Scourge
SCOURGE
Or Whip. The punishment of scourging was very common among the Jews. Our Savior was subjected to this barbarous and ignominious torture, which was at times so sever as to end in death, Joh 19:1 . Moses limits the number of stripes to forty, which might never be exceeded, Deu 25:1-3 . The Jews afterwards, in order to avoid in any case exceeding forty, and thus breaking the law, were accustomed to give only thirty-nine stripes, or thirteen blows with a scourge of three thongs. There were two ways of giving the lash: one with thongs or whips made of rope-ends, or straps of leather sometimes armed with iron points; the other with rods or twigs. The offender was stripped from his shoulders to his middle, and tied by his arms to a low pillar, that he might lean forward, and the executioner the more easily strike his back; or, according to the modern custom in inflicting the bastinado, was made to lie down with his face to the ground, Deu 25:2 .Paul informs us, 2Co 11:24, that at five different times he received thirty-nine stripes from the Jews; and in the next verse, shoes that correction with rods was different from that with a whip; for he says, “Thrice was I beaten with rods.” The bastinado with rods was sometimes given on the back, at others on the soles of the feet.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
scourge
A symbol of self-inflicted penance, used in pictures of saints famed for austerity.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Scourge
(usually some form of , shut, to lash; , shot, Job 5:21; Job 9:23; Isa 10:26; Isa 28:18, a whip, as elsewhere rendered; , shayit, Isa 28:15; , shorert, Jos 23:13; but in Leveticius 19:20, , bikkoreth, chastisement in general; , the Lat. flagellum, or whip, Joh 2:15; so the verb , Matthew 28:26; Mar 15:15; , a severe kind of whip, Act 22:24; Heb 11:36; tropically, “plague,” Mar 3:10, etc.; so in a literal sense the verb , Mat 10:17; Mat 20:19; Mat 23:34; Mar 10:34; Luk 18:33; Joh 19:1; Heb 12:6; or , Act 22:25). The punishment of scourging was very common among the Jews. Moses ordains (Deu 25:1-3) that if there be a controversy between :men, and they come to judgment, then the judges may judge them; mad if the wicked man were found worthy to be beaten, the judge was to cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number of, but not exceeding forty, stripes. There were two ways of giving the lash one with thongs or whips made of rope-ends or straps of leather, the other with rods or twigs. In later times the of- fender was stripped from his shoulders to his middle and tied by his arms to a low pillar, that he might lean forward and the executioner the more easily strike his back. Some maintain that they never gave more nor less than thirty-nine strokes, but that in greater faults they struck with proportionate violence. Others think that when the fault and circumstances required it, they might increase the number of blows. Paul informs us (2Co 11:24) that at five different times he received thirty-nine stripes from the Jews; which seems to imply that this was a fixed number, not to be exceeded. The apostle also clearly shows that correction with rods was different from that with a whip, for he says, “Thrice was I beaten with rods.” The rabbins affirm that punishment by the scourge was not ignominious, and that it could not be objected as a disgrace to those who had suffered it. They maintain, too, that no Israelite. not even the king or the high-priest, was exempt from this law. This must be understood, however, of the whipping inflicted in their synagogues, which was rather a legal and particular penalty than a public and shameful correction. Philo, speaking of the manner in Which Flaccus treated the Jews of Alexandria, says he made them suffer the punishment of the whip, which, he remarks, is not less insupportable to a free man than death itself. Our Saviour, speaking of the pains and ignominy of his passion, commonly puts his scourging in the second place (Mat 20:19; Mar 10:34; Luke 28:32). The punishment of scourging was specially prescribed by the law in the case of a betrothed bondwoman guilty of unchastity, and perhaps in the case of both the guilty persons (Lev 19:20). Women were subject to scourging in Egypt, as they still are by the law of the Koran for incontinence (Sale, Koran, ch. 4, note, and 24; Lane, Modern Egypt, 1, 147; Wilkinson, Ancient Egypt. abridg, 2:211). The instrument of punishment in ancient Egypt, as it is also in modern times generally in the East, was usually the stick, applied to the soles of the feet bastinado (id. loc. cit.; Chardin, 6:114; Lane, Modern Egypt, 1:146). SEE BASTINADO.
A more severe scourge is possibly implied in the term “scorpions,” whips armed with pointed halls of lead, the “horribile flagellum” of Horace, though it is more probably merely a vivid figure. Under the Roman method the culprit was stripped, stretched with cords or thongs on a frame (divaricatio), and beaten with rods. After the Porcian law (B.C. 300), Roman citizens were exempted from scourging, but slaves and foreigners were liable to be beaten, even to death. This infliction, as a method of extorting a confession, was not unusual among the Romans, and was sometimes practiced by the Jews themselves. The same punishment was also occasionally inflicted for ecclesiastical offences (Mat 10:17; Act 26:11), and sometimes as an instant mode of chastisement (Joh 2:15). See Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 1062; Isidore, Orig. 5:27; Horace, 1 Sat. 2:41; 3:119; Pro 26:3; Act 16:22, and Grotius, ad loc. 22:24, 25; 1Ki 12:11; Cicero, 1Ki 12:3; 1Ki 12:28-29; Pro Rub. 4; Liv. 10:9; Sallust, Cat. 51; and the monographs of Krumb-holz, De Serratore Fustibus Caeso (in the Bibl. Brem. 8:35 sq.); Sagittarius, De Flagellatione Christi (Jen. 1674); Strauch, De Ritu apud Judaeos (Vi-teb. 1668); Hilpert, id. (Helmst. 1652); Seypel, De Ritu Flagellandi apud Romanos (Viteb. 1668); Schoff, De Flagellatione Apostolorum (Viteb. 1683). SEE PUNISHMENT; SEE WHIP.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Scourge
Scourge. Deu 25:1-3. An instrument of punishment in Egypt and Rome. The number of stripes was limited by Moses to forty; which the Jews, in later times, were so careful not to exceed, that they inflicted only thirty-nine. Deu 25:3; 2Co 11:24. There were two ways of scourging; one with thongs or whips; the other with rods or twigs. Sometimes sharp iron points or sharp-cornered pieces of metal were fastened to the end of the thongs, to render the suffering still more extreme. The punishment was inflicted on the offender lying on the ground. Exo 21:20; Lev 19:20; Deu 22:18; Pro 10:13; Pro 13:24; Pro 20:30; Pro 23:13-14; Psa 89:32. In later times the offender was tied by his arms to a pillar, and his back laid bare to the virg or rods of the lictor. To this degrading punishment no Roman citizen could be subjected. Mat 10:17; Mat 27:26; Joh 2:15; Act 16:23; Act 22:25; Act 26:11; Heb 11:35.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Scourge
or WHIP. This punishment was very common among the Jews, Deu 25:1-3. There were two ways of giving the lash: one with thongs, or whips, made of ropes’ ends, or straps of leather; the other with rods, or twigs. St. Paul informs us, that at five different times he received thirty-nine stripes from the Jews, 2Co 11:24, namely, in their synagogues, and before their courts of judgment. For, according to the law, punishment by stripes was restricted to forty at one beating, Deu 25:3. But the whip, with which these stripes were given, consisting of three separate cords, and each stroke being accounted as three stripes, thirteen strokes made thirty-nine stripes, beyond which they never went. He adds, that he had been thrice beaten with rods, namely, by the Roman lictors, or beadles, at the command of the superior magistrates.