same verse when it uses the phrase, “head by head…” This phrase in Hebrew is לגולגלותם – Le’Gulgelotam which is one word in Hebrew but is not easily translated. The most literal translation of this word would be the phrase “according to their heads” or “by their heads.” In the English language this is better written as “head by head…” 

In context, I believe we see the emphasis on how God wanted each man to be counted: every head of the males of Israel who was twenty years old and older and who was able to go out to war. The use of the Hebrew word לגולגלותם – Le’Gulgelotam stresses the importance of each and every person to be counted in the English phrase: “head by head.”

The Israelite men were counted head by head and tribe by tribe according to the instruction of the LORD. Numbers chapter one details the exact number of men who were numbered according to their tribal affiliation with a total number of men according to the specifications which the LORD had commanded:

So all the numbered men of the sons of Israel by their fathers’ households, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war in Israel, even all the numbered men were 603,550. – Num. 1:45-46

This is the total number of men who were numbered from the twelve tribes of Israel, however, the tribe of Levi was not included in this counting. Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, were counted as two separate tribes thereby allowing Israel to continue as twelve tribes.

The Separation Of The Levites

The Levites were not to be numbered with the Israelite men who would go out to war, but rather they were to be set apart for the work of the Tabernacle in order to assist the priests:

The Levites, however, were not numbered among them by their fathers’ tribe. For the LORD had spoken to Moses, saying, “Only the tribe of Levi you shall not number, nor shall you take their census among the sons of Israel. But you shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, and over all its furnishings and over all that belongs to it. They shall carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall take care of it; they shall also camp around the tabernacle. So when the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle encamps, the Levites shall set it up. But the layman who comes near shall be put to death…” – Num. 1:47-51

God had a special appointment for the Levites to be responsible for the Tabernacle: including the disassembling and assembling of the Tabernacle as it was moved from location to location. As a result of this unique responsibility in the camp of Israel, the Levites were not to be counted with the rest of the men who went out to war.

The Levites – Substitutes For The Firstborn

In addition to the Levites being set apart for the work of the Tabernacle, the Levites were also chosen to replace all of the first-born males of the Israelites:

Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Now, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the sons of Israel instead of every firstborn, the first issue of the womb among the sons of Israel. So the Levites shall be Mine. For all the firstborn are Mine; on the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to Myself all the firstborn in Israel, from man to beast. They shall be Mine; I am the LORD.” – Num. 3:11-13

Since the time of the Exodus, the LORD had claimed all of the first-born males to belong to Him. The firstborn male of animals were to be sacrificed to the LORD and the firstborn sons of the Israelites were to be redeemed (Ex. 13:11-16). All of the firstborn males belonged to the LORD.

The substituting of the Levites for the firstborn males of Israel was not arbitrary, but rather it was accomplished by the numbering of the Levite males together with the counting of all the firstborn males of Israel:

All the numbered men of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the command of the LORD by their families, every male from a month old and upward, were 22,000. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Number every firstborn male of the sons of Israel from a month old and upward, and make a list of their names. You shall take the Levites for Me, I am the LORD, instead of all the firstborn among the sons of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the cattle of the sons of Israel.” So Moses numbered all the firstborn among the sons of Israel, just as the LORD had commanded him; and all the firstborn males by the number of names from a month old and upward, for their numbered men were 22,273. – Num. 3:39-43    

This counting of the Levites as well as the counting of the firstborn males of Israel was taken by numbering each from the age of one month old. There were a total of 22,000 males from the tribe of Levi and 22,273 firstborn males of all of the rest of the tribes of Israel. 

There was a difference of 273 males that were unaccounted for among the Levites. To make up for this difference of the 273, the LORD gave the following command:

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the sons of Israel and the cattle of the Levites. And the Levites shall be Mine; I am the LORD. For the ransom of the 273 of the firstborn of the sons of Israel who are in excess beyond the Levites, you shall take five shekels apiece, per head; you shall take them in terms of the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), and give the money, the ransom of those who are in excess among them, to Aaron and to his sons.” – Num. 3:44-48 

All of the Levites were to be devoted to the LORD in place of the firstborn males of Israel. The excess of 273 firstborn males was to be ransomed or redeemed by a payment in silver.

The LORD commanded that five shekels be paid in ransom for each of the 273 firstborn males who did not have a corresponding Levite to take their place. The LORD specifically stated that five shekels each was to be taken לגולגולת – La’Gulgolet – per head (Num. 3:47). Each and every firstborn male of Israel needed to be redeemed by either a substitute Levite male or a payment of five silver shekel coins. The substitution of the Levites for the firstborn males of Israel was precise in its counting and exacting in its redemption. Every head was counted and every head was ransomed. All of the firstborn males of Israel belonged to the LORD.

Gulgolet & Golgotha

As we have examined the “numbering” of the men of Israel in the first three chapters of the book of Numbers we see the repetition of the word גולגולת – Gulgolet used for an accounting for each and every man of Israel able to go out to way as well as for the accounting of the firstborn males. The word גולגולת – Gulgolet only appears twelve times in all of the Old Testament and seven of those times it is used in connection with the counting of the Levites and for the men of Israel. 

The Hebrew word גולגולת – Gulgolet simply means head or skull but the majority of times that it is used in the Old Testament it is used in the context of counting the heads of individual Israelites and for the substituting of each male Levite for the firstborn males who belong to the LORD. This same word גולגולת – Gulgolet also appears in the New Testament as גלגותא – Golgotha (possibly a Chaldean or Aramaic spelling of the word), designating the place where Yeshua was crucified:

They took Yeshua, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. – John 19:17

The word “Golgotha” only appears two other times in the New Testament, both in reference to the name of the same location, Golgotha (Matt. 27:33. Mark 15:22).

The Numbering Of Yeshua

In understanding the way in which the Hebrew word גולגולת – Gulgolet is used in the Bible as a whole, I believe that God was communicating a deeper message through the name of the place Golgotha. Yeshua Himself spoke of this deeper meaning: 

For I tell you that this which is written must be fulfilled in Me, ‘AND HE WAS NUMBERED WITH TRANSGRESSORS’; for that which refers to Me has its fulfillment. – Luke 22:37

Yeshua declared to His disciples that a certain prophecy needed to be fulfilled in His life which is the prophecy that He would be “numbered with transgressors.” The full context of these words which Yeshua quoted are found in the last verse of Isaiah chapter fifty-three:

Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors. – Isaiah 53:12

In the place where Yeshua poured out Himself to death on the cross, He was numbered with the transgressors so that He might bear the sin of the many. Golgotha marks the place where Yeshua was numbered with the transgressors.

Substitutionary Sacrifice

Just as the Levites were numbered and became a substitute for the firstborn males of the nation of Israel, so too the Messiah would be numbered with the transgressors in order to become a substitutionary sacrifice not only for the nation of Israel, but for all of mankind:

For Messiah also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; – 1 Peter 3:18

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. – 2 Corinthians 5:21

Messiah voluntarily took our place and ransomed us from fear and death by the sacrifice of His own life. Golgotha stands as a memorial for the place where Yeshua the Messiah was numbered with the transgressors and gave His life for our lives. 

Shabbat Shalom!

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Torah Portion: Num. 1:1 – Num. 4:20

Haftara: Hosea 2:1-22

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