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We usually think of it as with an Eastern diadem; but it was far more probably in imitation of the victor's wreath, which the emperor of the time was so fond of wearing, as the statues of Liberius abundantly testify. One of the soldiers must have run into the garden of the palace, or down the rocky valley hard by, and gathered a handful of thorny bramble; of what kind it was, has been often disputed. Those who thought most of the infliction of pain fixed on an Acanthus, with long spikes that sting as well as prick; others, who saw in the crowning more of mockery than cruelty, chose the Nebk — the Spina Christi — which, with its pliant twigs and bright ivy-like leaves, best recalls the Imperial wreath. Whichever it was, it is enough for us to feel, as an evidence of the restitution wrought by the Incarnation, that what sprang from the ground as a curse on Adam's transgression, was woven into a crown, and worn by Christ.

(H. M. Luckock, D. D.)

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KJV: And they clothed him with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head,

WEB: They clothed him with purple, and weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on him.