Praetorium
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Praitorion refers to a governor's headquarters, official residence, palace, or praetorium, depending on context. In the passion narratives, the word names a Roman authority space where Jesus is led, questioned, mocked, and handed over under Gentile power.
Reader summary
Full entry for πραιτώριον (G4232) · Open the biblical lexicon
Praitorion refers to a governor's headquarters, official residence, palace, or praetorium, depending on context. In the passion narratives, the word names a Roman authority space where Jesus is led, questioned, mocked, and handed over under Gentile power.
The BSB source-word alignment has 8 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Praetorium (6), [the] Praetorium (1), palace guard (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 27:27. Its strongest book concentrations include John (4), Acts (1), Mark (1), Matthew (1).
Praitorion refers to a governor's headquarters, official residence, palace, or praetorium, depending on context. In the passion narratives, the word names a Roman authority space where Jesus is led, questioned, mocked, and handed over under Gentile power. Matthew and Mark place the soldiers' mockery of Jesus inside the Praetorium. John repeatedly moves attention in and out of the Praetorium as Pilate questions Jesus and as religious leaders avoid ceremonial defilement while pressing for His death.
Acts later uses the word for Herod's Praetorium, where Paul is kept under guard while awaiting a hearing. Praitorion therefore helps readers see the public, political, and judicial setting of suffering witness. It is a place word, but it carries the weight of authority, custody, accusation, and the contrast between earthly power and God's purpose.
Praitorion names official Roman authority space: the governor's headquarters, palace, or guard setting. It frames Jesus' trial and mockery and later Paul's guarded custody.
Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company around Him.
Matthew places Jesus inside the Praetorium as the governor's soldiers gather around Him.
Then the soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called the whole company together.
Mark explains the palace setting as the Praetorium before the soldiers call the company together.
Then they led Jesus away from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. By now it was early morning, and the Jews did not enter the Praetorium, to avoid being defiled and unable to eat the Passover.
John notes the leaders bringing Jesus to the Praetorium while avoiding entry because of Passover concerns.
Pilate went back into the Praetorium, summoned Jesus, and asked Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”
Pilate returns into the Praetorium and questions Jesus about being King of the Jews.
And he went back into the Praetorium. “Where are You from?” he asked. But Jesus gave no answer.
Pilate again enters the Praetorium and asks Jesus where He is from, while Jesus remains silent.
He said, “I will hear your case when your accusers arrive.” Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod’s Praetorium.
Paul is kept under guard in Herod's Praetorium until his accusers arrive.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Roman official seat: either governor's palace or military headquarters where Jesus faced trial and judgment.
Roman official seat: either governor's palace or military headquarters where Jesus faced trial and judgment.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
8 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
the official residence of the procurator
Read versethe official residence of the procurator
Read versethe official residence of the procurator
Read versethe official residence of the procurator
Read versethe official residence of the procurator
Read versethe official residence of the procurator
Read versethe official residence of the procurator
Read versethe official residence of the procurator
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 3 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 8 lexical occurrence verses.
Marks the shift to provincial Roman jurisdiction. Acts 23:23-35
Praitorion helps readers slow down in scenes where power seems to belong to governors, soldiers, guards, and court procedures. Jesus is taken into the governor's space, surrounded by soldiers, mocked, questioned, and treated as a prisoner. John intensifies the irony: leaders will not enter the Praetorium to avoid defilement, yet they pursue the death of the sinless King.
Pilate goes in and out, questioning Jesus while failing to stand in truth. Acts shows the same kind of official custody around Paul, though now the witness is an apostle in chains. The word does not make a doctrine by itself, but it places suffering witness inside recognizable structures of power. Praitorion teaches that God's mission is not stopped when His servants stand inside hostile institutions.
John.18.28
Praitorion can refer to the governor's residence, headquarters, palace complex, or official guard context. Translation depends on whether the passage stresses place, authority, custody, or guard presence.
Scripture often places faithful witnesses before kings, governors, and courts. Praitorion belongs to that broader pattern in the New Testament, especially as Jesus and Paul stand under official power while God's purpose continues.
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