is said to do things, when he does them by the hands of ser- vants and attendants ! It was thus, no doubt, that Pilate Bcourged Jesus. The word " took " probably means, " com- manded Him to be seized."
Hengstenberg thinks that the remarkable incident of Pilate's " washing his hands " (Matt, xxvii. 24), and declaring his inno- cence of Christ's blood, comes in between this verse and the preceding chapter. I would rather place it after the fifteenth verse of this nineteenth chapter.
The place where this horrible indignity was inflicted on our Lord's holy person (according to St. Matthew xxvii. 27) was the prtetoriura, or common hall, which was probably a kind of guard-room, where the Roman soldiers used to spend their time, and keep themselves in readiness to do anything the Gov- ernor wished. What kind of a place the guard-room of a body of rough Roman soldiers can have been we can hardly con- ceive, even if we visit the worst regimental guard-rooms of modern days.
Some think that our Lord was scourged twice; once at the beginning of Pilate's examination, and once after His final con- demnation. This however seems to me very doubtful. The idea probably arises from not carefully observing that the pro- ceedings before Pilate, after the scourging recorded here, are peculiar to St. John's Gospel, and omitted by Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Besser remarks, " Before the message, ' Christ our righteous- ness ' was revived, and the Lutheran • Christ for us ' was again the refreshment of weary souls, men could not draw much re- freshment from Christ's scourging. Before the Reformation whole hosts of self-bewailing penitents came forth from Italy and spread over Germany. They were called 'Flagellants;' and naked to the waist they roamed through towns and villa- ges, singing penitential hymns like Dies Irse, and flogging one another."
2. — [And. ..soldiers... crown.. Morns...7iead.] About the object of the soldiers in this act there can be no doubt. It was done in mockery and ridicule of our blessed Lord, and to pour contempt on the idea of His being a King. These rude men would show how they defied such a King. We can well believe that rough heathen soldiers, like Roman legionaries, were expert and trained by practice in the best way of torturing a prisoner.
Thorns, according to Tristram, are so common in Palestine, that the soldiers would have no difficulty in finding materials for weaving this crown. Hasselquist, quoted in Smith's Dic- tionary, says, " The plant called ' nebk ' (zizyphus spina Christi) Was very suitable for the purpose, as it has many sharp thorns, and its flexible, pliant, and round branches, might easily be plaited in the form of a crown ; and what, in my opinion,