13. Pilatus autem cum audisset 13. Now when Pilate had heard hos sermones, adduxit foras these words, he brought Jesus Iesum: et sedit pro tribunali, forth; and sat down in the in loco qui dicitur judgment seat, in the place Lithostrotos, hebraice autem that is called Lithostrotos, Gabbatha. and in Hebrew Gabbatha. 13. Now when Pilate had heard these words, he brought Jesus forth. Pilate, through fear of the Emperor, at length gave way, and Jesus, who had remained within the house after the interrogation (verses 9‐11), while Pilate was signifying his own intention to the people (verse 12), was now brought forth, and Pilate formally took his seat to pass sentence of death. *In the place that is called Lithostrotos, and in Hebrew Gabbatha.* The Rev. Vers. renders: “At a place called the Pavement, but in Hebrew Gabbatha.” The judgment‐seat was usually in front of the Praetorium, on an elevated platform. The Syro‐Chaldaic word Gabbatha means _a high place_, probably from the root גבה (Gabhah), and such high places were usually paved with many‐coloured stones, hence the name “Lithostrotos” (from λίθος, a stone, and στρωτός, covered, or paved). Suetonius (Caes. 8, 46) says that Julius Cæsar carried such a pavement with him on his expeditions. 14. Erat autem parasceve 14. And it was the parasceve paschae, hora quasi sexta, et of the pasch, about the sixth dicit Iudaeis: Ecce rex hour, and he saith to the vester. Jews: Behold your king. 14. *And it was the parasceve of the Pasch.* “Parasceve” (Gr. παρασκευή) means _preparation_, or _day of preparation_, and the expression: “the parasceve of the Pasch” _might_ mean the day of preparation for the Paschal feast, and hence the day _before_ the feast began. This, indeed, is the meaning given to the phrase by all those who hold that Christ, in the last year of His mortal life, celebrated the Paschal Supper a day before the Jews.(123) They hold that St. John here signifies that the Jewish Pasch had not yet begun. But the phrase may have, and we believe has, a different meaning. We know from St. Mark that “Parasceve” was another name for Friday; “It was the Parasceve, that is, the day before the Sabbath” (Mark xv. 42). Friday naturally enough got this name, because it was the _day of preparation_ for the Jewish Sabbath. By “the parasceve of the Pasch,” then, we understand the Friday of the Paschal week, and we take it that St. John here indicates the day of the week, as in the words immediately following he indicates the hour of the day. His readers, some of whom were, doubtless, acquainted with the Synoptic Gospels, would be already aware that this day was the first of the Paschal week, and not the eve of the festival. See above on xiii. 1.