Bible Encyclopedias

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Judgment Hall

juj´ment hȯl ( τὸ πραιτώριον , tó praitṓrion , "Then led they Jesus ... unto the hall of judgment ... and they themselves went not into the judgment hall" ( John 18:28 the King James Version); "Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again" ( John 18:33 the King James Version); "(Pilate) went again into the judgment hall" ( John 19:9 ); "He commanded him to be kept in Herod's judgment hall" (Acts 23:35 )):

"Judgment hall" is one of the ways in which the King James Version translates praitōrion , which it elsewhere renders "Praetorium" ( Mark 15:16 ); "the common hall" (Matthew 27:27 ). In this passage the English Revised Version renders it "palace"; in John 18:33; John 19:9; Acts 23:35 , "palace" is also given by the English Revised Version; in Philippians 1:13 , the King James Version renders, "palace," while the Revised Version (British and American) gives "the praetorian guard." Praitōrion accordingly is translated in all these ways, "Praetorium," "the common hall," "the judgment hall," "the palace," "the praetorian guard." In the passages In the Gospels, the American Standard Revised Version renders uniformly "Praetorium."

The word originally meant the headquarters in the Roman camp, the space where the general's tent stood, with the camp altar; the tent of the commander-in-chief. It next came to mean the military council, meeting in the general's tent. Then it came to be applied to the palace in which the Roman governor or procurator of a province resided. In Jerusalem it was the magnificent palace which Herod the Great had built for himself, and which the Roman procurators seem to have occupied when they came from Caesarea to Jerusalem to transact public business.

Praitōrion in Philippians 1:13 has been variously rendered, "the camp of the praetorian soldiers," "the praetorian guard," etc. For what is now believed to be its true meaning, see PRAETORIUM .