Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

John 19:1

Τότε οὖν … ἐμαστίγωσε. Keim (vi. 99) thinks that Pilate at this point pronounced his “condemno” and “ibis in crucem,” and that the scourging was preparatory to the crucifixion. This might seem to be warranted by Mark's very condensed account, John 15:15. φραγελλώσας ἵνα σταυρωθῇ (according to the Roman law by which, according to Jerome, it was decreed “ut qui crucifigeretur, prius flagellis verberaretur”; so Josephus, B. J., John 19:11, and Philo, ii. 528). But according to John the scourging was meant as a compromise by Pilate; as in Luke 23:22 : “what evil hath He done? I found in Him nothing worthy of death; I will therefore scourge Him and let Him go.” Neither, then, as part of the capital punishment, nor in order to elicit the truth (quaestio per tormenta); but in the ill-judged hope that this minor punishment might satisfy the Jews, Pilate ordered the scourging. The victim of this severe punishment was bound in a stooping attitude to a low column (column of the Flagellation, now shown in Church of Holy Sepulchre) and beaten with rods or scourged with whips, the thongs of which were weighted with lead, and studded with sharp-pointed pieces of bone, so that frightful laceration followed each stroke. Death frequently resulted. καὶ οἱ στρατιῶται … ῥαπίσματα, “and the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns” in mockery of the claim to royalty (for a similar instance, see Keim, vi. 121). Of the suggestions regarding the particular species of thorn, it may be said with Bynaeus (De Morte Christi, iii. 145) “nemo attulit aliquid certi”. ἱμάτιον πορφυροῦν, “a purple robe,” probably a small scarlet military cloak, or some cast-off sagum, or paludamentum, worn by officers and subject kings.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

John 19:1

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