John 19:13

‘When Pilate therefore heard these words he brought Jesus out and sat down on the Judgment Seat at the place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew Gabbatha.'

At this point Pilate gave up on justice. Now they all knew that they had won. The solemn moment had come. ‘Justice' would now be declared from the Judgment Seat. Let all the world admire Roman justice. The innocent man would be declared guilty. The verdict would save Pilate's flagging career for a time and would maintain the Chief Priesthood for another forty years. But both had sealed their own fates. The one would finally be recalled, the others would be destroyed in the flames of a Jerusalem rejected by God.

The Pavement was probably a flat area in front of what was previously Herod's palace. Typically John also gives us the Hebrew for it, Gabbatha (‘height, eminence'), which suggests that the Pavement was an area raised above the ground (although Gabbatha and The Pavement need not be strictly synonymous). Archaeology has discovered the remains of such a pavement with evidence of games played on it by soldiers carved in it.