Gabbatha
1:
GABBATHA (PLACE) [Gk Gabbatha (Γαββαθα)]. The place where Jesus stood before Pilate in Jerusalem (John 19:13). The derivation of the original Aramaic term Gabbatha, of which this is a transliteration, is uncertain but it probably means “elevated,” and is used only here in the NT. John reveals that the place was well known by both the Aramaic term and a Greek term (lithostroton) meaning “stone pavement,” each conveying a different perspective of the site. According to John, the judgment seat or tribunal (Gk bema), on which the Roman official sat to speak to the people was located here. Matthew says that Pilate “sat on the judgment seat” (bema; 27:19) when Jesus appeared before him.
It must have been on this same tribunal in Jerusalem that Pilate sat when Jews “surrounded him” and protested his spending sacred money on the construction of an aqueduct (JW 2.175). Pilate also stood on a tribunal set up in the stadium in Caesarea and addressed protesting Jews during a demonstration in that city, according to Josephus (Ant 18.57; JW 2.172;). Paul appeared before the proconsul Gallio at such a tribunal in Corinth (Acts 18:12–17).
The tribunal, called a rostrum in Latin, was usually set up in the forum (marketplace) of a Roman city. Examples have been found, among other places, in the forums in Rome, Philippi, Pompeii, Athens, and Corinth. The location of the one in Jerusalem has been disputed. However, it was most likely situated in the upper forum, adjacent to the E side of the palace of Herod (just S of the modern Jaffa Gate).
Herodian foundations of a large stone podium have been recently found in the Armenian quarter, indicating that the palace of Herod stretched from the Citadel (Jaffa Gate) on the N, along the W modern Turkish wall to its S extremity, which turns E. Thus the podium, on which a stone pavement once stood, was built almost 12 feet higher than the previous Hasmonean building foundations. It was approximately 1,100 feet long N–S, and 200 feet wide E–W. Nothing of the superstructure has been found by M. Broshi who excavated the area.
Philo, a contemporary of Jesus, wrote that Pilate was living in Herod’s palace during one of the Jewish feasts (Gaium 38). He describes it as “the residence of the prefects.” Gessius Florus lived here just before the destruction of the Temple by Titus, beginning in a.d. 66. Florus became prefect in a.d. 64. Mark states that the soldiers “led him (Jesus) outside the palace, which is the praetorium” (15:16). The PRAETORIUM, i.e. residence of the Roman authority, must have been in the Herodian palace, and the large podium Broshi found must have been that on which Jesus stood before Pilate.
The stone pavement beneath the modern Sisters of Zion Convent could not have been the Gabbatha, because the pavement, now determined by archaeologists to have been contemporary with the ceiling vaults of the Struthion pools beneath, was not yet built when the Romans moved their siege machines “through the pools” in a.d. 70 (JW 5.467).
Bibliography
McRay, J. 1990. The Judgment Pavement of Pilate. Archaeology and the New Testament. Grand Rapids.
Bahat, D., and Broshi, M. 1975. Excavations in the Armenian Garden. Pp. 55–57 in Jerusalem Revealed, ed. Y. Yadin. Jerusalem.
Wilson, J. F. 1989. Archaeology and the Origins of the Fourth Gospel: Gabbatha. Pp. 221–30 in Johannine Studies: Essays in Honor of Frank Pack, ed. J. E. Priest. Malibu, CA.
John McRay
Freedman, D. N. (1996, c1992). The Anchor Bible Dictionary (2:862). New York: Doubleday.
2:
Gabbatha — Gab Baitha, i.e., “the ridge of the house” = “the temple-mound,” on a part of which the fortress of Antonia was built. This “temple-mound” was covered with a tesselated “pavement” (Gr. lithostroton, i.e., “stone-paved”). A judgement-seat (bema) was placed on this “pavement” outside the hall of the “praetorium” (q.v.), the judgment-hall (John 18:28; 19:13).
Easton, M. (1996, c1897). Easton's Bible dictionary. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
3:
GABBATHA Transliteration of an uncertain Aramaic expression, which is rendered in Greek as “paved with stones” and refers to the raised area before the palace in Jerusalem where formal sentencing by the governor occurred. Pilate seated himself on the elevated judgment seat here in order to preside over the trial of Jesus (Jn 19:13).
Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). Tyndale Bible dictionary. Tyndale reference library (505). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.
4:
GAB´BATHA (gabʹa-tha; Aram. gabbƒtā, “ridge, knoll, hill”). The place mentioned in John 19:13, where it is stated that Pilate, alarmed by the insinuation of the Jews (“If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar”), went into the praetorium again and brought Jesus out to them. He then pronounced formal sentence against Jesus, having taken his seat upon the tribunal in a place called “The Pavement” (Gk. lithostrōton, “stone strewn”), but in Heb., “Gabbatha.” It is probable that the Gk. name was given to the spot from the nature of its pavement, and the Heb. from its shape. For a long time the pavement in the basement of the Convent of the Sisters of Zion on the Via Dolorosa has been thought to have constituted the courtyard of the fortress Antonia, a garrison Herod the Great constructed on the NW corner of the Temple mount. Thus it was accepted as the place where Herod judged Jesus. In 1966 excavations it was shown, however, that the pavement was laid when the adjacent Hadrianic arch was built in the second century. Thus this pavement could have had nothing to do with Jesus’ passion. h.f.v.
