One of the benefits of reading the scriptures in the original language is that you come to each passage with your mind in a different “word space.” There is some debate about whether or not we actually need words to think but we certainly use words to think and the words we use clearly shape our thoughts. In Mark 15:15 some different word-thoughts regarding Pilate’s decision about Jesus occur to me when I read: “Wishing to the mob the sufficient thing to do he released to them Barabbas and he betrayed Jesus after flogging so that he might be crucified” in Greek.
Three Greek words end that sentence: φραγελλώσας ἵνα σταυρωθῇ (phra-gell-ōs-as hin-a stau-rō-thē). The first is the Aorist (Simple Past Tense) Participle for “flog” and the last is the Subjunctive Passive (indicating an action that speaker desires someone else to do) for “crucify.” That little word in the middle is the one that struck me. My Greek “word space” tells me to translate it “in order that.” To me that means the flogging was a prerequisite for the crucifying. From what I know of Roman history this was not the standard practice. This led me to the idea that Pilate decided properly appeasing the crowd required he order Jesus to be flogged before he crucified him. That’s some bloody minded political calculus.
Today, bloody minded political calculus in the West doesn’t typically involve flogging and crucifixion. The suffering has been sanitized and distanced so that modern sensibilities are not offended. The goal is the same however: to appease the mob. In Rome this was done with bread and circuses. Today it’s stimulus checks and pork-barrel funding of unnecessary projects with imaginary money. Perhaps the lesson of Pilate should be taken to heart by today’s politicos. His appeasement efforts failed and he was eventually removed from office because he was forced to resort to violence in suppressing a mob of Samaritans at Mount Gerizim. His long, brutal, and ineffective term of office is cited by some as one of the prime reasons for the Jewish revolt resulted in the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem.
Where will the modern version of bloody minded political calculus lead our rulers?
