Mat 27:26-31 | PNT | STEP | He had Jesus scourged . Scourging usually preceded crucifixion. It was an awful punishment, inflicted by brutal soldiers, and continued until the victim was fainting under the torture.

‏ Matthew 27:26-31

He had Jesus scourged. Scourging usually preceded crucifixion. It was an awful punishment, inflicted by brutal soldiers, and continued until the victim was fainting under the torture. Then the soldiers . . . took Jesus into the common hall. After the scourging which was inflicted in the court (Mr 15:16). Josephus says that Pilate stayed, while in Jerusalem, in Herod's palace, on the northern brow of Zion, near the Jaffa gate.

The whole band. The cohort (from 400 to 600 men) on duty at the palace. They gathered to mock the doomed prisoner. They stripped him. His clothing, stripped off at the scourging, had been replaced, but was now removed to wrap him in a mock royal mantle. Scarlet or purple were the royal colors. A crown of thorns. Both in mockery and for torture.

And a reed in his right hand. For a scepter. Having thus arrayed him, in royal robe, crown of thorns, and mock scepter, they kneel before him and deride him. They spat upon him. In order to show still greater contempt. Brutal as these heathen soldiers were, they were no more so than the Jewish Sanhedrin had been. After that they had mocked him. Pilate presented the bleeding prisoner once more to the people, evidently to secure their pity, and made one more effort to release him, but in vain (Joh 19:5). Then Jesus was led away to the cross.