Note 1 at Mt. 27:27: This instance of Jesus being mocked by the Roman soldiers is the same instance as the one recorded by John in John 19:1-3, which we listed under the previous heading.

Matthew starts this verse with the word "Then," putting this occurrence of Jesus being mocked by the Roman soldiers after Jesus had been condemned to be crucified. John also begins his account of this incident with the word "Then," and follows it with further attempts of Pilate to release Jesus. This looks like a discrepancy between the two accounts.

It must be remembered that Luke is the only gospel writer to state that he was setting forth events in chronological order (see Introduction to the Gospel of Luke, p. xvii). There are many examples where the other gospel writers varied the order of events, as it was not their purpose to present events in the proper order. Luke does not record this event of the soldiers mocking Jesus, so we do not have his input as to the proper sequence.

Any differences in the listing of this event would only amount to a matter of minutes. It is also possible that this mockery of the soldiers could have happened simultaneously with some of Pilate's efforts to free Jesus (cp. with note 1 at Lk. 22:54, p. 457). Therefore, we have left this event in the order that each of the three gospel writers recorded it even though that meant that one event is listed in two different headings.