Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SCOURGING

Beating with a rod or staff (Heb. šēḇeṭ) was a punishment for children (Prov. 13:24), fools, or slaves (Exod. 21:20). More severe was the scourging with a leather whip (šôṭ), a punishment comparable to a scorpion’s sting (1 Kgs. 12:11). The prophets described the punishment that God administers to a disobedient people as a national scourging (Isa. 10:26).

Judicial punishment in the Mosaic code limited the number of strokes applied to the victim to 40 (Deut. 25:1-3). Jewish practice subtracted one stroke to keep from exceeding 40, and “40 minus one” became a standard reference to a Jewish beating (2 Cor. 11:24). The Mishnah describes a scourging, which included a determination of how many stripes the victim could endure, binding the hands to either side of a pillar, baring the chest and back, and lashing the victim so that one third of the stripes fell on the front and two thirds on the back (m. Mak. 3:10-14).

Roman scourging ignored the limits of the Mosaic law and varied the severity according to the status of the victim. A freeman, like Paul, could be beaten with rods (Gk. hrábdos) of elm or birch by Roman lictors (Acts 16:22; 2 Cor. 11:25). Slaves or non-Romans could be scourged with straps (mástix) or whips of leather cords knotted at the ends and weighted with pieces of metal or bone (phragéllion; Matt. 27:26; John 2:15).

Bibliography. B. Rapske, Paul in Roman Custody, vol. 3 of The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting, ed. B. K. Winter (Grand Rapids, 1994).

Dennis Gaertner

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SCOURGING

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)