John 19:5

19:5 So Jesus came outside, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. ¹  Pilate ²  said to them, “Look, here is the man!” ³ 

Psalms 22:6

22:6 But I ⁴  am a worm, ⁵  not a man; ⁶ 

people insult me and despise me. ⁷ 

Isaiah 49:7

49:7 This is what the Lord,

the protector ⁸  of Israel, their Holy One, ⁹  says

to the one who is despised ¹⁰  and rejected ¹¹  by nations, ¹² 

a servant of rulers:

“Kings will see and rise in respect, ¹³ 

princes will bow down,

because of the faithful Lord,

the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

Isaiah 53:3

53:3 He was despised and rejected by people, ¹⁴ 

one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness;

people hid their faces from him; ¹⁵ 

he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. ¹⁶ 

Matthew 27:27-31

27:27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the governor’s residence ¹⁷  and gathered the whole cohort ¹⁸  around him. 27:28 They ¹⁹  stripped him and put a scarlet robe ²⁰  around him, 27:29 and after braiding ²¹  a crown of thorns, ²²  they put it on his head. They ²³  put a staff ²⁴  in his right hand, and kneeling down before him, they mocked him: ²⁵  “Hail, king of the Jews!” ²⁶  27:30 They ²⁷  spat on him and took the staff ²⁸  and struck him repeatedly ²⁹  on the head. 27:31 When ³⁰  they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes back on him. Then ³¹  they led him away to crucify him.

Mark 15:17-20

15:17 They put a purple cloak ³²  on him and after braiding ³³  a crown of thorns, ³⁴  they put it on him. 15:18 They began to salute him: “Hail, king of the Jews!” ³⁵  15:19 Again and again ³⁶  they struck him on the head with a staff ³⁷  and spit on him. Then they knelt down and paid homage to him. 15:20 When they had finished mocking ³⁸  him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes back on him. Then ³⁹  they led him away to crucify him. ⁴⁰ 

Luke 23:11

23:11 Even Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, ⁴¹  dressing him in elegant clothes, ⁴²  Herod ⁴³  sent him back to Pilate.

[19:5]  ¹ sn See the note on the purple robe in 19:2.

[19:5]  ² tn Grk “He”; the referent (Pilate) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:5]  ³ sn Look, here is the man! Pilate may have meant no more than something like “Here is the accused!” or in a contemptuous way, “Here is your king!” Others have taken Pilate’s statement as intended to evoke pity from Jesus’ accusers: “Look at this poor fellow!” (Jesus would certainly not have looked very impressive after the scourging). For the author, however, Pilate’s words constituted an unconscious allusion to Zech 6:12, “Look, here is the man whose name is the Branch.” In this case Pilate (unknowingly and ironically) presented Jesus to the nation under a messianic title.

[22:6]  ⁴ tn The grammatical construction (conjunction + pronoun) highlights the contrast between the psalmist’s experience and that of his ancestors. When he considers God’s past reliability, it only heightens his despair and confusion, for God’s present silence stands in stark contrast to his past saving acts.

[22:6]  ⁵ tn The metaphor expresses the psalmist’s self-perception, which is based on how others treat him (see the following line).

[22:6]  ⁶ tn Or “not a human being.” The psalmist perceives himself as less than human.

[22:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “a reproach of man and despised by people.”

[49:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:7]  ⁹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[49:7]  ¹⁰ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “to [one who] despises life.” It is preferable to read with the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a לבזוי, which should be vocalized as a passive participle, לִבְזוּי (livzuy, “to the one despised with respect to life” [נֶפֶשׁ is a genitive of specification]). The consonantal sequence וי was probably misread as ה in the MT tradition. The contextual argument favors the 1QIsa^a reading. As J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:294) points out, the three terse phrases “convey a picture of lowliness, worthlessness, and helplessness.”

[49:7]  ¹¹ tn MT’s Piel participle (“to the one who rejects”) does not fit contextually. The form should be revocalized as a Pual, “to the one rejected.”

