John 19:1-3 meaning

The Scourging and Mocking of Jesus: Pilate’s Third Attempt to Release Jesus

Pilate takes Jesus and has Him scourged—a severely painful form of whipping that cut into the victim’s body and turned them into a bloody mess. As Jesus “recovers” from the painful shock of this punishment, He is ruthlessly mocked by the Roman soldiers and dressed as a king with a crown of thorns.

This event is part of the third phase of Jesus’s Civil Trial. This phase is called: “Pilate’s Judgment.”

Matthew 27:26-30 and Mark 15:15-19 are the parallel Gospel accounts of this event. 

According to John, the Roman soldiers’ flogging of Jesus, along with their mockery and abuse of Him, occurred in the middle of the third phase of Jesus’s civil trial (Matthew and Mark’s narratives focus on the interaction of Pilate with the chief priests and elders during Jesus’s civil trial—Matthew 27:11-26, Mark 15:1-15) before they record the way in which Jesus was physically and emotionally mistreated (Matthew 27:27-30, Mark 15:16-19). The three phases of Jesus’s civil trial were:

1. Jesus’s Arraignment before Pilate
   (Matthew 27:1-2, 11-14, Mark 15:1-5, Luke 23:1-7, John 18:28-38)
2. Jesus’s Audience before Herod Antipas
   (Luke 23:8-12)
3. Pilate’s Judgment
   (Matthew 27:15-26, Mark 15:6-15, Luke 23:13-25, John 18:38-19:16)

The third phase of Jesus’s civil trial was in the same location as the first phase—the Praetorium, Pilate’s Jerusalem headquarters (John 18:28, 19:9). This event began while it was still morning, most likely sometime around 8:00 a.m. (According to Mark 15:24, Jesus is on the cross at 9:00 a.m.). Based on the Jewish calendar the date was likely Nisan 15—the first day of Unleavened Bread. By the Roman calendar, the day was probably a Friday.

To learn more about the timing and sequencing of these events, see The Bible Says’ “Timeline: Jesus’s Final 24 Hours.” 

John reports that after the Jews called for Barabbas instead of Jesus, when Pilate offered to release a prisoner per his customary “Passover Pardon,” Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him (v 1a). 

John’s expression Pilate then took Jesus means that the Roman governor ordered Jesus to go with him back into the Praetorium after the crowd made their choice to liberate Barabbas in place of Jesus (John 18:39). Matthew and Mark explicitly describe how the Roman soldiers took Him (Jesus) away into the Praetorium in obedience to the governor’s order (Matthew 27:27; Mark 15:16).

Matthew describes these soldiers as “soldiers of the governor” (Matthew 27:27). Matthew’s description indicates that these were Roman soldiers who were under the direct command of Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. At this time, the Roman Empire had two major classifications of Roman soldiers—auxiliary soldiers and legionnaires. 

Auxiliary soldiers fought for Rome under the command of local leaders loyal to Rome. Auxiliary soldiers were often comprised of foreigners or locals who wanted a way into Roman society. Military service of this kind was their path to citizenship. The soldiers of Herod Antipas were likely auxiliary Roman soldiers. 

Legionnaires were more prestigious and elite. These soldiers were already full-fledged citizens of Rome, many of whom belonged to ancient Roman or Italian families. They fought out of a sense of duty and devotion to their Empire. Legionnaires were typically better trained and better equipped. Rome as a hierarchical society. As proud members of Italian heritage, legionnaires were prone to look down on locals, including auxiliary soldiers, but especially local prisoners like Jesus. 

Only legionnaires would have been assigned to a Roman governor, moreover, Matthew further identifies these soldiers as belonging to a “Roman cohort”—another legionnaire term (Matthew 27:27b). 

Pilate’s order for Jesus to be scourged, according to Luke’s reckoning, was Pilate’s third attempt to convince the Jews that releasing Jesus was the right thing to do: 

“And he said to them the third time, ‘Why, what evil has this man done? I have found in Him no guilt demanding death; therefore I will punish Him and release Him.’”
(Luke 23:22)

Previously Pilate had offered to punish Jesus before releasing Him (Luke 23:16), and tried to use the “Passover Pardon” (Luke 23:18-21) in his first two attempts to release Jesus without incurring the Jews’ resentment.

