John 19:20

nigh to the city Pictures are often misleading in placing the city a mile or two in the background of the Crucifixion. S. John's exact topographical knowledge comes out again here.

in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin The better texts give, In Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek. The national and the 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 feigned from the tree." (See on John 20:16.)