What I have written, I have written. St John Chapter xix. 16-22

St John Chapter xix : Verses 16-22

Contents

• St John Chapter xix. 16-22
   Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text, Greek (SBLG) & Latin text (Vulgate); 
• Annotations based on the Catena Aurea of St Thomas Aquinas

St John Chapter xix. 16-22

Pilate wrote a title also, and he put it upon the cross. 
1886-94. J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

16 Then therefore he delivered him to them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him forth.  

17 And bearing his own cross, he went forth to that place which is called Calvary, but in Hebrew Golgotha.  

18 Where they crucified him, and with him two others, one on each side, and Jesus in the midst.  

19 And Pilate wrote a title also, and he put it upon the cross. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.  

20 This title therefore many of the Jews did read: because the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin.

21 Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate: Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am the King of the Jews.  

22 Pilate answered: What I have written, I have written.

16 τότε οὖν παρέδωκεν αὐτὸν αὐτοῖς ἵνα σταυρωθῇ. Παρέλαβον ⸀οὖν τὸν ⸀Ἰησοῦν·

16 Tunc ergo tradidit eis illum ut crucifigeretur. Susceperunt autem Jesum, et eduxerunt.  

17 καὶ βαστάζων ⸂αὑτῷ τὸν σταυρὸν⸃ ἐξῆλθεν εἰς ⸀τὸν λεγόμενον Κρανίου Τόπον, ⸀ὃ λέγεται Ἑβραϊστὶ Γολγοθα,

17 Et bajulans sibi crucem exivit in eum, qui dicitur Calvariae locum, hebraice autem Golgotha :  

18 ὅπου αὐτὸν ἐσταύρωσαν, καὶ μετ’ αὐτοῦ ἄλλους δύο ἐντεῦθεν καὶ ἐντεῦθεν, μέσον δὲ τὸν Ἰησοῦν.

18 ubi crucifixerunt eum, et cum eo alios duos hinc et hinc, medium autem Jesum.  

19 ἔγραψεν δὲ καὶ τίτλον ὁ Πιλᾶτος καὶ ἔθηκεν ἐπὶ τοῦ σταυροῦ· ἦν δὲ γεγραμμένον· Ἰησοῦς ὁ Ναζωραῖος ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων.

19 Scripsit autem et titulum Pilatus, et posuit super crucem. Erat autem scriptum : Jesus Nazarenus, Rex Judaeorum.  

20 τοῦτον οὖν τὸν τίτλον πολλοὶ ἀνέγνωσαν τῶν Ἰουδαίων, ὅτι ἐγγὺς ἦν ὁ τόπος τῆς πόλεως ὅπου ἐσταυρώθη ὁ Ἰησοῦς· καὶ ἦν γεγραμμένον Ἑβραϊστί, ⸂Ῥωμαϊστί, Ἑλληνιστί⸃.

20 Hunc ergo titulum multi Judaeorum legerunt : quia prope civitatem erat locus, ubi crucifixus est Jesus, et erat scriptum hebraice, graece, et latine. 

21 ἔλεγον οὖν τῷ Πιλάτῳ οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς τῶν Ἰουδαίων· Μὴ γράφε· Ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων, ἀλλ’ ὅτι ἐκεῖνος εἶπεν Βασιλεὺς ⸂τῶν Ἰουδαίων εἰμί⸃.

21 Dicebant ergo Pilato pontifices Judaeorum : Noli scribere : Rex Judaeorum : sed quia ipse dixit : Rex sum Judaeorum.  

22 ἀπεκρίθη ὁ Πιλᾶτος· Ὃ γέγραφα γέγραφα.

22 Respondit Pilatus : Quod scripsi, scripsi.

Annotations

    16. Then therefore he delivered him to them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him forth. GLOSS. By the command of the governor, the soldiers took Christ to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led Him away.

    AUGUSTINE. (Tr. cxvi) They, i. e. the soldiers, the guards of the governor, as appears more clearly afterwards; Then the soldiers when they had crucified Jesus; though the Evangelist might justly have attributed the whole to the Jews, who were really the authors of what they procured to be done.

    17. And bearing his own cross, he went forth to that place which is called Calvary, but in Hebrew Golgotha. 

    CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxxxv. 1) They compel Jesus to bear the cross, regarding it as unholy, and therefore avoiding the touch of it themselves. And He bearing His cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha, where they crucified Him. The same was done typically by Isaac, who carried the wood. But then the matter only proceeded as far as his father’s good pleasure ordered, but now it was fully accomplished, for the reality had appeared.

