Saint Luke - Chapter 23
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| ...and mocked him, putting on him a white garment. J-J Tissot |
And Pilate said to the chief priests and to the multitudes: I find no cause in this man.
[5] At illi invalescebant, dicentes : Commovet populum docens per universam Judæam, incipiens a Galilaea usque huc.
But they were more earnest, saying: He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place.
[6] Pilatus autem audiens Galilaeam, interrogavit si homo Galilaeus esset.
But Pilate hearing Galilee, asked if the man were of Galilee?
[7] Et ut cognovit quod de Herodis potestate esset, remisit eum ad Herodem, qui et ipse Jerosolymis erat illis diebus.
And when he understood that he was of Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him away to Herod, who was also himself at Jerusalem, in those days.
[8] Herodes autem viso Jesu, gavisus est valde. Erat enim cupiens ex multo tempore videre eum, eo quod audierat multa de eo, et sperabat signum aliquod videre ab eo fieri.
And Herod, seeing Jesus, was very glad; for he was desirous of a long time to see him, because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to see some sign wrought by him.
[9] Interrogabat autem eum multis sermonibus. At ipse nihil illi respondebat.
And he questioned him in many words. But he answered him nothing.
[10] Stabant autem principes sacerdotum et scribae constanter accusantes eum.
And the chief priests and the scribes stood by, earnestly accusing him.
[11] Sprevit autem illum Herodes cum exercitu suo : et illusit indutum veste alba, et remisit ad Pilatum.
And Herod with his army set him at nought, and mocked him, putting on him a white garment, and sent him back to Pilate.
inlūdō, lūsī, lūsus, 3, n. and a.: to play upon; w. dat.; (fig.), insult, mock; set at naught; injure, hurt; (w. acc.), insult
in-vălesco, valŭi, 3, v. n. inch. [valeo], to become strong; to increase, prevail, predominate
spernō, sprēvī, sprētus, 3, a.: to sever, remove; (fig.), reject, despise, scorn, disdain, ; insult
From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)
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| Herod. J-J Tissot |
The decision of Pilot to send Jesus back to Herod appears to have had a twofold motive: in the first place he wished to get rid of a galling responsibility, and in the second he wished to pay his court to Herod, with whom, as the sacred text implies, he was at enmity. There were in fact many causes of friction between the governor of Judaea and the Tetrarch of Galilee. The various feasts which took place at Jerusalem often led to risings, in which the men of Galilee always talk the most prominent part.
Herod Antipas, for it is of him we are now speaking, generally lived at his capital, Tiberias, but, on the occasion of the great festivals, he would naturally be at Jerusalem, and the probability is that he occupied the Palace of the Asmoneans, situated on the left of the Temple at the foot of Mount Sion, or he may possibly have been stayed in the Palace of his father, Herod the Great, which is situated a little further to the west.
In setting himself to curry favour with Herod, Pilate little expected how well he would succeed; the Tetrarch, blasé as he was from self-indulgence, anticipated a new pleasure in witnessing the marvellous works with which he hoped Jesus would entertain him. He no doubt takes the Saviour for a kind of Simon the magician, who would be only too tired to win His liberty and the favour of the King by performing some wonderful feats of jugglery. Herod was very quickly undeceived, for, at the very first glance, the sight of the Nazarene must have affected him disagreeably; Jesus, it must be remembered, having been at the mercy of the populace since the morning. He had nothing on but His seamless garment, and He was in far too wretched and miserable a plight for His appearance to have given any pleasure to the effeminate sensualist, who delighted in the dancing of Salome and was given over to adultery.
For all that, however, he received the Prisoner with a certain amount of empressmennt, overwhelming Him with a great flow of words and asking Him many questions, to all of which Jesus answered only with a silence full of majesty. It was a humiliating lesson for Herod; for this so called King of the Jews seemed to take His title seriously and to look upon the Tetrarch with absolute disdain. Herod was deeply wounded. The members of the Sanhedrim were there, vehemently accusing Jesus, and the bitterness of their rage against Him is expressed in the sacred text in a very striking manner: Stabant autem principes sacerdotum et scribae constanter accusantes eum. [And the chief priests and the scribes stood by, earnestly accusing him.] Herod, though he does not believe all their angry accusations, means to have his revenge for the wound inflicted on his own self-love, and with this end in view he begins to set at naught and mock the Prisoner. This pretended King Who has been brought before him, is really too carelessly dressed, His royal purple is in too bad a condition, let us give Him a gorgeous robe more worthy of His sovereign dignity!
Some old rags of white stuff are therefore hunted up from some neglected corner of the Palace, some comic-looking, touted garment in which holes can easily be made for the head and arms, and behold there is Jesus arrayed in fitting guise for a pretender to the throne! A white garment (candidus) was in fact worn by candidates for the crown, and this garment resembled the gala dress of the wealthy and highly born. Thus arrayed, Jesus was sent back to Pilate before whom He had already been brought, Herod abandoning his rights.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam
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