Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

John 19:2

οἱ στρατιῶται. Herod and his troops (Luke 23:11) had set an example which the Roman soldiers were ready enough to follow. Pilate countenances the brutality as aiding his own plan of satisfying Jewish hatred with something less than death. The soldiers had inflicted the scourging; for Pilate, being only Procurator, would have no lictors. They crown Him in mockery of royalty rather than of victory, as what follows shews. The plant used was probably the thorny nâbk, lycium spinosum, with flexible branches and leaves like ivy, abundant round about Jerusalem.

ἱμ. πορφυροῦν. S. Mark has πορφύραν, S. Matthew χλαμύδα κοκκίνην. Purple with the ancients was a vague term for rich bright colour, crimson as well as violet. The robe was a military chlamys or paludamentum, representing a royal robe. That in which Herod mocked Jesus was probably white: 1Ma 8:14; 1Ma 10:20; 1Ma 10:62. The soldiers act in derision of the detested Jews generally, who could probably see all this from the outside, rather than of Jesus in particular. The whole is a caricature of Jewish expectations of a national king.

ἤρχοντο πρ. αὐ. This graphic touch is omitted by the Synoptists and by some authorities here. We see each soldier coming up (imperfect) to offer his mock homage. As in John 18:22, ῥάπισμα is probably a blow with the hand rather than with a rod. Comp. Isaiah 50:6, I gave my back, εἰς μάστιγας, and my cheek, εἰς ῥαπίσματα. The Old Latin adds in faciem. The blow is the mock gift brought by the person doing homage.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

John 19:2

Old Testament

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