Matthew 26:67-68

26:67 Then they spat in his face and struck him with their fists. And some slapped him, 26:68 saying, “Prophesy for us, you Christ! ¹  Who hit you?” ² 

Matthew 27:27-31

27:27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the governor’s residence ³  and gathered the whole cohort ⁴  around him. 27:28 They ⁵  stripped him and put a scarlet robe ⁶  around him, 27:29 and after braiding ⁷  a crown of thorns, ⁸  they put it on his head. They ⁹  put a staff ¹⁰  in his right hand, and kneeling down before him, they mocked him: ¹¹  “Hail, king of the Jews!” ¹²  27:30 They ¹³  spat on him and took the staff ¹⁴  and struck him repeatedly ¹⁵  on the head. 27:31 When ¹⁶  they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes back on him. Then ¹⁷  they led him away to crucify him.

Psalms 22:7-8

22:7 All who see me taunt ¹⁸  me;

they mock me ¹⁹  and shake their heads. ²⁰ 

22:8 They say, ²¹ 

“Commit yourself ²²  to the Lord!

Let the Lord ²³  rescue him!

Let the Lord ²⁴  deliver him, for he delights in him.” ²⁵ 

Psalms 35:16

35:16 When I tripped, they taunted me relentlessly, ²⁶ 

and tried to bite me. ²⁷ 

Isaiah 53:3

53:3 He was despised and rejected by people, ²⁸ 

one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness;

people hid their faces from him; ²⁹ 

he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. ³⁰ 

Mark 14:65

14:65 Then ³¹  some began to spit on him, and to blindfold him, and to strike him with their fists, saying, “Prophesy!” The guards also took him and beat ³²  him.

Mark 15:16-20

Jesus is Mocked

15:16 So ³³  the soldiers led him into the palace (that is, the governor’s residence) ³⁴  and called together the whole cohort. ³⁵  15:17 They put a purple cloak ³⁶  on him and after braiding ³⁷  a crown of thorns, ³⁸  they put it on him. 15:18 They began to salute him: “Hail, king of the Jews!” ³⁹  15:19 Again and again ⁴⁰  they struck him on the head with a staff ⁴¹  and spit on him. Then they knelt down and paid homage to him. 15:20 When they had finished mocking ⁴²  him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes back on him. Then ⁴³  they led him away to crucify him. ⁴⁴ 

Mark 15:29-31

15:29 Those who passed by defamed him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who can destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, 15:30 save yourself and come down from the cross!” ⁴⁵  15:31 In the same way even the chief priests – together with the experts in the law ⁴⁶  – were mocking him among themselves: ⁴⁷  “He saved others, but he cannot save himself!

Luke 23:11

23:11 Even Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, ⁴⁸  dressing him in elegant clothes, ⁴⁹  Herod ⁵⁰  sent him back to Pilate.

John 19:1-4

Pilate Tries to Release Jesus

19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged severely. ⁵¹  19:2 The soldiers ⁵²  braided ⁵³  a crown of thorns ⁵⁴  and put it on his head, and they clothed him in a purple robe. ⁵⁵  19:3 They ⁵⁶  came up to him again and again ⁵⁷  and said, “Hail, king of the Jews!” ⁵⁸  And they struck him repeatedly ⁵⁹  in the face.

19:4 Again Pilate went out and said to the Jewish leaders, ⁶⁰  “Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no reason for an accusation ⁶¹  against him.”

[26:68]  ¹ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[26:68]  ² tn Grk “Who is the one who hit you?”

[27:27]  ³ tn Or “into their headquarters”; Grk “into the praetorium.”

[27:27]  ⁴ sn A Roman cohort was a tenth of a legion, about 500-600 soldiers.

[27:28]  ⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[27:28]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Or “weaving.”

[27:29]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[27:29]  ¹⁰ tn Or “a reed.” The Greek term can mean either “staff” or “reed.” See BDAG 502 s.v. κάλαμος 2.

[27:29]  ¹¹ tn Grk “they mocked him, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant and has not been translated.

[27:29]  ¹² tn Or “Long live the King of the Jews!”

[27:30]  ¹³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[27:30]  ¹⁴ tn Or “the reed.”

[27:30]  ¹⁵ tn The verb here has been translated as an iterative imperfect.

[27:31]  ¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[27:31]  ¹⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[22:7]  ¹⁸ tn Or “scoff at, deride, mock.”

[22:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “they separate with a lip.” Apparently this refers to their verbal taunting.

[22:7]  ²⁰ sn Shake their heads. Apparently this refers to a taunting gesture. See also Job 16:4; Ps 109:25; Lam 2:15.

[22:8]  ²¹ tn The words “they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons. The psalmist here quotes the sarcastic taunts of his enemies.

