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InterlinearVerse GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOB JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM PSA AMOS HOS 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR PROV ECC SNG JOEL MIC ISA ZEP HAB JER LAM YNA (JNA) NAH OBA DAN EZE EZRA EST NEH HAG ZEC MAL LAO GES LES ESG DNG 2 PS TOB JDT WIS SIR BAR LJE PAZ SUS BEL MAN 1 MAC 2 MAC 3 MAC 4 MAC YHN MARK MAT LUKE ACTs YAC (JAM) GAL 1 TH 2 TH 1 COR 2 COR ROM COL PHM EPH PHP 1 TIM TIT 1 PET 2 PET 2 TIM HEB YUD (JUD) 1 YHN (1 JHN) 2 YHN (2 JHN) 3 YHN (3 JHN) REV
Yhn C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21
Yhn 19 V1 V3 V5 V7 V9 V11 V13 V15 V17 V19 V21 V23 V25 V27 V29 V31 V33 V35 V37 V39 V41
OET (OET-LV) And the soldiers having_twisted_together a_crown of thorns, they_put_on it on_the head of_him, and they_clothed him in_a_ purple _robe,
OET (OET-RV) Then the soldiers twisted some thorn branches together into a crown and put it on Yeshua’s head, and they dressed him in a royal purple robe.
This section tells how the soldiers took Jesus to the Roman governor, Pilate. Pilate questioned Jesus to find out why the Jews wanted him to punish Jesus with death. He could find no reason to do that. But the Jewish leaders there insisted that Pilate crucify him. Finally, Pilate agreed that Jesus could be crucified.
Here are other possible section headings:
Pilate questioned the Jews and Jesus and sent Jesus to be crucified
Pilate investigated Jesus and decided that he could be punished with death
Jesus’ trial and judgment before Pilate
This section can be divided into seven smaller pieces, where each piece is a separate event. Jews often arranged written materials to include seven related pieces, where the first and last pieces relate, and the second and sixth relate, and the third and fifth relate. Then the middle piece, the fourth, stands alone and is emphasized. That happens in this section as well. Here is a chart showing the seven pieces of this section and how they relate:
18:28–32: Outside the house; Jews ask for Jesus’ death
18:33–38a: Inside the house; Pilate asks Jesus if he is King of the Jews
18:38b–40: Outside the house; Pilate says, “I find no case against him.”
19:1–3: The soldiers beat Jesus with a whip and pretend that he is the king of the Jews
19:4–8: Outside the house; Pilate says, “I find no case against him.”
19:8–11: Inside the house; Pilate asks Jesus where he came from
19:12–16a: Outside the house; Pilate allows Jews to crucify Jesus
The middle piece, 19:1–3, is different from all the other pieces. Pilate is only mentioned and is not an important person in this event. That is different from all the other pieces. This middle piece therefore is emphasized. The only ones who seem to worship Jesus in the whole section do so in this middle piece. However, they only pretend to worship and are very cruel as they mock Jesus.
In your translation, you may want to find ways to emphasize 19:1–3. Also, try to translate this section in ways that make it possible to see the connections between the pieces.
The Roman soldiers whipped and mocked Jesus.
The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns, set it on His head,
The soldiers made a crown from some thorny branches and put it on Jesus’ head (NCV)
Then they twisted thorny vines to look like a king’s/royal head piece and put it on Jesus.
The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns, set it on His head: The Greek begins this verse with a conjunction that the BSB translates leaves implicit and some versions translate as “And.” It introduces what the soldiers did after obeying Pilate’s command. For example:
and after this, the soldiers twisted some thorns into a crown and put it on his head (NJB)
The soldiers: This phrase here refers to the Roman soldiers who controlled Jerusalem. These were the men whom Pilate commanded to flog Jesus in 19:1.
twisted together a crown of thorns: This phrase indicates that the soldiers twisted together some thorny branches to look like a crown. For example:
The soldiers twisted some thorny branches into a crown (GW)
The soldiers made a crown from some thorny branches. (NCV)
a crown of thorns: The Greek word that the BSB translates as a crown refers to the circular head piece worn by kings to represent honor. Crowns often had points that pointed up, and the thorns on the branches may have looked like these points.
In some languages there may be no word for crown. In those languages you may want to use a description and indicate that a king wears it. For example:
they twisted thorny vines into a circle and placed it on his head to look like what a king wears
set it on His head: The soldiers put the crown on Jesus’ head. They imitated the ceremony of someone becoming king and mocked Jesus because he was called “the king of the Jews.”
and dressed Him in a purple robe.
and put a purple robe around him. (NCV)
They also put brightly colored clothes like a king wears on Jesus.
and dressed Him in a purple robe: The soldiers put purple clothing on Jesus. Purple dye (used to color clothes) was expensive and so purple was the color that kings wore. They wanted him to look like a king so they could mock him (see 19:3). People considered purple clothes to be a luxury and honorable, clothes/clothing for kings. In some languages it may be natural to make this clear. For example:
they dressed him in something like a king’s purple clothing
They dressed him in a red cloak like the clothing of a king. (Tagbanwa Back Translation)
purple: The color of the robe was apparently dark red or a mixture of blue and red. See Matthew 27:28, where a different Greek word is used, a word that the BSB translates as “scarlet.”
robe: The Greek word that the BSB translates as robe is a general word for clothing. Here it refers to a long outer piece of clothes like a coat or cloak. For example:
cloak (REB)
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / synecdoche
πλέξαντες στέφανον ἐξ ἀκανθῶν
˓having˒_twisted_together ˓a˒_crown of thorns
John uses thorns to refer to small branches with thorns on them. If this might confuse your readers, you could express the meaning plainly. Alternate translation: [twisted together a crown from thorny branches]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
ἐπέθηκαν αὐτοῦ τῇ κεφαλῇ, καὶ ἱμάτιον πορφυροῦν περιέβαλον αὐτόν
˱they˲_put_on_‹it› ˱of˲_him ˱on˲_the head (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί οἱ στρατιῶται πλέξαντες στέφανον ἐξ ἀκανθῶν ἐπέθηκαν αὐτοῦ τῇ κεφαλῇ καί ἱμάτιον πορφυροῦν περιέβαλον αὐτόν)
In Roman culture, a crown and purple garment were worn by kings. The soldiers put a crown made from thorns and a purple garment on Jesus in order to mock him. If your readers would not understand this, you could express the meaning explicitly. See the discussion of this idea in the General Notes for this chapter. Alternate translation: [They put it on his head and put a purple garment on him in order to ridicule him by pretending that he was a king]
19:2 The crown of thorns might have come from a date palm (cp. 12:13-14), the thorns of which can exceed twelve inches. There are Greek coin images showing such crowns, with the stems woven and the thorns radiating upward above the crown.
• The purple robe was probably a soldier’s robe—dark red to complete the picture of mock royalty.
OET (OET-LV) And the soldiers having_twisted_together a_crown of thorns, they_put_on it on_the head of_him, and they_clothed him in_a_ purple _robe,
OET (OET-RV) Then the soldiers twisted some thorn branches together into a crown and put it on Yeshua’s head, and they dressed him in a royal purple robe.
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.
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