One interesting structure dating to ancient times is the Bema. You may have heard the word in the context of God's Bema Seat Judgment (named after interpretations of 1 Corinthians 3:12-15). However, in ancient times, many cities had a raised platform called a Bema. Many important events took place on the Bema. Here in the cultic city of Dan, the Bema was used to make proclamations during religious ceremonies. These were judgmental in nature, and would have described the reason for the animal sacrifice, and the worthiness of the person or group making the sacrifice.
This is another Bema, this time from Corinth (sorry... stole a pic from my previous weekfull of travels in Greece). This Bema in particular was used for officials to judge court cases, or individuals, in the crowd in the Agora marketplace below. When Paul the apostle came to Corinth to spread the Good News of Christ, he was eventually given the Bema from which to preach. Upon excavating the site of ancient Corinth, it was the contextualization of the Bible with these archaeological clues which probably gave the Bema Seat Judgment its name.
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