Ecce Homo. Ecce homo are the Latin words used by Pontius Pilate in the Vulgate translation of the Gospel of John, when he presents a scourged Jesus Christ, bound and crowned with thorns, to a hostile crowd shortly before his Crucifixion. The original New Testament Greek:, idoù ho ánthropos, render the most English Bible translations, e.g. Douay-Rheims Bible and King James Version, as behold the man. The scene has been widely depicted in Christian art. A scene of the Ecce Homo is a standard component of cycles illustrating the Passion and Life of Christ in art. It follows the Flagellation of Christ, the Crowning with thorns and the Mocking of Christ, the last two often being combined: The usual depiction shows Pilate and Christ, the mocking crowd and parts of the city of Jerusalem. But, from the 15th century, devotional pictures began to portray Jesus alone, in half or full figure with a purple robe, loincloth, crown of thorns and torture wounds, especially on his head. Similar subjects but with the wounds of the crucifixion visible, are termed a Man of Sorrow. If the instruments of the Passion are present, it may be called an Arma Christi. If Christ is sitting down, it may be referred to it as Christ at rest or Pensive Christ. It is not always possible to distinguish these subjects. The first depictions of the ecce homo scene in the arts appear in the 9th and 10th centuries in the Syrian-Byzantine culture of the Antiochian Greek Christians. In Eastern Orthodoxy this type of icon is generally known by a different title:. It is derived from the words in New Testament Greek:, idoù ho nymphíos, by which Jesus Christ reveals himself, in his Parable of the Ten Virgins according to the Gospel of Matthew, as the bearer of the most high joy. The icon presents the bridegroom as a suffering Christ, mocked and humiliated by Pontius Pilate's soldiers before his crucifixion. The daily Midnight Office summons the faithful to be ready at all times for the day of the Dread Judgement, which will come unexpectedly like a bridegroom in the night. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the first three days of Passion Week, the last week before Pascha, consecrated to the commemoration of the last days of the earthly life of the Saviour, is chanted the troparion Behold the Bridegroom Cometh at Midnight. A Passion Play, presented in Moscow and in Rome, recalls the words, with which in Holy Scriptures Christ describes Himself as a bridegroom: The Bridegroom of the Church is transfixed with nails. The Son of the Virgin is pierced with a spear. We venerate Thy Passion, O Christ. We venerate Thy Passion, O Christ. We venerate Thy Passion, O Christ. The independent image only developed around 1400, probably in Burgundy, but then rapidly became extremely popular, especially in Northern Europe. The motif found increasing currency as the Passion became a central theme in Western piety in the 15th and 16th centuries. The ecce homo theme was included not only in the passion plays of medieval theatre, but also in cycles of illustrations of the story of the Passion, as in the Great Passion of Albrecht Dürer or the chalcographies of Martin Schongauer. The scene was often depicted as a sculpture or group of sculptures; even altarpieces and other paintings with the motif were produced. Like the passion plays, the visual depictions of the ecce homo scene, it has been argued, often, and increasingly, portray the people of Jerusalem in a highly critical light, bordering perhaps on antisemitic caricatures. Equally, this style of art has been read as a kind of simplistic externalisation of the inner hatred of the angry crowd towards Jesus, not necessarily implying any racial judgment. The motif of the lone figure of a suffering Christ who seems to be staring directly at the observer, enabling him/her to personally identify with the events of the Passion, arose in the late Middle Ages. At the same time similar motifs of the Man of Sorrow and Christ at rest increased in importance.