By His Stripes

DOMINIQUE FAM

Digital Painting (Limited Reproduction, Canvas with Frame)

80 x 59cm

2023

Pontius Pilate ordered Jesus to be scourged, which was often a legal preliminary before Roman executions. The prisoner was stripped and chained by the wrists to a short pillar while two soldiers (Lictors) stood on either side and took turns to flog the victim. The instrument used by the lictors was the flagellum, which consisted of several leather strips connected to a handle. The leather strips contained pieces of metal and bone, and was designed to remove flesh each time a person was flogged. Prisoners were often flogged to a state of collapse and even death. Psalm 129 describes the pain Jesus went through quite graphically: “The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows.”