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The palace of the High Priest was in all probability built much in the Roman style. There was what was called the vestibulum, an entrance adorned with pillars; in this was the ostium, or entrance hall, closed with doors. On one side lived the porter. This hall gave admission to the atrium, called in a Greek house the aule, a square or oblong apartment, open in the middle to the sky, with, in Roman houses, a small water tank in the middle, and beside it the image of the tutelary god and a small altar on which incense was burnt. At the further end of this great hall was a large and handsome room, opening to it by steps, called the tablinum. It was the grand reception room, and was richly adorned. In the tablinum, which was sometimes square, sometimes semi-circular, the court was held in the house of Caiaphas. Without, below the marble steps in the atrium, were the servants of the house. There was no image of a god there, but there was a brazier in the place of the altar of incense. That there was an impluvium or tank is likely enough; as so much importance was ascribed to washings, and water had been conveyed throughout Jerusalem by means of subterranean canals and aqueducts. Out of the tablinum sometimes a door opened into a small bedroom, which was without a window. It was in this little room that the false witnesses were kept concealed till summoned to appear. They were perfectly in the dark, and could not be seen, whereas Christ was visible distinctly because of the torches held, as Jewish law required, before Him to make His face clearly distinguishable. In the tablinum were also seats or benches, of marble, of alabaster, or costly woods. On these benches sat the council. Whilst the trial was going on in the tablinum, another trial was going on in the atrium, a step or two below the tablinum. The Master was tried in the upper court, and found guilty, though innocent. The disciple was tried in the lower court, and found guilty by his own conscience, or rather, let me say, by that Master who was receiving sentence a few steps above him. Both were irradiated by the red light of fire in the midst of the prevailing darkness. Probably the only lights then burning were the fire of charcoal in the brazier on the edge of the water tank, and the torches held aloft by the serjeants of the guard before Jesus. Very generally, the tablinum opened into a garden behind, so that those in the atrium or hall looked through it into the garden, which was surrounded by a colonnade. When this was the case, the seats were between the steps from the atrium and the garden door, and the little bedroom door was opposite the seats. Now, perhaps, you can picture the scene. In the foreground are the servants and soldiers moving about the hall, women bringing bundles of thorn, or shovels of charcoal to the fire in the brazier. Beyond, raised like a low stage of a theatre, is the tablinum, with the judges seated on the right. On the left, peering out of the dark door, are the evil faces of the hired spies and witnesses. A little forward, on a small raised platform, is Christ, with bound hands, and on either side stands an officer holding a flaring torch. Behind, like the scene in a theatre, is the garden, with the setting moon casting long shadows from the black cypresses over the gravel and high aloft in the sky twinkles one star.

(S. Baring Gould, M. A.)

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KJV: And as Peter was beneath in the palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest:

WEB: As Peter was in the courtyard below, one of the maids of the high priest came,