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Understanding What Jesus Suffered: He was Whipped


Markinsa
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As we approach the Crucifixtion and Resurrection weekend, I thought I would share with those who don't know, what the scourging entailed.  It was an entirely gruesome event which I feel extremely humbled and unworthy of such a sacrifice. :unsure: Thank you Jesus for my life.  (The Passion of the Christ depiction was "G" rated in comparision)

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Understanding What Jesus Suffered: He was Whipped

Posted by brendanwitton ⋅ 2011/04/20⋅ 4 Comments


Here is another instalment from Greek Gems by Rick Renner where he focuses on what Jesus suffered when he was whipped by the Roman soldiers. We went through it as part of my G12 Meeting last night and we all got “wrecked” regarding the price Jesus paid for us to be healed. We repented for the times that we have treated the price he paid for us lightly – it was a deep time before the Lord. (Remember you can learn more about Rick’s ministry and sign up to get the Greek Gems here)

Scourged!

And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. — Matthew 27:26

What was it like for a prisoner to be scourged in New Testament times? From what materials was a scourge made? How did it feel when the straps of a scourge whipped across a person’s back and body? What effects did a scourging have on the human body?

Matthew 27:26 tells us that Pilate “had scourged Jesus” before he delivered Him to be crucified, so we need to understand what it meant to be “scourged.” The word “scourged” is the Greek word phragello, and it was one of the most horrific words used in the ancient world because of the terrible images that immediately came to mind when a person heard this word. Let me tell you a little about the process of scourging and what it did to the human body. I believe this explanation is important so you can understand more completely what Jesus endured before He was taken to be crucified.

When a decision was made to scourge an individual, the victim was first stripped completely naked so his entire flesh would be open and uncovered to the beating action of the torturer’s whip. Then the victim was bound to a two-foot- high scourging post. His hands were tied over his head to a metal ring, and his wrists were securely shackled to the metal ring to restrain his body from movement. When in this locked position, the victim couldn’t wiggle or move, trying to avoid or dodge the lashes that were being laid across his back.

Romans were professionals at scourging; they took special delight in the fact that they were the “best” at punishing a victim with this brutal act. Once the victim was harnessed to the post and stretched over it, the Roman soldier began to put him through unimaginable torture. One writer notes that the mere anticipation of the first blow caused the victim’s body to grow rigid, the muscles to knot in his stomach, the color to drain from his cheeks, and his lips to draw tight against his teeth as he waited for the first sadistic blow that would begin the tearing open of his body.

The scourge itself consisted of a short, wooden handle with several 18- to 24-inch- long straps of leather protruding from it. The ends of these pieces of leather were equipped with sharp, rugged pieces of metal, wire, glass, and jagged fragments of bone. This was considered to be one of the most feared and deadly weapons of the Roman world. It was so ghastly that the mere threat of scourging could calm a crowd or bend the will of the strongest rebel. Not even the most hardened criminal wanted to be submitted to the vicious beating of a Roman scourge.

Most often, two torturers were utilized to carry out this punishment, simultaneously lashing the victim from both sides. As these dual whips struck the victim, the leather straps with their jagged, sharp, cutting objects descended and extended over his entire back. Each piece of metal, wire, bone, or glass cut deeply through the victim’s skin and into his flesh, shredding his muscles and sinews.

Every time the whip pounded across the victim, those straps of leather curled tortuously around his torso, biting painfully and deeply into the skin of his abdomen and upper chest. As each stroke lacerated the sufferer, he tried to thrash about but was unable to move because his wrists were held so firmly to the metal ring above his head. Helpless to escape the whip, he would scream for mercy that this anguish might come to an end.

Every time the torturers struck a victim, the straps of leather attached to the wooden handle would cause multiple lashes as the pieces of metal, glass, wire, and bone sank into the flesh and then raked across the victim’s body. Then the torturer would jerk back, pulling hard in order to tear whole pieces of human flesh from the body. The victim’s back, buttocks, back of the legs, stomach, upper chest, and face would soon be disfigured by the slashing blows of the whip.

Historical records describe a victim’s back as being so mutilated after a Roman scourging that his spine would actually be exposed. Others recorded how the bowels of a victim would actually spill out through the open wounds created by the whip. The Early Church historian Eusebius wrote: “The veins were laid bare, and the very muscles, sinews, and bowels of the victim were open to exposure.”

The Roman torturer would so aggressively strike his victim that he wouldn’t even take the time to untangle the bloody, flesh-filled straps as he lashed the whip across the victim’s mangled body over and over again. If the scourging wasn’t stopped, the slicing of the whip would eventually flay the victim’s flesh off his body.

