It added greatly to the significance of the inscription that it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin. What Pilate intended thereby was to heighten the insult; he wished all the strangers present at the Passover to be able to read the inscription; for all of them who could read at all would know one of these three languages. But Providence intended something else. These are the three great languages of the ancient world--the representative languages. Hebrew is the tongue of religion, Greek that of culture, Latin the language of law and government; and Christ was declared King in them all. On His head are many crowns. He is King in the religious sphere--the King of salvation, holiness and love; He is King in the realm of culture--the treasures of art, of song, of literature, of philosophy belong to Him, and shall yet be all poured at His feet; He is King in the political sphere--King of kings and Lord of lords, entitled to rule in the social relationships, in trade and commerce, in all the activities of men. We see not yet, indeed, all things put under Him; but every day we see them more and more in the process of being put under Him. The name of Jesus is travelling everywhere over the earth; thousands are learning to pronounce it; millions are ready to die for it. And thus is the unconscious prophecy of Pilate still being fulfilled.
[1] One Evangelist says gall, another myrrh, and on this difference harmonists and their antagonists have spent their time; but surely it is not worth while.
[2] The distinction between the legitimate and the illegitimate use is not very easy to draw; but there is an obvious difference between destroying pain for an ulterior purpose and destroying it merely to save the feeling of the sufferer.
[3] On the details of crucifixion there is an extremely interesting and learned excursus in Zöckler's _Das Kreus Christi_ (Beilage III.). Cicero's Verrine Orations contain a good deal that is valuable to a student of the Passion, especially in regard to scourging and crucifixion. Crucifixion was an extremely common form of punishment in the ancient world; but "the cross of the God-Man has put an end to the punishment of the crow."
[4] Zöckler maintains that crucifixion, while the most shameful, was not absolutely the most painful form of death.
[5] The appreciation of the significance of the Cross has gone on in two lines--the Artistic and the Doctrinal--both of which arc followed out with varied learning in Zöckler's _Kreus Christi_.
The English reader may with great satisfaction trace the artistic development in Mrs. Jameson's _History of our Lord as exemplified in Works of Art_, where the following scheme is given of the varieties of treatment:--
"_Symbolical_, when the abstract personifications of the sun and moon, earth and ocean, are present.
"_Sacrificially symbolical_, when the Eucharistic cup is seen below the Cross, or the pelican feeding her young is placed above it.
"_Simply doctrinal_, when the Virgin and St. John stand on each side, as solemn witnesses; or our Lord is drinking the cup, sometimes literally so represented, given Him of the Father, while the lance opens the sacramental font.
"_Historically ideal_, as when the thieves are joined to the scene, and sorrowing angels throng the air.
"_Historically devotional_, as when the real features of the scene are preserved, and saints and devotees are introduced.
"_Legendary_, as when we see the Virgin fainting.
"_Allegorical and fantastic_, as when the tree is made the principal object, with its branches terminating in patriarchs and prophets, virtues and graces.
"_Realistic_, as when the mere event is rendered as through the eyes of an unenlightened looker-on.
"These and many other modes of conception account for the great diversity in the treatment of this subject; a further variety being given by the combination of two or more of these modes of treatment together; for instance, the pelican may be seen above the Cross giving her life's blood for her offspring; angels in attitudes of despair, bewailing the Second Person of the Trinity; or, in an ideal sacramental sense, catching the blood from His wounds--the Jews below looking on, as they really did, with contemptuous gestures and hardened hearts; the centurion acknowledging that this was really the Son of God, while the group of the fainting Virgin, supported by the Marys and St. John, adds legend to symbolism, ideality, and history."