Charles Ellicott Commentary John 19:13

"When Pilate therefore heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment-seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha." — John 19:13 (ASV)

When Pilate therefore heard that saying.—It is better to understand this as these sayings—that is, the two sayings of the previous verse.

He brought Jesus forth.—Compare to John 19:9. He no longer hesitates about the course to be taken. His own position and life may be in danger, and he prepares, therefore, to pronounce the final sentence, which must necessarily be done from the public judgment seat outside the palace. (Compare to Matthew 27:19.)

The Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.—Both these words occur only here and are instances of the writer’s minute knowledge of the localities in Jerusalem. It may have been better to have preserved the Greek name (Lithostrôton), as well as the name by which the place was known in the Hebrew (Syro-Chaldaic) of the time.

The word literally means “stone-paved,” and was the Greek name for the tessellated “pavement” of marble and coloured stones with which, from the time of Sulla, the Romans delighted to adorn the Prætorium.

The Chaldee word means “an elevated place,” so that the one name was given to it from its form, and the other from the material of which it was made.

Suetonius (Life, chapter 46) tells us that Julius Caesar carried such pieces of marble and stone around with him. However, the mention of the “place” gives the impression that it was a fixture in front of the Prætorium at Jerusalem, where the Bema was placed.

Alternatively, it may have been a portion of the northern court of the sanctuary to which Pilate came out, if we identify the Prætorium with the Tower Antonia. (Compare to the note on Matthew 27:27.)

Josephus mentions that the whole of the Temple mountain was paved with this kind of mosaic work (Ant 5.5.2; Caspari, Chron. Geogr., Introd., English Translation, p. 225).