John 19:2-3

19:2 The soldiers ¹  braided ²  a crown of thorns ³  and put it on his head, and they clothed him in a purple robe. ⁴  19:3 They ⁵  came up to him again and again ⁶  and said, “Hail, king of the Jews!” ⁷  And they struck him repeatedly ⁸  in the face.

[19:2]  ¹ tn Grk “And the soldiers.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[19:2]  ² tn Or “wove.”

[19:2]  ³ sn The crown of thorns was a crown plaited of some thorny material, intended as a mockery of Jesus’ “kingship.” Traditionally it has been regarded as an additional instrument of torture, but it seems more probable the purpose of the thorns was not necessarily to inflict more physical suffering but to imitate the spikes of the “radiant corona,” a type of crown portrayed on ruler’s heads on many coins of the period; the spikes on this type of crown represented rays of light pointing outward (the best contemporary illustration is the crown on the head of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor).

[19:2]  ⁴ sn The purple color of the robe indicated royal status. This was further mockery of Jesus, along with the crown of thorns.

[19:3]  ⁵ tn Grk “And they.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[19:3]  ⁶ tn The words “again and again” are implied by the (iterative) imperfect verb ἤρχοντο (hrconto).

[19:3]  ⁷ tn Or “Long live the King of the Jews!”

[19:3]  ⁸ tn The word “repeatedly” is implied by the (iterative) imperfect verb ἐδιδοσαν (edidosan).