I like to look for significance when a certain number of anything is used in a movie.
Does the number 39 or the fact that they gave Jesus that many lashes have a basis in The New Testament?
I love it how the director shows practically a party scene when the whipping starts, but by the end of it, most of the people there have a disgusted look on their faces. Priceless...
"Go back to your oar, Forty One."
Yes, the flogging scene is very powerful. The characters' reactions were chilling in some cases. It was a neat touch to have Herod present and his reactions were great. I think the sequence shows how twisted and gruesome this sort of punishment is/was, especially when put on as a public spectacle, and it does so without being a gratuitous gore show. I don't know for sure any significance of the number 39 but I believe that's the number given in the scriptures.
Also, in case no one noticed, the Overture of Superstar is essentially the score for Trial Before Pilate.
"Sometimes it's right to feel a fool"- Cleggy
It was thought that 40 lashes would kill a man.
Enjolras/Grantaire '32
Deuteronomy 25: 1.“If there is a dispute between men, and they come to court, that the judges may judge them, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, 2 then it shall be, if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, that the judge will cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence, according to his guilt, with a certain number of blows. 3 Forty blows he may give him and no more, lest he should exceed this and beat him with many blows above these, and your brother be humiliated in your sight.
I think they take one back for mercy or they stop at 39 out of fear of miscounting?
"De gustibus non disputandum est"
#3
40 is a symbol of a period of trial - like Noah on the ark (40 days) or the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. Perhaps only 39 lashes was a symbol that Jesus' test wasn't over yet.
Eagles may soar in the clouds, but weasels never get sucked into jet engines.
I love your signature, puddiphutt! LOL over here!
:-)
Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.
A powerful scene, which starts with Magdalene screaming at the first lash and ends with Pilate screaming at the last lash.
IMO the music is better on the original album and the counting is better in the film.
In a sermon I once heard, the 39 lashes did have a meaning. It meant that Jesus was King David's 39-greats-grandson! Here are some more:
The Star of Bethlehem was shaped like a cross that Jesus would later die on.
Some people think that Jesus was born on in a cave, not a barn. When he died, they put him in a tomb, which was like a cave.
When he was born, they wrapped him in swaddling clothes. When he died, he was wrapped in a shroud.
This sermon and what the carol, 12 days of Christmas really means are my favorites. I don't know where the minister got the information for the above, though.
In Talmudic Law
Talmudic law not only made detailed provision for the manner in which floggings were to be carried out, but also altered the concept of the biblical punishment; the maximum of 40 lashes was reduced to 39 (Mak. 22a), so as to avoid the danger of exceeding 40 even by mistake; and the offenses which carried the punishment of flogging were exactly defined, depriving it of its character as a residuary and omnibus punishment. The number of 39 lashes became the standard rather than the maximum number; but in order to prevent death by flogging – which would amount to a violation of the biblical injunction of "not more" than flogging – the person to be flogged was first physically examined in order to determine the number of lashes that could safely be administered to him (Mak. 3:11). Where, as a result of such examination, less than 39 lashes were administered, and it then turned out that the offender could well bear more, the previous estimate would be allowed to stand and the offender discharged (Maim. Yad, Sanhedrin 17:2). But the offender would also be discharged where physical symptoms manifested themselves during the course of the flogging, so that he would not be able to stand any more lashes, even though on previous examination he had been found fit to stand more (ibid. 17:5). It also happened that as a result of such examination, floggings were postponed for another day or later, until the offender was fit to undergo them (ibid. 17:3).
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0007_0_06574.html
Exterminate!