1. among the Greeks in Homers time an uncovered space around the house, enclosed by a wall, in which the stables stood (Homer, Odyssey 9, 185; Iliad 4, 433); hence, among the Orientals that roofless enclosure in the open country in which flocks were herded at night, a sheepfold: John 10:1, 16.

2. the uncovered court-yard of the house, Hebrew חָצֵר, the Sept. αὐλή, Vulg.atrium. In the O. T. particularly of the courts of the tabernacle and of the temple at Jerusalem; so in the N. T. once: Revelation 11:2 (τήν αὐλήν τήν ἔξωθεν (Rec.st ἔσωθεν) τοῦ ναοῦ). The dwellings of the higher classes usually had two αὐλαί, one exterior, between the door and the street, called also προαύλιον (which see); the other interior, surrounded by the buildings of the dwelling itself. The latter is mentioned Matthew 26:69 (where ἔξω is opposed to the room in which the judges were sitting); Mark 14:66; Luke 22:55. Cf. Winers RWB under the word Häuser; (B. D. American edition under the word ; BB. DD. under the word ).

3. the house itself a palace: Matthew 26:3, 58; Mark 14:54; Mark 15:16; Luke 11:21; John 18:15, and so very often in Greek writings from Homer, Odyssey 4, 74 down (cf. Eustathius 1483, 39 τῷ τῆς αὐλῆς ὀνόματι τά δώματα δηλοῖ, Suidas col. 652 c. αὐλή. ἡ τοῦ βασιλέως οἰκία. Yet this sense is denied to the N. T. by Meyer et al.; see Meyer on Matthew, the passage cited).