What does Mark 15:16 mean?
Jesus has faced trials with the Sanhedrin (Mark 14:53–65), Pilate (Luke 23:1–5), and Herod Antipas (Luke 23:6–16). Now, He is with Pilate again. Despite Pilate's violent reputation, the Roman governor sees no reason Jesus should die and is doing what he can to show the Jewish leaders this. Pilate allows—or more likely, specifically orders—a battalion of Roman guards to humiliate and torture Jesus. Pilate hopes the display will convince the chief priests, elders, and scribes that Jesus is not a threat to their authority over the Jews (Luke 23:22).The "governor's headquarters" is the Praetorium; this isn't the name of a specific place but of wherever the governor chooses to make his temporary headquarters. Governors over the region reside in Caesarea Maritima, on the coast of the Mediterranean, much closer to Nazareth than Jerusalem. It is tradition that when visiting Jerusalem, governors stay in Herod the Great's old palace. Scholars debate whether Jesus' trial before Pilate takes place here or in the Fortress Antonia, the guard station on the northwest corner of the temple mount. Evidence suggests they are at the palace of Herod the Great, where he tried to convince the magi to tell him where the baby Jesus lay so he could kill Him (Matthew 2:1–12).
A battalion is a unit of about six hundred soldiers. Unlike Herod Antipas, who is a tetrarch, and Herod the Great, who was a king, Pilate is an equestrian—something like an ancient Roman knight, a lower rank that is tasked with keeping order. As such, Pilate does not command a large army, but makes do with what he has. These soldiers are not ignorant of Pilate's ways. He uses them to squelch protests with clubs and knives. Before the decade is out, he will call on them to run down and kill a group of Samaritans who are deceived into thinking they are going to discover ancient artifacts long-ago buried by Moses. Pilate doesn't think Jesus is King of the Jews, but if He were, scourging, spitting, and placing a thorn of crowns on His head is the exact sort of treatment Pilate would expect his guards to dole out.
