Luke Chapter 23, Verse 16
From BibleWiki
16: παιδευσας ουν αυτον απολυσω
16: I will therefore chastise him, and release him.
16: I will chastise him therefore and release him.
I will therefore chastise him. The word chastise here means to
scourge or to whip. This was usually done before capital punishment,
to increase the sufferings of the man condemned. It is not easy to see
the reason why, if Pilate supposed Jesus to be innocent, he should
propose publicly to scourge him. It was as really unjust to do that
as it was to crucify him. But probably he expected by this to conciliate
the minds of his accusers; to show them that he was willing to gratify
them if it could be done with propriety; and perhaps he expected that by
seeing him whipped and disgraced, and condemned to ridicule, to contempt,
and to suffering, they would be satisfied. It is farther remarked that
among the Romans it was competent for a magistrate to inflict a slight
punishment on a man when a charge of gross offence was not fully made
out, or where there was not sufficient testimony to substantiate the
precise charge alleged.
