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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the NT: Judgment-Seat
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The judge invariably sat on a special ‘seat’ or throne. Thus Jerusalem and the smaller cities alike had their ‘thrones for judgement’ (Jdg_4:5, 1Ki_7:7, Psa_122:5, etc.). In Rome magistrate and jury were seated together on the raised tribunal, or ‘bench,’ the magistrate oh his sella curulis, or ‘chariot seat,’ specially associated with the Roman imperium. The custom extended also to the Provinces. In the NT êñéôÞñéá (‘tribunals’) is used of law-courts generally (in 1Co_6:2; 1Co_6:4 and Jam_2:6), while âῆìá , lit. [Note: literally, literature.] ‘step,’ ‘seat’ (for parties in a law-suit), is applied to the ‘judgment-seat’ not only of the Emperor (Act_25:10), but also of the governors Pilate (Mat_27:19, Joh_19:13), Gallio (Act_18:12; Act_18:16 f.) and Festus (Act_25:6; Act_25:17), and even metaphorically of God (Rom_14:10) and Christ (2Co_5:10). See, further, Trial-at-Law.
A. R. Gordon.