When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.
When Pilate heard that saying - or, according to the preferable reading, 'these sayings,'
He brought Jesus forth, and sat down in ('upon,') the judgment seat - that he might pronounce sentence against the Prisoner, on this charge, the more solemnly,
In a place that is called the Pavement [ Lithostrooton (G3038 )], but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha, [Gabaataa'] - either from a word signifying to be 'high,' referring to the raised platform on which the judgment seat was placed; or from one signifying the 'back,' from its arched form. As the Greek word denotes, it was a tesselated pavement; much used by the Romans. There is a minute topographical accuracy in the use of this word which a learned defender of the authenticity of the Gospel History has not failed to notice. 'Jesus,' says Hug, 'is led out to receive His sentence, and Pilate sat in a place called the Lithostrooton (G3038) to pass judgment (John 19:13). The transaction is represented as if this place was in front of the Praetor's house, or at least at no great distance from it. And there is, in fact, such a place, which has been formerly overlooked, in the outworks of the Temple. Mention is made of it in an assault which the Romans made upon the Temple, on the side of the tower Antonia (Josephus, Jewish Wars, 6: 6 and 7). Here is the Lithostrooton (G3038), and the house of the Praetor must have been opposite to this place. Now he lived, as appears from some incidental passages in Philo (compare Leg. ad Caium with Josephus, Ant. 18: 4), in Herod's palace, which was certainly in this quarter and neighbourhood, northwest of the tower Antonia and the Temple: so that the proximity of the Lithostroton to the palace, which is implied in John's narrative, is strictly accurate.'