And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.

John 19:17ff

Golgotha - The Axis of the Wheel

The crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ is the central event of all Scripture. It is the fixed point of God's revelation. Just as the Apostle Paul "determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (1 Cor 2:2), so the Wheel revolves about this singular event. It is the axis of the Wheel. The name Golgotha, as noted above by the Apostle John, means the Place of the Skull. It is a transliteration of the Aramaic name used at the time of Christ, Gulgoltha, corresponding to the Hebrew gulgoleth (skull).

This word gives great insight into the design of the Bible. It is based on the verb galal (to roll) because a skull is round like a ball or globe. Christians know this root through the original location of the Lord's ministry, Galilee, so called because it consisted of a circuit (galeel) of border towns in the northernmost region of Israel (Joshua 20:7). Another familiar word is Gilgal, so named because it is where God figuratively "rolled away" the reproach of Egypt after the children of Israel crossed the Jordon into the Promised Land (Joshua 5:9):

And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away (galal) the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.

The name Gilgal is a variation of galgal, the common Hebrew word for a wheel, such as that of a chariot. Its plural form is galgalim. This word appears in twelve verses, such as the "wheels like a whirlwind" (Isa 5:28), the "fire from between the wheels" (Ezek 10:6), and the "wheels as burning fire" whirling below the Throne of God (Dan 7:9f):

I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels (galgalim) as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

Now we can easily see more of God's glorious Wisdom. The name of the place where the Lord was crucified, Gulgoltha, is spelt with the same letters as galgal suffixed with an Aleph and a Tav in reverse order. This means that the word identifying the central event of all Scripture implicitly contains the elements of its unified geometric and alphabetic structure that we discovered through that "single and surprisingly simple act" (Bible Wheel book pg 16) of rolling up the list of Sixty-Six Books on a spindle Wheel of Twenty-Two Spokes, corresponding to the Twenty-Two Hebrew Letters from Aleph to Tav. Moreover, this leads straight back to the word for a miracle or proof, the very Sign (Tav) of God (Aleph) = ot (BW book pg 88) that declares the essence of the Gospel, for it was at Gulgoltha that God (Aleph) died for us on the Cross (Tav), as it is written:

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us [Lamed, BW book pg 258] that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our great God [] and Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us [on the Cross, = ], that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. ~ Titus 2:11ff (Spoke 12, Cycle 3)

Skull and Crossbones from Mayan Graveyard Uxmal, Mexico  ca. 700 AD

The Gospel message comes directly from the Mind of God, the Creator of All. He teaches it to us using universal symbols called archetypes. Case in point: Christ's Death on the Cross at the place of the Skull – the most significant death in the history of the universe – contains the elements of the archetypal Sign of Death, the Skull and Crossbones. Note that the crossbones look like the ancient form of Tav (X, BW book pg 373), and that their fourfold form integrates with the meaning of the Number Four as revealed in the Fourth Seal of the Apocalypse (Spoke 4, BW book BW book pg 171). The independent appearance of this symbol on both hemispheres of the globe reveals its universal nature as an archetype of death, and this reflects the universality of Christ's Atonement when He "died for all" (2 Cor 5:15), "tasted death for every man" (Heb 2:9), and "took away the sins of the world" (John 1:29).

All these ideas are implicit in the name Gulgoltha. When its final two Letters are taken in their normal order, they combine to form (et, BW book pg 88), which denotes the essence and totality of a thing from Aleph to Tav, from beginning to end. A simple permutation of the letters of Gulgoltha therefore transforms it into Et Galgal, the Essence of the Wheel, and we see that the word for the geometric structure of Scripture, when combined with the two letters defining its Alphabetic Seal, declare nothing less than the essential Gospel message of all Scripture! And besides all this, we see once again how God has signed and sealed His Word with His Capstone Signature , the Sign of the Eternal God (Rev 1:8, 22:13).

