Judgment Hall
JUDGMENT HALL is the doubtful KJV rendering of the Gr. πραιτώριον, G4550, in John 18:28, 33; 19:9; Acts 23:35. This Lat. loanword contains no reference to judgment, and is correctly preserved in the RSV praetorium (q.v.).
One of Solomon’s buildings was called “the Hall of Judgment” (KJV porch of judgment; Heb. אֻלָ֥ם הַמִּשְׁפָּ֖ט or “Hall of the Throne” 1 Kings 7:7). Apart from its cedar paneling, no further details are given. See Praetorium.
Bibliography
Arndt, 704; E. M. Blaiklock, “Praetorium,” NBD, 1018; F. D. Gealy, “Praetorium,” IDB, III, 856; C. Kopp, The Holy Places of the Gospels (1963), 354, 366-373.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
See Judgment Hall; Praetorium.
hol (to praitorion, "Then led they Jesus .... unto the hall of judgment .... and they themselves went not into the judgment hall" (Joh 18:28 the King James Version); "Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again" (Joh 18:33 the King James Version); "(Pilate) went again into the judgment hall" (Joh 19:9); "He commanded him to be kept in Herod’s judgment hall" (Ac 23:35)):
"Judgment hall" is one of the ways in which the King James Version translates praitorion, which it elsewhere renders "Praetorium" (Mr 15:16); "the common hall" (Mt 27:27). In this passage the English Revised Version renders it "palace"; in Joh 18:33; 19:9; Ac 23:35, "palace" is also given by the English Revised Version; in Php 1:13, the King James Version renders, "palace," while the Revised Version (British and American) gives "the praetorian guard." Praitorion accordingly is translated in all these ways, "Praetorium," "the common hall," "the judgment hall," "the palace," "the praetorian guard." In the passages In the Gospels, the American Standard Revised Version renders uniformly "Praetorium."
The word originally meant the headquarters in the Roman camp, the space where the general’s tent stood, with the camp altar; the tent of the commander-in-chief. It next came to mean the military council, meeting in the general’s tent. Then it came to be applied to the palace in which the Roman governor or procurator of a province resided. In Jerusalem it was the magnificent palace which Herod the Great had built for himself, and which the Roman procurators seem to have occupied when they came from Caesarea to Jerusalem to transact public business.
Praitorion in Php 1:13 has been variously rendered, "the camp of the praetorian soldiers," "the praetorian guard," etc. For what is now believed to be its true meaning, see Praetorium.