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Bible Dictionaries
Scourge, Scourging
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or SCOURGE, SCOURGING.—In the Gospels the vb. ‘scourge’ is translation of two Gr. terms, μαστιγόω (fr. μάστιξ, found in Gospels only in a metaphorical sense [Authorized and Revised Versions ‘plague,’ (Revised Version margin) ‘Gr. scourge’], but used in its literal meaning in Acts 22:24, Hebrews 11:36); and φραγελλόω (fr. φραγέλλιον, Lat. flagellum, which occurs in John 2:15). φραγέλλιον denotes the scourge proper as an instrument of punishment, while μάστιξ in class. Gr. is often used of an ordinary whip for driving, etc. In NT, however, μαστιγόω is a synonym for φραγελλόω (cf. Mark 10:34; Mark 15:15, Matthew 27:26 and John 19:1). The subject of scourging comes before us in three connexions.
(1) In John 2:15 Jesus makes a scourge (φραγέλλιον) of cords (ἐκ σχοινίων) and drives the desecrating crowd of traders, as well as their sheep and oxen, out of the Temple. Farrar and others have represented this scourge of Jesus as nothing more than a whip twisted hastily out of the rushes with which the floor would be littered—a pure symbol of authority, therefore, not a weapon of offence. In this case, however, we should have had σχοίνων, not σχοινίων. σχοινίον is a rope, not a rush, and though originally applied to a rope made from rushes, is used in class. Gr. in a general sense. On the only other occasion of its employment in the NT it means a rope strong enough to tow a ship’s boat in a gale (Acts 27:32). To drive a herd of oxen out of the Temple courts, moreover, something more than a symbol of authority would be required. But we need not suppose that Jesus, even in His indignation, struck the merchants themselves. For them the sign of His authority would be sufficient (cf. John 18:6), and, as Bengel says, ‘terrore rem perfecit.’
(2) In Matthew 10:17 Jesus forewarns the Apostles of a time when men would scourge them in their synagogues; and in Matthew 23:34 He predicts that the scribes and Pharisees will thus treat those whom He sends unto them. The later history gives ample evidence of the fulfilment of these words (see Acts 5:40; Acts 22:19, 2 Corinthians 6:5; 2 Corinthians 11:23-24).
(3) But, above all, we must think of the scourging endured by Jesus Himself. According to all the Synoptics, Jesus foresaw this as part of the suffering that lay before Him (Matthew 20:19, Mark 10:34, Luke 18:33). It was, indeed, almost inseparable from His vision of the Cross, for scourging formed the ordinary accompaniment of a Roman crucifixion (cf. Josephus BJ v. xi. 1). Sometimes it was employed in criminal cases as a means of extracting confession, but regularly as the brutal preliminary to the still more brutal death of the cross. Because of the apparent inconsistency between Matthew 27:26, Mark 15:15, on the one hand, and John 19:1, on the other, as to the particular stage of the trial at which Jesus was scourged, some have thought that the torture was twice inflicted. A careful comparison of the four Gospels, however, does not support this idea. The statements of Mt. and Mk., though they convey, when taken alone, the impression of a scourging immediately before the crucifixion, do not necessarily bear this meaning, but may quite well be understood retrospectively, and as implying simply that Jesus had to endure the scourge before going to the cross. Probably the key to the difficulty is to be found in Lk.’s narrative, where Pilate says, ‘Why, what evil hath this man done? I have found no cause of death in him: I will therefore chastise him and release him’ (Luke 23:22). These words show that Pilate meant the scourging to be a compromise between the death which the Jews demanded and the verdict of absolute innocence which was called for by his own sense of justice. And this is confirmed by Jn.’s narrative, which shows Pilate scourging Jesus (Luke 19:1) and holding Him up to mockery (Luke 19:2-3) in the evident hope of satisfying the multitude, still insisting that he found no crime in Him (Luke 19:4), and yielding at last, only with reluctance, to the demand for His crucifixion (Luke 19:6 ff.). See art. Trial of Jesus Christ.
A Roman scourging might be carried out either with rods (virgae, ῥάβδοι)—the weapons of lictors, or with the scourge proper (flagellum, φραγέλλιον), in which leather thongs weighted with rough pieces of lead or iron were attached to a stout wooden handle. St. Paul’s three Roman scourgings, as distinguished from his five Jewish ones, were inflicted by means of rods (ῥαβδίζω, 2 Corinthians 11:25, Acts 16:22-23). But Jerusalem was not a Roman town, like Philippi (Acts 16:12 Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ), and Pilate had no lictors. Jesus was scourged by soldiers, and the implement they used, as the vb. φραγελλόω (Matthew 27:26, Mark 15:15) almost implies, would be the dreadful Roman flagellum. St. Peter may have witnessed it all; and what a world of meaning then lies in his words, ‘by whose stripes [Gr. ‘bruise’ or ‘weal’] ye were healed’ (1 Peter 2:24, cf. Is 53:5).
Literature.—The Comm. on the passages quoted, esp. Westcott, Gosp. of St. John, and Bruce and Dods in EGT [Note: GT Expositor’s Greek Testanent.] ; Taylor Innes, The Trial of Jesus Christ: A Legal Monograph (1899); Rosadi, The Trial of Jesus (1905); Farrar, Christ in Art, p. 378ff., St. Paul, i. Excurs. xi.
J. C. Lambert.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Scourge, Scourging'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/s/scourge-scourging.html. 1906-1918.
