(30) They spit upon him.--See Note on Matthew 26:67.

Verse 30. - They spit upon him. Repeating the atrocious outrage already offered (Matthew 26:67). Smote him (ἔτυπτον, imperf., kept smiting him) on the head. They tore the mock sceptre from his trembling hands, and one after the other, as they passed, struck him with it on the head, at every blow driving the thorns deeper into his flesh. Here must be introduced some other attempts of Pilate to save him, narrated by St. John (John 19:4-16), especially the episode of "Ecce Homo!"

27:26-30 Crucifixion was a death used only among the Romans; it was very terrible and miserable. A cross was laid on the ground, to which the hands and feet were nailed, it was then lifted up and fixed upright, so that the weight of the body hung on the nails, till the sufferer died in agony. Christ thus answered the type of the brazen serpent raised on a pole. Christ underwent all the misery and shame here related, that he might purchase for us everlasting life, and joy, and glory.And they spit upon him,.... The Syriac and Persic versions add, "upon his face", which he did not hide from spitting; see Isaiah 1:6, and so what with sweat, by being hurried from place to place, and with blood trickling down from his temples, scratched with thorns, and with the spittle of these filthy soldiers, his visage was more marred than any man's, and his form than the sons of men, Isaiah 52:14.

And took the reed, or "cane", which was put into his right hand,

and smote him on the head; whereby they drove the sharp points of the thorns into it, which must give him inexpressible pain and torture.