Yohanes 19:19-24

19:19 Pilate also had a notice ¹  written and fastened to the cross, ²  which read: ³  “Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews.” 19:20 Thus many of the Jewish residents of Jerusalem ⁴  read this notice, ⁵  because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the notice was written in Aramaic, ⁶  Latin, and Greek. 19:21 Then the chief priests of the Jews ⁷  said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The king of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am king of the Jews.’” 19:22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

19:23 Now when the soldiers crucified ⁸  Jesus, they took his clothes and made four shares, one for each soldier, ⁹  and the tunic ¹⁰  remained. (Now the tunic ¹¹  was seamless, woven from top to bottom as a single piece.) ¹²  19:24 So the soldiers said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but throw dice ¹³  to see who will get it.” ¹⁴  This took place ¹⁵  to fulfill the scripture that says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they threw dice.” ¹⁶  So the soldiers did these things.

[19:19]  ¹ tn Or “an inscription.”

[19:19]  sn Mention of the inscription is an important detail, because the inscription would normally give the reason for the execution. It shows that Jesus was executed for claiming to be a king. It was also probably written with irony from the executioners’ point of view.

[19:19]  ² tn Grk “Pilate also wrote a notice and placed it on the cross.” The two verbs should be read as causatives, since it is highly unlikely that the Roman governor would perform either of these actions himself. He ordered them to be done.

[19:19]  sn John says simply that the notice was fastened to the cross. Luke 23:38 says the inscription was placed “over him” (Jesus), and Matt 27:37 that it was placed over Jesus’ head. On the basis of Matthew’s statement Jesus’ cross is usually depicted as the crux immissa, the cross which has the crossbeam set below the top of the upright beam. The other commonly used type of cross was the crux commissa, which had the crossbeam atop the upright beam. But Matthew’s statement is not conclusive, since with the crux commissa the body would have sagged downward enough to allow the placard to be placed above Jesus’ head. The placard with Pilate’s inscription is mentioned in all the gospels, but for John it was certainly ironic. Jesus really was the King of the Jews, although he was a king rejected by his own people (cf. 1:11). Pilate’s own motivation for placing the title over Jesus is considerably more obscure. He may have meant this as a final mockery of Jesus himself, but Pilate’s earlier mockery of Jesus seemed to be motivated by a desire to gain pity from the Jewish authorities in order to have him released. More likely Pilate saw this as a subtle way of getting back at the Jewish authorities who had pressured him into the execution of one he considered to be an innocent man.

[19:19]  ³ tn Grk “Now it was written.”

[19:20]  ⁴ tn Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the residents of Jerusalem in general. See also the note on the phrase Jewish religious leaders” in v. 7.

[19:20]  map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[19:20]  ⁵ tn Or “this inscription.”

[19:20]  ⁶ tn Grk “in Hebrew.”

[19:21]  ⁷ tn Or “the Jewish chief priests.” Nowhere else in the Fourth Gospel are the two expressions οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων (Joi arcierei" twn Ioudaiwn) combined. Earlier in 19:15 the chief priests were simply referred to as οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς. It seems likely that this is another example of Johannine irony, to be seen in contrast to the inscription on the cross which read ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων (Jo basileu" twn Ioudaiwn). For this reason the phrase has been translated “the chief priests of the Jews” (which preserves in the translation the connection with “King of the Jews”) rather than “the Jewish chief priests.”

[19:23]  ⁸ sn See the note on Crucify in 19:6.

[19:23]  ⁹ sn Four shares, one for each soldier. The Gospel of John is the only one to specify the number of soldiers involved in the crucifixion. This was a quaternion, a squad of four soldiers. It was accepted Roman practice for the soldiers who performed a crucifixion to divide the possessions of the person executed among themselves.

[19:23]  ¹⁰ tn Or “shirt” (a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin). The name for this garment (χιτών, citwn) presents some difficulty in translation. Most modern readers would not understand what a ‘tunic’ was any more than they would be familiar with a ‘chiton.’ On the other hand, attempts to find a modern equivalent are also a problem: “Shirt” conveys the idea of a much shorter garment that covers only the upper body, and “undergarment” (given the styles of modern underwear) is more misleading still. “Tunic” was therefore employed, but with a note to explain its nature.

[19:23]  ¹¹ tn Or “shirt” (a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin). See the note on the same word earlier in this verse.

[19:23]  ¹² sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[19:24]  ¹³ tn Grk “but choose by lot” (probably by using marked pebbles or broken pieces of pottery). A modern equivalent, “throw dice,” was chosen here because of its association with gambling.

[19:24]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “to see whose it will be.”

[19:24]  ¹⁵ tn The words “This took place” are not in the Greek text but are implied.

[19:24]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “cast lots.” See the note on “throw dice” earlier in the verse.

[19:24]  sn A quotation from Ps 22:18.