BIBLE DICTIONARY + WORD STUDY
How to read this: there is rarely one magic “true meaning” hidden behind an English word. A lexicon records a word’s semantic range. The intended meaning is narrowed by grammar, sentence, author, historical usage and context.
GREEK · G1042
gabbatha — Gabbatha
Γαββαθα (Rec. -θᾶ), ἡ, indecl., Gabbatha, the Greek transliteration of an uncertain Aramaic word (DB, see word; Dalman, Words, 7), used as the equivalent of λιθόστρωτον, stone pavement: Jhn.19:13.† (AS)
1 tagged verse occurrence · see every occurrence →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).
Source: Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897). Historical dictionary wording reflects the scholarship and language of its era.
