Six Trials

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Six Trials

John 19:1-3

1 Then [tote] Pilate [Pilatos] therefore [oun] took [lambano] Jesus [Iesous] , and [kai] scourged [mastigoo] him.
2 And [kai] the soldiers [stratiotes] platted [pleko] a crown [stephanos] of [ek] thorns [akantha] , and put it on [epitithemi] his [autos] head [kephale] , and [kai] they put on [periballo] him [autos] a purple [porphurous] robe [himation] ,
3 And [kai] said [lego] , Hail [chairo] , King [basileus] of the Jews [Ioudaios] ! and [kai] they smote [didomi] him [autos] with their hands [rhapisma] . KJV-Interlinear

1 Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged Him. 2 And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and arrayed Him in a purple robe; 3 and they began to come up to Him, and say, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' and to give Him blows in the face. NASB

Matt. 27:27-30
27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him. 28 And they stripped Him, and put a scarlet robe on Him. 29 And after weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they kneeled down before Him and mocked Him, saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' 30 And they spat on Him, and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head. NASB

Mark 15:16-19
16 And the soldiers took Him away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium), and they called together the whole Roman cohort. 17 And they dressed Him up in purple, and after weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on Him; 18 and they began to acclaim Him, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' 19 And they kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting at Him, and kneeling and bowing before Him. NASB

Three times Pilate appealed to the crowd and tried to reason with them, and all three times their objections became increasingly more violent. Jesus is innocent and Pilate knows it. Pilate does not have all of the facts, but he does not know that quite yet. Nevertheless he continues to give the benefit of the doubt to the crowd and not to Jesus.

If he takes Jesus and gives Him a scourging and humiliates Him before the crowd then perhaps the crowd will relent on their demand for His death. So Pilate orders his officers to take Jesus and scourge Him.

The cohort is a component of a Roman Legion. It is one-tenth of the Legion, and if at full strength then it would come to 600 men under arms. This cohort might have just been a reference to a group, or the guard unit for the Governors mansion and official government buildings.

They are called together and then they begin to beat, spit on, strip and otherwise re-dress Jesus in the purple robes of royalty, and they gave Him a crown made from thorns. They mocked Him, they pulled on his beard:

Isa. 50:6.
6 I gave My back to those who strike Me,
And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard;
I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting. NASB

Jesus' back is exposed and they scourged, Psa. 129:3.

Jesus is ridiculed by people bowing before Him and saluting the King of the Jews. Roman scourging known to be extremely violent and savage, ie the reference in Psa. 129:3, 'plowing furrows in the back.'

Psa. 129:3
3 'The plowers plowed upon my back;
They lengthened their furrows.' NASB

All of this fulfills prophecy, and all of this is done, by Pilate, in an effort to oblige and humor Jesus' accusers - the crowd outside.

Pilate does this in order that Jesus might not be condemned. That is if the crowd will accept this beating in place of crucifixion. Thus far, Pilate is only aware of the charge against Jesus, that He was the king of the Jews. And so he treats Him with increasing contempt with that title.

Jesus has been up and awake for over 24 hours by now and has been subjected to numerous attacks by Satan, the leadership of Judea, by Herod, and now Pilate's military contingent.

He has been subjected to a total of six trials. This last trial, the sixth trial, isn't even over yet. But by now, with all of the beatings and especially the blows to the head, His facial features are beginning to make Him almost unrecognizable. Such was the fierceness of the beatings He received.

And yet through all of this, He made no sound, made no cries, made no pleas for mercy. Neither did He call on the twelve legions of angels which were at His disposal (earlier mentioned). Neither did He make any attempt to avoid the beatings or ridicule.

Jesus Christ remained there quiet, and calm, and well poised as all of evils wrath struck physical blows at Him, along with a torrent of verbal abuse, trying to make Him break down. All efforts failed.