What Does Mark 15:20 Mean?
And when they had mocked him, they stripped the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him.THE KEY
The verb frames their contempt as play-acting, but the body they carry to the cross is real.
THE MEANING
Contempt can move in stages: a person is made a spectacle, the visible signs of status are stripped away, and the body is carried toward execution. Returning his own clothes changes his appearance; it does nothing to stop the violence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that mockery is harmless because it is only a performance; here, the performance ends with a person led to crucifixion.
THE ROOT
ἐνέπαιξαν
enépaixan
GROWS FROM
παιζ-
paiz-
Play or make sport; ἐμπαίζω means to make sport of someone, hence to mock.
“mocked” in this verse is enépaixan. The word carries the sense of making sport of someone, so the purple robe belongs to an enacted scene of ridicule. The scene ends with the costume removed, while the person remains on the path to crucifixion.
ALSO GROWS
paizō: To play or make sport
παίζω
This is the verb family beneath the word for mockery, revealing its performative edge.
empaigmos: Mockery or derision
ἐμπαιγμός
This noun carries the same idea of making sport of someone; here, the mockery accompanies a real act of violence.
σταυρώσωσιν
staurōsōsin
GROWS FROM
σταυρ-
staur-
Cross; the action of execution on a cross.
“crucify him” in this verse is staurōsōsin. The verb names a concrete execution, not an abstract hardship. After the mock regalia are removed, the scene still moves toward the cross.
ALSO GROWS
stauros: Cross
σταυρός
The instrument named by the root is the destination toward which they lead him.
stauroō: Crucify
σταυρόω
This verb names the act the crowd is carrying out after the mockery ends.
THE PATTERN
Public mockery can become the first act in a sequence that carries a person into bodily violence.
All who see me mock me; they open their lips, they shake the head.I have given my back to the strikers, and my cheeks to those who pluck out the hair. I have not hidden my face from shame and spitting.Fixing our sight on Jesus, the one who goes first and brings our trust to its goal, who for the joy lying before him remained under the cross, looking down on the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.THE THREAD
They will mock him, whip him, spit on him, and kill him, and on the third day he will stand up again.Mark 10:34 uses ἐμπαίζω (empaizō, “mock”), the same verb family as “mocked” here, and places it beside scourging, spitting, and killing. Mark 15:20 shows that sequence unfolding: the mockery is done, the robe comes off, and the walk toward crucifixion begins.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us