Antonia Fortress —

According to the first century historian Josephus, the Antonia intersected Herod’s renovated Temple mount, and staircases descending from it led to the north and west covered porticoes of the Temple. This makes sense because when Herod renovated the Temple, he extended the mountain’s area to the north, west, and south closing the gap between the original temple mount and the Antonia fortress. Josephus also tells us that in the first century AD, a cohort of Roman soldiers were permanently stationed in the Antonia. Its multiple rooms, courtyards, and Roman baths would have easily facilitated them. These details are all very important to students of the Bible because they enable us to identify the Antonia as the place of Paul’s Jerusalem imprisonment.

Acts 21 records Paul being confronted by an angry mob who were convinced he had brought a Gentile into the Temple. They dragged him out of the Temple complex and began to beat him, but the noise of the crowd alerted the Roman troops, who according to Josephus lived in the Antonia adjacent to where this mob found Paul. The Roman commander intervened and saved Paul by arresting him, and when he couldn’t make sense of the mob’s accusations, he ordered Paul taken to the barracks, when they reached the steps, the soldiers had to carry Paul up them because the crowd was violently trying to take him back, or kill him. The Roman barracks should historically be seen as the Antonia, and the Biblical detail of having to go upstairs to reach them seems to verify this.