Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

some began to spit on him--or, as in Mat 26:67, "to spit in [into] His face." Luke (Luk 22:63) says in addition, "And the men that held Jesus mocked him"--or cast their jeers at Him. (Also see on Joh 18:28.) to cover his face--or "to blindfold him" (as in Luk 22:64). to buffet him--Luke's word, which is rendered "smote Him" (Luk 22:63), is a stronger one, conveying an idea for which we have an exact equivalent in English, but one too colloquial to be inserted here. began to say unto him, Prophesy--In Matthew (Mat 26:68) this is given more fully: "Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote Thee?" The sarcastic fling at Him as "the Christ," and the demand of Him in this character to name the unseen perpetrator of the blows inflicted on Him, was in them as infamous as to Him it must have been, and was intended to be, stinging. and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands--or "struck Him on the face" (Luk 22:64). Ah! Well did He say prophetically, in that Messianic prediction which we have often referred to, "I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting!" (Isa 50:6). "And many other things blasphemously spake they against Him" (Luk 22:65). This general statement is important, as showing that virulent and varied as were the recorded affronts put upon Him, they are but a small specimen of what He endured on that dark occasion. Peter's FIRST DENIAL of His Lord (Mar 14:66-68).