Yesterday at church, after service was over, we were rehearsing a skit that we are going to be performing on Easter Sunday. Like most Easter Sunday programs, it is about the crucifixion/resurrection. Anyway, as we were going over our lines, my cousin read Matthew 27:28 where it says, "And they...put on him a scarlet robe." It's a verse that I'd never really payed close attention to, but then somebody asked, "Wait. I thought it was a purple robe?"

Something that I had never even given a second thought to began to eat at my mind throughout the rest of the day. I looked up the parallel accounts in the other Gospels, and sure enough, Mark says that it was purple (Mark 15:16-17), as does John in 19:1-2. I understand that the Bible is without contradiction, but surely there was an explanation for this seeming discrepancy, I thought to myself. While it didn't seem like a big deal to me, I knew that there are some people out there who would reject the whole Bible over something as frivolous as the color of Jesus' robe. So I did some research, and I came to the following conclusion:

I'm sure we could all agree that each person sees colors a little differently. There have been many instances in which I have considered somebody to have red hair, while someone else might call it strawberry-blonde. In fact, there's been a handful of times that I have made mention of pulling up to an intersection and slowing down because the light turned orange (to which I am always reminded that it is yellow). Surely nobody would call me a liar simply because I have a different opinion as to the color of a person's hair! Likewise, what Matthew considered to be scarlet, Mark and John considered purple. Nobody was lying; they just each saw Jesus' life from different angles (something we need to remember when comparing the Gospel accounts).

Also, it is rather difficult to imagine Pontius Pilate putting a new robe on Christ's bloodied body. It was likely worn and faded, making it even more difficult to distinguish its color. According to A.T. Robertson, there were even various shades of purple and scarlet in the first century and it was not easy to distinguish the colors or tints.

It is obvious that no discrepancy exists in the Gospel accounts concerning the color of Christ's robe. The Gospel writers simply used the terms scarlet and purple interchangeably.