[49:7]  ¹² tn Parallelism (see “rulers,” “kings,” “princes”) suggests that the singular גּוֹי (goy) be emended to a plural or understood in a collective sense (see 55:5).

[49:7]  ¹³ tn For this sense of קוּם (qum), see Gen 19:1; 23:7; 33:10; Lev 19:32; 1 Sam 20:41; 25:41; 1 Kgs 2:19; Job 29:8.

[53:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “lacking of men.” If the genitive is taken as specifying (“lacking with respect to men”), then the idea is that he lacked company because he was rejected by people. Another option is to take the genitive as indicating genus or larger class (i.e., “one lacking among men”). In this case one could translate, “he was a transient” (cf. the use of חָדֵל [khadel] in Ps 39:5 HT [39:4 ET]).

[53:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “like a hiding of the face from him,” i.e., “like one before whom the face is hidden” (see BDB 712 s.v. מַסְתֵּר).

[53:3]  ¹⁶ sn The servant is likened to a seriously ill person who is shunned by others because of his horrible disease.

[27:27]  ¹⁷ tn Or “into their headquarters”; Grk “into the praetorium.”

[27:27]  ¹⁸ sn A Roman cohort was a tenth of a legion, about 500-600 soldiers.

[27:28]  ¹⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[27:28]  ²⁰ sn The scarlet robe probably refers to a military garment which had the color of royal purple, and thus resembled a king’s robe. The soldiers did this to Jesus as a form of mockery in view of the charges that he was a king.

[27:29]  ²¹ tn Or “weaving.”

[27:29]  ²² sn The crown may have been made from palm spines or some other thorny plant common in Israel. In placing the crown of thorns on his head, the soldiers were unwittingly symbolizing God’s curse on humanity (cf. Gen 3:18) being placed on Jesus. Their purpose would have been to mock Jesus’ claim to be a king; the crown of thorns would have represented the “radiant corona” portrayed on the heads of rulers on coins and other artifacts in the 1st century.

[27:29]  ²³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[27:29]  ²⁴ tn Or “a reed.” The Greek term can mean either “staff” or “reed.” See BDAG 502 s.v. κάλαμος 2.

[27:29]  ²⁵ tn Grk “they mocked him, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant and has not been translated.

[27:29]  ²⁶ tn Or “Long live the King of the Jews!”

[27:30]  ²⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[27:30]  ²⁸ tn Or “the reed.”

[27:30]  ²⁹ tn The verb here has been translated as an iterative imperfect.

[27:31]  ³⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[27:31]  ³¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[15:17]  ³² sn The purple cloak probably refers to a military garment which had the color of royal purple, and thus resembled a king’s robe. The soldiers did this to Jesus as a form of mockery in view of the charges that he was a king (cf. 15:2).

[15:17]  ³³ tn Or “weaving.”

[15:17]  ³⁴ sn The crown may have been made from palm spines or some other thorny plant common in Israel. In placing the crown of thorns on his head, the soldiers were unwittingly symbolizing God’s curse on humanity (cf. Gen 3:18) being placed on Jesus. Their purpose would have been to mock Jesus’ claim to be a king; the crown of thorns would have represented the “radiant corona” portrayed on the heads of rulers on coins and other artifacts in the 1st century.

[15:18]  ³⁵ tn Or “Long live the King of the Jews!”

[15:19]  ³⁶ tn The verb here has been translated as an iterative imperfect.

[15:19]  ³⁷ tn Or “a reed.” The Greek term can mean either “staff” or “reed.” See BDAG 502 s.v. κάλαμος 2.

[15:20]  ³⁸ tn The aorist tense is taken consummatively here.

[15:20]  ³⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[15:20]  ⁴⁰ sn See the note on Crucify in 15:13.

[23:11]  ⁴¹ tn This is a continuation of the previous Greek sentence, but because of its length and complexity, a new sentence was started here in the translation by supplying “then” to indicate the sequence of events.

[23:11]  ⁴² sn This mockery involved putting elegant royal clothes on Jesus, either white or purple (the colors of royalty). This was no doubt a mockery of Jesus’ claim to be a king.

[23:11]  ⁴³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.