Smith's Bible Dictionary

(Frankie) #1

part of it. (1 Kings 22:27) Private houses were sometimes used as places of confinement. By the
Romans the tower of Antoni, was used as a prison at Jerusalem, (Acts 23:10) and at Caesarea the
praetorium of Herod. The royal prisons In those days were doubtless managed after the Roman
fashion, and chains, fetters and stocks were used as means of confinement. See (Acts 16:24) One
of the readiest places for confinement was a dry or partially-dry wall or pit. (Jeremiah 35:6-11)
Prochorus
(leader of the chorus), one of the seven deacons, being the third of the list, and named next after
Stephen and Philip. (Acts 6:5)
Proconsul
(for, or in place of, the consul). At the division of the provinces by Augustus, in the year B.C.
27, into senatorial and imperial, the emperor assigned to the senate such portions of territory as
were peaceable and could be held without force of arms. Those which he retained were called
imperial, and were governed by legates and procurators. [Procurator] Over the senatorial provinces
the senate appointed by lot yearly an officer, who was called “proconsul” and who exercised purely
proconsul, civil functions. The provinces were in consequence called “proconsular.”
Procurator
The Greek agemon, rendered “governor” in the Authorized Version, is applied in the New
Testament to the officer who presided over the imperial province of Judea. It is used of Pontius
Pilate, (Matthew 27:1) ... of Felix, Acts 23, 24, and of Festus. (Acts 26:30) It is explained under
Proconsul that after the battle of Actium, B.C. 27, the provinces of the Roman empire were divided
by Augustus into two portions, giving some to the senate and reserving to himself the rest. The
imperial provinces were administered by legali. No quaestor came into the emperor’s provinces,
but the property and revenues of the imperial treasury were administered by procuratores. Sometimes
a province was governed by a procurator with the functions of a legatus. This was especially the
case with the smaller provinces an the outlying districts of a larger province; and such is the relation
in which Judea stood to Syria. The headquarters of the procurator were at Caesarea, (Acts 23:23)
where he had a judgment seat, (Acts 25:6) in the audience chamber, (Acts 25:23) and was assisted
by a council (Acts 25:12) whom he consulted in cases of difficulty. He was attended by a cohort
as body-guard, (Matthew 27:27) and apparently went up to Jerusalem at the time of the high festivals,
and there resided at the palace of Herod, in which was the praetorium or “judgment hall.” (Matthew
27:27; Mark 15:16) comp. Acts 23:35
Prophet
The ordinary Hebrew word for prophet is nabi, derived from a verb signifying “to bubble forth”
like a fountain; hence the word means one who announces or pours forth the declarations of God.
The English word comes from the Greek prophetes (profetes), which signifies in classical Greek
one who speaks for another, especially one who speaks for a god, and so interprets his will to man;
hence its essential meaning is “an interpreter.” The use of the word in its modern sense as “one
who predicts” is post-classical. The larger sense of interpretation has not, however, been lost. In
fact the English word ways been used in a closer sense. The different meanings or shades of meanings
in which the abstract noun is employed in Scripture have been drawn out by Locke as follows:
“Prophecy comprehends three things: prediction; singing by the dictate of the Spirit; and
understanding and explaining the mysterious, hidden sense of Scripture by an immediate illumination
and motion of the Spirit.” Order and office .—The sacerdotal order was originally the instrument
by which the members of the Jewish theocracy were taught and governed in things spiritual. Teaching

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