Matthew, Mark, and John explicitly say that Jesus was scourged. Luke’s gospel is less direct, but still clear when he records Pilate’s order “I will punish Him” (Luke 23:22). However, none of the Gospels describe in detail what it meant for Jesus to be scourged. 

Flogging as a Form of Punishment
The likely reason that none of the Gospels go into descriptive detail about the scourging or punishment Jesus received is because their readers, as subjects or citizens of the Roman Empire, would have been horrifically familiar with its brutality. 

Until modern times, flogging was a common form of punishment throughout the world. The Jews scourged criminals as a type of punishment. It entailed using a whip with short leather lashes that puts stripes on the wicked man’s back according to his guilt. Jewish scourging was extremely painful, but never cruel and never deadly. It was always meant to be restorative, never merely punitive.

To ensure that Jewish flogging was not cruel or deadly, Moses strictly commanded how this style of scourging was to be carried out:

“if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of stripes according to his guilt. He may beat him forty times but no more, so that he does not beat him with many more stripes than these and your brother is not degraded in your eyes.”
(Deuteronomy 25:3)

The wicked person was made to “lie down” to ensure that only his back was whipped. And in case the person doing the counting made a mistake, Jewish tradition stopped lashing a wicked man after thirty-nine times as a safeguard to guarantee that Moses’s limit of “no more than forty times” was not transgressed. The intent undergirding Moses’s command (and the Jewish tradition surrounding it) was to punish the wicked man, but preserve his humanity as a fellow person made in God’s image.

Jewish flogging is not the kind of punishment Jesus received. He received a Roman flogging.

Roman flogging was designed to strip away a person’s humanity along with their flesh. It was deliberately cruel and often deadly. There was no limit to how much a person could be lashed under Roman law—but because it was so brutal, victims might receive fewer than forty lashes if their abusers wanted them alive. Victims of Roman flogging were tied to a post and the whips they used had long leather lashes which could wrap around a person’s entire body. 

The victim was usually stripped naked, exposing every inch of their body to the torture—including the groin and face. Attached to the leather lashes were metal beads to tenderize and bruise the flesh, as well as sharp pieces of bone, metal, glass, or nails to rip flesh from the body. After only a few lashes, deep gashes and tears profusely poured out blood. After several more lashes, the victim’s back, ribs, stomach, chest, legs, and face were a pulverized bleeding mess and their figure was hardly recognizable as human.

The Scourging of Jesus
Instead of describing the gory details of the flogging, Matthew, Mark, and John all focus on the cruel mockery that Jesus suffered by the Roman soldiers, both as and after He was scourged by them (Matthew 27:27-31, Mark 15:16-20, John 19:1-3).

Jesus was scourged inside the Praetorium (Matthew 27:27, Mark 15:16).

Matthew says “the whole Roman cohort” that was on duty gathered to witness and/or participate in Jesus’s scourging and/or mockery. A Roman cohort during the first century is estimated to have been 480 soldiers. Jesus was “stripped” of his clothes (probably to the extent that He was naked) in front of all these soldiers who assembled to watch His scourging (Matthew 27:27). He was stripped so that the whips would make contact with His bare flesh. The stripping would have been deeply humiliating; the whole event was intended to degrade Jesus. 

Jesus was likely out of view of the crowd of Jews waiting outside, but He was probably within earshot of them. They could hear each lash of the whip; the grunts and jeers of the soldiers who were doing the flogging; the moans of Jesus as His flesh was ripped off His bones.

Jesus was able to withstand this physical brutality because He trusted the LORD absolutely.

