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ANTONIA

A large fortress built by Herod the Great on the northwest corner of the Temple Mount. The Antonia replaced an earlier fortress (Neh. 2:8; 7:2) that Herod removed during leveling excavations, replacing it with a more impressive structure named in honor of his patron Mark Antony. The Antonia, therefore, must have been built sometime prior to Antony’s defeat in 31 b.c. and served as Herod’s quarters in Jerusalem until the building of a new palace in the western quarter of the city.

The Antonia was located on an elevated rocky platform (45 × 120 m. [148 × 394 ft.]) now occupied by the Omariyyeh school; deep moats and natural escarpments protected it on all sides. According to Josephus (BJ 5.238-47), the Antonia had four towers at the corners and four turrets that dominated the temple courts below. The fortress contained baths, porticos, courtyards, and other conveniences suitable to royal visitors but sufficient to accommodate a Roman cohort normally stationed there (cf. Acts 21:27-37). The Antonia was linked to the temple precincts by two stairways leading down to the porticos of the temple enclosure and by a tunnel (Ant. 15.424). The Struthion pool on the northwest side of the Antonia supplied water to the fortress.

Whether or not the Antonia was the location of the trial of Jesus before Pilate is debated. The Roman procurators could also have stayed at either Herod’s palace or the Hasmonean palace, both located in the upper city.

Thomas V. Brisco

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ANTONIA

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)