The essential element of the superscription, Hing of the Jews, is common to all. It expressed, on its face, the main intent of Pilate, which was to cast contempt on the Jews. ‘‘In the sense of the man Pilate, it meant: Jesus, the King of the Jew- ish fanatics, crucified in the midst of Jews, who should all be thus executed. In the sense of the Jews: Jesus, the sedition- ary, the King of the rebels. In the sense of the political judge: Jesus, for whose accusation the Jews, with their am- biguous accusation, may answer. In the sense of the divine irony which ruled over the expression: Jesus, the Messiah, by the crucifixion become in very truth the King of the people of God ” (Lange).
20. Hebrew, Greek, Latin. Some editors vary the order. Rev., Laten, Greek. Such inscriptions in different languages were not uncommon. Julius Capitolinus, a biographer (a.p. 320), in his life of the third Gordian, says that the soldiers erected his tomb on the Persian borders, and added an epitaph (titulum) in Latin, Persian, Hebrew, and Egyptian characters, in order that it might be read by all. Hebrew was the national dialect, Latin the official, and Greek the common dialect. As the national Hebrew, King of the Jews was translated into Latin and Greek, so the inscription was prophetic that Christ should pass into civil administration and common speech : that the Hebrew Messiah should become equally the deliverer of Greek and Roman: that as Christ was the real centre of the relugvous civilization of Judaism, so He should become the real centre of the world’s ¢néellectwal movement as represented by Greece, and of its legal and material civilization as repre- sented by Rome. The three civilizations which had prepared the way for Christ thus concentrated at His cross. The cross is the real centre of the world’s history.
21. The chief priests of the Jews. A unique expression, possibly by way of contrast with the King of the Jews.
23. Four parts. All the Synoptists relate the parting of the garments. The four pieces to be divided would be, the