“For the LORD God helps Me,
Therefore, I am not disgraced.”
(Isaiah 50:7a)

Jesus did not fear those who could destroy His body, but who could not touch His soul:

“Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul.”
(Matthew 10:28a)

Jesus was able to withstand this excruciating torment because He had spent the night praying to His Father—that He might not enter in temptation (Luke 22:40)—seeking His will so that He would be able to accomplish His Father’s plan and not His own desires (Luke 22:42). 

At any moment during this severe torture, Jesus could have summoned “more than twelve legions of angels” to rescue Him (Matthew 26:53). But He did not choose to be saved. He chose to obediently follow His Father’s plan to save the world through His suffering and death (Philippians 2:6-8).

The aftermath of the Roman scourging—where Jesus hardly looked human—was likely what Isaiah meant when he prophesied of the Messiah:

“So His appearance was marred more than any man
And His form more than the sons of men.”
(Isaiah 52:14) 

Isaiah also prophesied of the Messiah:

“I gave My back to those who strike Me.”
(Isaiah 50:6a)

“The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.”
(Isaiah 53:5b)

Pilate’s order to have Jesus, the Messiah, scourged was in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecies seven centuries earlier. Other translations of Isaiah 53:5 say “by His stripes we are healed” to visually describe how the lash of a flogging leaves bloody stripes all over the victim’s body. Jesus also alluded to the terrible punishment He would undergo during His Seder celebration of the Passover with His disciples the evening before,

“And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you.’”
(Luke 22:19)

With this expression, Jesus claimed that the unleavened bread (called “Matzah”) represented His broken body. Matzah bread must be made according to tradition—“pierced and striped” in order to prevent it from being puffed up with leaven. 

[PICTURE OF MATZAH]

Because Matzah is made without leaven it is an image of sinlessness (like Jesus), because leaven represents sin and pride in the Bible and in Jewish culture. Deuteronomy, looking back to Israel’s suffering in Egypt and looking forward to the Messiah being broken by the scourge, refers to Matzah as “the bread of affliction” (Deuteronomy 16:3).

To learn more about how Matzah represents Jesus’s sinless suffering, see The Bible Says article: “Jesus and the Messianic Fulfillments of Passover and Unleavened Bread.”

Jesus not only alluded to His chastisement under the Roman scourge; He explicitly predicted it:

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.”
(Matthew 20:18-19)

Following the soldiers’ scourging, Jesus’s body would have likely been in shock from the blood loss and the severe pain screaming through Him as the soldiers mocked and abused Him for their pleasure.

The Crown of Thorns
After Jesus was scourged in this manner, He was also mocked and abused by the soldiers, as He predicted He would be (Matthew 20:19). 

And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him (v 2).

The soldiers continued their ridicule of Jesus by taking branches with thorns and twisting them together to fashion a scornful crown. Because Jesus was formerly charged with claiming to be the King of the Jews (Luke 23:2, John 18:33), they twisted together a crown from thorn-briars to mock Him as a king of brambles. The crown of thorns put on His head were physically painful as well, as the sharp thorns pierced the skin of His head. 

From a theological perspective, the crown of thorns is loaded with symbolism, despite this not being the intention of the mocking soldiers when they fashioned the crown. 

Thorns are first mentioned in scripture in reference to the LORD God’s curse upon the ground and the man’s work,

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;”
(Genesis 3:17b-18a) 

Jesus did not just suffer because of the curse from Adam’s sin in an incidental way when He wore this crown of thorns. He was literally suffering to redeem the world from the curse—to break the curse by becoming sin and assuming all of God’s wrath against the sins of the world (2 Corinthians 5:21). In His suffering and death, Jesus became the object of the curse and His Father’s fierce wrath (Isaiah 53:10a, Matthew 27:46). 

In wearing the crown of thorns on His head, Jesus became the king of our curses. He did this because He loved us (Matthew 20:28, John 15:13). When He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows (Isaiah 53:4), Jesus both obeyed His Father and served all humanity. 

Through His only-begotten Son, whom He gave for the life of the world (John 3:16), God demonstrated “His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, [so] having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (Romans 5:8-9). Jesus suffered and died for our sins and assumed our due penalty and curse upon Himself. 

