Luke 23:38

[γράμμασιν … Ἑβραϊκοῖς.] Perhaps added from John 19:20. It is wanting in BL, Copt. Sah[393] Curetonian Syriac &c.

[393] Sah. Sahidic Version.

οὗτος. אBL. There are several slight variations.

38. ἐπιγραφή. A titulus written in black letters on a board smeared with white gypsum, and therefore very conspicuous. To put such a board over the head of a crucified person was the ordinary custom. The jeers of the soldiers were aimed at the Jews in general quite as much as at the Divine Sufferer; and these jeers probably first opened the eyes of the priests to the way in which Pilate had managed to insult them.

[γράμμασιν Ἑλληνικοῖς καὶ Ῥωμαϊκοῖς καὶ Ἑβραϊκοῖς.] This is omitted in אBL, and some ancient versions. The fact is undoubted from John 19:20. Thus the three great languages of the ancient world—the languages of Culture, of Empire, and of Religion—bore involuntary witness to Christ.

Ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων οὗτος. The superscription is given differently by each Evangelist. St Luke perhaps gives the peculiarly scornful Latin form. “Rex Judaeorum hic est.” The other Evangelists give

This is Jesus the King of the Jews. Matthew 27:37.

The King of the Jews. Mark 15:26.

Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews. John 19:19.

Although no serious and sensible writer would dream of talking about ‘a discrepancy’ here, it is very probable that the differences arise from the different forms assumed by the Title in the three languages. We may then assume that the Title over the Cross was as follows:

ישו הנצרי מלך היהודים

John.

Ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων.

Mark.

Rex Judaeorum hic est.

Luke.

It will be seen that St Matthew’s is an accurate combination of the three, not one of which was an accusation.

It was only while the Priests were deriding Christ that it began to dawn on them that Pilate, even in angrily yielding to their persistence, had avenged himself in a way which they could not resent, by a deadly insult against them and their nation. This was their King, and this was how they had treated Him. Thus our Lord reigned even on His Cross, according to the curious old reading of Psalms 96:10, ἐβασίλευσεν� (LXX[408]), Regnavit a ligno. (See Life of Christ, I. 12, n.) For the attempt of the Priests to get the superscription altered see John 19:21-22. In refusing it Pilate shewed the insolence and obstinacy which Philo attributes to him. The actual title was a glorious testimony to Jesus and an awful reproach to the Jews. Psalms 2:6. Thus His Cross becomes, as St Ambrose says, His trophy; the gibbet of the Malefactor becomes the feretrum—the spoil-bearing sign of triumph—of the Victor. See this alluded to in Colossians 2:14-15. (Life of St Paul, II. 461.)

[408] LXX. Septuagint.