Praetorium

The alternate spelling is “pretorium,” and is transliterated into Gr. as πραιτώριον, G4550. The word denoted the general’s military headquarters originally, reflecting the original meaning of the word praetor, e.g., fit concursus in praetorium, “a crowd gathers at the general’s headquarters.”

When you would look at the layout of the Roman Military camp, the via praetoria was the path from the  praetorium to the gate that faced the presumed enemy. The praetorium in a permanent camp is the headquarters building as expected.

The term thus found extension into normal Roman usage as the residence of a governor, “he bids his men bring it to his official residence under cover as quickly as possible.” In the NT, the word signified the governor’s official residence in Jerusalem.

This bypasses the difficulty involved. Does the word refer to the procurator’s headquarters as Herod’s spot where he lived, or is it referring to where government officials lived, or some special residence like in John 18:28, or barracks like in Matt 27:27?

It is not clear whether this palace in the garrison town was properly called a praetorium because of the fact that it was at the disposal of the procurator of Judea or because the word was already acquiring the meaning of “royal abode.”

A controversial set of words remains (Phil 1:13), “in the whole praetorium.” The most probable meaning is the praetorian corps.

Kennedy, in his commentary on the Philippian epistle (EGT, III, 423, 424): (1) the praetorians’ camp. Such a camp existed, built by Seianus near the Viminal Gate (Tac. Ann. 4.2), but there is not a context where it still is called the Praetorium; (2) the palace of Nero, a use paralleled above. There would be two prefects of the Guard and their assessors. The suggestion may be true, but the word “whole” casts some doubt upon it and favors the other meanings.