With so many blood vessels sliced open by the whip, the victim would begin to experience a profuse loss of blood and bodily fluids. The heart would pump harder and harder, struggling to get blood to the parts of the body that were profusely bleeding. But it was like pumping water through an open water hydrant; there was nothing left to stop the blood from pouring through the victim’s open wounds.

This loss of blood caused the victim’s blood pressure to drop drastically. Because of the massive loss of bodily fluids, he would experience excruciating thirst, often fainting from the pain and eventually going into shock. Frequently the victim’s heartbeat would become so irregular that he would go into cardiac arrest.

This was a Roman scourging.

According to Jewish law in Deuteronomy 25:3, the Jews were permitted to give forty lashes to a victim, but because the fortieth lash usually proved fatal, the number of lashes given was reduced to thirty-nine, as Paul noted in Second Corinthians 11:24. But the Romans had no limit to the number of lashes they could give a victim, and the scourging Jesus experienced was at the hands of Romans, not Jews. Therefore, it is entirely possible that when the torturer pulled out his scourge to beat Jesus, he may have laid more than forty lashes across His body. In fact, this is even probable in light of the explosive outrage the Jews felt for Jesus and the terrible mocking He had already suffered at the hands of Roman soldiers.

So when the Bible tells us that Jesus was scourged, we now know exactly what type of beating that Jesus received that night. What toll did the cruel Roman whip exact on Jesus’ body? The New Testament doesn’t tell us exactly what Jesus looked like after He was scourged, but Isaiah 52:14 says, “As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.”

If we take this scripture literally for what it says, we can conclude that Jesus’ physical body was marred nearly beyond recognition. As appalling as this sounds, it was only the overture to what was to follow. Matthew 27:26 continues to tell us, “…and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.” This scourging was only the preparation for Jesus’ crucifixion!

Every time I think about the scourging Jesus received that day, I think of the promise God makes to us in Isaiah 53:5. This verse says, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” In this verse, God declares that the price for our healing would be paid by those stripes that were laid across Jesus’ back.

In First Peter 2:24, the apostle Peter quoted Isaiah 53:5. He told his readers, “By whose stripes ye were healed.” The word “stripes” used in this verse is molopsi, which describes a full- body bruise. It refers to a terrible lashing that draws blood and that produces discoloration and swelling of the entire body. When Peter wrote this verse, he wasn’t speaking by revelation but by memory, for he vividly remembered what happened to Jesus that night and what His physical appearance looked like after His scourging.

After graphically reminding us of the beating, bleeding, and bruising that Jesus endured, Peter jubilantly declared that it was by these same stripes that we are “healed.” The word “healed” is the Greek word iaomai — a word that clearly refers to physical healing, as it is a word borrowed from the medical term to describe the physical healing or curing of the human body.

For those who think this promise refers to spiritual healing only, the Greek word emphatically speaks of the healing of a physical condition. This is a real promise of bodily healing that belongs to all who have been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ!

Jesus’ broken body was the payment God demanded to guarantee our physical healing! Just as Jesus willfully took our sins and died on the Cross in our place, He also willfully took our sicknesses and pains on Himself when they tied Him to the scourging post and laid those lashes across His body. That horrific scourging paid for our healing!

If you need healing in your body, you have every right to go to God and ask for healing to come flooding into your system. It’s time for you to dig in your heels and hold fast to the promise of God’s Word, releasing your faith for the healing that belongs to you.

Jesus went through this agony for you, so don’t let the devil tell you that it’s God’s will for you to be sick or weakly. Considering the pain Jesus endured to bear your sicknesses that day, isn’t that enough evidence to convince you how much He wants you to be physically well?


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Amen Mark ! Having seen it firsthand, up close and personal...it will indeed change your life to understand what he suffered...during my journey to Turin for the research, a hardened NYC reporter was assigned to cover our team. By his own admission he was a spouse abuser, and hard drinker...as he sat in the rear of St John's Basilica and pondered the markings on the Shroud and what they meant, he repented on the spot and gave his life to the Lord. 

 

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON.....

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BTW To see it for yourself  a) Behold The Man on TBN

                                            B) www.shroud.com      (world's BEST website on this)

                                            c) Holy Saturday live telecast check for local listings...my guess would be EWTN

 

:bump:

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Good post and timely. 

The death of Christ is the fundamental meaning of the gospel.  By “gospel” we do not mean just the life of Jesus as given in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Certainly this is “good news.”  However, more correctly it is used to mean the “good news” about salvation from sin. 

Paul uses it this way (1Co 15:1-4). 

It is good news because it implies that we do not need to die for our own sins.  Christ did that.  He purposely came in to this earth in the form of a man and purposely died and suffered the wrath of God against sin.  He did what we cannot and could not do. 

