Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him. And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put [it] on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" (Mat 27:27-29)
Shortly before Jesus was crucified the Roman soldiers put a robe around him and a crown of thorns on his head to mock him. Matthew describes the robe as scarlet or red however Mark describes it as purple:
And they clothed Him with purple; and they twisted a crown of thorns, put it on His [head] (Mark 15:17)So which is it red or purple? This seeming contradiction does have several possible explanations:
-Luke 23:11 describes the robe as gorgeous. A deeper look into the Greek word for gorgeous describes it as shining, brilliant, transparent. It's possible the robe was made of an iridescent fabric and changed color depending on the angle of view and the level of illumination, in which case both accounts are true.
-The robe could have been made of porphyra which produces a red-purple color. One person may see this as red, another may see it as purple.
-The robe could have started out purple, but turned red from Jesus' blood.
-More than one robe could have been used
-A case of colorblindess where one sees red as purple or vice versa.
-Dark red and dark purple are very similar in color and could be perceived as either color.
Whichever the case may be both are true symbolically. Red is the color of sin which Jesus took on the cross for us. Purple is the color of royalty and Jesus is the prince of peace and King of kings.