[22:8]  ²² tn Heb “roll [yourself].” The Hebrew verb גלל here has the sense of “commit” (see Prov 16:3). The imperatival form in the Hebrew text indicates the enemies here address the psalmist. Since they refer to him in the third person in the rest of the verse, some prefer to emend the verb to a perfect, “he commits himself to the Lord.”

[22:8]  ²³ tn Heb “Let him”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Let him”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:8]  ²⁵ tn That is, “for he [the Lord] delights in him [the psalmist].” For other cases where the expression “delight in” refers to God’s delight in a person, see Num 14:8; 1 Kgs 10:9; Pss 18:19; 40:8.

[35:16]  ²⁶ tc The MT reads “as profane [ones] of mockers of food,” which is nonsensical. The present translation assumes (1) an emendation of בְּחַנְפֵי (bÿkhanfey, “as profane men”) to בְּחַנְפִי (bekhanfiy, “when I tripped”; preposition + Qal infinitive construct from II חָנַף [“limp”] + first common singular pronominal suffix) and (2) an emendation of לַעֲגֵי מָעוֹג (la’agey ma’og, “mockers of food”) to עָגוּ[ם]לַעְגָּ (la’gam ’agu, “[with] taunting they taunted”; masculine plural noun with enclitic mem + Qal perfect third common plural from לַּעַג [la’ag, “taunt”]).

[35:16]  ²⁷ tn Heb “gnashing at me with their teeth.” The infinitive absolute adds a complementary action – they gnashed with their teeth as they taunted.

[53:3]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ sn The servant is likened to a seriously ill person who is shunned by others because of his horrible disease.

[14:65]  ³¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[14:65]  ³² tn For the translation of ῥάπισμα (rJapisma), see L&N 19.4.

[15:16]  ³³ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “So” to indicate that the soldiers’ action is in response to Pilate’s condemnation of the prisoner in v. 15.

[15:16]  ³⁴ tn Grk “(that is, the praetorium).”

[15:16]  ³⁵ sn A Roman cohort was a tenth of a legion, about 500-600 soldiers.

[15:17]  ³⁶ 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]  ³⁷ tn Or “weaving.”

[15:17]  ³⁸ 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]  ³⁹ tn Or “Long live the King of the Jews!”

[15:19]  ⁴⁰ tn The verb here has been translated as an iterative imperfect.

[15:19]  ⁴¹ tn Or “a reed.” The Greek term can mean either “staff” or “reed.” See BDAG 502 s.v. κάλαμος 2.

[15:20]  ⁴² tn The aorist tense is taken consummatively here.

[15:20]  ⁴³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[15:20]  ⁴⁴ sn See the note on Crucify in 15:13.

[15:30]  ⁴⁵ sn There is rich irony in the statement of those who were passing by, “Save yourself and come down from the cross!” In summary, they wanted Jesus to come down from the cross and save his physical life, but it was indeed his staying on the cross and giving his physical life that led to the fact that they could experience a resurrection from death to life. There is a similar kind of irony in the statement made by the chief priests and experts in the law in 15:31.

[15:31]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “with the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 1:22. Only “chief priests” is in the nominative case; this sentence structure attempts to capture this emphasis.

[15:31]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “Mocking him, the chief priests…said among themselves.”

[23:11]  ⁴⁸ 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]  ⁴⁹ 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]  ⁵⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:1]  ⁵¹ tn Or “had him flogged,” or (traditional), “scourged him.” The verb should be read as causative. Pilate ordered Jesus to be flogged. A Roman governor would not carry out such a sentence in person. BDAG 620 s.v. μαστιγόω 1. states, “If J refers to the ‘verberatio’ given those condemned to death (TMommsen, Röm. Strafrecht 1899, 938f; Jos., Bell. 2, 308; 5, 449), it is odd that Pilate subsequently claims no cause for action (vs. 6); but if the latter statement refers only to the penalty of crucifixion, μ. vs. 1 may be equivalent to παιδεύω (q.v. 2bγ) in Lk 23:16, 22 (for μ. of a non-capital offense PFlor I, 61, 61 [85ad]=Mitt-Wilck. II/2, 80 II, 61).”

[19:2]  ⁵² 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]  ⁵³ tn Or “wove.”

[19:2]  ⁵⁴ 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]  ⁵⁵ sn The purple color of the robe indicated royal status. This was further mockery of Jesus, along with the crown of thorns.

[19:3]  ⁵⁶ 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]  ⁵⁷ tn The words “again and again” are implied by the (iterative) imperfect verb ἤρχοντο (hrconto).

[19:3]  ⁵⁸ tn Or “Long live the King of the Jews!”

[19:3]  ⁵⁹ tn The word “repeatedly” is implied by the (iterative) imperfect verb ἐδιδοσαν (edidosan).

[19:4]  ⁶⁰ tn Grk “to them.” The words “the Jewish leaders” are supplied from John 18:38 for clarity.

[19:4]  ⁶¹ tn Or “find no basis for an accusation”; Grk “find no cause.”