ABSTRACT
Flagellation is undoubtedly a very ancient mode of coercive punishment. The earliest record of it occurs in the fifth chapter of Exodus, where the sacred historian informs us that Pharaoh flagellated the Israelites. He required them to furnish a certain quantity of bricks every day, and when the specified number was not made up the officers were beaten. The words of the Vulgate are in verse 14 “flagellati sunt,” and in verse 16 “flagellis cœdimur,” and both expressions signify, were lashed with rods or whips. Further on in the Old Testament we find that flagellation was the punishment awarded under the old law, as delivered to Moses, to those who were found guilty of particular sins:“And whosoever lies with a woman that is a bond maid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her: she shall be scourged: they shall not be put to death, because she was not free.” The Mosaic Law likewise prescribed the number of lashes to be administered to criminals: “And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face according to his fault by a certain number. Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.”—Deut., ch. xxv., ver. 2, 3. The writers of the New Testament make frequent mention of flagellation. They all notice the circumstance that Jesus Christ was scourged before his crucifixion. In John, ch. ii., v. 15, we are told that Christ himself made a scourge of small cords, and drove the money-changers from the Temple. In the Acts, ch. v., v. 40, it is narrated that the apostles were beaten with scourges. Saint Paul, in enumerating the persecutions and sufferings he underwent for the sake of the Gospel, says, “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one and “Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck: a night and a day I have been in the deep;” and again, “And others had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings; yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments.”
