Judgment-Hall occurs;;;;;; . In all these passages except one () the English version gives an explanation of the word rather than a translation: thus, , 'the common-hall,' margin, 'or governor's house:'; , 'the judgment-hall;' margin, 'or Pilate's house:' , 'the palace;' margin, 'or Caesar's court.' Originally the word signified the general's tent in a camp, but it came at length to be applied to the residence of the civil governor in provinces and cities, and was used to signify whatever appertained to the praetor or governor: for instance, his residence, either the whole or any part of it, as his dwelling-house, or the place where he administered justice, or even the large enclosed court at the entrance to the praetorian residence.
Upon comparing the instances in which the evangelists mention the praetorium, it will be seen, first, that in , it means the residence of Pilate, which seems to have been the magnificent palace built by Herod, situated in the north part of the upper city, west of the temple, and overlooking the temple. Secondly, the word is applied in the New Testament, by synecdoche, to a particular part of the praetorian residence. Thus, , and , 'And the soldiers led Jesus away into the hall called Praetorium, and gathered unto them the whole band, and they clothed him with purple,' etc.; where the word rather refers to the court or area in front of the praetorium, or some other court where the procurator's guards were stationed. In , the word seems applied, when all the circumstances are considered, to Pilate's private examination room. In like manner, when Felix 'commanded Paul to be kept in Herod's praetorium' (), the words apply not only to the whole palace originally built at Caesarea by Herod, and now most likely inhabited by the praetor, but also to the keep or donjon, a prison for confining offenders, such as existed in our ancient royal palaces and grand baronial castles. Thirdly, in the remaining instance of the word, , 'So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the praetorium,' 'palace,' it is, in the opinion of the best commentators, used to signify the praetorian camp at Rome, a select body of troops constituted by Augustus to guard his person and to have charge of the city, so that the words of the apostle really mean, 'My bonds in Christ are manifest to all the praetorians, and by their means to the public at large.'
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John Kitto was an English biblical scholar of Cornish descent.Born in Plymouth, John Kitto was a sickly child, son of a Cornish stonemason. The drunkenness of his father and the poverty of his family meant that much of his childhood was spent in the workhouse. He had no more than three years of erratic and interrupted education. At the age of twelve John Kitto fell on his head from a rooftop, and became totally and permanently deaf. As a young man he suffered further tragedies, disappointments and much loneliness. His height was 4 ft 8 in, and his accident left him with an impaired sense of balance. He found consolation in browsing at bookstalls and reading any books that came his way.
From these hardships he was rescued by friends who became aware of his mental abilities and encouraged him to write topical articles for local newspapers, arranging eventually for him to work as an assistant in a local library. Here he continued to educate himself.
One of his benefactors was the Exeter dentist Anthony Norris Groves, who in 1824 offered him employment as a dental assistant. Living with the Groves family, Kitto was profoundly influenced by the practical Christian faith of his employer. In 1829 he accompanied Groves on his pioneering mission to Baghdad and served as tutor to Groves's two sons. In 1833 Kitto returned to England via Constantinople, accompanied by another member of the Groves mission, Francis William Newman. Shortly afterwards he married, and in due course had several children.
A London publisher asked Kitto to write up his travel journals for a series of articles in the Penny Magazine, a publication read at that time by a million people in Britain, reprinted in America and translated into French, German and Dutch. Other writing projects followed as readers enquired about his experiences in the East amidst people living in circumstances closely resembling those of Bible times.
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