MARK 15:19 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him.”
Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him — the sustained abuse communicates the thorough degradation: striking on the crowned head, spitting on the robed figure, kneeling in mock homage. Each element is simultaneously a torment and a mockery. The homage they offer in jest is the truth they refuse to see.
Church Fathers on Mark 15:19
The vainglory of soldiers, ever rejoicing in disorder and in insult, here displayed what properly belonged to them.
For since He had been called King of the Jews, and the scribes and priests had objected to Him as a crime that He usurped rule over the Jewish people, they in derision strip Him of His former garments, and put on Him a purple robe, which ancient kings used to wear.
But we must understand that the words of Matthew, they 'put of Him a scarlet robe,' Mark expresses by 'clothed Him in purple'; for that scarlet robe was used by them in derision for the royal purple, and there is a sort of red purple, very like scarlet. It may also be that Mark mentions some purple which the robe had about it, though it was of a scarlet colour.
Read all 10 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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