Quod Scripsi, Scripsi

    Not just I.N.R.I: what was really written on the Cross

    di Ermes Dovico (translated and edited by L. Pavese)

    On the cross on which the Lord was crucified the Latin acronym I.N.R.I (Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum), which stood for Jesus Nazarene, King of the Jews, was not the only visible writing.

    In addition to the Latin inscription, Saint John the Evangelist says the writing was also in Hebrew and Greek. And the Hebrew version reveals the reason why the Jews tried in vain to convince Pontius Pilate to change it.

    “Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, 'Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.' Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.” (John 19, 19-20)

    Before Saint John had written the fourth and last Gospel towards the end of his very long earthly life, the Evangelists Mark and Luke had already written about the inscription on the Holy Cross. That writing, the titulus crucis which is rendered as I.N.R.I. (Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeroum) by its Latin initials, summed up the reasons why Jesus had been sentenced. He was the “the King of the Jews,” who by his testimony was to be “ a sign that will be contradicted…,” as prophesied by Simeon in the Temple.

    John, Jesus’s favorite disciple, is the Evangelist who, more than the others, dedicated himself to the theological explanation of the Logos Incarnate. But John, certainly inspired by Divine Providence, did it without repeating many of the episodes of Jesus’ life related by the synoptic Gospels, but rather by integrating them with the tales and details that he deemed essential (such as the Wedding at Cana and the conversation with the Samaritan woman). So, why did Saint John the Evangelist want to relate to us the detail that the inscription on the Cross was in Hebrew, Latin and Greek?

    To answer this question, we should first look at the Old Covenant between God and the Jews, and the holiness that envelopes the name of God, keeping in mind that the gradual revelation of His name and its meaning occupy a central place in the divine teaching and therefore in the history of salvation.

    In the theophany of the burning bush, described in the book of Exodus, God reveals Himself to Moses and tells him to go back to Egypt, free His people from the pharaoh’s yoke, and lead them to the Promised Land. Moses then asks God how he could possibly convince the Israelites to follow him, and what was the name of God he should reveal to them:

    “But,” said Moses to God, “if I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what do I tell them?”

    God replied to Moses: I am who I am. Then he added: This is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3, 13-14).

    As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, that name indicates that: “God is the fullness of Being and of every perfection, without origin and without end. All creatures receive all that they are and have from him;” (CCC 213).

    The name of God, I Am Who I Am, is rendered by the sacred tetragrammaton YHWH (Yahweh). Its exact pronunciation is unknown to us because, beginning from the era of the second temple, the name of God was not pronounced again due to its holiness, and it was probably replaced by Adonai (or Kyrios, in Greek, which means Lord).

    So, what has that got to do with the story of the crucifixion as related by Saint John, and with Holy Friday in particular? The Evangelist tells us that Jesus, after having tried to explain to the Jews His consubstantial being with the Father, made this prophesy: “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, […]” (John 8, 28). The lifting to which He was referring was the crucifixion.

    And we now arrive at His passion. In the same verse in which John tells us that the inscription on the Cross was in three languages, he also tells us: “Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; […]” Therefore it must have been a very visible sign. “So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews.’” (John 19, 21)

What Our Lord Saw from the Cross. James Tissot (1836-1902)

    As the readers might remember, during the religious trial of Jesus in front of the Sanhedrin, the chief priest had “torn his garments,” accusing the Lord of blasphemy because He said He was the Son of God. That, for His accusers, was the unacceptable sin of the Nazarene, that is, being a man who wanted to make himself “God.”

    So, INRI was the Latin acronym, but what was the Hebrew one? According to French author Henri Tisot (1937-2011) among others, the precise Hebrew transcription of “Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeroum” is now known. Tisot had consulted several Jewish rabbis and discovered that the corresponding Hebrew characters must have been: שוע הנוצרי ומלך היהודים.

    When we transliterate, we vocalize the letters and keep in mind that they must be read from right to left, we obtain: Yeshua Hanotsri Wemelek Hayehudim. And the initials form the holy tetragram YHWH, that is: I Am.

    Jesus’s prophecy was fulfilled.

    Those Jews who had not believed in Him protested, because in front of them — in the apparently most humiliating moment of the Crucifix — there was the Truth Incarnate whom they had rejected and continued to reject.

    We know what Pontius Pilate answered them: Quod scripsi, scripsi. “What I have written, I have written.” (John 20, 22).

This is the translation of an article which appeared on the Italian online daily publication La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, on April 10, 2020, Holy Friday.

It was translated and posted here with their permission.

Many thanks to Janice Jenkins for reviewing my English version.

Your comments will be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you,

Leonardo Pavese