The crown of thorns they put on His head, with its connection to the curse in Genesis 3, also evokes the prophetic hope God gave Adam and Eve when He punished the serpent:

“And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
(Genesis 3:15)

The Messiah, Jesus, was the seed of the woman—“her seed.” The expression “your seed” is a reference to Satan. God was warning Satan that one day Jesus would crush Satan’s head, even as Satan will bruise Jesus on the heel. The scourging and the thorny crown were part of the Messiah’s bruising by Satan. But the Messiah’s suffering unto death was also a part of how Jesus would defeat Satan. Thus, the scourging, humiliation, and crucifixion of Jesus was a double fulfillment of this prophecy in Eden. 

The crown of thorns is a visual reminder that God was breaking the curse through the suffering and death of Christ. Jesus, the Messiah, wore the curse of sin on His head like a crown as He gave His life to break that curse.

The curse was broken, and all authority given unto Jesus (Matthew 28:18). Hebrews says Jesus was made a “Son,” meaning He was granted the earth as His realm to reign (Hebrews 1:5, 1:8, 1:13). Although Jesus already had rulership over the world as God, He earned the reward to reign over it as a man. Hebrews goes on to quote Psalm 8, noting that although humans were made lower than angels, they were originally appointed to have dominion over the earth (Hebrews 2:5-8). However, Hebrews 5:8 points out: “But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him [humans].”

Because of the Fall of Man, apparently Satan regained the right to reign (John 12:31). But Jesus regained that right for humanity “because of the suffering of death” (Hebrews 2:9). We now live in a sort of time warp, a delay between the time when Jesus has gained authority and the time when He will execute His authority to take physical rule of the world. But it is certain that He will return to earth and set up His reign. Amazingly, He invites all believers to join Him, and promises He will reward those who are faithful witnesses and endure rejection from the world, even as He endured, by sharing His throne even as He shares the throne with His Father (Revelation 3:21). 

The Purple Robe
John also says that when they put the crown of thorns on His head, the Roman soldiers also put a purple robe on Him. 

In the ancient world, the color of a person’s clothing designated their station in life. Purple was the color of rulers and royalty. The purple robe that the soldiers put on Jesus was meant to further insult and mock Him as a king. A purplish colored robe was also worn by the Jewish high priest. This was likely an unintended, but nevertheless, poignant irony by the Roman soldiers—that Jesus as the Messiah was both a King (like David) and Priest (in the order of Melchizedek—Hebrews 5:9-10). In their mocking of Jesus, they dressed Him in the colors of both these Messianic roles. 

Mark’s Gospel also says that the Romans dressed Jesus in a purple robe when they mocked Him (Mark 15:17). Matthew’s Gospel says they dressed Jesus in “a scarlet robe” (Matthew 27:28). Scarlet was the color of Roman Legionnaires—the kind of soldiers who were mocking Jesus. Scarlet is also the color of blood and sacrifice. Matthew may have commented on the color of this robe as a way to further associate Jesus with the Passover lamb—whose sacrificial blood was sprinkled on the doorposts of Israelites on their final night in Egypt (Exodus 12:7). 

So, what are we to make of these different accounts of the robe’s color? Was it scarlet as Matthew said—or—was it purple as Mark and John report? Moreover, Luke indicates that when Jesus was before Herod Antipas, He was mockingly dressed in “a gorgeous robe” by the tetrarch before being sent back to Pilate (Luke 23:11). The Greek language in Luke indicates that the robe Herod dressed Him in was white, which was the color worn by heirs to the throne who were not yet in power. Luke does not describe Jesus’s scourging or the Roman legionnaires’ mockery of Him.

There are several ways these different accounts of the robe’s color can be reconciled. 

First, there likely were at least two robes—a white one from Herod Antipas and another put on Jesus by the Roman soldiers. And if the robes were the same, then Herod’s white robe would have changed from white to scarlet as it covered Jesus’s bleeding body.

