The humiliation of the Jewish people in Pilate’s Praetorium Exegetical study of Matthew 27,27-31
Keywords:
Matthew, Passion, Jesus, Jews, Humiliation.Abstract
The article presents an interpretation of the scene of Jesus’ humiliation in Pilate’s Praetorium according to the Matthean narrative. I construct and present the argument by means of an exegetical study that follows the structure used and demonstrated by the biblical scholar Milton Schwantes. I consider details of the narrative, looking at elements of continuity in the crucifixion scene itself. I consider the way the Jews are inserted in the Gospel, as well as the historical Jewish and Roman context in which the event narrated takes place. In a special way, I observe comparatively a scene of similar debauchery that took place in Alexandria according to the account of Philo, the Jewish exegete of the first century AD. In both the account of the Alexandrian and in the account of the Gospel we find the humiliation of others by means of improvised theatrical staging. From this reading, I construct the central proposal of the study, pointing out that the humiliation of Jesus is narrated as simultaneously being the humiliation of the entire Jewish people.
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