Was Jesus dressed in a Scarlet Robe or Purple cloak?
Matthew tells us that they put a scarlet robe on Jesus
Matthew 27:28 And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him.
Mark says that Jesus was clothed with purple
Mark 15:17 And they clothed him with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head,
While John says the soldiers put on him(Jesus) a purple robe.
John 19:2 And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,
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So which was it, was it purple or scarlet?
Many apologists answer this by asserting that Purple and scarlet “mean the same thing”.
Matt Slick of Carm.org argues for this. He even includes a colour chart to “demonstrate” his argument. You can see the chart on his page dealing with this contradiction.
Matt, on his website states:
“As you can see, the colors are both different and similar depending on the shade and the lighting. For example, dark scarlet is very similar to dark purple.
https://carm.org/bible-difficulties/was-the-robe-of-jesus-scarlet-or-purple/
Matt even postulates that in the condition of poor lighting, at the time the robe was put on Jesus, the colours would appear even less distinct:
“In the condition of poor lighting, the distinction is even less apparent since the colors would appear darker.So, it could simply be that the robe was a dark color that could have been accurately described by either word.”
Of course, this involves a lot of conjecture regarding the light conditions.
Matt also offers a further “possibility” which is almost certainly incorrect, although he at least does state that this explanation “ doesn’t seem to fit that well.”
“Also, another possibility is that the robe could have been made of two colors that were put together due to their similarity. But this explanation doesn’t seem to fit that well.”
https://carm.org/bible-difficulties/was-the-robe-of-jesus-scarlet-or-purple/
Another “explanation” comes to us from AnswersinGenesis.org who suggest that rather than one robe made of two different colours, there were actually two robes placed upon Jesus at different times, one of Scarlet and one of Purple. Matthew refers to the scarlet robe and Mark and John refer to the Purple robe. This possibly being after a white robe had already been placed upon Jesus. This would mean that there was possibly 3 robes placed upon Jesus, as the site claims.
“If we view the relevant Scripture texts in a chronological order, with some explanatory text inserted for clarity (as is done below), it is easy to see that there is no contradiction in Scripture regarding what color robe was put on Jesus: he had possibly a white robe, then both a scarlet robe and later a purple robe put on him.”
“The solution to the apparent contradiction is that there were two or three robes, not one.”
https://answersingenesis.org/contradictions-in-the-bible/was-either-matthew-or-john-color-blind/
However, when we carefully examine the texts, the placement of the cloak referred to in the 3 mentioned Gospels is actually at the same time. I will at least say that this argument, unlike the argument of Matt Slick, is a possible solution, even if I do not think it is the actual solution. There could have been two robes, one of scarlet and one of purple colour, but they would have both had to have been placed on Jesus at the same time for this to work.
A further issue with the “more than 1 robe” hypothesis, is Matthew’s usage of “the robe” in the verse when the soldier take of what they had put on him and put back on his own clothes.
Matthew 27:31And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.
Matthew uses the definite article along with robe in the singular, τὴν χλαμύδα tēn chlamyda, thus reading the robe referring to one singular robe.
It must at least be noted that while John was at the crucifixion, Matthew was not and neither was Mark as Mark was not a disciple of Jesus.
So what is the answer?
What we see is that this can be answered both logically and biblically without having to appeal to bad lighting, colour blindness, two robes or “they mean the same”.
Scarlet and Purple are NOT the same colour. Jesus was scourged during the day and there is nothing in the text regarding bad lighting at this time. The Gospel writers used different words to describe the item of clothing placed upon Jesus for very good reason.
Mathew is the only one who records the actual specific garment and the actual specific colour of the garment that was placed upon Jesus. Both Mark and John do not literally record either.
Matthew uses the Greek χλαμύδα κοκκίνην chlamyda kokkinēn
Chlamyda means a short cloak or robe worn by Roman soldiers
Kokkinēn is the colour scarlet or crimson (dyed with Kermes (coccum)
What Matthew is specifically describing is a cloak that was worn by Roman soldiers.
