What was this reed?

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Nelka

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In the Gospel:

Matthew 27:30 And they spat on him and took the reed and struck him on the head with it.

The kind of reeds that I have seen are long tough (leaves?) that can cut your hand if you ran it down the edge but to hit someone with it would not hurt at all.

Is this reed something different as it appears that it hurt Him a lot?

Thanks.
 
Not sure,maybe Our Lord was hurt by the ignorance of those mocking Him. The reed was maybe symbolic?:confused:
 
Nelka said:
In the Gospel:

Matthew 27:30 And they spat on him and took the reed and struck him on the head with it.

The kind of reeds that I have seen are long tough (leaves?) that can cut your hand if you ran it down the edge but to hit someone with it would not hurt at all.

Is this reed something different as it appears that it hurt Him a lot?

Thanks.
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The word kalamos is actually more general than the translation ‘reed’ suggests. In this case what is pictured seems to be a sort of stick firm enough to deal injury.
 
I am sure that what is referred to is what, today, we call bamboo. The word Bamboo is Asian, most probably East Indian, in origin, and would not have existed in the Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek languages in biblical times.
There are numerous large reeds in the Mid East that become what we call bamboo when dried.
Being hit with bamboo is extremely painful, especially when the bamboo splits lengthwise. Hitting flesh with split bamboo causes severe, very painful lacerations. Bamboo is often used by police as a means of crowd control. Being hit by it is not something anyone would want to experience a second time.
The biblical passage citing Christ being hit by reeds illustrates not only the mental agony experienced by Him in His humiliation, but precurses the physical agony that He was about to undergo.
 
“Calamos” was used for reed pens. I’ve made a reed pen, and they’re pretty whippy. Panpipes and reed pipes and reed flutes were also made from these sorts of tubular calamos reeds. The reed pens’ tubular bits gave sort of a pre-fountain-pen ink storage area, and then you cut the end to be a pointy pen shape. (With a “penknife.”) Quill pens work similarly.

Here’s a picture of Egyptian reed pens in a museum.

They’re not bamboo. They’re a marsh grass that’s indigenous all over Europe and in Egypt, and relatives grow in the US. Those Egyptian pens are pretty skinny, but the reeds grow pretty wide and sticklike if you let them grow long enough.

Here’s a video of someone making a reed pen, from a green reed on.
 
Bishop John McEvilly says
They gave Him a reed for a Royal sceptre,
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Cornelius a Lapide says
This, which represented His sceptre as King of the Jews, was a fragile, worthless, mean, and ridiculous thing. It is described as a smooth cane with a woolly top, &c.
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Symbolically
: S. Jerome and [Pseudo-]Athanasius say, as the reed drives away and kills serpents, so does Christ venomous lusts. Hear S. Jerome: “As Caiaphas knew not what He said (John xi. 50 seq.), so they too, though acting with another intent, yet furnished us believers with mysteries (sacramenta). In the scarlet robe He bears on Him the blood-stained deeds of the Gentiles; in the crown of thorns He does away with the ancient curse; with the reed He destroys poisonous animals, or (in another sense) He holds in His hand the reed to record the sacrilege of the Jews.” S. Ambrose too (in Luke xxii.) says, “The reed is held in Christ’s hand that human weakness should no more be moved as a reed with the wind, but be strengthened and made firm by the works of Christ; or, as S. Mark says, it strikes His head that our nature, strengthened by contact with His Godhead, should waver no more.” This reed and other relics of the Passion are said to have been carefully preserved (Bede, de Con. Sanctis, cap. xx.; and Greg. Turon. de Gloria Martyrum, cap. vii.)
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