According to Daniel Rona, once a year in ancient Israel, on Yom Kippur--the Day of Atonement--an unblemished, firstborn lamb or goat would be allowed to escape through the eastern gate of the temple. This Gate Beautiful was the most significant gate of the Temple. It also became known as the "Gate of Mercy" and the "Gate of Forgiveness," Sha'ar HaRahamim in Hebrew. In the Day of Atonement rites, the firstborn lamb or goat was first "blessed" with the sins of the congregation. The priest would have had to interview the congregation, probably individually. Their confessions of mistakes or experiences of grief and tragedy would then be repeated vocally by the priest as he laid them on the head of the firstborn, unblemished offering. Bearing the sins of the multitude, this scapegoat truly became a symbol of a redeemer to come to take away the sins of the people (see Leviticus 16:21-22). Tradition relates that the scapegoat was marked with a crimson ribbon to indicate that it was an animal not to be killed. It was to die on its own, outside the temple.
There was another special sacrificial rite in which the Gate Beautiful was an exit for an unblemished, firstborn animal, but it was a totally red-haired calf. According to well-documented traditions, the red calf was led out of the eastern gate across the Kidron Valley and up the Mount of Olives. It was then sacrificed high enough to be over the temple, yet in a straight line with the Gate Beautiful and still be northward of the altar. The red calf would be totally burned and its ashes used in special immersion ceremonies for purification of sins (see Numbers 19:2-10).
Thus we find symbols of the Messiah, who would take the sins of the world upon himself and would die on his own outside the temple. His experience of taking sins upon himself would render him red. He would bleed from every pore. [Daniel Rona, Israel Revealed: Discovering Mormon and Jewish Insights in the Holy Land, pp. 155, 184] [See the commentary on Mosiah 3:7]
Note* It is interesting that to be across the Kidron valley and straight in line with the eastern gate of the temple would approximate the location of the garden of Gethsemane, where the Savior suffered. Although there is a traditional site (The Church of All Nations) located at the base of the Mount of Olives, there are also olive trees higher up on the hill, adjacent to the Orson Hyde Memorial. [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]
Note* According to Jeffrey Marsh, the word Gethsemane comes from the Hebrew gath, "press," and shemen, "oil." Gethsemane was a small olive grove with an olive press. The process for extracting oil from olives is an instructive one. Ripened olives are harvested and placed in a circular trough. A large and very heavy stone is then rolled around and around, passing over the olives to break them up. At first the olives are bruised, and then they are broken, and eventually the weight of the stone turns the olives into a gray-green mash. The mash is transferred into burlap sacks and tied off tightly. The bags are placed on a second type of press, this one having a large stone attached to a lever. The stone is lowered onto the bags of olive mash, and immense pressure is applied by turning the lever. Soon the oil begins to ooze from the olives and out through the pores of the bag. The first thing to appear is a bright red juice, which is followed by the clear-colored olive oil.
Note* Olive oil was used for healing and anointing If the Olive tree or tree of life represented Christ and his covenant, then the anointings and healings derived their power from that covenant. Kings, prophets, and High Priests were the ones anointed. Jesus was the only prophet king and High Priest. The name Jesus Christ or the Messiah refers to Jesus' role as the Anointed One. The Greek word "Cristos" means anointed, and is the equivalent of Messiah, which is from a Hebrew and Aramaic term meaning anointed. [W. Jeffrey Marsh, His Final Hours, pp.42-43, 53]