Ellicott in his commentary on this verse refers to this military cloak as being worn by emperors and officers of a high rank:
“A scarlet robe.—Here again we have a technical word, the chlamys or paludamentum, used for the military cloak worn by emperors in their character as generals, and by other officers of high rank (Pliny, xxii. 2, 3)”
Ellicott commentary on Matthew 27:28
Meyer in his commentary refers also to the cloak, asserting that the cloak of a soldier and that of a king or emperor were made of similar material but differing in length.
“they arrayed Him in a red sagum, the ordinary military cloak (Plut. Sert. 14; Philop. 9, 11), for the purpose, however, of ridiculing His pretensions to the dignity of king; for kings and emperors likewise wore the χλαμύς, the only difference being that in their case the garment was longer and of a finer texture. Plut. Demetr. 41 f.; Mor. p. 186 C, al. On this military cloak, which was first used by the Macedonians, see Hermann, Privatalterth. § xxi. 20; Friedlieb, p. 118. “
Meyer commentary on Matthew 27:28
The soldier placed upon Jesus one of the soldiers cloaks/robes, very possibly the soldiers own cloak. I’m sure anyone that has studied Roman history or watched a film about Roman soldiers will be familiar with the type of cloak that the soldiers would wear.
Matthew also tells us that they placed a “crown of thorns” on his head and “a reed” in his right hand.
Matthew 27:29 And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!
A vital piece of information to notice here is that they did this to mock Jesus.
They bowed down to him and said “Hail the king of the Jews” (Matthew 27:29).
What the Roman soldiers were doing was making Jesus a pretend king. They placed upon him a “kings robe” in the form of a Roman Soldiers cloak, a kings crown made of thorns and gave him a kings staff or sceptre made of reeds.
Reed is the Greek κάλαμον kalamon meaning a reed or a reed staff
They then bowed to him and said hail the King of the Jews, all to mock him, to make fun of his claims of being the King. This was the accusation that the Jews had made against Jesus.
Luke 23:1 And the whole multitude of them arose, and led him unto Pilate. 2 And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King.
We know that Pilate had asked Jesus if he was indeed the King of the Jews.
Luke 23:3 And Pilate asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answered him and said, Thou sayest it.
Matthew 27:11 And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest.
John 18:33 Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?
When it comes to Marks account , Mark makes no mention of the cloak or robe and simply states the colour πορφύραν porphyran which is the colour Purple specifically in relation to a garment indicating power and wealth
Mark isn’t making a literal reference to the cloak that they placed upon Jesus but is making a figurative reference. By simply saying the specific word for a purple garment indicating power and wealth he is showing what the Roman Soldiers were doing when they placed one of their cloaks upon Jesus, it was a symbolic cloak, one that symbolically referred to the purple garment a king would wear, although the cloak itself was not purple. He does not refer to the cloak at all because it wasn’t the cloak that he was referring to but the symbolism of the cloak.
They used their cloak to act as the cloak of a king, which is what the soldiers were doing, mocking Jesus as king.
John uses ἱμάτιον πορφυροῦν himation porphyroun
Himation simply means an outer garment, such as a cloak.
John just refers to this as being an outer garment, of which a soldier’s cloak was.
porphyroun simply means Purple.
John’s use of outer garment rather than the cloak of a soldier shows he was not trying to be literal which is what Matthew was being with his reference to scarlet robe, and unlike Mark, John’s use of garment that preceded purple, allows him to just use purple rather than the specific word that Mark used because when combined together, the two Greek words used by John mean a purple garment.
Purple garment again is not literal but a symbolic reference to the soldiers placing a purple garment upon Jesus, a kings garment, when they placed their cloak upon him.
While Matthew focuses on the actual colour, scarlet, and the physical cloak, both Mark and John focus on the symbolic meaning behind the act itself.
The actual colour of the cloak was scarlet as attested to by Matthew, but it symbolically represented a Purple Kings robe as Mark and John allude to.
The Bible is a deep book, and often you have to delve much deeper than surface level in order to understand it. There is so much more to the scriptures than you can ever imagine simply staying at surface level.
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