If we consider the teachings of Jesus, the Law of Moses, the Sermon on the Mount, the example He lived, we come to the conclusion that all of these reveal our inability to live up to what is demanded of us.  They also reveal our sinfulness and need for a savior.  However, none of these point out the remedy for sin.  The keeping of the law, the living of a good life, or the sacrificing of a thousand lambs could not remove sin.  That remedy is found only in the death of Jesus. 

The death of Jesus is the distinguishing element in Christianity.  Remove it and Christianity is reduced to the level of a great ethical religion on a par with other religions of the world. 

It is saddening to say, but there are “Christian” groups who no longer proclaim Christ crucified.  They will tell you that what they proclaim from the pulpit is great advice, the Sermon on the Mount, and the wonderful teachings of Jesus, but not the cross and the blood.  These groups will tell you “to preach the cross is a bloody story which no one wants to hear.”

If we remove the cross and the death of Jesus for sin from our teaching and preaching then we have nothing to offer mankind! 

The Christ must be lifted up on the cross if man is to be saved from sin and death (Jn 3:14-18).  This passage is not talking about His life and teaching, but His death as a sacrifice for sin. 

God cannot redeem mankind, cannot pardon sin, and cannot remove the penalty of death merely on the act of our repentance.  God can pardon and remove death only when the penalty for sin has been first fully paid. 

Christ had to die!  He had to die if God was both to justify the ungodly and remain just Himself (Rm 3:25-26).  The death of Christ is an absolute necessity if man is to be saved.  With out the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. 

When Jesus was transfigured, Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus and spoke to Him about His death (Lk 9:30-31). I wish we were privy to the entire conversation.  It would be interesting to hear what these two might have said to the Lord, for now they knew of whom they had been speaking in the Law and in the prophets.  How excited they must have been!  Especially as they look to the coming defeat of death and sin. 

John, the apostle, sees a vision of those around the throne, redeemed from the earth; sing a song about the death of Jesus and the victory He accomplished through His shed blood (Rev 5:8-10).  Above everything else, the plan of God to redeem mankind from sin is glorified in the words of this song.

The plan of God to redeem mankind is the primary purpose of Scripture.  Any other purpose must be subservient to this one.

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Thank you, Mark. As difficult as this was to read, it was very informative. My heart was broken before I knew how brutal the beating He took FOR ME was. The pain He felt while atoning FOR ME in Gethsemane as he bled from every pore FOR MY sins and illnesses and pains and problems was overwhelming enough... but this... 

 

Thank you... I am further humbled...

 

KK

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When I saw the title of this post this morning, I avoided reading it as I knew the heaviness and the weightiness of what you were bringing to us, Markinsa.  I knew it was more than what my heart, mind and soul wanted to bear in the AM hours.  For most of us, it is more than we want to bear anytime, day or night.  But, I thank you for bringing it as it reinforces every truth that the Bible has spoken,and gives us the depth of our Lord Jesus' passion.

 

To think that one would endure such pain, torturing and suffering for the love of you and me is so much more than our minds can comprehend, but yet we know that it is so.  "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many".  Mark 10:45.

 

Our Lord had to die.  Our Lord had to suffer, as this was the will of our Father..It was planned before the foundation of the earth.

He had to suffer.  He had to die, so He would be pleasing to His Heavenly Father and for His love for us.  "Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."   Ephesians   5:2

 

He absorbed the wrath of God for you and me....We have a Holy All-powerful God.

 

As John Piper writes:  On one hand, the suffering of Christ is the outpouring of God's wrath because of our sin. But on the other hand, Christ's suffering is a beautiful

act of submission and obedience to the will of the Father.  So Christ cried from the cross,  "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  but yet the Bible says the suffering of Christ was a fragrance to God...

 

Nelg put all of this in the right prospective.

 

 

My heart aches when I think of the horror, pain and suffering but yet, " His will be done."

 

God bless you all and have a blessed Easter...Tell Jesus you love Him and tell Him why 

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No one can understand what Jesus suffered.  In order to fully understand it, we'd have to experience it.

May I suggest that we will never know the true suffering of Christ.  The cross is inclusive of both the physical suffering on the Tree and the eternal suffering in Hades during the three days in the tomb.  That is, mankind's cruelty and inhumanity to man was seen as they did their worst at the crucifixion.  It was a terrible suffering.  But the suffering Jesus received in the tomb for the sins of mankind was far far worse.  In Hades (not Hell) Jesus suffered the "wrath of God" for all sins of the entire university.  What that means is that God can and is both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  Just, in that God punished sin in Jesus, and the justifier in that he removes the sins punishment from those who believe in Christ (Rom 3:21-26). Such suffer by Jesus during the "wrath of God" is impossible for us to even comprehend. 

