Saint Matthew - Chapter 27
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| The Crown of Thorns. J-J Tissot |
Then the soldiers of the governor taking Jesus into the hall, gathered together unto him the whole band;
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall. “Then” refers not to the preceding words, “delivered Him to be crucified,” but to the scourging. The soldiers scourged Jesus, and crowned Him at the same time with thorns.
Gathered unto Him the whole band, to adorn Him, by way of insult, with the royal insignia, as pretending to be King of the Jews. “For soldiers are a cruel race,” says S. Chrysostom, “and take pleasure in insulting.” It was the Prætorian Band, quartered in the castle of Antonia.
[28] et exeuntes eum, chlamydem coccineam circumdederunt ei,
And stripping him, they put a scarlet cloak about him.
And they stripped Him, and put on Him a scarlet robe. “Making jest of Him,” says Origen. This stripping can be referred either to His scourging or to His crowning with thorns. It is consequently uncertain whether He resumed His garments after He had been scourged, and was stripped of them again and arrayed in the scarlet robe, or whether the scarlet robe was put upon His naked body immediately after His scourging.
Symbolically: “In the scarlet robe,” says S. Jerome, “the Lord bears the blood-stained works of the Gentiles.” “He bare,” says S. Athanasius, “in the scarlet garment a resemblance to the blood wherewith the earth had been polluted.” And Origen, “The Lord, by taking on Him the scarlet robe, took on Himself the blood, that is, the sins of the world, which are bloody and red as scarlet; for the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Anagogically: S. Gregory, “For what is purple save blood, and the endurance of sufferings, manifested for love of the Kingdom?” And again, “The Lord made His empurpled ascent in a triumphal litter, because we attain to the Kingdom that is within through tribulation and blood.”
S. Mark and S. John call this a purple garment (not scarlet). S. Ambrose says they were two different garments, and that He was arrayed in both. Gretser (Lib. 1, de Cruce) gives authorities for there being only one garment, called indifferently purple or scarlet. Perhaps the garment had been twice dyed,—with the murex and the coccus; and garments thus dyed are of a more lasting colour. Now this was a kingly dress, and thus did they make Christ a King in mockery. This robe or chlamys was shorter and tighter than the pallium, and soldiers wore it over their armour. The one then used seems to have been the worn out dress of some Roman soldier, but being purple, was of the imperial colour.
Symbolically: S. Cyril (in John xii. 15) says, “By the purple garment is signified the sovereignty over the whole world, which Christ was about to receive.” So, too, Origen, S. Augustine, and others. But this He obtained for Himself by fighting and shedding His blood. African and other soldiers anciently wore red garments. See, too, Nahum 2:3.
[29] et plectentes coronam de spinis, posuerunt super caput ejus, et arundinem in dextera ejus. Et genu flexo ante eum, illudebant ei, dicentes : Ave rex Judaeorum.
And platting a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand. And bowing the knee before him, they mocked him, saying: Hail, king of the Jews.
And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head. This was done both for insult and for torture. It was done, too, by Jewish insolence, and not by Pilate’s order, though he permitted it (see above on ver. 25). These thorns were those of the sea-rush or of the blackthorn; perhaps the two sorts were twisted together. S. Helena brought two of them to Rome and placed them in the Church of Santa Croce. S. Bridget (Rev. 1:10) says that the crown was placed a second time on His head when on the Cross; that it came down to the middle of His forehead, and that such streams of blood flowed from the wounds as to run down to His eyes and ears, and even to His beard; that He seemed one mass of blood. He could not indeed see His Mother till the blood had been squeezed out of His eyelids. All pictures represent Him as crucified with the crown of thorns, as Origen and Tertullian distinctly assert He was. The torture of all this was very great, for the thorns were very sharp, and also driven into the head and brain. The literal object of this was to insult and torture Christ for pretending to be King of the Jews.
But Origen gives its mystical meaning, “In this crown the Lord took on Himself the thorns of our sins woven together on His head.” For S. Hilary says “the sting of sin is in the thorns of which Christ’s victorious crown is woven.” “Let me ask you,” says Tertullian (de Con. Milit. ad fin.), “what crown did Jesus wear for both sexes? Of thorns, methinks, and briars, as a figure of those sins which the earth of our flesh hath brought forth unto us, but which the virtue of the Cross hath taken away, crushing (as it did) all the stings of death by the sufferings of the head of the Lord. For besides the figurative meaning there is assuredly the contumely, disgrace, and dishonour, and, blended with them, the cruelty, which thus both defiled and wounded His brows.”
