Prison

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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.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

Prison. [For imprisonment as a punishment, see Punishments.] It is plain that in , special places were used as prisons, and that they were under the custody of a military officer. Gen_40:3; Gen_42:17. During the wandering in the desert, we read, on two occasions, of confinement, "in ward" ? Lev_24:12; Num_15:34, but as imprisonment was not directed by the law, so we hear of none, till the time of the kings, when the prison appears as an appendage to the palace, or a special part of it. 1Ki_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, Act_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 Act_16:24. One of the readiest places for confinement was a dry or partially-dry wall or pit. Jer_35:6-11.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

God has given governments the right to send law-breakers to prison (Rom_13:4), but he forbids brutal or excessive punishments. The punishment must be in proportion to the crime (Exo_21:23-25).
In Bible times all sorts of places were used as prisons. In some cases there were official state prisons (Gen_39:20; 2Ki_17:4; Mar_6:17; Act_12:4; Act_16:24), though in other cases a prisoner may have been locked in the soldiers’ barracks at the palace (Jer_32:2), dropped into an old disused well (Jer_38:6), or kept under guard in a private house (Act_28:16; Act_28:30). Often the prison conditions were bad (Jer_37:18-20), the food poor (2Ch_18:26) and the treatment cruel (Jdg_16:21; Jdg_16:25; Jer_52:11; Eze_19:9).
Such conditions were not as common in Israel as in neighbouring countries, because the law of Moses encouraged respect for justice and human life. The guilty were to be punished, but they were not to be degraded (Deu_25:3; cf. Num_15:34). (For further details see PUNISHMENT.)
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.

[PUNISHMENTS]




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Psa_142:7 (b) This type represents the soul that is held in bondage by doubts and fears. He has not been set free either by CHRIST (Joh_8:36), nor by the truth (Joh_8:32).

Isa_42:7 (b) The type in this passage represents the soul that is held in the grip of sin by the Devil. (See Mat_12:29).

Isa_53:8 (a) This refers to the fact that our Lord JESUS was bound by His enemies in Gethsemane, and was kept as a prisoner until He was nailed to the Cross.

Isa_61:1 (b) Our Lord indicates that the unsaved are so bound by their sins and by black darkness in their lives that they are unable to see GOD's way, nor live according to GOD's plan. They have not been set free either by the Word of GOD, or by the Son of GOD. They are help captive by the will of the Devil, as CHRIST describes in Luk_11:21.

1Pe_3:19 (a) The word is used to describe hell. In the Old Testament hell consisted of two places. One place was a place of comfort, and those in that place were called prisoners of hope, as in Zec_9:12. They knew they would be delivered by the Lord JESUS after He put their sins away at Calvary. He did so and "led captivity captive." The other section of hell is a place of torment or punishment and no one who enters there is ever delivered. It is a permanent prison, from which there is no escape. (See also Isa_24:22; Isa_42:7; Isa_61:1; Luk_4:18).
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.

Prison
is represented in the A. V. by the following Heb. and Gr. words:
1. אֵסוּר, Aramaic for אסֵוּר, “a chain,” is joined with בֵּית, and rendered a prison (Sept. οῖκος δεσμῶν; Vulg. carcer).
2. כְּלוּא כֶלֵא, and כְּלִיא, with בֵּית (Sept. οῖκος φυλακῆς; Jer_37:15).
3. מִהְפֶּכֶת, from הָפִךְ, “turn,” or “twist,” the stocks (Jer_20:2).
4. מִטָּרָה and מִטָּרָא; φυλαςή; carcer (Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 879).
5. מִסְגֵּר; δεσμωτήριον; carcer.
6. מִשְׁמָר; φυλακή; custodia; also intens. מִשְׁמֵרֶת; A.V. “hard.”
7. עֹצֶר; angustia; ταπείνωσις (Gesenius, p. 1059).
8. — פְּקִהאּקיֹח(Isa_61:1), more properly written in one word; ἀνάβλεψις; apestio (Gesenius, p. 1121).
9. סֹהִר; ὀχύρωνα; carcer: properly a tower.
10. בֵּיתאּהִפְּקֻדֹּת; οἰκία μύλωνος; domus carceris. בִּיִתis also sometimes “prison” in the A.V. as Gen_39:20.
11. צִינֹק; καταῤῥάκτης; carcer; probably “the stocks” (as in the A.V.) or some such instrument of confinement; perhaps understood by the Sept. as a sewer or underground passage.
12. In the N.T. δεσμωτήριον, οἴκημα, τήρησις, usually φυλακή.
In Egypt it is plain both that special places were used as prisons, and that they were under the custody of a military officer (Gen_40:3; Gen_42:17). During the wandering in the desert we read on two occasions of confinement “in ward” (Lev_24:12; Num_15:34); but as imprisonment was not directed by the law, so we hear of none till the time of the kings, when the prison appears as an appendage to the palace, or a special part of it (1Ki_22:27). Later still it is distinctly described as being in the king's house (Jer_32:2; Jer_37:21; Neh_3:25). This was the case also at Babylon (2Ki_25:27). But private houses were sometimes used as places of confinement (Jer_37:15), probably much as Chardin describes Persian prisons in his day, viz. houses kept by private speculators for prisoners to be maintained there at their own cost (Voy. 6:100). Public prisons other than these, though in use by the Canaanitish nations (Jdg_16:21; Jdg_16:25), were unknown in Judaea previous to the captivity. Under the Herods we hear again of royal prisons attached to the palace, or in royal fortresses (Luk_3:20; Act_12:4; Act_12:10; Josephuts, Ant. 18:5, 2; Machzerus). By the Romans Antonia was used as a prison at Jerusalem (Act_23:10), and at Caesarea the praetorium of Herod (Act_23:35). The sacerdotal authorities also had a prison under the superintendence of special officers, δεσμφύλακες (Act_5:18-23; Act_8:3; Act_26:10). 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 16:24, and Job_13:27). One of the readiest places for confinement was a dry, or partially dry, well or pit (see Gen_37:24, and Jer_38:6-11); but the usual place appears, in the time of Jeremiah, and in general, to have been accessible to visitors (Jer_36:5; Mat_11:2; Mat_25:36; Mat_25:39; Act_24:23). — Smith. From the instance of the Mamertine Prison at Rome (q.v.), in which the apostle Paul (q.v.) is said to have been confined, many have rashly assumed that the Roman prisons generally were subterranean; but at Thessalonica at least, even “the inner prison” (Act_16:24) seems to have been on the ground-floor (“doors,” Act_16:26; “sprang in,” Act_16:29). SEE DUNGEON.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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