JUDGMENT-HALL. Hpatre.iptov occurs Matt. xxvii. 27 ; Mark xv. 16 ; John xviii. 28, 33 ; xix. 9 ; Acts xxiii. 35 ; Phil. i. 13 ; in all which places the Vulgate has preetoriwn. The English version, howesrer, uses prtorium but once only, and then unavoidably, Mark xv. 16, The hall called Prmtorium.' In all the other instances it gives an explanation of the word rather than a translation : thus, Matt. xxvii. 27, the common hall ;' margin, or governor's house :' John xviii. 28, 33, 'the judgment-hall ;' margin, or Pilate's house :' Philip. i. 13, the palace ;' margin, or Cmsar's court.' The object of the translators, pro bably, was to make their version intelligible to the mere English reader, and to exhibit the various senses in which they considered the word to be used in the several passages. It is plainly one of the many Latin words to be found in the N. T. (LaTINIsms), being the word prxtorium in a Greek dress, a derivative from preetor; which latter, from praco, to go before,' was originally applied by the Romans to a military officer—the general. But because the Romans subdued many countries and reduced them to provinces, and governed them afterwards, at first by the generals who had sub dued them, or by some other military commanders, the word prxtor came ultimately to be used for any civil governor of a province, whether he had been engaged in war or not ; and who acted in the capacity of Chief Justice, having a council associ ated with him (Acts xxv. 12). Accordingly the word prxtorium, also, which originally signified the general's tent in a camp, came at length to be applied to the residence of the civil governor in provinces and cities (Cic. Verr. ii. v. 12); and being properly an adjective, as is also its Greek representative, it was used to signify whatever ap pertained to the prxtor or governor ; for instance, his residence, either the whole or any part of it, as his dwelling-house, or the place where he adminis tered justice, or even the large enclosed court at the entrance to the prxtorian residence (Bynxus, De Mork Christ., ii. 407, Amst. 1696).
These observations serve to elucidate the several uses of the word in the N. T., which have, how ever, much exercised the ingenuity and research of many eminent scholars, as may be seen upon referring to Pitisci, Lex. Antiy. Roman., s. tr. Prx torium.' Upon comparing the instances in which the evangelists mention the prmtorium, it will be seen, first, that it was the residence of Pilate ; for that which John relates in ch. xviii. 28, Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas into the pmtoriurn,' etc., is most certainly the same incident which Luke relates in ch. xxiii. 1, And the whole multitude arose and led him to Pilate,' etc. A collation of the subsequent verses in each passage will place this point beyond doubt. Nonnus says, that leav ing the house of Caiaphas, they took Jesus cis &buoy ineu6pos, to the governor's house.' This residence of Pilate seems to have been the magnifi cent palace built by Herod, situated in the north part of the upper city., west of the temple (Joseph.
Antiq. xv. 9. 3), and overlooking the temple (xx. 8. 1). The reasons for this opinion are, that the Roman procurators, whose ordinary residence was at Cmsarea (Acts xxiii. 23, etc. ; xxv. 1, etc.), took up their residence in this palace when they visited Jerusalem, their tribunal being erected in the open court or area before it. Thus Josephus states that Florus took up his quarters at the palace (Iv rdis flacrOtElott a6Xii-erai) ; and on the next day he had his tribunal set up before it, and sat upon it (DeBell. yud. ii. 14. 8). Philo expressly says that the palace, which had hitherto been Herod's, was now called rip obdav v drirp6rcop, the house of the prmtors ' (Lesat, ad Callan, p. 1033, ed. Franc.) Secondly, the word is applied in the N. T., by synecdoche, to a particular part of the prxtorian residence. Thus, Matt. xxvii. 27, and Mark xv. 16, And the sol diers led Jesus away into the hall called Prmtorium, and gathered unto them the whole band, and they clothed him with purple,' etc. ; where the word mther refers to the court or area in front of the prxtorium, or some other court where the procu rator's guards were stationed. In John xix. 9, the word seems applied, when all the circumstances are considered, to Pilate's private examination room. In like mariner, when Felix commanded Paul to be kept in Herod's prmtorium' (Acts xxiii. 35), the words apply not only to the whole palace originally built at Cresarea by Herod, and now most likely inhabited by the prmtor, but also to the keg or donjon a prison for confining offenders, such as existed' in our ancient royal palaces, and grand baronial castles. Thirdly, in the remaining in stance of fhe word, Phil. 13, So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the prtorium,' palace,' it is, in the opinion of the best com mentators, used by hypallage to signify the fira torian cam" at Rome, a select body of troops constituted by Augustus to guard his person and to have charge of the city, the cohortes prwtori anm' (Suet. 77b. 37 ; Claud. ; Ner. 8 ; Tacitus, Anna/. xii. 69) ; so that the words of the apostle really mean, My bonds in Christ are manifest to all the prmtorians, and by their means to the public at large' (Bloomfield's Recensio S'ynopt., in loc.) The prmfect of this camp was the ar par o racipxv to whose charge Paul was committed (Acts xxviii. 16), as the younger Agrippa was once imprisoned by this officer at the express command of the emperor Tiberius (Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 6. 6 ; Olshausen, Topogr. des alt. .7,rusalem, sec. iii. 9 ; Perizonius, De Origine et Significatione et usu vocum Prato* et Preetorii, Frank. 1690 ; Perizo nius, Disquisitio cum Ulric° Hubao, Lugdun. Bat. 1696 ; Shorzius, De Pratorio Paoli in Exercd. Phil., Hag. Com. 1774 ; Zornius, Oposcula Sacra, ii. 699 ; Winer, Bibl. Real- WOrterbuch, art Richthaus.'—J. F. D.