Gethsemane is an Aramaic place name meaning 'oil press' or 'olive press.' It refers to the garden or grove on the Mount of Olives where Jesus prayed in agony the night before His crucifixion. Matthew and Mark name it specifically; Luke calls it the Mount of Olives; John calls it a garden across the Kidron valley.
Gethsemane is the place of the supreme prayer — where Jesus, 'deeply distressed and troubled,' submitted His will to the Father's: 'Yet not what I will, but what you will' (Mark 14:36). Theologically, Gethsemane represents the full humanity of Christ bearing the weight of coming atonement. The name 'oil press' is richly symbolic — olives yield their oil only under crushing pressure. Christ, pressed to the point of sweating blood (Luke 22:44), produces the oil of the Spirit for all who believe. No Gethsemane, no Calvary; no Calvary, no resurrection.