GABBATHA occurs John xix. 13, where the Evangelist states that Pontius Pilate, alarmed at last, in his attempts to save Jesus, by the artful insinuation of the Jews, ` If thou let this man go, thou art not aesar's friend,' went into the prm torium again, and brought Jesus out to them, and sat down once more upon the giiaa or tribunal, in a place called ALObcrrpcbrov, but in the Hebrew Gabbatha. The Greek word, signifying literally stone-paved, is an adjective, and is generally used as such by the Greek writers ; but they also some times use it substantively for a stone pavement, when g5a0os. may be understood. In the Septua gint it answers to ;Inv" (2 Chron. vii. 3 ; Esther i. 6). Jerome reads ` Sedit pro tribunali in loco qui dicitur Lithostrotos.' The Greek word, as well as the Latin, is frequently used to denote a pavement formed of ornamental stones of various colours, commonly called a tesselated or mosaic pavement. The partiality of the Romans for this kind of pavement is well known. It is stated by Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 64) that, during the time of Sylla, the Romans decorated their houses with such pavements. They also introduced them into the provinces. Suetonius relates that Julius Cmsar, in his military expeditions, took with him the materials of tesselated pavements, ready prepared, that, wherever he encamped, they might be laid down in the prxtorium (Casaubon, ad Sudan. p. 38, etc., edit. 16o5). From these facts it has been infcrred by many eminent writers, that the Tbros Nigbarpun-os, or place where Pilate's+ tribunal was set on this occasion; was covered by a tesselated pavement, which, as a piece of Roman magnifi cence, was appended to the prtorium at Jerusa lem. The emphatic manlier in which St. John speaks of it agrees with this conjecture. It further appears from his narrative that it was outside the prxtorium ; for Pilate is said to have come out' to the Jews, who, for ceremonial reasons, did not go into it, on this as well as on other occasions (John xviii. 2S, 29, 38 ; xix. 4, 13). Besides which, the Roman governors, although they tried causes, and conferred with their council (Acts xxv. 12), within the prxtoriam, always pronounced sentence in the open air. May not then this tesse lated pavement, on which the tribunal was now placed, have been inlaid on some part of the tcr race running along one side of the prxtorium, and overlooking the area where the Jews were as sembled, or upon a landing-place of the stairs, im mediately before the grand entrance ? It has been conjectured that the pavement in question was no other than the one referred to in 2 Chron. vii. 3, and by Josephus, De Bell. yucl. vi.
1. 8, as in the outer court of Me temple; but though it appears that Pilate sometimes sat upon his tri bunal in different places, as, for instance, in the open market-place (De Bell. 7zed. ii. 9. 3), yet the supposition that he would, on this occasion, when the Jews were pressing for a speedy judgment, and when he was overcome with alarm, adjourn the whole assembly, consisting of rulers of every grade, as well as the populace, to any other place, is very unlikely ; and the supposition that such place was any part of the temple is encumbered with addi tional difficulties. The word Gabbatha remains to be considered. It is not certain that St. John intends ALGoarpceros as a translation or interpreta tion of Gabbatha ; hc may simply mean that the same place was called by these two names in Greek and Hebrew respectively. Yet it may be said that the names 11-12N, and 'A7roXX6cov, which he intro duces in a similar way (Rev. ix. ri), are synony mous ; and if the word Gabbatha be derived, as Lightfoot suggests (in loc.), from .2), a surface,' it may correspond to the idea of a pavement ; but if, as is usual, it be derived from nza, to be high or elevated,' it may refer chiefly to the terrace, or uppermost landing- of the stairs, which might have been inlaid with a tesselated pavement. Schleusner understands an elevated mosaic pave ment, on which the fiicea was placed, before the pmtorium. The most natural inference from St. John's statement is, that the word Gabbatha is Hebrew,' or rather Aramaic. The Syriac version, instead of Gabbatha, reads Gepiptha [1 L\M • c="1lorica, peribolus, The double b in Gabbatha is an objection to its being derived from r12) ; it is more properly derived from 2) in the sense of back, or top. The Aramaic and Greek words are different names of the same place.] (Dis sert. De AtOoo-rpthry, a Conrad Iken, Bremze, 723 ; Lightfoot's Works,vol. ii. pp. 614, 613, Lond. '684 ; Hamelsveld, Bibl. Geogr. ii. 129 ; Seelen, Media. Exeg. i. 643 ; Jahn's Archeeol. Bib.)—J. F. D.