Flagellation of Christ, Caravaggio

NOWHERE in painting has the truth of the scourging of Jesus been accurately depicted.

Caravaggio’s painting (above) is a good example. It is a highly romantic version of what occurred. The scourging was much more brutal than typically shown. I am not a big fan of Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ, but I think it provides a fairly accurate depiction of the beating of Christ at the pillar by the Roman soldiers.

Pierre Barbet, M.D. in his book A Doctor at Calvary: The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ as Described by a Surgeon, explains that a normal person undergoing a similar scourging would have died from blood loss before reaching Calvary. In addition, Jesus was so violently beaten before the scourging that his nose was broken and his body was cut and severely bruised. It was only by a miracle that Jesus’s life was preserved until He was crucified. Here is some of what Barbet, who believed in the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin and explains why, wrote on the scourging alone:

EVERYONE punished with death as a preliminary was always scourged, whether he was to die on the cross or otherwise; by beheading (Livy) or at the stake (Josephus). Only those were exempt, according to Mommsen, who were senators, soldiers or women who had the freedom of the city.

However, in the case of beheading, the scourging was done with the rods from the bundles of the lictor: “Nudatos virgis csedunt secutique percutiunt—They strip them and beat them with rods and strike them with an axe.” (Livy.)

As we have seen, scourging was an ancient custom in Rome. It was also inflicted under Alexander and Antiochus Epiphanes and at Carthage. One keeps on coming across the formulae “proaikistheis anestaurothe—verberatos crucibus adfixit—crucifying after scourging.”

This scourging, which as we have seen was formerly inflicted on the cross, now took place in the area of the tribunal. The condemned man was bound to a column (probably with his hands above his head). As Plautus wrote: Abducite hunc intro atque astringite ad columnam fortiter—Take him inside and bind him firmly to the column” (Bacchides).

The scourging was preceded by the stripping of the condemned man, who began his journey to the place of execution naked and scourged, and carrying his patibulum (Valerius Maximus—Cicero).

With what sort of an instrument was the scourging carried out? We have seen that those who were to be beheaded were beaten with the lictor’s rod; for the other form of scourging a distinctively Roman instrument was used; the flagrum. It had a short handle, to which were attached several long, thick thongs, usually two of them. At a little distance from the end balls of lead or the small bones of sheep were inserted, “tali” such as were used for playing at knuckle-bones; these were the ankle-bones of the sheep.

The thongs would cut the skin and the balls and the little bones would dig deep contused wounds into it. There would be a good deal of hemorrhage and considerable lowering of vital resistance. We shall have all too many chances of verifying on the [Shroud of Turin] of Jesus the wounds which this terrible instrument could inflict, and the blood-stained marks which it left on the skin.

[…]

We know already what the instrument of torture was like, the Roman “flagrum,” the thongs of which had two balls of lead or a small bone, the “talus” of a sheep, at some distance from their end. There are plenty of the marks of this on the shroud. They are scattered over the whole body, from the shoulders to the lower part of the legs. Most of them are to be seen on the back portion which proves that Jesus was bound with His face to the column, with His hands above Him, for there are no marks on the forearms which are quite visible. These could not have failed to receive some blows, if they had been bound lower down. A considerable number of marks are however to be found on the chest.

One must add that only those blows have left a mark which produced an excoriation or a contused wound. All those which only caused ecchymosis (a severe bruise) have left no mark on the shroud. Altogether I have counted more than 100 [on the shroud], perhaps 120. This means, if there were two thongs, that Our Lord received about sixty strokes apart from those which have left no mark.

All the wounds have the same shape, like a little halter about three centimetres long. The two circles represent the balls of lead, while the line joining them is the mark of the thong.

They are nearly in pairs of two parallel wounds, which makes me think that each flagrum had two thongs, and they are laid out in the form of a fan, the centre of which would be the executioners hand. On the thorax they are oblique, horizontal on the loins, and oblique once more on the legs. At this level, one can see in the frontal image long oblique furrows (similar to the halter-like wounds at the back), which must have been produced by the ends of the thongs. Having struck the calves of the legs with their leaden balls, they have turned round the outer edge of the leg and lashed the front with their points.

We may assume that during the scourging Our Lord was completely naked, for the halter-like wounds are to be seen all over the pelvic region, which would otherwise have been protected by the subligaculum, and they are as deep as on the rest of the body.

Finally, there must have been two executioners. It is possible that they were not of the same height, for the obliqueness of the blows is not the same on each side.

Painters have been content with, at the most, vague, formless excoriations; is there one of them who could have imagined and realised these minute details?

Please follow and like us: