Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
All Commentaries on Matthew 27:26 Go To Matthew 27
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Then (when the Jews had taken on themselves the guilt of Christ"s death) released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified. S. Matthew , as usual, slightly touches on the scourging; S. Mark and S. Luke speak of it more fully, and reckon this as Pilate"s fifth appeal to the compassion of the Jews, to induce them to ask for His life.
Observe—1. Scourging among the Romans was the punishment of slaves. (See Ff de Pænis1. "Servorum," and the Lex Sempronia.) S. Paul, as a Roman citizen, protested against being scourged (Acts xvi.). Martyrs were scourged by way of disgrace, of which many instances are given2. Free persons also were scourged after they had been condemned to death, as though they had thus become slaves. Hence the fasces had rods for scourging, and the axe for executions3. This scourging of Christ was before His condemnation, and He was thus spared the usual scourging afterwards. For one scourging only is spoken of in the Gospels4. S. Jerome (Epitaph. Paulæ), S. Paulinus (Ep. xxxiv.), Prudentius, and others (see Gretser, de Cruce, Lib. i.), say that Christ was fastened to a column to be scourged, and that this column was afterwards placed in the Church of S. Praxedes at Rome. But the column which is there is very small, and is consequently supposed to be only a part of the large column mentioned by S. Jerome. Bosius maintains that it is the whole of the column, and that S. Jerome is speaking of the column at which Christ was first scourged. S. Chrysostom considered that there were two scourgings. But most probably it was only part of the column S. Jerome mentions, or one of those to which He was bound in the house of Caiaphas, and the larger one that at which He was scourged in the house of the Governor.
But in what respects was this scourging so cruel and savage?
1. Christ being bound to this short column, and standing with the whole height of His body above it, was quite at the mercy of those who scourged Him. Again, the mere exposure of His most pure and virgin body to these filthy mockers was a sore affliction to Him. But He was twice, or as some say thrice, stripped; first, at His scourging; secondly, when crowned with thorns. This stripping was attended with the greatest pain; for as His garment stuck to His wounds, they were forcibly reopened as it was torn away.
The forty martyrs were animated by this example, when they boldly stripped themselves and plunged into the freezing water. (See S. Basil"s Homily.)
2. Pilate wished to excite the compassion of the Jews by saying, "Behold the man." Behold Him who has no longer the appearance of a Prayer of Manasseh , but of some slaughtered animal, so besmeared was He with blood and marred in His form.
3. The soldiers had of their own wanton cruelty crowned Him with thorns, and perhaps had been bribed by the Jews to scourge Him with greater severity. The blessed Magdalene of Pazzi, a nun of Florence, saw in a trance Christ scourged by thirty pairs of men, one after the other. Some say that He had5000 blows inflicted on Him. S. Bridget is said to have had the exact number (5475) revealed to her. From such a scourging as this He would have died naturally again and again, had not His Godhead specially sustained Him.
4. His bodily frame was most delicate, and acutely sensitive to pain, as fashioned by the Holy Spirit, and He consequently felt the scourging more severely than we should have done.
5. The prophets, and also Christ Himself, foretold that this scourging would be most heavy and severe. See S. Matthew 20:19, and Job 16:14, "He brake Me with wound upon wound." They added, i.e, blows to blows, wounds to wounds, so that the whole body seemed one continuous wound. Conf. Psalm 73:14, "All the day long have I been scourged;" and Psalm 129:3, "The sinners wrought upon my back as smiths on an anvil;" but the Hebrew [and A.V.], "The ploughers ploughed upon My back," they made furrows on My back with scourges. Song of Solomon , too, Aquila and Theodot. This is also indicated by Jacob"s words (Gen. xlix11), "He shall wash His garments in wine, and His clothes in the blood of the grape," meaning by His garments and clothes His flesh, and by the wine His blood.
6. Christ was scourged, as slaves were, with small ropes or thongs. Some suppose that He was scourged: 1. with rods of thorns; 2. with cords and iron goads; 3. with chains made of hooks. Antonius Gallus (de Cruciatu Martyrum) describes the various kinds of scourges which were used.
S. Bridget says that the Blessed Virgin was present at the scourging, and that her pain and sorrow added wondrously to His. She describes also the mode and the barbarity of His scourging (S. Bridget, Revelation 1:10).
Now Christ wished in this way to atone for our evil lusts and manifold sins. And in doing this (says S. Thom, par. iii. sec46 , art6 , ad6), He considered not only the great virtue of His sufferings from the union of His Godhead with His human nature, but also how much it would avail even in that nature for making satisfaction. Moreover, He wished to obtain power and strength for all martyrs, in order to their enduring every kind of scourging. Conf. Isaiah 53:5. In all this Christ manifested most marvellous patience. He uttered not a groan, gave no indication of pain, stood firm as a rock. Nay, He lorded it over all sufferings, as being above them. Such a temper obtained heathen admiration. S. Cyprian (de Bono Patient. cap. iii.), among the proofs of His Divine Majesty, speaks of "His continuous endurance, in which He exhibited the patience of His Father." Tertullian, too (de Pat. cap. iii.), "He who had proposed to hide Himself in man"s form, exhibited nought of man"s impatience. And in this ye Pharisees ought to have specially recognised the Lord." S. Ambrose, too (Serm. xvii. in Ps. cxviii.) [cxix.], speaks of His "triumphant silence under calumny." The Jews ought to have gathered from this the conclusion of the Centurion, "Truly this was the Son of God." All this was caused by His love of God and man. Love triumphed over pain, and made His pains as nothing. And hence He was willing to suffer in all points, and in all His members and senses. S. Thomas (par iii. qu46 , art5) thus writes, "He suffered in the desertion of His friends, in His credit, in His honour, in the spoiling of His goods, in His soul by sorrow, in His body by His wounds. He suffered too in all parts of His body, and in every sense." But His sufferings of mind were by far the greatest. For He was specially wounded by the sins of each single man. He grieved also for the multitude of the lost. He had sympathy for the martyrs and others who had to endure sufferings. But His boundless love urged Him on to endure all this. For love is the measure of pain, and we cannot live in love without pain. Hence it is said of Christ, "Sculptured, thou seest His love in every limb."
Delivered Him to be crucified. After His scourging and crowning with thorns, which comes next, as I have said (ver24). This is therefore a transposition. S. Matthew here relates many things briefly, which S. John 19:1-16 records more fully. Pilate then delivered Jesus to the Jews, after he had condemned Him. Adrichomius (p163) gives Pilate"s supposed sentence, which states that the charges had been proved; making these charges, which he knew to be false, a cloak for his own sloth and injustice; the Chief Priests gave no proof, but merely made false and calumnious assertions.
Pilate in his rescript to Tiberius says that he had condemned Jesus through the importunity of the Jews, though He was in other respects a holy and divine man. Orosius (Hist. vii4) speaks of his testimony to Christ"s virtues; and Eusebius (in Chron. ad an38), that he spoke in favour of Christians to Tiberius, who proposed that Christianity should be recognised among other religions. (Conf. Tert. Apol. cap5,21; Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. ii2 , and others.)
Christ, then, was on Pilate"s own testimony most unjustly condemned by him; for envy accused, hatred witnessed against Him; His crime was innocence; fear perverted judgment, ambition condemned, cruelty punished.
