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Bible Dictionaries
Castle
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or The word παρεμβολή, translated ‘castle’ six times in Acts, meant in the Macedonian dialect an encampment, and in the Septuagint it is used for the camp of the Israelites in the desert (Exodus 29:14, etc.). In the vivid narrative of St. Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem (Acts 21:22) it probably denotes the barracks of the Roman soldiers who were stationed at the castle of Antonia, though the Revised Version as well as the Authorized Version identifies it with the castle itself.
The history of this fort goes back to the time of Nehemiah, who speaks of procuring ‘timber to make beams for the castle (the Bîrah) which appertains to the house’ (2:8; cf. 7:2). Probably on the same site John Hyrcanus, high priest from 135 to 105 b.c., built the Hasmonaean castle which Josephus calls ‘Baris’ (Ant. xv. xi. 4; Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) i. xxi. 1). ‘When Herod became king, he rebuilt that castle, which was very conveniently situated, in a magnificent manner, and because he was a friend of Antonius, he called it by the name of Antonia’ (Ant. xviii. iv. 3). Situated at the corner of the north and west cloisters of the Temple, it commanded, especially from its lofty S.E. tower, a view of the whole sacred precincts, while two staircases (ἀναβαθμοί, Acts 21:35, καταβἀσεις, Jos. Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) v. v. 8) led down from it to the cloisters; and in the Roman period the soldiers of the cohort (σπεῖρα), which was always stationed in the city, ‘went several ways among the cloisters, with their arms, on the Jewish festivals, in order to keep watch over the people’ (Jos. loc. cit.).
The narrator of St. Paul’s arrest was evidently well acquainted with this locality, and he graphically reproduces the details of the scene. News of a Temple riot-no uncommon occurrence-came up (ἀνέβη φἀσις) to the commander of the cohort (χιλίαρχος, ‘military tribune’ Revised Version margin), who at once took soldiers and ran down (κατέδραμεν) to the fanatical crowd, probably just in time to prevent bloodshed (Acts 21:31-32). As St. Paul was about to be conducted up one of the staircases leading to the barracks, he was swept off his feet by the rising human tide, and had literally to be carried out of danger by the soldiers; but, recovering himself on the upper steps, he asked and obtained permission to address the baffled and still raging crowd, who turned a sea of angry faces upon him from below. His beckoning hand and his Aramaic speech secured a temporary silence, which enabled him to tell his vast audience the story of his conversion, but he could not get beyond the fatal word ‘Gentiles’ (Acts 22:21), and, leaving behind him a yelling mob, he was marched into the barracks. Fort Antonia was for some days his place of confinement. Hither came his nephew with a message which saved him from falling into the hands of fanatical conspirators (Acts 23:16), and here Christ Himself seemed to stand by him with words of good cheer (Acts 23:11). From the castle he was taken by night to Antipatris, and thence to Caesarea (Acts 23:31-33).
Literature.-T. Lewin, Life and Epistles of St. Paul3, 1875, ii. 135ff.; Conybeare-Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, 1856, ii. 311ff.; H.A. A. Kennedy, Source of NT Greek, 1895, p. 15; articles ‘Castle’ and ‘Jerusalem’ in Encyclopaedia Biblica , ‘Castle’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) .
James Strahan.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Castle'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/c/castle.html. 1906-1918.