Second, the robe the soldiers put on Jesus could have been multi-colored: purple and scarlet. 

Third, purple and scarlet can be similar colors, and what Matthew truthfully describes as scarlet, John and Mark truthfully describe as purple. The colors of scarlet and purple also seem all the more similar when faded. And the robe the Roman soldiers put on Jesus very well may have been faded, as the soldiers were unlikely to put a gorgeous new robe on Jesus as Herod Antipas did. 

Fourth, Matthew may have been describing the color as it appeared—the scarlet robe of a Roman legionnaire; while Mark and John described the color as the soldiers applied and intended it be perceived within the context of their mocking—the purple cloak of royalty.

Finally, and similar to the first possibility, the robe the Roman soldiers put on Jesus may have looked more purple initially, but as Jesus’s body continued to bleed from being scourged, the robe’s purple fabric began to assume a more scarlet hue. Matthew may have chosen to describe the robe as scarlet to symbolize how Jesus was our Passover sacrifice—just as the blood of the lamb was sprinkled over the door posts in Egypt (Exodus 12:7). 

It is also possible that the three authors used several of these reasons for why they chose to describe the robe in the color they did. 

On a related note, the fact that Matthew, Mark, and John each record the same event with similar but not identical terms further demonstrates how the Gospel writers each wrote from their own unique perspectives and did not collude in their narratives. 

One would expect slight variations to be present if multiple people are describing the same event, rather than a verbatim match. And this is exactly what we have here, and throughout the four Gospels. A verbatim match would not only be redundant, it would also open up the Gospels to criticism that one or more of them was a forgery, or that collusion was somehow involved. 

Matthew, Mark, and John’s identifying different shades of the robe as purple (Mark 15:17, John 19:2) or scarlet (Matthew 27:28) is but one of many unique perspectives that authenticate the historical accounts of Gospel events. 

Matthew reports, that in addition to the purple robe and crown of thorns which the Roman soldiers put on Jesus, they also put “a reed in His right hand” (Matthew 27:29). This reed was likely a thin stick a couple of feet in length to resemble a king’s scepter. Matthew makes a special note to indicate that the reed was intended to be a mock-scepter by recording that it was held in Jesus’s “right hand” (Matthew 27:29)—the same hand which kings used to hold their scepters of power. 

Jesus was mocked. It was intended for Him to look like a ridiculous king. He was probably sitting on a stool or some other kind of chair and propped up because He had been severely beaten, bloodied beyond recognition by the prior evening’s abuse (John 18:22, Matthew 26:67-68, Mark 14:64-65, Luke 22:63-65), and especially so after having been freshly scourged. In this condition, Jesus was dressed in a robe and wearing a crown of thorns and holding a reed in His right hand as a scepter. 

The irony could not be greater. Jesus was granted all authority to reign over all the earth because of He was willing to go through this torture, which included being mocked for claiming to be a king (Matthew 28:18, Hebrews 1:5, 1:8, 1:13; Philippians 2:5-10, Revelation 3:21).

The Mocking and Abuse of Jesus
Even after scourging Jesus without mercy, the soldiers continued to heap shame and humiliation upon Him for their amusement in a cruel charade. 

After dressing Jesus up as a miserable king, John reports that the soldiers began to come up to Him and say, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and to give Him slaps in the face (v 3).

Hail is a term calling for respect, attention, and reverence. But the soldiers were using it sarcastically in such a way that it was disrespectful and mocking. The soldiers used the term, King of the Jews, as a way to tie in the charge of which the religious leaders of the Jews accused Him—a charge which the Roman governor of Judea and the tetrarch of Galilee had personally acquitted Him of (Luke 23:14-15). The Jewish leaders had brough Him before Pilate on the accusation that Jesus went around “saying that He Himself is Christ, a King” (Luke 23:2). As the soldiers hailed Jesus, Mark records “they kept…kneeling and bowing before Him” (Mark 15:19). The soldiers pretended to pay homage or allegiance to the bloodied king. But instead of respecting or honoring Him when they knelt and bowed, they were ridiculing Jesus. These same soldiers will bow before Jesus again, but there will be no hint of mocking when they do (Philippians 2:10-11). 

