What does the crown of thorns define what does it stand for or what does it mean?

Answer 1

The Crown of Thorns has no real symbolic interpretation. When Jesus was crucified the jumped-up charge was first of blasphemy because 'he claimed to be God' (as the pharisees and priests said). However, this would not be a capital punishment issue according to the Romans because no legal execution could be performed except by them (despite illicit stonings performed by lynch-mobs in dark alleys), and blasphemy, in their eyes, did not deserve capital punishment. To cope with this the priests and pharisees then used the tack that Jesus claimed to have authority in the 'Kingdom of God' - in other words he declared himself a king. To declare oneself a king was an issue with the Romans as this was seen as treason agaist the Roman emperor. "If you free this man," said the pharisees, "you are no friend of Caesar". Therefore the weak Pilate had no option but to authorise his execution. At the crucifixion, to fulfil prophesies about him, Jesus was mocked by the guards, and they weaved a 'crown' for the new 'king' - out of thorns which dug into his scalp. so the crown was simply a device for mocking Jesus, and for inflicting even more pain on him. To suggest that there are hidden ''symbolic" meanings is a little contrived and has no basis in scripture. Incidentally, it was traditional for the crime of an executed man to be written on a board and nailed on the cross above his head - as a warning to others. In Jesus' case, the 'crime' read "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews" in Hebrew, Greek and Latin - the three languages common in that area. When the pharisees complained saying that they wanted the wording changed to "He said he was the king of the Jews", Pilate refused, stating that what he had written would stay written. Thus the weak leader Pilate at least had some grip on what Jesus' role actually was, and although he would go down in history as a feeble leader and the man who authorised Christ's execution, one can argue that, because Jesus' salvation was the result of that very execution, Pilate was actually doing God's work - and this last act of defiance might make us think a little more about this man's inner strength.