the Week of Proper 5 / Ordinary 10
Click here to learn more!
Bible Dictionaries
Palace (2)
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (πραιτώριον, from Lat. Praetorium)
St. Paul assured the Philippians (Philippians 1:13) that the fact of his imprisonment had become known, and its cause understood, ‘in all the palace’ (AV_), or ‘throughout the whole praetorian guard’ (RV_). The interpretation of the phrase ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ πραιτωρίῳ has long been a vexed question, and no consensus of opinion has yet been reached.
The term ‘praetorium’ had an interesting history. In the early Roman republic, when the praetor (prae-itor, ‘leader’) was the general in the field, the praetorium was his part of the camp-the headquarters-with the secondary meaning of a council of war, because thin was held in his tent. One of the gates of the camp was called the porta praetoria, and the general’s bodyguard the cohors praetoria or cohortes praetoriae. In later times of peace, the praetors were the highest Roman magistrates, who, after administering justice for a year in the capital, were sent as propraetors to govern the provinces; and the praetorium was the official provincial residence, which might chance to be the palace of a former king (as in Matthew 27:27, Mark 15:16, John 18:28; John 18:33; John 19:9; cf. Cic. Verr. II. v. 12 [30]). Under the Empire the cohortes praetoriae were the Imperial bodyguard. As constituted by Augustus, they were nine in number, each with 1000 men, and one or more of them always attended the emperor, whether in Rome or elsewhere. Tiberius made an important and permanent change ‘by gathering into one camp all the praetorian cohorts then dispersed over the city; that, thus united, they might receive his orders simultaneously, and by continually beholding their own numbers and strength, and by familiar intercourse, conceive a confidence in themselves, and strike terror into others’ (Tac. Ann. iv. 2). The barracks formed a rectangle of 39 acres, and some parts of the ramparts, embedded in the later walls of Aurelian, can still be seen near the Porta Pia. The praetorians were recruited voluntarily, in Italy or in Italianized districts. They had better pay and shorter service than the regular army. On retiring each soldier received a bounty amounting to about £200. In the 2nd cent. the praetorian cohorts became ten in number, and in the time of Septimius Severus they consisted practically of barbarian soldiers, who were constantly in conflict with the people of Rome. The Praetorian Guard was suppressed by Constantine in 312.
On the supposition that the praetorium to which St. Paul alluded is a place, two interpretations have been offered. (1) The AV_ had the authority of the Greek commentators-e.g. Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Theodoret-for assuming that he had in view the Imperial residence on the Palatine. It is certain, however, that the term could not properly bear such a meaning. The Roman citizens would have keenly resented the use of a nomenclature suggestive of a military despotism, and the early Caesars, too wise to wound their susceptibilities, were careful to maintain the appearance of republican liberty even after the reality was gone. If the Emperor was absent from Rome, he was indeed technically in imperio; and in the post-Augustan Age any spacious country villa could be called a praetorium; but no classical writer ever applies the word to the palace in the city. The utmost that can be said in favour of the exegesis in question is that St. Paul, as a provincial writing to provincials, may have been guilty of a ‘terminological inexactitude.’ But one of St. Paul’s merits is his singular accuracy in the use of technical terms, and the colonia of Philippi to which he was writing was itself a miniature Rome, where fine shades of Imperial language were sure to be appreciated and mistakes at once detected. (2) The praetorium is often taken to denote ‘the praetorian barracks at the Porta Viminalis on the east side of the city, in which Paul lay a prisoner at Rome’ (Lipsius, Hand-Com. zum NT, in loc.). But this use of the word would be equally incorrect; for while the barracks were called castra praetoria (Pliny, HN_ iii. 9; Suet. Tib. 37) and castra praetoria norum (Tac. Hist. i. 31), they were never designated Praetorium.
On the theory that the term is not local but personal, two meanings are again possible. (1) The word may collectively denote the Imperial Guards. J. B. Lightfoot (Philippians12, 1894, pp. 99-104) argues strongly for this interpretation, which has been adopted in the RV_. There is abundant evidence (e.g. Livy, xxvi. 15, xxx. 5; Tac. Hist. i. 20, iv. 46; Suet. Nero, 9; Pliny, HN_ xxv. 6; Jos. Ant. XIX. iii. 1; together with a number of inscriptions) that the word bore this meaning, which harmonizes with the καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς πᾶσιν that follows in Philippians 1:13, whereas ‘the others’ is extremely awkward if it is conjoined with the name of a locality. If St. Paul, while abiding ‘two whole years in his own hired dwelling’ (Acts 28:30), was under praetorian custody, he would be able, owing to the frequent change of guards, to arouse an interest in his message throughout this famous body of soldiers.
(2) W. M. Ramsay, following Mommsen, holds at the praetorium ‘is the whole body of persons connected with the sitting in judgment, the supreme Imperial Court, … representing the Emperor in his capacity as the fountain of justice, together with the assessors and high officers of the court’ (St. Paul the Traveller, 1895, p. 357). There does not, however, appear to be any first or second century evidence for this use of the term. It is more probable that, on reaching Rome, St. Paul was handed over to the praefectus praetorii (called by St. Luke the στρατοπεδάρχης), who gave him for two years a large measure of liberty (always, of course, under the surveillance of a praetorian), and ultimately tried him, either in the castra praetoria at the Porta Viminalis, or more probably (see Philippians 4:22) in the guard-room of the Imperial palace. Certainly from the 3rd cent. onward, and apparently much earlier, the praefecti praetorio (usually two, sometimes three, rarely one) exercised jurisdiction for the Emperor. In a letter to Pliny (Ep. Plin. 65) Trajan decides regarding a prisoner who had appealed from the governor’s sentence: ‘vinctus mitti ad praefectos praetorii mei debet.’ It seems probable that St. Paul was handed over to the same tribunal. Before writing Philippians he had been tried once, and made a favourable impression upon the minds of his judges. Ever since his arrival in Rome it had been recognized that he was no ordinary criminal and no political agitator. He was seen to be a prisoner for his faith in Christ (Philippians 1:13), and his bearing as well as his words commended him, and to a greater or less extent his message, to the praefectus praetorio (or -ii), to the whole Praetorium (Imperial Lifeguards), and to ‘all the others’ with whom he was brought into contact. And some (especially οἱ ἐκ τῆς Καίσαρος οἰκίας) were not only impressed but converted.
Literature.-T. Zahn, Introd. to the NT, 1909, vol. i. pp. 541 f., 551 ff.; M. R. Vincent, ICC_, ‘Philippians and Philemon,’ 1897, p. 16 f.; H. A. A. Kennedy, in EGT_, ‘Philippians,’ 1903, p. 423 f.
James Strahan.
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Hastings, James. Entry for 'Palace (2)'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/p/palace-2.html. 1906-1918.
