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PRISON.—Imprisonment, in the modern sense of strict confinement under guard, had no recognized place as a punishment for criminals under the older Hebrew legislation (see Crimes and Punishments, § 9). The first mention of such, with apparently legal sanction, is in the post-exilic passage Ezr_7:26. A prison, however, figures at an early period in the story of Joseph’s fortunes in Egypt, and is denoted by an obscure expression, found only in this connexion, which means ‘the Round House’ (Gen_39:20; Gen_39:23; Gen_40:3; Gen_40:5). Some take the expression to signify a round tower used as a prison, others consider it ‘the Hebraized form of an Egyptian word’ (see Driver, Com. in loc.). Joseph had already found that a disused cistern was a convenient place of detention (Gen_37:24; see Pit). The same word (bôr) is found in Exo_12:29 and Jer_37:16 in the expression rendered by AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘dungeon’ and ‘dungeon house’ respectively; also alone in Jer_38:8, Zec_9:11.
The story of Jeremiah introduces us to a variety of other places of detention, no fewer than four being named in Jer_37:15-16, although one, and perhaps two, of these are later glosses. Rigorous imprisonment is implied by all the four. The first ‘prison’ of Jer_37:15 EV [Note: English Version.] denotes literally ‘the house of bonds,’ almost identical with the Philistine ‘prison house,’ in which Samson was bound ‘with fetters of brass’ (Jdg_16:21; Jdg_16:25). The second word rendered ‘prison’ in Jer_37:15 (also Jer_37:4; Jer_37:18, Jer_52:31 and elsewhere) is a synonym meaning ‘house of restraint.’ The third is the ‘dungeon house’ above mentioned, while the fourth is a difficult term, rendered ‘cabins’ by AV [Note: Authorized Version.] , ‘cells’ by RV [Note: Revised Version.] . It is regarded by textual students, however, as a gloss on the third term, as the first is on the second.
Jeremiah had already had experience of an irksome form of detention, when placed in the stocks (Jer_20:2; cf. Act_16:24), an instrument which, as the etymology shows, compelled the prisoner to sit in a crooked posture. 2Ch_16:10 mentions a ‘house of the stocks’ (RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ; EV [Note: English Version.] ‘prison house’), while Jer_29:26 associates with the stocks (so RV [Note: Revised Version.] for AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘prison’) an obscure instrument of punishment, variously rendered ‘shackles’ (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ), ‘pillory’ (Oxf. Heb. Lex.), and ‘collar’ (Driver). The last of these is a favourite Chinese form of punishment.
In NT times Jewish prisons doubtless followed the Greek and Roman models. The prison into which John the Baptist was thrown (Mat_14:3; Mat_14:10) is said by Josephus to have been in the castle of Machærus. The prison in which Peter and John were put by the Jewish authorities (Act_4:3 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘hold,’ RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘ward’) was doubtless the same as ‘the public ward’ of Act_5:18 RV [Note: Revised Version.] (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘common prison’). St. Paul’s experience of prisons was even more extensive than Jeremiah’s (2Co_6:5), varying from the mild form of restraint implied in Act_28:30, at Rome, to the severity of ‘the inner prison’ at Philippi (Act_16:24), and the final horrors of the Mamertine dungeon.
For the crux interpretum, 1Pe_3:19, see art. Descent into Hades.
A. R. S. Kennedy.