Flagellation of Christ

Description of Illustrations: illustration, black and whites, Season of Lent, whips, two different illustrations

       The Flagellation of Christ, sometimes known as Christ at the Column or the Scourging at the Pillar, is a scene from the Passion of Christ very frequently shown in Christian art, in cycles of the Passion or the larger subject of the Life of Christ. It is the fourth station of the modern alternate Stations of the Cross, and a Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary. The column to which Christ is normally tied, and the rope, scourge, whip or birch are elements in the Arma Christi. The Basilica di Santa Prassede in Rome, claimed to possess the original column.

       Flagellation at the hands of the Romans is mentioned in three of the four canonical Gospels: John 19:1, Mark 15:15, and Matthew 27:26, and was the usual prelude to crucifixion under Roman law. None of three accounts are more detailed than John's "Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged" (NIV). Luke's comparable account, Luke 22:63-65 is of the High Priest's guards beating and mocking Jesus. In the Passion of Christ the episode precedes the Mocking of Christ and the Crowning with thorns, which the Gospels happened at the same time or immediately after. Unlike the flogging, these were not part of the normal Roman judicial process.

 

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