Consider the depth of self-reflective integrity revealed here. Throughout this study, we have seen numerous examples of the self-descriptive nature of the Bible Wheel. We saw it in the alignment of the First Books of the Law and the Prophets on Spoke 1 (BW book pg 59), and again in the symmetrically maximized distribution of melek (king) on Spoke 12 (BW book BW book pg 104), corresponding to the Lamed in the middle of the alphabetic sequence – Kaph Lamed Mem – which spells melek in reverse order. Now we see the whole structure of the Bible Wheel implicit in the word describing the central theme of all Scripture! Praise God for His mighty Work! Yet again we see form united with content (BW book pg 75) in the most plain and obvious way.

Golgotha remains fixed as the inescapable central point about which God's revelation eternally revolves. This is the revelation of "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev 13:8). It is the unmovable axis of the Wheel. From Aleph to Tav, from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation, both the Bible and the Bible Wheel have but one message – Jesus Christ, and Him crucified! Behold the Wisdom of God! The very word denoting the intrinsic geometric structure of God's Word, Galgal (Wheel), points directly and inevitably to its central event at Golgotha, the crucifixion of "our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ" where the reproach of our sin was forever rolled away. Glory to God in the highest!

The Wheel of Revelation

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed (galah), and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Isaiah 40:3ff (Spoke 1, Cycle 2)

Throughout the Old Testament, the primary Hebrew verb meaning to reveal is galah. This word figures prominently in the thematic links and KeyLinks between the first two Books on Spoke 5 (BW book pg 189):

The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed (galah) belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
~ Deut 29:29 (Spoke 5, Cycle 1)

The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer (galah) of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal (galah) this secret.
~ Daniel 2:40 (Spoke 5, Cycle 2)

Galah relates to galal (to roll) through the idea of rolling away a covering to expose, uncover, or make something bare and naked. It is a fundamental Gimel KeyWord that appears with its greatest frequency (24x) in the prohibitions against inappropriate nakedness in Leviticus (Spoke 3, BW book pg 158). The Septuagint almost always renders galah with the Greek verb apocalupto, the root of the name and first word of the Apocalypse. Jesus used this word when He said "there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known" (Luke 12:2). Most Hebrew translations of the New Testament use this root in the form of the noun Hitgalut (Revelation) as the title for the Final Book of the Bible.

The roots galal and galah are so closely associated in rabbinic thought that they are often conflated and spoken of as the same. We saw this in Rabbi Dov Ber Weisman's explanation of the relation between the word for a scroll (megillah) and the idea of revelation that was cited in the discussion of Esther (Spoke 17, BW book pg 308):

In Hebrew, the word "megillah" shares the same root as the word "reveal". By contrast, the name "Esther" comes from the root word meaning "hidden". Megillat Esther (Book of Esther), therefore, translates to mean: "Revealing the hidden."

Linguistic specialists, in accordance with their careful categorical systems, would quibble with Weisman and distinguish between the roots galal (to roll) and galah (to reveal), but the natural coherence of these words, both in spelling and meaning, can not be denied. Indeed, megillah is spelt with exactly the same letters as galah prefixed with a Mem, while its literal meaning as "something rolled up" is obviously based on the root galal. This is what Weisman meant when he said megillah and galah share the same root word. Their meanings completely overlap.

This same semantic overlap extends to the word for a wheel (galgal) which describes the large-scale geometric structure of God's Word. Any reader of Hebrew can not help but see it, because it is built into the very Letters of the word itself. Indeed, the distinction between the roots galal and galah is lost in galgal, which is formed by simply reduplicating the first two letters Gimel and Lamed that are common to both roots. The very word for the Wheel, just like the megillah (scroll) it is patterned after, inevitably carries the implication of revelation. Thus, the nature of God's Word as a Divine Revelation is implicit in its geometric structure! It is the Wheel of Revelation (Galgal HaHitgalut).

Questions? Comments? Join the discussion on the Bible Wheel Forum!