THEOPHYLACT. But as there Isaac was let go, and a ram offered; so here too the Divine nature remains impassible, but the human, of which the ram was the type, the offspring of that straying ram, was slain. 

AUGUSTINE. (Tract. cxvii) Great spectacle, to the profane a laughing-stock, to the pious a mystery. Profaneness sees a King bearing a cross instead of a sceptre; piety sees a King bearing a cross, thereon to nail Himself, and afterwards to nail it on the foreheads of kings. That to profane eyes was contemptible, which the hearts of Saints would afterwards glory in; Christ displaying His own cross on His shoulders, and bearing that which was not to be put under a bushel, the candlestick of that candle which was now about to burn.

    CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxxxv) He carried the badge of victory on His shoulders, as conquerors do. Some say that the place of Calvary was where Adam died and was buried; so that in the very place where death reigned, there Jesus erected His trophy.

JEROME. (super Matt. c. xxvii.) An apt connexion, and smooth to the ear, but not true. For the place where they cut off the heads of men condemned to death, called in consequence Calvary, was outside the city gates, whereas we read in the book of Jesus the son of Nave, that Adam was buried by Hebron and Arbah.

    18. Where they crucified him, and with him two others, one on each side, and Jesus in the midst. CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxxxv. 1) They crucified Him with the thieves: And two others with Him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst; thus fulfilling the prophecy, and was reputed with the wicked. (Isa. LIII.12) What they did in wickedness, was a gain to the truth. The devil wished to obscure what was done, but could not. Though three were nailed on the cross, it was evident that Jesus alone did the miracles; and the arts of the devil were frustrated. Nay, they even added to His glory; for to convert a thief on the cross, and bring him into paradise, was no less a miracle than the rending of the rocks.

    AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xxxi. in fin.) Yea, even the cross, if thou consider it, was a judgment seat: for the Judge being the middle, one thief, who believed, was pardoned, the other, who mocked, was damned: a sign of what He would once do to the quick and dead, place the one on His right hand, the other on His left.

    19. And Pilate wrote a title also, and he put it upon the cross. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. CHRYSOSTOM. As letters are inscribed on a trophy declaring the victory, so Pilate wrote a title on Christ’s cross. BEDE. Wherein was shewn that His kingdom was not, as they thought, destroyed, but rather strengthened.

    AUGUSTINE. (Tract. cxviii) But was Christ the King of the Jews only? or of the Gentiles too? Of the Gentiles too, as we read in the Psalms, But I am appointed king by him over Sion his holy mountain; (Ps. ii. 6) after which it follows, Demand of Me, and I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance. So this title expresses a great mystery, viz. that the wild olive-tree was made partaker of the fatness of the olive-tree, not the olive-tree made partaker of the bitterness of the wild olive-tree. Christ then is King of the Jews according to the circumcision not of the flesh, but of the heart; not in the letter, but in the spirit. 

    20. This title therefore many of the Jews did read: because the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin.

    CHRYSOSTOM. It is probable that many Gentiles as well as Jews bad come up to the feast. So the title was written in three languages, that all might read it.

    AUGUSTINE. (Tract. cxviii) These three were the languages most known there: the Hebrew, on account of being used in the worship of the Jews: the Greek, in consequence of the spread of Greek philosophy: the Latin, from the Roman empire being established every where.

    THEOPHYLACT. The title written in three languages signifies that our Lord was King of the whole world; practical, natural, and spiritual. The Latin denotes the practical, because the Roman empire was the most powerful, and best managed one; the Greek the physical, the Greeks being the best physical philosophers; and, lastly, the Hebrew the theological, because the Jews had been made the depositaries of religious knowledge.

    21. Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate: Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am the King of the Jews. CHRYSOSTOM. But the Jews grudged our Lord this title: Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that He said, I am King of the Jews, For as Pilate wrote it, it was a plain and single declaration that He was King, but the addition of, that he said, made it a charge against Him of petulance and vain glory. But Pilate was firm: Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.

    AUGUSTINE. O ineffable working of Divine power even in the hearts of ignorant men! Did not some hidden voice sound from within, and, if we may say so, with clamorous silence, saying to Pilate in the prophetic words of the Psalm LIX, Alter not the inscription of the title? But what say ye, ye mad priests: will the title be the less true, because Jesus said, I am the King of the Jews? If that which Pilate wrote cannot be altered, can that be altered which the Truth spoke? Pilate wrote what he wrote, because our Lord said what He said.

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.