And they stripped him
Of his clothes; at least of his upper garment: for one man to
spit upon another, as these soldiers afterwards did on Christ, or
to strip him of his garment, according to the Jewish canons, were
punishable with a fine of four hundred pence F26, which
amounted to twelve pounds and ten shillings of our money; but the
soldiers were in no danger of being prosecuted, for stripping
Christ. This is one part of the low estate Christ submitted to:
his clothes on his back seem to be all he had in this world, and
of these he is stripped:
and put on him a scarlet robe,
or "a red coat", as the Persic version renders it; very likely an
old coat of one of their officers. The Evangelists Mark and John
say it was "purple", ( Mark 15:17 ) ( John 19:2 ) , and so the
Arabic version renders it here: whether there were two garments
put upon him, the one a purple vest, and the other a scarlet robe
over it; or whether scarlet was used instead of purple, is not
certain; which was a colour wore by kings, and a sign of imperial
dignity F1; and therefore put upon Christ by
way of mockery, upbraiding him with the character he bore, as
king of the Jews. This was an emblem of his being clothed, as it
were with our sins, which are as scarlet, and of his bloody
sufferings in the human nature.
F26 Misn. Bava Kama, c. 8. sect. 6.
F1 Alexander ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 1. c. 28.