Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

PRAETORIUM

Originally a general’s tent, the word “praetorium” in NT times was commonly used of the residence of a provincial governor (Acts 23:35; cf. Phil. 1:13).

The Gospels report that Jesus was interrogated by Pontius Pilate at “the praetorium” (Gk. aulē, “palace”; Mark 15:16; cf. Matt. 27:27; John 18:28, 33; 19:9). This was once widely held to be the Fortress Antonia at the northwest corner of the temple mount. In 35-37 b.c. Herod the Great rebuilt an existing Hasmonean fortress, renaming it Antonia in honor of his patron Mark Antony (Josephus BJ 1.75, 117, 401-2). The Antonia surfaces in the NT in reference to “the barracks” (parembolḗ; Acts 21:34, 37; 22:24; 23:10, 16, 32). The Via Dolorosa begins at this site. Across the street at the modern Ecce Homo convent is a pavement once thought to be part of a 1st-century courtyard (Lithóstrōton, John 19:13) of the Antonia, but the pavement is now identified as part of the eastern forum of the city as rebuilt by Hadrian (a.d. 132-135).

Herod’s Hasmonean predecessors had a palace at the edge of the upper city across the Tyropoeon Valley from the temple (Josephus Ant. 20.189-96; BJ 2.344). Early Christian tradition leads Bargil Pixner to favor this identification. Excavations in the area (in the modern Jewish Quarter) have uncovered mansions of ancient Jerusalem’s aristocracy but no Hasmonean palace.

The leading candidate for the praetorium is the new palace of Herod the Great, located on the western edge of the city at the Citadel next to the present Jaffa Gate. Constructed in 24-23 b.c., Herod’s palace was most impressive, rivaling the temple itself in size and splendor. Josephus writes of its huge towers and high walls, banquet halls and guest rooms, ornamented ceilings and furniture, porticoes and gardens with statues and canals (BJ 5.176-183; Ant. 15.318). Philo (Leg. 299, 306) writes that Herod’s palace served as “residence of the governors.” Archaeology has shown that it extended into the present Armenian Quarter nearly to the south wall of the Old City and so covered an area larger than that of the Citadel, which today sits at the northern end of the site.

Bibliography. J. Finegan, The Archaeology of the New Testament, rev. ed. (Princeton, 1992), 246-53; R. M. Mackowski, Jerusalem, City of Jesus (Grand Rapids, 1980), 89-111.

Robert Harry Smith

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

PRAETORIUM

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)