Ecce Homo
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament [1]
Ecce Homo —‘Behold, the man!’ (ἰδοὺ ὁ ἄνθρωπος or ἴδε ὁ ἄνθρωπος) ( John 19:5) was the utterance of Pilate when our Lord came forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. We may believe that the words were spoken to excite the pity of the Jews. Pilate had given over our Lord to be scourged, and had allowed his soldiers to robe and crown Him in mockery, but all the time he was anxious to save Him from death; and there was undoubtedly an appeal to the compassion of the bystanders in the words, ‘Behold the man.’ Probably it was to mock the Jews that the soldiers had robed and crowned Him who was said to have claimed to be their king; and Pilate himself, we can see, was not unwilling to deal somewhat scornfully with them. But he does not seem to have looked scornfully, he rather looked pitifully, on our Lord Himself. And when he said, ‘Behold, the man!’ he was, as it were, pointing out that Jesus had suffered enough. But although Pilate’s words were those of a weak but not wholly unfeeling man who wanted to move to pity those whom he was afraid to send angry and revengeful from his judgment-seat, he was really, although all unconsciously, paying an act of homage to our Lord. ‘Ecce Homo.’ He was bidding men look to the perfect man, the incarnate Son of God, men’s perfect example, their Divine yet most truly human Redeemer.
The scene of our Lord’s appearing in the crown of thorns and the purple robe is naturally one to appeal to artists; and many great pictures, notably one of the greatest and most striking of modern times (by Munkacsy), have borne the title ‘Ecce Homo!’
Ecce Homo is also the title of a very notable book by the late Sir John Seeley. The book cannot be discussed here. It deals with the manhood of our Lord in an original and striking way, and does not deny, although it does not discuss, His Divinity.
Literature.—Comm. on passage cited; Seeley, Ecce Homo ; Knox Little, Perfect Life (1898), p. 140; R. J. Campbell, City Temple Sermons (1903), 50; Rosadi, Trial of Jesus ; Farrar, Christ in Art , p. 384 ff.; art. ‘Christusbilder’ in PR E [Note: RE Real-Encyklopädie fur protest. Theologic und Kirche.] 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] .
Geo. C. Watt.
Webster's Dictionary [2]
A picture which represents the Savior as given up to the people by Pilate, and wearing a crown of thorns.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [3]
ek´sē̇ hō´mō ( Ἰδοὺ ὁ ἄνθρωπος , idoú ho ánthrōpos , "Behold, the man!" John 19:5 ): Pilate's statement regarding Jesus during His trial. While the significance of this statement is somewhat debatable, yet there is little doubt, as judged from his attitude and statement immediately following, that Pilate was endeavoring to appeal to the accusers' sympathies and to point out to them the manly qualities of Jesus. The ordinary punctuation which places an exclamation point after "Behold" and a period after "the man" is evidently incorrect if the grammatical structure in the Greek is to be observed, which gives to the second and third words the nominative form, and which therefore admits of a mild exclamation, and therefore of the emphasis upon "the man." Some, however, hold the contrary view and maintain that the utterance was made in a spirit of contempt and ridicule, as much as to say, "Behold here a mere man." See especially on this view Marcus Dods in Expositor's Greek Testament . It would seem, however, that the former of the two views would be sustained by the chief facts in the case.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [4]
a name given in art to pictures representing the suffering Savior as described in John 19:5 : "Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!" It is a comparatively recent subject in art, dating from the 15th century. There are two forms of it, viz. the devotional picture, which offers the single head, or half-figure of Christ, to our contemplation, as the "Man of Sorrows" of the Passion, and the more or less historical picture, which either places him before us attended by Pilate and one or more attendants, or gives the full scene in numerous figures. For an account of them, see Jamieson, History Of Our Lord In Art , 2:92 sq.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [5]
E . Behold the Man), a representation of Christ as He appeared before Pilate crowned with thorns and bound with ropes, as in the painting of Correggio, a subject which has been treated by many of the other masters, such as Titian and Vandyck.