Tropologically: The thorns teach us to wound and subdue the flesh with fastings, haircloths, and disciplines. “For it is not fitting that the members of a thorn-crowned Head should be delicate,” says S. Bernard. And Tertullian (ut supra) teaches us that Christians, out of reverence for Christ’s crown of thorns, did not wear crowns of flowers, as the heathen did. Christ offered S. Catharine of Sienna two crowns,—one of jewels, the other of thorns,—on condition that if she chose one of them in this life she should wear the other in the next. She seized at once the crown of thorns from His hand, and fixed it so firmly on her head that she felt pain for many days, and therefore she received a jewelled crown in heaven. S. Agapitus, a youth of only fifteen, when live coals were put on his head, said exultingly, “It is a small matter that that head which is to be crowned in heaven should be burned on earth,” &c. Think, then, when enduring any kind of pain, that Christ is giving thee one of the thorns from His crown.
Anagogically: S. Ambrose (in Luke xxii) says, “This crown placed on His head shows that triumphant glory should be won for God from sinners of this world, as if from the thorns of this life.”
Symbolically: S. Bernard (de Pass. Dom. cap. xix.) says, “Though they crown Him in derision, yet in their ignorant mockery they confess Him to be a crowned King. Therefore is He proved to be a King by those who knew Him not.” And S. Augustine (Tract. cxvi. in John) says, “Thus did the Kingdom which was not of this world overcome the proud world, not with fierce fighting, but lowly suffering. [Jesus comes forth] wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, not resplendent in power, but overwhelmed with reproach.” “Purple,” again says Elias Cratensis, “exhorts good rulers to be ready to shed their blood for the benefit of their subjects.” Hence the purple is given to Cardinals to remind them that they should shed their blood for the Church; and S. Germanus, Patriarch of C. P. (Orat. in Sepult. Christi), says that the purple robe and the crown of thorns which was placed on Him before His crucifixion assured the victory to Him who said, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
[Pseudo-]Athanasius (de Cruce) strikingly says, “When the Lord was arrayed in the purple, there was raised invisibly a trophy over the devil. It was a strange and incredible marvel, and doubtless a token of great victory, that they placed the ornaments of triumph on Him whom they had struck in mockery and derision. He went forth to death in this array, to show that the victory was won expressly for our salvation.” He points out also that Christ was crowned with thorns to restore to us the tree of life, and to heal our worldly cares and anxieties by taking them on Himself.
Godfrey of Bouillon refused on this ground to be crowned king of Jerusalem, since it ill became a Christian king to wear a crown of gold in the very city in which Christ had worn one of thorns.
The tonsure of priests and monks represents this “crown of thorns,” and is a token of their humility and contempt of the world (Bede, Hist. Angl. v. 22, and S. Germanus, C. P., in Theor. rer. Eccles.).
Anagogically: Tertullian (de Cor. Mil. cap. xiv.) says, Put on Christ’s crown of thorns, “that so thou mayest rival that crown which afterwards was His, for it was after the gall that He tasted the honey; nor was He saluted as King by the heavenly hosts till He had been written up upon the Cross as the King of the Jews. Being made by the Father a little lower than the angels, He was afterwards crowned with glory and honour.” “Christ,” says S. Jerome, “was crowned with thorns that He might win for us a royal diadem.”
And a reed in His right hand. This, which represented His sceptre as King of the Jews, was a fragile, worthless, mean, and ridiculous thing. It is described as a smooth cane with a woolly top, &c.
Symbolically: S. Jerome and [Pseudo-]Athanasius say, as the reed drives away and kills serpents, so does Christ venomous lusts. Hear S. Jerome: “As Caiaphas knew not what He said (John 11:50 seq.), so they too, though acting with another intent, yet furnished us believers with mysteries (sacramenta). In the scarlet robe He bears on Him the blood-stained deeds of the Gentiles; in the crown of thorns He does away with the ancient curse; with the reed He destroys poisonous animals, or (in another sense) He holds in His hand the reed to record the sacrilege of the Jews.” S. Ambrose too (in Luke xxii.) says, “The reed is held in Christ’s hand that human weakness should no more be moved as a reed with the wind, but be strengthened and made firm by the works of Christ; or, as S. Mark says, it strikes His head that our nature, strengthened by contact with His Godhead, should waver no more.” This reed and other relics of the Passion are said to have been carefully preserved (Bede, de Con. Sanctis, cap. xx.; and Greg. Turon. de Gloria Martyrum, cap. vii.).
And they bowed the knee before Him, and mocked Him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! Notice here all that was done in jest. Bringing together the whole band as an attendant army. His throne a stone or seat, raised up like a tribunal. His crown was of thorns, His robe a scarlet chlamys, His sceptre a reed; in the place of the people’s applause were the mockings of the soldiers; there were the spittings, the blows, and the stripes. All these did Christ bear with divine humility and patience, and thus deserved “that at the name,” &c. (Phil. 2:10).
