Mark 15:16-20, Jesus Is Mocked

¹⁶ And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor's headquarters [the Praetorium]), and they called together the whole battalion [a mock honor guard]. [These soldiers were not Roman legionaries but Gentiles from the surrounding areas who would have loved to get their sadistic hands on a “Jewish King.”] ¹⁷ And they clothed him in a purple cloak [likely a soldier’s reddish cape that parodied the emperor’s purple robe], and twisting together a crown of thorns [a royal crown], they put it on him. ¹⁸ And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” [This corresponded to “Hail Caesar!”] ¹⁹ And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down [which a Hellenistic ruler required] in homage to him. [While the scene degenerates into physical abuse, it is one of mockery rather than torture. He has already been severely tortured.] ²⁰ And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him. [Normally a person was naked when crucified, but perhaps having Jesus in his own clothes was a concession to Jewish sensibilities.]