Комментарии к Библии

Washed his hands (απενιψατο τας χειρας). As a last resort since the hubbub (θορυβος) increased because of his vacillation. The verb απονιπτω means to wash off and the middle voice means that he washed off his hands for himself as a common symbol of cleanliness and added his pious claim with a slap at them. I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man (or this blood ); see ye to it . (Αθωιος ειμ απο του αιματος του δικαιου τουτου or του αιματος τουτου as some manuscripts have it, υμεις οψεσθε.) The Jews used this symbol (Deuteronomy 21:6; Psalms 26:6; Psalms 73:13). Plummer doubts if Pilate said these words with a direct reference to his wife's message (Matthew 26:19), but I fail to see the ground for that scepticism. The so-called Gospel of Peter says that Pilate washed his hands because the Jews refused to do so.

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His blood be upon us and upon our children (το αιμα αυτου κα επ τα τεκνα ημων). These solemn words do show a consciousness that the Jewish people recognized their guilt and were even proud of it. But Pilate could not wash away his own guilt that easily. The water did not wash away the blood of Jesus from his hands any more than Lady Macbeth could wash away the blood-stains from her lily-white hands. One legend tells that in storms on Mt. Pilatus in Switzerland his ghost comes out and still washes his hands in the storm-clouds. There was guilt enough for Judas, for Caiaphas and for all the Sanhedrin both Sadducees and Pharisees, for the Jewish people as a whole (πας ο λαος), and for Pilate. At bottom the sins of all of us nailed Jesus to the Cross. This language is no excuse for race hatred today, but it helps explain the sensitiveness between Jew and Christians on this subject. And Jews today approach the subject of the Cross with a certain amount of prejudice.

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Scourged (φραγελλωσας). The Latin verb flagellare. Pilate apparently lost interest in Jesus when he discovered that he had no friends in the crowd. The religious leaders had been eager to get Jesus condemned before many of the Galilean crowd friendly to Jesus came into the city. They had apparently succeeded. The scourging before the crucifixion was a brutal Roman custom. The scourging was part of the capital punishment. Deissmann (Light from the Ancient East, p. 269) quotes a Florentine papyrus of the year 85 A.D. wherein G. Septimius Vegetus, governor of Egypt, says of a certain Phibion: "Thou hadst been worthy of scourging ... but I will give thee to the people."

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Into the palace (εις το πραιτωριον). In Rome the praetorium was the camp of the praetorian (from praetor) guard of soldiers (Philippians 1:13), but in the provinces it was the palace in which the governor resided as in Acts 23:35 in Caesarea. So here in Jerusalem Pilate ordered Jesus and all the band or cohort (ολην την σπειραν) of soldiers to be led into the palace in front of which the judgment-seat had been placed. The Latin spira was anything rolled into a circle like a twisted ball of thread. These Latin words are natural here in the atmosphere of the court and the military environment. The soldiers were gathered together for the sport of seeing the scourging. These heathen soldiers would also enjoy showing their contempt for the Jews as well as for the condemned man.

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A scarlet robe (χλαμυδα κοκκινην). A kind of short cloak worn by soldiers, military officers, magistrates, kings, emperors (2Macc. 12:35; Josephus, Ant. V. 1,10), a soldier's sagum or scarf. Carr (Cambridge Gk. Test.) suggests that it may have been a worn-out scarf of Pilate's. The scarlet colour (κοκκινην) was a dye derived from the female insect (κερμες) which gathered on the ιλεξ χοχχιφερα found in Palestine. These dried clusters of insects look like berries and form the famous dye. The word occurs in Plutarch, Epictetus, Herodas, and late papyri besides the Septuagint and New Testament. Mark (Mark 15:17) has "purple" (πορφυραν). There are various shades of purple and scarlet and it is not easy to distinguish these colours or tints. The manuscripts vary here between "stripped" (εκδυσαντες) and "clothed" (ενδυσαντες). He had been stripped for the scourging. If "clothed" is correct, the soldiers added the scarlet (purple) mantle. Herodotus (iii. 139) relates that Darius richly rewarded a Samian exile for a rare scarlet robe which he obtained from him. This scarlet mantle on Jesus was mock imitation of the royal purple.

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A crown of thorns (στεφανον εξ ακανθων). They wove a crown out of thorns which would grow even in the palace grounds. It is immaterial whether they were young and tender thorn bushes, as probable in the spring, or hard bushes with sharp prongs. The soldiers would not care, for they were after ridicule and mockery even if it caused pain. It was more like a victor's garland (στεφανον) than a royal diadem (διαδημα), but it served the purpose. So with the reed (καλαμον), a stalk of common cane grass which served as sceptre. The soldiers were familiar with the Ave Caesar and copy it in their mockery of Jesus: Hail, King of the Jews (χαιρε, Βασιλευ των Ιουδαιων). The soldiers added the insults used by the Sanhedrin (Matthew 26:67), spitting on him and smiting him with the reed. Probably Jesus had been unbound already. At any rate the garments of mockery were removed before the via dolorosa to the cross (verse Matthew 27:31).

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Compelled (ηγγαρευσαν). This word of Persian origin was used in Matthew 5:41, which see. There are numerous papyri examples of Ptolemaic date and it survives in modern Greek vernacular. So the soldiers treat Simon of Cyrene (a town of Libya) as a Persian courier (αγγαρος) and impress him into service, probably because Jesus was showing signs of physical weakness in bearing his own Cross as the victims had to do, and not as a mere jest on Simon. "Gethsemane, betrayal, the ordeal of the past sleepless night, scourging, have made the flesh weak" (Bruce). Yes, and the burden of sin of the world that was breaking his heart. His cross (τον σταυρον αυτου). Jesus had used the term cross about himself (Matthew 16:24). It was a familiar enough picture under Roman rule. Jesus had long foreseen and foretold this horrible form of death for himself (Matthew 20:19; Matthew 23:24; Matthew 26:2). He had heard the cry of the mob to Pilate that he be crucified (Matthew 27:22) and Pilate's surrender (Matthew 27:26) and he was on the way to the Cross (Matthew 27:31). There were various kinds of crosses and we do not know precisely the shape of the Cross on which Jesus was crucified, though probably the one usually presented is correct. Usually the victim was nailed (hands and feet) to the cross before it was raised and it was not very high. The crucifixion was done by the soldiers (Matthew 27:35) in charge and two robbers were crucified on each side of Jesus, three crosses standing in a row (Matthew 27:38).

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Golgotha (Γολγοθα). Chaldaic or Aramaic Gulgatha, Hebrew Gulgoleth, place of a skull-shaped mount, not place of skulls. Latin Vulgate Calvariae locus, hence our Calvary. Tyndale misunderstood it as a place of dead men's skulls. Calvary or Golgotha is not the traditional place of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, but a place outside of the city, probably what is now called Gordon's Calvary, a hill north of the city wall which from the Mount of Olives looks like a skull, the rock-hewn tombs resembling eyes in one of which Jesus may have been buried.

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