What are the stripes given to Jesus Christ?
The word 'stripe' means a stroke or blow made with a whip, rod, scourge, or the like, such as usually leaves a mark. With what kind of thing would Jesus have been given stripes?
Look at the below verse:
Isaiah 53:2-5
For
he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a
dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him,
there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and
rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid
as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him
not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we
did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was
wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are
healed.
The above scripture says that there was no beauty in Jesus that we
would desire Him. Does this mean that Jesus was born so ugly? Not at
all...
The next few verses reveal why there was no beauty in
Christ. Yes, His body was so wounded and bruised that His figure could
not bear any beauty on Him. If He was beaten only with a rod to mean 'stripes', His body could not have been so damaged.
Hence, we can come to the conclusion that 'stripes' given to Jesus mean 'strokes with a whip or whips'.
But again it would not be possible to damage the body of Christ to the
extent Prophet Isaiah has prophesied, if Jesus had been given only 39 or 40 stripes. As we discussed under Part 1 of this series, Jesus
was given many, many stripes with whips so that His body was severely
damaged to the extent that He could not bear any beauty anymore.
Nevertheless, the meaning of 'stripes' according to the law of Moses should be stokes with a rod.
The Second Punishment
The Jews cannot crucify any criminal according to their law,
but they can stone a criminal to death if he or she has done anything that deserve death. Read carefully the following verses in the Book of Numbers.
Numbers 15:32-36.
32 And
while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man
that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. 33 And they that found him
gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the
congregation. 34 And they put him in ward, because it was not declared
what should be done to him. 35 And the Lord said unto Moses, The man
shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with
stones without the camp. 36 And all the congregation brought him without
the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord
commanded Moses. (KJV)
According to the above story in the Book of Numbers, the Lord had
not declared how someone should be put to death when he or she was found
to have broken the Sabbath before the above incident occurred. Then the
Lord clearly declared to the Children of Israel that they should be put
to death by stoning.
Even in the time of Jesus, the Jews had this practice of stoning the wrong doers to death. Look at the below verse:
John 8:3-5
3 And
the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery;
and when they had set her in the midst, 4 They say unto him, Master,
this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now Moses in the
law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
(KJV)
Then why didn't the Jews stone Jesus to death when they really wanted to kill Him???
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