Additionally, Matthew and Mark also explain how in their mocking and cruel charade “they kept beating His head with a reed” (Mark 15:19a, Matthew 27:30b). This reed was the same prop used to resemble a king’s scepter. As part of their charade of humiliation, they were beating Jesus, the King of the Jews, with “His own scepter.” Its blows were all the more painful as it further smashed the crown of thorns into Jesus’s head. 

If those chief priests or elders were able to witness or hear any of these insults, they must have felt insulted also—not for Jesus’s sake—but for their own pride. In other words, the same scorn the Roman legionnaires had for Jesus was similar to the scorn they had for the local inhabitants of Judea.

But the soldiers did not stop with merely acting out their cruel charade making fun of Jesus as a ridiculous king. They used it as an occasion to further abuse Him.

They also began to give Him slaps in the face as they were mockingly “kneeling and bowing before Him” (Mark 15:19b). 

Receiving slaps in the face is physically stinging (especially to someone in Jesus’s abused condition) and highly insulting. Moreover, Matthew records that they also “spat on Him” (Matthew 27:30a). Spitting was a sign of gross disrespect and revile. To spit in the presence of a king or other dignitary would bring punishment and rebuke. Matthew says they were not only spitting in Jesus’s “kingly”/Kingly presence but that they actually spat on Him—which was an even more personal display of complete disdain. 

The soldiers’ mockery of Jesus seems to have been a fulfillment of a Messianic prophecy in Psalm 22,

“Many bulls have surrounded me;
Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.
They open wide their mouth at me,
As a ravening and a roaring lion.”
(Psalm 22:12-13)

The strong bulls of Bashan represent the soldiers. In the Old Testament, Bashan was used to describe people who were giant, powerful, and godless because their ruler, King Og, was the last of a race of giants called the Rephaim (Deuteronomy 3:10). The opening wide of their mouth could refer to both the mocking insults the soldiers were hurling at Jesus as well as their intent to destroy and devour Him as a ravening and roaring lion would do.

Mark indicates this abuse was constant and ongoing (Mark 15:19) as Jesus “recovered” from the shock of the scourging before He could be brought back out of the Praetorium to finish His trial (John 19:4-16). 

Jesus humbly took this abuse without resisting their evil as His blood and their saliva ran down His face. As He did, He was following His teaching from His Sermon on the Mount, “turning the other cheek” (Matthew 5:39). Jesus loved His enemies (Matthew 5:44), but thought little of the shame they directed at Him in comparison to the joy and eternal reign of glory set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). The author of Hebrews exhorts believers to emulate Jesus’s example in painful and/or humiliating circumstances, such as this, so we too can reign with Him.

“For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
(Hebrews 12:3)

(See also: Matthew 5:10-12, 10:32-33, 10:39, 19:27-30, Romans 8:16-18, 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, 2 Timothy 2:11-13, James 1:12, 1 Peter 1:6-7, Revelation 2:10-11, 3:21)

As the Roman soldiers spat on Him, it was further fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy regarding the Messiah’s suffering:

“And [I gave] My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard;
I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting.”
(Isaiah 50:6b)

Jesus continued to submit Himself to His Father’s will (Isaiah 50:7-9a; Matthew 26:39) and “turn the other cheek” (Matthew 5:39). 

Following this torturous mutilation and degrading mockery, Pilate then summoned Jesus and presented His disfigured and bleeding figure still wearing the crown of thorns and colorful robe to the chief priests and said: “Behold the Man!” (John 19:4-5). The Roman governor had apparent hopes this punishment would satisfy the crowds’ bloodlust and let him release Jesus without further incident (Luke 23:22). 

But when the crowds saw Jesus, they again resumed their cries of “Crucify, Crucify!” (John 19:6)

Biblical Text

¹ Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him. ² And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him; ³ and they began to come up to Him and say, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and to give Him slaps in the face.

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