Unger, M. F., Harrison, R. K., Vos, H. F., Barber, C. J., & Unger, M. F. (1988). The new Unger's Bible dictionary. Revision of: Unger's Bible dictionary. 3rd ed. c1966. (Rev. and updated ed.). Chicago: Moody Press.
5:
GABBATHA. An Aramaic word meaning ‘height’, ‘eminence’; the local, native word for the area. It must have been on a height.
Gabbatha identifies the same location as the other term, ‘the Pavement’ (lithostrōton), but does not describe exactly the same thing. As Jn. 19:13 specifies, it is a ‘place’ called either the Height or the Pavement. One may suppose that the Pavement was laid by Herod in front of his palace in the Upper City (at the NW angle of the first N wall). This palace was the official residence of the Roman governors, including Pilate, as is clear from incidents described by Josephus.
The Greek word lithostrōton was adopted by the Romans to describe a paved area, either of marquetry (opus sectile) or of flagstones. Both types of work are known to have been used by Herod; marquetry at Jericho (inlaid stones, some coloured, set in a pattern) and flags at Jerusalem, notably for the streets and terraces outside the immense walls of the Temple Mount (now excavated by Mazar). The foundations of this palace in the Upper City have been excavated, but the superstructures were missing. Nor has the Pavement been found as yet.
The site for ‘the Pavement’ favoured by Christian pilgrims at the Convent of the Sisters of Zion is to be rejected. Its adherents err in claiming that Jesus was brought to trial at the Antonia fortress on the Temple Mount; as stated above, the palace in the Upper City was Pilate’s headquarters. Moreover the location of this pavement is slightly wrong even for the Antonia; it is probably part of the public square at the E gate of Hadrian’s Aelia Capitolina. The pools beneath it were filled in and had siege-engines erected on them when the Romans under Titus attacked the Antonia (1st Revolt). At the time of Jesus they were open pools outside the walls of the Antonia. The pavement set over them, now shown as the lithostrōton, had not been laid. j.p.k.
Wood, D. R. W., Wood, D. R. W., & Marshall, I. H. (1996, c1982, c1962). New Bible Dictionary. Includes index. (electronic ed. of 3rd ed.) (389). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.
6:
Gabbatha (gabʹah-thah), a term that appears but once in the nt in John 19:13 as the Hebrew (actually Aramaic) equivalent of the Greek term lithostrōton, ‘the pavement’ (which does appear in the other Gospels) where the hearing of Jesus before Pontius Pilate was held. The first-century Jewish historian Josephus (Wars 2.14.8) refers to a paved yard adjacent to Herod’s palace where court was held, but no paved court has yet been discovered there, even though some still hold this area, today part of the citadel adjacent to Jaffa Gate, to be the most likely site of Jesus’ trial.
The other probable location of the lithostrōton is what would have constituted the courtyard of the fortress Antonia, a garrison Herod constructed on the northwest corner of the Temple Mount, a site that is today visible in the basement of the Convent of the Sisters of Zion on the Via Dolorosa. Some 2,500 square yards of pavement made of large flagstones, averaging 4 feet by 3.5 feet by 2 feet thick, and having incised treads to prevent animals from slipping, have been excavated here, together with a Roman gaming board that illustrates the narrative about Roman soldiers on capital punishment details in the Gospels (e.g., Matt. 27:35), and large Herodian cisterns. See also Antonia, Tower of. F.S.F.
Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row, P., & Society of Biblical Literature. (1985). Harper's Bible dictionary. Includes index. (1st ed.) (326). San Francisco: Harper & Row.
7:
Gabbatha (Gk. Gabbathá)
The location of the judgment seat (Gk. bḗma), where Pilate sat for Jesus’ trial (John 19:13). The name is an Aramaic word of unknown origin. Suggestions for its meaning have included “elevated,” “open space,” “ridge,” or a transliteration of Lat. gabata, “platter.” According to John it was also known by the Greek term lithóstrōton, “pavement.” It was most probably a raised paved area outside Herod’s palace which functioned as the Praetorium, the residence of the Roman prefects. Philo specifically references Pilate’s residence there during one Jewish feast (Leg. 38).
Earlier attempts to identify the Gabbatha with the stone pavement excavated beneath the Sisters of Zion Convent have been discounted because of evidence that this pavement was not yet constructed at the time of the Roman destruction in a.d. 70. A more recent suggestion for its location has been provided with the discovery of the foundation of a large podium measuring 613 sq. m. (2200 sq. ft.) in the Armenian quarter of Jerusalem.
David R. Beck
Freedman, D. N., Myers, A. C., & Beck, A. B. (2000). Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible (474). Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans.
