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Our
modern Bibles provide us with an English translation of the Greek version of an
inscription originally written in Hebrew!
What we know now is that the New
Testament Greek was most likely written in a Hebraic form of Greek rather than
the more common Koine Greek
(To compound the translational
issue, Pilate probably issued his command to those soldiers in Latin!).
So exact translations are often
times complicated tasks
It was traditional for the crimes of
a convicted prisoner to be posted on the door of his prison cell for all to see
They were also posted on the crosses
that so many criminals were hung on
Our English Bibles read, “Jesus
of Nazareth; King of the Jews.” This sentence may have been written two
different ways in Hebrew.
One
of them would have used the first letter of each word in this sentence as an
acrostic, thereby forming the Tetragrammaton (YHVH) acrostic.
This would have really angered the
Jews since Gods name was written as YHWH in the Hebrew bible
Most scholars believe the literal
translation would have been “Jesus of Nazareth and the King of the Jews” in
Hebrew:
If this reconstruction is correct,
then Pilate was “sticking it” to Jerusalem’s politico-religious swamp by
proclaiming that Jesus was Israel’s God in the flesh crucified (a fact
Pilate clearly did not himself believe).
Remember that the Jews cried out,
“We have no king but Caesar”
This may have been a jab by Pilate
to the Jews he had just been blackmailed by
“If you release this man, you are
not Caesar’s friend” (John 19:12).
John 19:15 (NASB)
15 So they cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!" Pilate *said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar."
15 So they cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!" Pilate *said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar."
There is another detail in the
Gospel accounts that may support, though not decidedly prove, this assertion.
This detail is commonly overlooked
because in today’s Western culture, the phrase “washing my hands of something”
has become widely known with a specific meaning.
We must be very careful not to
interpret the scriptures based on our 21st century understanding of
things
I tell people all the time, when you
read the scriptures put on first century sandals
In other words we are to let the
culture of the first century guide our understanding of what is going on
We make a mistake when we assume
that Pilate used this phrase in the same way we do today.
We forget that the very reason that
this phrase has become widely known in the West was because it made it into
this passion narrative, not the other way around!
By the time of Jesus’ crucifixion,
this extra-biblical innovation of the Pharisees (ritual hand-washing) had been
elevated to the status of a “tradition of the elders.”
The people once asked Jesus
“Why do Your disciples break the tradition of
the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” (cf. Matt
15:2)
Now consider another possible
explanation for Pilate’s words and actions:
What if Pilate, being familiar with
Jewish culture, used a phrase and performed the already well-developed
Judean/Jewish custom of hand-washing,
A tradition that continues today and is widely
practiced by observant Jews everywhere – in order to accuse the Judean
authorities?
In an act of defiance against the
political blackmail of the Judean authorities, Pilate ritually washed off the
uncleanness associated with the murder of an innocent man that was about to
take place.
This was his
way of exacting revenge for their political accusation when they said, “If
you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend” (John 19:12).
In the end, Pilate’s hands were not
cleansed. He was still guilty
But he hated
the Jews so much, that this was his way of sticking it to them
Acts
4:27-28 (NASB) records
27 "For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.
27 "For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.
and yet his act sheds further light on the
both tragic and salvific day when the Jewish Christ was put to death.
Finally, I
believe Jesus recognized the significance of the sign placed above His head
As I said
the list of crimes was placed on jail cell doors for all to see why the person
was being punished
But when his
sentence was complete the Greek word “te tel estei” was written on the sheet
So that if
he were ever questioned, he could show that he had completed his sentence
This is the
exact word Jesus cried from the cross before breathing His last
Sadly, our
English translations translate the word as “it is finished”
This has led
to many misinterpretations throughout church history
First, That
God was finished with the Jewish people and so a rise in anti-Jewish behavior
became common within the church
Or that the
Old Testament was finished and so for the church it is no longer important or
relevant
The proper
translation of “te tel estei” is PAID IN FULL
The same
meaning it had on those prisoner’s certificates before they were released after
serving their sentence
As the
apostle Paul tells us, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our place
that we might become the righteousness of God”
That is the
result of the death of Christ Jesus for us
It is
important that we not just read the scriptures, but study them
LET US PRAY
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