The only thing that we can do is die to self and be raised to a new life in Christ (Rom 6:1-17). 

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As the Scripture says...."...thanks be to GOD for HIS unspeakable gift..."

 

According the medical doctors who have studied it Crucifiction is the most painful form of execution ever invented...

invented by the Persians  ...perfected by the Romans and used on thousands of victims it is imho the epitome of

man's inhumanity to man....

 

to THINK that GOD Almighty would send His Son to die in such a fashion is absolutely the most stunning revelation in the Scriptures

and all to purchase back His own creation....

 

I tremble to think of what it means to "...neglect so GREAT a salvation..."

 

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I wish we could comment on topics like this and not be in fear of the Mods banning us etc. for expressing our opinions...I would love to have an honest and open discussion about this. But sadly that will never be the case at DV. So people that would normally comment sit in silence.

 

What?   :huh:  As long as you are following the Forum Rules you shouldn' have anything to fear from the moderators (or me). 

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I wish we could comment on topics like this and not be in fear of the Mods banning us etc. for expressing our opinions...I would love to have an honest and open discussion about this.But sadly that will never be the case at DV. So people that would normally comment sit in silence.

Botzwana if you do not believe that this really happened to our Lord and Savior maybe this time you should just sit on your hands... Crucifixion was real and really happened and the Lord Jesus suffered unmercifully for our sins, it's hard to even put into words the depth of my gratitude...
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What?   :huh:  As long as you are following the Forum Rules you shouldn' have anything to fear from the moderators (or me). 

I agree! Keep the post respectful and stay within the rules of this site and there should not be any problems! We all know that there are people who believe in different Gods or no God at all and that is your right.

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Ok...I will try it. But Bamagirl said I should sit on my hands. See what I mean? No open discussion about it and I haven't even SAID anything yet...

 

We are discussing the article I posted right now.  Please add your thoughts.

 

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Ok...I will try it. But Bamagirl said I should sit on my hands. See what I mean? No open discussion about it and I haven't even SAID anything yet...

Oh please, don't use me as an excuse to feel sorry for yourself.... I am just a member with an opinion just like you, the mods said go ahead with it... SMH
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John 1:1-14

King James Version (KJV)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.

He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

 

How blessed those who walked with him and touched him.

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As I read the thread yet again, I'm reminded that Jesus Himself said that some people will not believe even IF someone came back from the dead  (Lk 16:19-31)  Peter called such folks "scoffers" (2: Peter 3:3-9) Jude called them "mockers" (Jude 17-25) Both said this would be prevalent in the last days. Think of this in the last year alone two MD's and a 4year old boy ALL returned from the dead and wrote of their experiences. The boy's was the most cogent picture of the afterlife I have ever read. One of the physicians was a neuro-surgeon and clearly explained WHY his experience could not possibly be what he had always taught and believed: a mental gymnastic by a dying brain....HIS BRAIN WAS TOTALLY UN-FUNCTIONAL !! My dear friend and co-author Prof Gary Habermas is an expert on the so-called NDE and has written on that as well. My point is, even though GOD does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance...(2 Peter 3:9) some will either ignorantly or stubbornly follow their own path to destruction...

that is WHY I teach the Word as best I know how...so that some might hear and receive the truth... :salute:

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Whoa...I have not even addressed anything yet. How do you know I do not have the truth already?

 

I don't know, because you have been unwillingly to speak with us.  My statement was to help put her at ease, and not to condemn you.  Praise the Lord if you have found him. :twothumbs:

 

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I wish we could comment on topics like this and not be in fear of the Mods banning us etc. for expressing our opinions...I would love to have an honest and open discussion about this. But sadly that will never be the case at DV. So people that would normally comment sit in silence.

"I wish we could comment on topics like this and not be in fear of the Mods banning us etc. for expressing our opinions..." I find that comment to be a bit prejudice Botzwana, so haven't you pre-judged in the same manner you accuse the Mods of doing? You made your statement prior to anyone answering. Now your remark about others remaining silent is disturbing as well. Enlighten me, how do you know "people that would normally comment sit in silence", have you had people on DV share that with you? I find most folks on DV willing to discuss topics such as this. As I read your comments here I find them to be a bit manipulative, is that how you would have others treat you? Come, let us reason together Botzwana.

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Yes I have seen it happen in the past. A heated religious debate and someone was banned because they didn't tow the company line. If the muzzle has been taken off I would love to debate.

One thing, I use the Bible as my authority. To debate we have to have an authority to turn to, are you willing to use the Bible as our authority, if not then it will be futile.

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Yes I have seen it happen in the past. A heated religious debate and someone was banned because they didn't tow the company line. If the muzzle has been taken off I would love to debate.

 

We keep good records of why people are banned.  Who was it?

 

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