Tropologically: Christ here wished
- to set forth the vain estate and the sufferings of all kings and rulers;
- to turn all insults into weapons of victory, and specially
- to overcome the pride of Satan by His humility;
- to teach that worldly kingdoms consisted in pomp and display, His in contempt of honour, pleasures, and self. See Theophylact, Jansenius [Gaudno], Pseudo-Athanasius, and Tertullian, ut supra.
[30] Et exspuentes in eum, acceperunt arundinem, et percutiebant caput ejus.
And spitting upon him, they took the reed, and struck his head.
And they spit upon Him, and took the reed, and smote Him on the head. As having foolishly aspired to be King of Judea; to drive also the crown of thorns more firmly into His head. These grossest insults and most cruel pains were devised by devils rather than men, says Origen. “Not one member only, but the whole body suffered these atrocious injuries,” &c., says S. Chrysostom. Here comes in John 19:1–16. Pilate’s presenting Christ to the people to excite their compassion; their vehement demand that He should be crucified, as making Himself the Son of God. Pilate on hearing this was startled, and asked Him who He was, as if He might have been the son of some heathen god who might avenge His death. When He gave no answer, Pilate added that He had power to put Him to death, which brought out our Lord’s reply, that he had no power over Him, “unless it were given him from above.” For Pilate, notwithstanding his paramount authority over other Jews, had but a permissive authority over Christ, who, as the Son of God, was not subject to any human power.
Pilate then, in judging and condemning Christ, sinned in a threefold way:
- by usurping an authority over Him which He really had not;
- by yielding to the clamour of the Jews; and
- by condemning an innocent man.
From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)
The cloak or mantle worn by Our Lord Jesus Christ on His way to death was, as its name indicates, a chlamys or short military cloak, and not really, as is generally supposed, a purple robe properly so called. The text of Saint Matthew is perfectly clear on this point. The scarlet robe referred to in chapter 27, verse 28, was very evidently just the loose garment of coarse wool dyed red, such as the Roman soldiers wore over their armour, and which obtained for them the nickname of chlamydati in the comedies of Plautus. It was a piece of staff cut into a circular form, which was fastened on the left shoulder or at the back of the neck with a clasp, and the wearer could drape it in many different ways. It was sometimes designated by the name of sagum, and sometimes by that of paludamentum. It was of the colour of cochineal and rather more pink than what is now known as madder red. It will be remembered that amongst the Jews this colour was symbolic of sin and, in the remoter days of antiquity it symbolised Typhon, the spirit of the earth, who represents physical evil. Jesus, with the scarlet chlamys upon His shoulders, was thus marked out as the Victim of the whole world, laden with the sins of the human race, even as the scape-goat with its bands and fringes of red wool was sent adrift by the Jewish Priests carrying with it the sins of the people.
Agnus Dei: the scape-goat. J-J Tissot
The colour of purple, on the other hand, was amongst the ancients typical of royalty. It was a kind of red richly shot with blue, and the dye producing it was obtained from a shell found in considerable numbers off the coast of Tyre, and on the shore near the site of that ancient city great heaps of such shells are still to be found. The production of the true royal purple dye was a very costly affair, and therefore it was often imitated with a mixture of cochineal and indigo, and the garment worn by the Saviour in His last journey may possibly have been dyed in the manner just indicated.
The crown of thorns is supposed to have consisted of a band of and rushes from the seashore strengthened with twigs of a prickly thorn twisted in and out. The appearance of the whole must have been rather that of a domed crown rather than of a simple wreath, which would merely have rested on the forehead, leaving the head itself uncovered. The expression of Saint Mark, chapter 15 verse 19: "and they smote him on the head with a reed", as if to force the crown down on His brow, would appear to lend colour to the idea that it covered the head entirely, the twigs of thorns going all the way round the edge of the crown.
The band formed of rushes, which was the foundation of the sacred crown of thorns, is still to be seen in the Cathedral of Notre Dame at Paris, and the single thorns and twigs which made up the rest of the instrument of torture, preserved in other sanctuaries, are in a sufficiently good state of preservation and would evidently fit well onto the band, so that it is possible to form a very accurate idea of what the crown must have been as a whole.
This precious relic passed into the hands of St. Louis was almost intact, after having belonged for many centuries to the Byzantines emperors. Later, the thorns were taken off and distributed amongst the various counturies where they are still to be seen.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam
Ad Jesum per Mariam
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