L’incoronazione di spine (Mc 15,16-20a). Tortura fisica, subita da Gesù, o piuttosto la derisione della Sua dignità regale?
Coronation of Thorns (Mk 15:16-20a). A Physic Torture, Endured by Jesus, or Rather the Derision of His Royal Dignity?

Summary/Abstract: The Passion Narrative constitutes the “heart” of all the Gospels. The attentionof Christians who feed their faith on the Word of God usually concentrates on the physicalsuffering of Jesus. But the purpose of the Gospels seems to be different: cf. the lack ofdescription of significant, long-lasting and cruel scenes, such as the “flagellation” and the“crucifixion” of Christ in Mc 15:15 and 15:24 (these episodes are “depicted” by one simpleword: fragellw,saj and staurou /sin). That is why the pericope Mc 15:16-20a should beconsidered not (only) as the “Coronation of Thorns,” as it commonly is, but as a “Derisionof Christ’s Royal Dignity”, as the context of the singular “act of thorns” suggests. In fact,aside from dressing Jesus in purple and beating his head with the reed, which indeedcould cause physical suffering of the Savior (here we think of Jesus flogged and crownedby thorns), other elements of scorning (a mocking “saluting” of Jesus, spitting on him andthe scoffing prostration of soldiers) had not touched Jesus’ body at all! As a consequence,these acts were surely not the source of his physical pain. Also, the crown itself did notnecessarily have to cause Christ such huge suffering as is usually imagined. The pericopeMc 15:16-20a portrays the “Derision of Christ’s Royal Dignity” and, speaking of Jesusas the King, inscribes itself in the theme of “The Reign of God” in the Gospel of Mark.

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