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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
"Then released he Barabbas unto them, but Jesus, when he had scourged Him, he delivered to be crucified." And wherefore did he scourge Him. Either as one condemned, or willing to invest the judgment with due form, or to please them. And yet he ought to have resisted them. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified. Pilate scourged Jesus, that is, he had Him whipped, either to gratify the people, or else to show that it was he himself who had condemned Christ, and to make it appear that they were not about to crucify an innocent man, but rather one who was dishonorable. Thus was fulfilled this prophecy of Isaiah as well, "I gave My back to scourges" (Is. 50:6).
Western Saints
Jerome
Then he released to them Barabbas, but Jesus, after he had been scourged, he handed over to them to be crucified. Barabbas, a robber, who had caused insurrections in the crowds, who was a murderer, was released to the Jewish people, that is, the devil, who reigns in them even to this day, and therefore they cannot have peace. But Jesus, being handed over by the Jews, is acquitted by Pilate's wife, and is called just by the governor himself. And the centurion confesses that he is truly the Son of God. …
Thomas Aquinas
"Then he released to them Barabbas." He released, i.e., he absolved him from the sentence of death. "And having scourged Jesus, he delivered him unto them to be crucified." And why scourged? Jerome says that it was the Roman custom that one sentenced to death was first scourged. And as it is said at John 19:1, he himself scourged him; hence what is found in Psalm 38:18 is fulfilled in him: "I am ready for scourges." Some say that he scourged him so that they might be moved to pity, and thus release him after the scourging.
Rabanus Maurus
Those who were crucified being suspended on a cross, by nails driven into the wood through their hands and feet, perished by a lingering death, and lived long on the cross, not that they sought longer life, but that death was deferred to prolong their sufferings. The Jews indeed contrived this as the worst of deaths, but it had been chosen by the Lord without their privity, thereafter to place upon the foreheads of the faithful the same cross as a trophy of His victory over the Devil. …
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