Palace in Biblical History

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Schaff's Bible Dictionary

Definitions in Biblical History
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What is a Palace?
PAL'ACE
In the O.T. the word is used both in a wider sense, denoting the whole mass of buildings, courts, and gardens belonging to a royal residence and enclosed by the exterior wall, Dan 1:4; Lev 4:4, and in a narrower sense, denoting some special part of the whole construction; for instance, the fortress or citadel. 1 Kgs 16:18; 2 Kgs 15:25. In the N.T. the word generally signifies the residence of any man of wealth or prominent social position. Matt 26:3; Luke 11:21; John 18:15. The "palace" of Phil 1:13 is the barrack of the Praetorian camp attached to the emperor's palace in Rome, on the Palatine. The emperor was "praetor" or commander-in-chief; so the barrack of his bodyguard was the praetorium. The Roman governors occupied Herod's palace in Jerusalem. The most interesting building of this kind mentioned in the O.T. is the palace erected by Solomon. 1 Kgs 7:1-12. It occupied an area of about 150,000 square feet, consisted of several independent structures - the house of the forest of Lebanon, the hall of judgment, the porch, etc. - and took thirteen years to build. Besides the description given of this building in First Kings, there is another by Josephus, but they remained almost unintelligible as long as the principles of Greek or Egyptian architecture were applied to them, while the investigations of the ruins of the palaces Ground-plan of Solomon's Palace. in Nineveh and Persepolis have thrown much light on the subject.

Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'palace' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
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