Ῥωμαϊστί before Ἑλληνιστί with אBLX against AIa.

20. ἐγγύς. S. John’s exact topographical knowledge appears again here. Pictures of the Crucifixion mislead in placing the city a mile or two off in the background. Τῆς πόλεως with ἐγγύς (John 11:18), not after ὁ τόπος: ‘the place of the city was near’ is scarcely sense.

Ἑβρ., Ῥωμ., Ἑλλ. This is the order in the better authorities. The national and official languages would naturally be placed before Greek,—and for different reasons either Hebrew or Latin might be placed first. In Luke 23:38 the order is Greek, Latin, Hebrew; but the clause is of very doubtful authority. In any case the three representative languages of the world at that time, the languages of religion, of empire, and of intellect, were employed. Thus did they ‘tell it out among the heathen that the Lord is king,’ or (according to a remarkable reading of the LXX. in Psalms 96:10) ‘that the Lord reigned from the tree.’

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Old Testament